7. Antonio Conte, NapoliThey handed one of the sport’s best forwards (Victor Osimhen ) to Galatasaray on loan, and they lost Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to PSG in January. But since when does Antonio Conte need scoring ?
Conte’s Napoli have allowed five fewer goals than anyone else, and they’ve won seven 1-0 games and four 2-0s. He has coaxed a career year from Scott McTominay — the club paid Manchester United €30.5m in transfer fees for him, and he’s making it look like a discount. With two games left, they hold a one-point lead over Inter Milan. Their Scudetto fate is in their own hands.
Pretty good for a team that finished 10th in Serie A last year with Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia.
8. Andoni Iraola, Bournemouth Yes, injuries finally caught up to them and the last couple of months haven’t been all that fun. After losing only five of their first 23 league matches, they’ve lost six of their last 13. But Bournemouth, with its 11,000-seat stadium, an all-time, top-division finish of ninth and a roster value (per Transfermarkt) closer to that of second-division Burnley than Manchester United or Tottenham, stayed in the race for a European place well into the spring, and, well, they’re going to finish well ahead of United or Spurs.
Iraola’s Bournemouth combine sturdy, high-effort defense with the most relentless counter-attacks in the Premier League. And even during their spring fade, they still recently ripped off a five-game unbeaten streak and a win over Arsenal.
9. Cesc Fabregas, Como Como seemed like a novelty at first. For their first season back in Serie A in more than 20 years, they hired Fabregas, the former Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea and Monaco star, as manager, then brought in veteran players like Pepe Reina , Sergi Roberto , Raphaël Varane and Andrea Belotti as well. Their early form screamed “novelty act” as well — they were in the relegation zone into mid-December.
Since mid-February, however, only Claudio Ranieri’s Roma have generated more points in league play. They handed Napoli their only league loss of 2025. And better yet, they’ve surged not because of the aforementioned veterans (who have barely played) but because of thrilling youngsters like Nico Paz (20), Assane Diao (19), Lucas da Cunha (23) and Máximo Perrone (22).
Fabregas has done a fabulous job, and if the core stays together — something that doesn’t tend to happen in this capitalist universe — one could see a Europe-worthy team taking shape soon.
We’re starting to take Brentford for granted, and that’s an incredible thing to say about Thomas Frank. The Bees spent 74 years out of the English first division, and now they’ve not only easily survived for four years despite what is still a relatively limited budget, but they’re also steering toward a second top-10 finish in three seasons. They’re finishing strong, too, riding a six-game unbeaten streak into the final two matches. They’re just as Brentford as ever, dominating on set pieces, generating more high-quality shots than most and creating almost none.
This is a uniquely well-run club, and it’s benefited from having a uniquely solid and creative manager leading the way.
11. Alexander Blessin, St. Pauli After earning Bundesliga promotion for the first time in 14 years, St. Pauli lost manager Fabian Hurzeler to Brighton, then lost by far their best goal contributor (Marcel Hartel ) to Major League Soccer’s St. Louis City. Hartel’s primary replacement, Morgan Guilavogui , scored one league goal in the first three months of the season, and St. Pauli themselves scored in only four of their first 11 matches. They somehow didn’t score at home until Nov. 29.
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Despite this, guess who’s actually staying up in the Bundesliga for the first time since 1996? St. Pauli!
In a seemingly impossible situation, Blessin navigated through the season with dynamite defense (only Bayern have allowed fewer Bundesliga goals), and the famed anti-fascist club slowly pulled its way to safety. Technically they’re not completely safe yet — if they lose on Saturday, and Heidenheim both wins and somehow makes up a 13-goal difference in goal differential, St. Pauli would land in the relegation playoff — but the odds of that … aren’t great. Prepare for another season of “Hells Bells” playing in the top division.
12. David Moyes, Everton It felt like the least creative idea imaginable: Having fired Sean Dyche, only one point above the relegation zone, Everton looked around the managerial landscape and hired … the guy who coached them really well more than a decade ago.
The 62-year old Moyes was available after having departed West Ham last May, and he took over a team in desperate need of results. Easy peasy. After a 1-0 loss to Aston Villa in Moyes’ first game, Everton lost only one of their next 12 league fixtures. Granted, they’ve had seven draws in his 17 matches, but they’re now 20 points outside the relegation zone, and with two matches left they’re ahead of Manchester United, Spurs and West Ham, Moyes’ former employer.
