Top 20 Gaffers on the Planet: The Form Guide Right Now (20–11)

The dugout elite keep shifting, and with 2025-26 up and running, it’s the perfect moment to reassess who’s really running the show from the technical area. On recent returns, silverware, tactical fingerprints and the sheer difficulty of the job, here’s where the top gaffers stack up right now. If you fancy a flutter on the latest outright markets, make sure you’re using the best betting sites for proper prices.

How we’re judging it

Form and trophies matter most, but so does the style and clarity of a coach’s ideas, player development, and the context of the job – budgets, injuries, and whether they’re building or battling. It’s a dynamic list and it will move as the season unfolds.

20. Oliver Glasner — Crystal Palace

There’s a warmth and steel to Glasner that players buy into, and the record backs it up. He didn’t hang about at LASK, pushing them from the second tier to champions and into the top flight at pace, then bagging a Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in double-quick time. At Palace, he’s turned smart coaching into hard medals: last season’s historic FA Cup triumph was followed by a Community Shield win over Liverpool. He even talked up taking down Pep – then went and did it. It’s a proper glow-up for Selhurst Park, and you wouldn’t bet against him climbing this list soon.

19. Eddie Howe — Newcastle United

Howe dragged Newcastle into the Champions League in his first full crack at it, then handled the glare and the growing pains of a super-charged project without losing the plot. The Magpies ended their 70-year wait for major silverware by beating Liverpool under the Wembley arch in the League Cup final – a banner day that earns any coach legend status on Tyneside. This term started a touch sticky after eight league games, with narrow late losses to Liverpool and Arsenal, but that’s hardly cause for alarm. The structure is sound, the football brave.

18. Gian Piero Gasperini — AS Roma

Call it a late bloom if you like, but Gasperini’s methods have always been ahead of the curve. Years of graft culminated in that sensational Europa League win with Atalanta, taking down an unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen to claim his first major trophy. Now at Roma, he’s barely needed time to tune the engine – a point off Milan after seven Serie A games suggests his high-risk, high-reward football translates quickly. Veteran nous, modern ideas.

17. Julian Nagelsmann — Germany

Jettisoned by Bayern while still performing, Nagelsmann landed with Die Mannschaft and has shown why he’s so highly rated. Thirteen wins in his first 25 in charge include a statement dismantling of France, and he’s moulding a team around supreme young talents like Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz. The ceiling here is sky-high. Deliver a major title and he vaults into the top bracket, no question.

16. Unai Emery — Aston Villa

Emery is a serial problem-solver. He turned Villa from a flaky mid-table outfit into Champions League qualifiers – a staggering jump when you remember where they were under his predecessor. The European pedigree is long, and while Villa were outmanoeuvred by Olympiacos in the Conference League, the transformation of John McGinn, Ollie Watkins and Ezri Konsa tells you everything about his coaching. A slower start in 2025-26, shaped by PSR headwinds upstairs, dings him a notch but doesn’t dent the body of work.

15. Enzo Maresca — Chelsea

Few gigs are trickier than the Stamford Bridge hot seat, yet Maresca has imposed principles, patience and end product. After a ropey pre-season, he steadied the ship and finished fourth, then delivered two big prizes: the Europa Conference League and a Club World Cup masterclass, swatting Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the final. A recent league win over Liverpool has cooled the trigger-finger reputation around the owners. The project is coherent; the squad is listening.

14. Thomas Tuchel — England

Club turbulence aside, Tuchel’s European chops are undeniable. He took Bayern to a Champions League semi before Real Madrid did Real Madrid things, and when Manchester United came calling he swerved it. Now he’s at the helm with England, charged with smashing the trophy drought, and he’s started briskly – seven wins from his first eight. The tactical discipline is there; blending it with freedom for the attackers is the next trick.

13. Luis de la Fuente — Spain

Promoted from the youth setup and immediately reinstalled La Roja as a major force. Spain didn’t just win Euro 2024 – they dominated, becoming the first side to go seven-from-seven at the tournament and turning over England in the final. With a young, technical core and a coach who trusts them, Spain look set for a spell back on top of the international tree.

12. Didier Deschamps — France

He’s won it all and he still commands the big moments. A World Cup in 2018, a shootout whisker from retaining it in 2022, and a Euro 2024 semi despite France never quite hitting fifth gear. Some will grumble about style, but the results column keeps endorsing him. With a talent pool that deep and Deschamps’ tournament nous, Les Bleus are never far from the last weekend.

11. Lionel Scaloni — Argentina

Scaloni delivered the holy grail in 2022, helping Lionel Messi complete his international set with a World Cup, and it wasn’t a one-off. He also masterminded Copa América titles in 2021 and 2024, turning Argentina from a nearly-men outfit into serial winners. Doing all that before 50 – while refreshing the side around its icons – is top-drawer management.

The verdict so far

From Glasner’s Palace revolution to Scaloni’s cool stewardship of champions, this batch from 20 to 11 shows there’s more than one way to skin the managerial cat: cultural resets, tactical chutzpah, and a knack for big-match delivery. Keep an eye out – the top 10 will ruffle a few feathers.