Football magazine FourFourTwo has added two Dutchmen to the annual list of the fifty best trainers of the calendar year: Erik ten Hag and Giovanni van Bronckhorst. Ajax’s trainer falls just outside the top ten with a twelfth place, while the manager of Rangers is strikingly in 41st place. Van Bronckhorst only signed with the Scottish top club more than a month ago, after eleven months without an employer. Rangers nevertheless won eight of the ten duels under the Dutchman.
“The new Rangers manager may be following in Steven Gerrard’s footsteps. From a successful player’s career, to Ibrox and then to a top job in the Premier League, but Van Bronckhorst is a different kind of trainer,” says the football magazine’s explanation of Van Bronckhorst’s 41st place. “The Dutchman already has silverware in his pocket by beating Ajax in the battle for the national title in the Eredivisie. He’s still young, he’s someone to watch for years to come.”
FourFourTwo foresees a bright future for Ten Hag if he decides to one day leave the ranks of Ajax. “It seems, almost, surprising that Ten Hag is still with Ajax. After the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2019, the chapter was closed for Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong, and later also Hakim Ziyech and Donny van de Beek. It seemed that Ten Hag could not do much more with his selection. However, he stayed and now it looks like he can take Ajax as far as he did with cornerstones like De Ligt and De Jong.”
“Ajax football is still sparkling and Ten Hag’s principles have not changed. Ten Hag’s role in the development of Ryan Gravenberch and Noussair Mazraoui cannot be overlooked. (…) At some point there will undoubtedly be a great offer for Ten Hag. He is a smart, forward-thinking coach who, at 52, can still have his best years ahead of him.”
Danish national team coach Kasper Hjulmand takes eleventh place. Places ten to four are for Mauricio Pochettino, Gareth Southgate, Julian Nagelsmann, Diego Simeone, Roberto Mancini, Hansi Flick and Antonio Conte, respectively. The top three are Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Josep Guardiola. “Guardiola is still number one. He is still innovating. He still finds ways to trick other elite coaches into submission. He can still suffocate the best clubs in the world with the ball, leaving them to chase shadows. He is deadly, with or without a striker, with or without Kevin De Bruyne, with or without natural fullbacks. He can turn Ilkay Gundogan into a top version of Frank Lampard.”
“Manchester City was nothing short of stunning last season. And that team is arguably Pep’s best yet. (…) When Mikel Arteta left for Arsenal, Juanma Lillo, an old mentor of Pep, was thrown into the lap. While it would have been natural for the Catalan to fall into a more conservative form after a season of defensive weakness, Lillo was the devil on Guardiola’s shoulder. He seems to have encouraged him to go further in his ideals, deeper into the philosophies that have made him the coach he is today. Everyone else is trying to overtake Guardiola. It’s nothing new. And it’s just the way he continues to like it.”