Zidane, Mourinho, Van Gaal: Ten football managers who went back | OneFootball

David Moyes became the latest football manager to go back to an old club when Everton this week announced he would replace Sean Dyche.

The Scot’s decade-long spell at Goodison Park ended 12 years ago when he made his ill-fate move to Manchester United, lasting less than a season at Old Trafford.

It’s not the first time Moyes has returned to an old stomping ground, having enjoyed two stints in quick succession with West Ham United. The club allowed his six-month deal to expire after he helped them avoid relegation in 2018, but he was back by the end of the following year with the side in a similar position.

Moyes proved that that you can indeed get back together with an ex and have it work out, guiding the Hammers to success in the Uefa Europa Conference League, their first major honour in 43 years. The question is: can he repeat the trick at Everton?

Ten famous football managers who went back

Zinedine Zidane – Real Madrid

The Frenchman isn’t just one of the greatest Real Madrid managers ever. He’s one of the greatest in European football. Before him only Bob Paisley and Carlo Ancelotti had won three European Cups as a manager. It took him less than three years to do the same, winning the Champions League in each of the three seasons he was in charge at the Bernabeu.

No one is quite sure what the secret to Zinedine Zidane’s success is. Unlike other successful managers of the modern era such as Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Diego Simeone, he doesn’t have a particular philosophy or set of tactical principles to which his players must adhere.

Zizou is seen as a great facilitator, a man who can gently massage the egos of the club’s Galacticos and get the most out of them, but there is clearly more to him than that. Winning consecutive European trophies and a league title in between is not something a person who simply ‘gets the club’ could luck their way into.

His footballing intelligence was illustrated in the summer of 2018 when he told club president Florentino Perez that Cristiano Ronaldo should not be sold at any cost and that there was no need to replace Keylor Navas with Thibaut Courtois (although the Belgian goalkeeper eventually came good). When that warning was not heeded, he resigned, knowing that a great fall was on the way.

Zidane’s advice was prescient, as Real’s form fell off a cliff. Two managers and a first Champions League exit in four years led to his return in March 2019. Perez went all in that summer, spending €350 million on new signings. Unfortunately for them, a lot of that money went on flops Eden Hazard and Luka Jovic.

Los Blancos did go on to win LaLiga and the Supercopa that season, but were trophyless the year after, prompting the club legend’s resignation for a second time.

Read – Zinedine Zidane’s best goals at Real Madrid

Louis Van Gaal – Barcelona and Netherlands

So good, he did it twice. The expressive Dutch coach was manager of Barcelona for the last three years of the nineties, winning two LaLiga titles during a successful spell at the Nou Camp, although his side missed out on a third consecutive title to Deportivo La Coruna in his final season.

From there Van Gaal went straight into the Netherlands hotseat, but his team failed to qualify for the World Cup. For a manager considered one of the brightest minds in coaching, it was a disaster. It was the first of his career – it wouldn’t be the last.

The following summer he returned to Barcelona, but it was a desperate move by a club in crisis, and his comeback lasted just six months; when he left in January of 2003, the Catalan club were three points above the relegation zone.

Van Gaal revived his career at AZ Alkmaar and Bayern Munich, winning league titles at both clubs, before reclaiming the Netherlands throne ten years after stepping down from it the first time. On this occasion however, the return was an unmitigated success as he guided the European nation to third place at the 2014 World Cup.

With redemption secured at international level, Van Gaal returned to club football for one last hurrah, taking over at Manchester United in 2014, winning the FA Cup to complete his record of winning a trophy at every club he managed. He announced his retirement earlier this week.

Read – The all-time Premier League Dutch XI

José Mourinho – Chelsea

The man who succeeded Van Gaal at Old Trafford also rebounded to the embrace of an ex, rejoining Chelsea in 2013 after six years away from the south London outfit.

The Portuguese’ first stint at Stamford Bridge was a triumph, winning the Premier League title in two out of three full seasons, before leaving in odd circumstances at the beginning of the 2007-08 season.

When it was clear he would not be succeeding Alex Ferguson at Man United in 2013, Mourinho was welcomed back with open arms by the Blues faithful and he repaid their love with another league title in 2015.

It descended into a nightmare from then on however, with his bizarre press conference rants and jibes at his own players now becoming an apparent staple of his managerial approach. He left before the midway point of the season, having overseen one of the worst title defences in living memory.

José almost made a sensational return to Real Madrid in 2018, but it was vetoed by the powers that be (and with good reason).

Harry Redknapp – Portsmouth

Harry Redknapp completed a remarkable turn of events when he returned to Portsmouth for a second spell.

Redknapp had led Portsmouth to promotion to the Premier League during his first spell, but soured relations with the south coast club after he walked out and joined bitter rivals Southampton. Branded a traitor upon his exit, Portsmouth fans were delighted as he was unable to keep the Saints in the Premier League.

Incredibly, Redknapp returned to Portsmouth less than a year after his departure. Struggling near the bottom of the table, chairman Milan Mandaric chose a familiar face to lead Pompey’s battle to beat the drop.

A lukewarm reception understandably awaited on Redknapp’s return, but he led the side to survival to begin his redemption arc. Consecutive top-half finishes and an FA Cup win in 2008 saw Redknapp’s popularity in Portsmouth restored.

Well, for a brief moment anyway. The wheeler dealer was heavily booed by the Pompey faithful when he was granted the Freedom of Portsmouth just five months after that glorious day at Wembley, because he had just left the club to join Tottenham Hotspur.