The defense-and-counters thing still has value.
14. Manuel Pellegrini, Real Betis It’s been a streaky season for Real Betis: From October through January, they enjoyed a seven-game unbeaten streak, then a three-game losing streak, then a seven-game unbeaten streak, then a three-game losing streak. But since adding two attacking pieces in the January window — Manchester United’s Antony (loan) and Columbus’ Cucho Hernández (transfer) — Pellegrini has pulled all the right strings. Betis have lost only once in two-and-a-half months, they momentarily threatened to charge all the way back from 12th to snag a Champions League spot, and they’ve reached their first ever European final, a May 28 date with Chelsea in the Conference League.
Antony (eight goals and five assists in 22 games in all competitions) has received a lot of the credit for this surge, but he probably didn’t re-discover his 2021-22 form all by himself.
15. Francesco Jarioli, Ajax If I’d written this two weeks ago, Jarioli would have been in the top 10. Despite still plodding their way through a rebuild that produced a fifth-place Eredivisie finish in 2023-24, Farioli’s Ajax used defense — a sometimes-rare substance at the club — to go on a spectacular surge in league play. They lost only once between Aug. 18 and April 20 and took a seemingly insurmountable lead in the table. But they’ve since taken only two points from their last four matches, and with five straight wins, somehow PSV Eindhoven have overtaken them and lead by a point heading into the final matchday.
The title fight isn’t over yet, but even if Ajax fall just short, it has still been a year of stellar improvement, and Ajax will still return to the Champions League next season.
For the last five names on this list, we’ll dip down below the first divisions of the sport. It’s hard to avoid giving “Honorable Mention” status to every single coach who coordinated a promotion effort, but here are five coaches who performed at a particularly exceptional level, starting with a man who has overseen maybe the most unlikely rise in the sport.
16. Horst Steffen, SV 07 Elversburg From a municipality of just 13,000 people, Elversberg were in the fourth tier as late as 2022, but they won the third-division title in 2022-23, held their own in their first ever second-division campaign in 2023-24, and now, heading into the final matchday, they are third in the 2. Bundesliga. A Sunday win over Schalke would clinch a spot in at least the promotion playoff (likely against Heidenheim), and a win combined with a Koln loss would get them promoted.
Pound for pound, Steffen might be the best manager in Germany right now.
17. Filippo Inzaghi, Pisa While his younger brother, Simone, has led Inter to the Champions League final — and probably deserved a spot on this list as well — Pippo Inzaghi has been a bit more of a managerial journeyman. He couldn’t save Salernitana from relegation last season, but he has aced his latest test. Pisa haven’t played in Serie A since 1990-91 and had to be re-founded in 2009 after major financial troubles. But they slowly re-established themselves as a second-tier club, and Inzaghi engineered a 30-point improvement in his first season in charge, comfortably earning promotion.
18. Regis Le Bris, Sunderland That Leeds and Burnley earned the two automatic promotion spots in the English Championship makes sense — after all, recently relegated clubs, with their parachute payments, have been vacuuming up a lot of promotion spots in recent years.
But Sunderland have been on quite the journey since their last Premier League season (2016-17), spending four seasons in the third division before crawling back up the ladder. After a 16th-place finish last season, they didn’t seem like major promotion candidates. But under Le Bris, the former Lorient coach, they improved by 20 points despite a late fade, and with a dramatic playoff semifinal win over Coventry City, they’re now one game from a spot back in the Premier League.
They’re underdogs against Sheffield United, but they weren’t supposed to get this close in the first place.
19. Luis Castro, Dunkerque USL Dunkerque have existed for over 100 years and have never played in the French top division. They might next season. After yo-yoing between the second and third divisions for years, they appointed the 45-year old Castro, a former Benfica U23s coach, in 2023. In his second season, they upset two Champions League teams (Lille and Brest ) to reach the Coupe de France semifinals, then reached the promotion playoff final — they’ll face Metz on Saturday for a spot in Ligue 1.
20. Stephan Gilli, Paris FC Paris finally has a second Ligue 1 team again. After a more than 40-year absence, Paris FC finally got over the hump in Gilli’s second season in charge. Thanks in part to inspired additions Jean-Philippe Krasso (17 goals and five assists) and former Sassuolo midfielder Maxime Lopez, Gilli led PFC to a reasonably drama-free second-place finish. New owners are investing solid money into the club, and it appears they’ve found a pretty good manager to lead the way, too.
