Managers are rockstars. Even as player power threatens tyranny, head coach stocks are at an all-time high, with interest in and compensation for adjusting accordingly.
Jurgen Klopp leaving Liverpool was one of the stories of the season, and the subsequent hunt for his replacement was publicised and waited with similar excitement to any player signing. This is not exclusive to the top table either; instead, the drama and interest in the recruitment of managers and accompanying sagas now rival players, and the fees are catching up. Just a decade ago, the idea of a club spending close to 8-figure sums to secure their manager for the future felt a bit crazy; however, it seems increasingly the going rate to poach top-level coaches. With this in mind, could a club embrace loaning managers in the name of developing a manager-trading model? Probably not, but weirder things have happened.
With the demand for inspiring and tactically aware coaches at an all-time high, it’s no surprise that the broader footballing ecosystem is taking such a keen interest. In the past, fans would be familiar with opposition players and perhaps have a wish list of those they’d love their club to sign. Many fans have taken it a step further, having a crystal clear vision of who they want in the dugout. The wide availability of game footage and cutting-edge analytics tools empower decision-makers to remain informed and potentially fixated on a handful of candidates for contingency planning when used correctly. In this vein, using RMA’s in-depth toolkit of manager-focused dashboards, we can share this load and focus on several candidates for clubs across the food chain who may be in need of a new leader.
Javi Medina – Antequera
The landscape for “manager-material” has shifted significantly in the past decade. For the longest time, the combination of youth and the lack of a playing career would get you laughed out of many boardrooms. However, due to the successes of Julian Naglesman, Fabian Hurzeler, and Francesco Farioli, clubs are more willing than ever to listen to what football’s younger preachers are offering. The young 30-something manager archetype is the most prevalent and celebrated in Germany thus far. Should any Spanish team want to emulate Hoffenheim or St. Pauli, they should head south to Andalusia and throw the chequebook at Antequera’s Javi Medina.
Medina arrived at Antequera initially as the no.2 after holding a similar role for Betis’s B team. At 29, when then-boss Abel Segovia left in June 2023, he was promoted to the real thing, becoming the youngest head coach in Spain’s men’s professional eco-system. Since then, he’s consolidated his side amongst the most exciting in the Primera Federacion – Spain’s third division. Looking at the radar below, which uses RMA’s team analysis dashboard, we can see what sort of ship he ran in the 23/24 season and how he maintained that into 2025. Our team-style formula considers his Antequera side as maintaining total control, and a swath of individual in-possession metrics co-signs that. The mix of high-pressing, defensive solidity, possession-based principles and success in both boxes whet the palate. This is made all the more impressive when considering the budget he works with. Within leagues ranked 50th-82nd in the world on RMA, no team provides a better xG for, and xG conceded to squad value than Medina’s Antequera. So what he’s doing is not merely getting a team of stars to play principled, controlled and productive football but achieving those same descriptors whilst fighting against teams with significantly higher budgets. Simply astonishing!
Andalusia is awash with football clubs, with many potentially benefitting from prying Medina away from Antequera. The catalogue of more established Primera Federacion and Segunda Liga clubs should keep their gaze unbroken on the 30-year-old.
Wilfred Nancy – Columbus Crew
What’s more impressive for a manager, arriving at a side struggling and whipping them into form or a team completely falling apart after your own successful stint? If you want any chance of a good answer to that question, then Columbus Crew’s Wilfred Nancy is your man.
The Frenchman started his managerial career at CF Montreal, albeit in various roles, most prominently as the assistant to Thierry Henry and Remi Garde. He took the reigns as top dop in 2020 and held down the fort for two seasons. Nancy usually sets up his sides in a 3421 with ball-playing quality and calmness abundant across the pitch. The first thing that hits you watching his sides is the circulation. The ball is pinged around with seemingly everyone knowing their place and the network of connections as natural and effective as the arteries and vessels that pump blood around your body. After circulation comes shapes; with Nancy’s football, it’s hard not to identify the mix of triangles, rectangles, and trapezoids that his players design and interact within, inevitably earning numerical superiority in areas across the pitch and helping them dominate both boxes. The languid yet purposeful football has helped propel both his Columbus and Montreal sides to levels of attacking efficiency and entertainment that hasn’t been seen before (Columbus 2022) or after (Montreal 2023) his tenure, which can be seen explicitly in the radars below, which compare Nancy’s sides with the most recent versions of the respective clubs without him at the helm, note the drop in control during seasons without Nancy at the helm, seen in the style bar to the right.
