It has often been the case that the most successful football managers haven’t forged out brilliant careers as players.
The likes of Arsene Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink were hardly household names in their playing days and there have been many examples of some of the finest players of their time taking up the managerial reins at clubs but unfortunately not making the best job of it.
Perhaps, the only real exception to that is the all-conquering Pep Guardiola with the legendary Zinedine Zidane so far struggling in the Real Madrid hot-seat. Gary Neville has also had similar struggles at Valencia- so we decided to show evidence that great players don’t make great managers!
Here we look at five other players that have enjoyed sparkling playing careers but didn’t make the cut as a manager.
Hit Zidane below to see FIVE great players who didn’t make great managers!
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John Barnes
Barnes enjoyed a great playing career through spells with Watford, Liverpool and England as well as brief spells with Newcastle and Charlton.
With nearly 600 professional league appearances under his belt and 79 caps for England, Barnes carved himself a great career and reputation out of playing. After his playing career ended in 1999, he moved into the managerial hot-seat with Celtic.
Due to his fine playing career, this was a much-hyped appointment but unfortunately for him it didn’t go as planned and he lasted only eight months after a shock League Cup defeat to Inverness. After a decent enough spell with Jamaica in 2008 he returned to club management in 2009 with Tranmere Rovers but this time he lasted only four months after winning only three times in his 12 matches in charge.
Ruud Gullit
With 20 major honours as a player the talented Dutchman enjoyed a great playing career with the likes of Feyenoord, PSV, AC Milan and later Chelsea. But after moving into the management game he didn’t enjoy quite that success.
He became the first Dutchman to manage in the Premier League when he took over as player-manager at Chelsea in 1996 and despite winning the FA Cup in his first season he was soon sacked.
A spell at Newcastle soon turned sour after fall-outs with several key players which he dropped for his final game in charge, a 2-1 defeat to arch-rivals Sunderland.
Further disappointing spells in charge of Feyenoord, LA Galaxy and Russian side Terek Grozny, where he had a win percentage of 23% ensured that Gullit will hardly go down in the management hall of fame.
Bryan Robson
Bryan Robson was one of the finest players of his generation, making nearly 500 appearances for Manchester United and he continued to play in the Premier League with Middlesbrough until just before his 40th birthday. With 90 caps for England on top of that he is widely regarded as one of the best players of his generation.
However, like others he found it difficult to replicate that when managing. He did manage to get Boro promoted twice in his spell in charge but also suffered a nightmare relegation – which would have been avoided had the club not been docked three points for cancelling a league fixture at short notice. After winning only seven of his 28 games in charge of Bradford he was dismissed.
He will perhaps be best remembered for engineering West Brom’s great escape of 2004-05 but overall his record was poor, as it was in similar management roles at Sheffield United and with the Thailand national team.
Stuart Pearce
Pearce was a top-class left-back in his playing career which stretched more than 20 years, most notably with Nottingham Forest where he made over 400 league appearances as well as 78 caps for England.
Starting his management career back in 1996 with a caretaker role at Forest, ‘Psycho’ has failed to match that sort of record. He won only seven of 23 games in charge at the City Ground before finishing his playing career and finding his next management steps at Manchester City eight years later.
Again, his record was disappointing but he did, at least, have a successful spell in charge of the England Under-21s. Big things were expected when he returned to Forest in 2014, but he failed to last a year as he was sacked after winning only 10 of 32 games in charge.
Diego Maradona
Regarded by many as perhaps the greatest player of all time, he will forever be remembered for the ‘Hand of God’ goal against England at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. But there was much, much more to Maradona than that, at least a player, not so much as a manager.
Early management roles in Argentina proved to be far from successful before he managed his native, and beloved Argentina. He oversaw the nation’s joint worst margin of defeat with a 6-1 loss to Bolivia. He then managed in Dubai with Al Wasl but again lasted less than a year to leave his management career in tatters.