Matt Busby – Man Utd

Six managers have sat in the long shadow of Alex Ferguson since he left the Man United job, generally considered football’s hardest to follow. But the club’s current concerns are nothing compared to the disastrous decade that followed the retirement of Matt Busby.

The Scot retired from management a season after his greatest accomplishment, guiding United to European Cup glory in 1968. He shuffled into the background as a club director, but his presence loomed large over the club.

Busby’s successor Wilf McGuinness was sacked halfway through the 1970-71 campaign, and the former manager was back in the job almost as soon as he had left it. He steadied the ship, winning 11 of 21 games as United finished eighth for the second year running.

With no suggestion of him returning on a permanent basis, Busby picked former wing half Frank O’Farrell to take over, but the Irishman could escape his predecessor’s looming legacy. Although his time in charge was afflicted by other problems as well — George Best’s decline on and off the pitch, O’Farrell’s poor man management — Busby’s influence weighed too greatly, and the manager was gone after 81 games.

Busby continued as a director and later club president, but his brief return to the dugout may have hurt more than helped United in the long run.

Read – David Moyes, Frank O’Farrell and why Man Utd’s Chosen Ones failed

Walter Smith – Rangers

The second most successful manager in Rangers’ history, few can match the success Walter Smith brought to the Glasgow outfit in the nineties; 13 major trophies in seven years, seven consecutive league titles, and one win away from a Champions League final.

In 1998 the Scot took over at Everton, but after four years of struggling in the lower half of the table, he was sacked and replaced by compatriot David Moyes. Two years later he took over the Scottish national team but, despite doing quite well in the role, resigned in January 2007 so he could return to Ibrox.

Could Smith really replicate the stunning achievements of his first spell in charge? As it turned out, yes he could. The Gers won three league titles in a row and reached the Uefa Cup final in 2008, before Smith retired in 2011. In 2012 the club went into liquidation and they haven’t tasted anything like that success ever since.

Kenny Dalglish – Liverpool

‘King Kenny’ was a hugely successful manager back in the day, winning multiple league titles with Liverpool and a Premier League with Blackburn Rovers in 1995, his last major success. It’s a bit odd then, that Dalglish was given the Liverpool job for a second time in 2011, so long after his managerial peak.

Aside from a brief turn as Celtic caretaker in 2000, it had been 13 years since he was last in permanent employment. At the time he was only meant to act as a stop gap following the dreadful tenure of Roy Hodgson, but, as is the risk with caretaker managers, his short-term results were impressive enough that the owners found it difficult to dismiss the club legend’s allure.

By the next season however, it was clear that modern football had passed the once incredibly talented player by, and his tetchiness in press conference and interviews went down like a led balloon. Despite winning the League Cup and reaching the FA Cup final, the Scot was let go in May 2012.

Read – Five great Premier League players who flopped as managers

Graham Taylor – Watford and Aston Villa

Graham Taylor earned a reputation for Route One football during his managerial career, using POMO (position of maximum opportunity) — a tactical innovation influenced by statistical analyst Charles Reep — as the bedrock of his strategy. It wasn’t pretty, but it was damn well effective.

The late Taylor was at the wheel during Watford’s golden age, lifting the club from the fourth tier of the English Football League all the way up to the First Division, and the Hornets even finished runners-up to Liverpool in the league in 1983 and lost to Everton in the FA Cup final the year after.

In 1987 he took over at Aston Villa, getting them promoted to the first tier at the first go, and within two years of that they finished second in the league. Once again it was Liverpool who pipped him to the title.

In the nineties Taylor would end up back at Watford, via an infamously bad England reign and short spell with Wolves, winning both the Division Two title and the Division One playoffs in his four-and-a-half years back at the club. He did not have such a happy return to Villa though, lasting just over a year at the club in the early noughties after winning just 31% of his games.

Read – Players versus Managers: Fall outs, fights, and frenzies

Fatih Terim – Galatasaray and Turkey

At 71 years of age Fatih Terim has been around football for a long, long time. His managerial career began in 1987 and it is still going today, running affairs at Saudi Pro League side Al-Shabab. But the club he is most closely associated with is Galatasaray, who he has managed five times.

The Turkish coach has won eight Super Lig titles across three different decades, the most recent of which was delivered in 2019. But his greatest achievement has to be claiming the Uefa Cup trophy in 2000, defeating Arsenal on penalties in Copenhagen.

Terim has also taken charge of the Turkish national team on three different occasions, also in three different decades. Under his stewardship the side have qualified for Euro 96, reached the semi-finals of Euro 2008, and were desperately unlucky not to advance to the knockout stages of Euro 2016. Someday he’ll surely come back to try and bring his native country to a World Cup finals.

Read – Five of the shortest managerial reigns in Premier League history

Luiz Felipe Scolari – Brazil and Palmeiras

When ‘Big Phil’ Scolari first took over the Brazil team in 2001, they were in disarray and at serious risk of not reaching the finals for the first time ever. Somehow he not only turned things around, but the Seleçao even ended up winning the whole thing, the fifth time they had done so.

So it’s a bit sad then that Scolari piddled on his own legacy by coming back to the role in 2012 to have a go at winning it again. Brazil reached the semi-final in their home tournament, but they suffered arguably the worst humiliation in the sport’s history, losing 7-1 to Germany in Belo Horizonte.

Scolari has also managed Palmeiras on three different occasions, guiding the Brazilian outfit to the Serie A title in 2019, so he’s probably consoled himself by now.

Read – Five times Premier League managers returned to their former clubs

See Also – Ranking every Premier League club by their current trophy drought

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