As seen in the radars above, Nancy is not merely a possession zealot who pays little attention out of possession. Yes, his build-up and goalscoring catch the eye; however, his sides maintain stellar defensive records. This is partly due to their proficiency in possession, as attack is the best form of defence, and controlling the tempo controls the match. However, it is also due to his clever plans that insulate his side well from counterthreats and the execution of various intelligent defensive shapes and pressing schemes when/where appropriate.
Nancy’s mastery of French and English and the mass of evidence he can provide to attest to his managerial qualities should see him move eastward soon. Ligue 1 seems the most natural fit; however, any side with aspirations for improvement and entertainment should look to the Frenchman with confidence.
Adi Hutter – Monaco
Alas, a name most will be familiar with. Monaco’s Adi Hutter has long been a household name for German speakers, with successful stints at Young Boys, Eintracht, Salzburg and Altach, and is increasingly acquainted with the wider footballing ecosystem and your casual fan. Given his formative training within the Red Bull architecture, it is little surprise that his football is dominated by relentless pressing, a focus on verticality and congested central channels; however, his ability to mesh said principles with pragmatism has seen him succeed whilst other post-RB coaches have not.
Hutter’s sides generally set up in possession in some variation of a 4-2-3-1, although depending on the opponent, you will also see use of the 3-4-2-1 and 4-2-4. A central tenant of Hutter’s build-up and progressive play is the cross-pollination between wingers and FBs, who often switch and occupy several lanes on the pitch, constantly rotating in an attempt to move between zones. Further up the field, Hutter’s reliance on his FBs becomes more apparent; they provide a consistent flow of creativity and are the benefactors of manufacturing chaos amidst clogged central channels where his midfielders and CBs remain tight and compact both to maintain close passing options but concomitantly to open FBs to open channels, the key here is the excellent Vanderson. In the final third, he relies on the creative ability of his FBs but also the individual brilliance of the likes of Ben Seghir and Akliouche, whilst his power-forwards – Embolo and Biereth remain primed to pounce in and around the box. Whether it be as a result of a talent surplus or just a unique approach, Hutter’s love affair with half-spaces has seen him more often than not play with two or even three no.10s, although some would lead you to believe they’re extinct. His side is carved by the demands of pace, power and competence, which makes them particularly effective in transition phases. Out of possession, his side adopted a particularly Germanic approach to counter-pressing and rest defence, focusing on aggression and determination. This can be seen in the scatter below, which shows off the immense distance between Monaco and second-best in terms of pressures in the opposition half, indicating their ability to access deep areas across the final third.
Upon arriving at Monaco, Hutter let it be known that he possessed a “conquering state of mind”. Conquering France seems near impossible given the hegemonic state of PSG; however, the remit of a successful Monaco manager is not to do as much but to bring through youth, challenge for second place and progress in Europe, a tripartite demand, which Hutter is satisfying, evidenced by him ranking first and sixth amongst all top-5 league managers for RMA’s “Top Managers Relative to Value” manager scouting template in 2023/24 and 2024/25.
Although Hutter and his side have taken a slight step back since his debut season, he remains a competent pair of hands to lead Monaco or a high-level side elsewhere.
Honourable mentions
- José Alberto López – Racing Santander
- Carles Martinez – Toulouse
- Fredrik Holmberg – GAIS
- Jindrich Tripsovsky – Slavia Prague
- Lukas Kwasniok – Padeborn
- Ole Werner – Werder Bremen
- Moïn Chaabani – RS Berkane
- Rulani Mokwena – Wydad Casablanca
