Championship managers: so many names, so little time

This summer, more than half a dozen clubs will rip it up and begin again – but who to choose, from an ever-expanding pool of coaches?

The times, they are a-becoming quite different. Again. The 2025/26 Championship season is likely to kick off with only half a dozen clubs having the same manager who started their last campaign, and half of those are coming up from League One. 
This sort of statistic isn’t so surprising any more, because we’re used to mid-season sackings, but what does feel unusual is how many clubs are switching it up between seasons, over this spring and summer.

Of the 22 clubs confirmed to be in next season’s second tier, four (Southampton, Hull, Norwich and West Bromwich Albion) are certifiably without a manager, one (QPR) has placed theirs on gardening leave, one (Watford) has made a change already and another two (Sheffield Wednesday and Leicester) look all but guaranteed to have a new gaffer before August. That’s between a quarter and a third of the division, starting anew.

Few of the break-ups, if any, have been amicable. Although Tony Mowbray surely knew what was coming and Tom Cleverley surely knew what he signed up for (not that Gino Pozzo’s general Pozzoness has made his sacking any more palatable for Watford fans), there was a level of soap-opera shock about Norwich and Hull parting with their managers. Johannes Hoff Thorup seemed to be under the impression that the terms of endearment had changed; Ruben Selles’ friends are telling him to stop shacking up with bad boys. Marti Cifuentes is sleeping on the sofa. Danny Röhl and Dejphon Chansiri are taking their tea in passive-aggressive silence until someone pays a few mill to whisk Röhl away from all of this.

Among the relegated clubs, Leicester are stringing Ruud van Nistelrooy along with promises but few commitments. Southampton, who’ve been playing the field for some time following their whirlwind no-mance with Ivan Jurić, are apparently close to hooking Will Still. Ipswich have chosen to stand by their man. They, and other clubs such as Bristol City and Middlesbrough (who appear to be sticking with Michael Carrick), could potentially benefit from having continuity in contrast to their rivals.

Whichever approach proves to be the right one, it’s undeniably true that there are plenty more fish in the sea.

Currently on the market are – among others – Steve Cooper, Sean Dyche, Gary O’Neil, David Wagner and Mick Beale, as well as Selles, Thorup, Cleverley and Mowbray, the ‘technically in work but with their coat on’ pair of Cifuentes and Röhl, and a Job Centre-ful of recent play-off winners in Russell Martin, Rob Edwards, Des Buckingham and Luke Williams. Most of these – not all, but most – would consider the Championship to be their natural next posting, although one or two seem to think it should be the Champions League. 

And that’s just the known names. The list above doesn’t include hires from overseas; QPR are keeping tabs on Pierre Sage and everyone is keeping a tab open on Will Still, while Norwich have favourited Pep Lijnders. Nor does it mention the potential first-time full-time managers who keep cropping up in discussions – Ryan Mason, Jack Wilshere et al – while there’s a whole separate batch of experienced coaches outside the EFL who may be looking in, such as Lee Carsley and Brian Barry-Murphy. Even that doesn’t include managers in Leagues One and Two who’ve earned a step up, hoping it goes better for them than it did for Michael Duff, Leam Richardson, Matt Taylor or Neil Critchley (who are also all looking for work). Finally, there’s Wayne Rooney.

In short: there are so many managers, you guys. They can’t and won’t all get jobs. That isn’t the clubs’ problem, of course; the clubs’ problem is that excess choice arguably makes the hiring process harder rather than easier. No wonder some end up narrowing down their candidates to a fantastically varied final four of Pressing Maniac, Passing Fetishist, Hoofball Merchant and the Mystery Box. Trying to ensure you haven’t overlooked the definitive ‘best option’ can lead to a sort of analysis paralysis, when in fact the best option would be to focus on what exactly your club/squad needs and focus accordingly.

They have time on their side. Although the deluge of summer tournaments, tours and transfer news makes it seem much sooner, we have more than 11 weeks until the 2025/26 Championship season begins – that’s a lot of time to prepare. Choosing to make a transition this soon is actually quite grown up, at least when compared with the usual method, which is to react to poor early-season form by sacking the manager in an autumn international window after he’s built the squad to his tastes. Getting your ducks in a row in May or early June makes a lot of sense.