It has been reported that Amorim only has three games left to save his job, and some are calling for club legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to be drafted back in as his replacement. Solskjaer guided United to a second-place Premier League finish in 2020-21, while embracing the counter-attacking style that garnered so much success in the Sir Alex Ferguson era.
But does re-hiring a former coach actually work? BALLGM ranks the top 10 managers who successfully, and not so successfully, returned to their old stomping grounds below…
It has been reported that Amorim only has three games left to save his job, and some are calling for club legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to be drafted back in as his replacement. Solskjaer guided United to a second-place Premier League finish in 2020-21, while embracing the counter-attacking style that garnered so much success in the Sir Alex Ferguson era.
But does re-hiring a former coach actually work? BALLGM ranks the top 10 managers who successfully, and not so successfully, returned to their old stomping grounds below…
Frank Lampard may be Chelsea’s greatest-ever player. The midfielder scored a remarkable 211 goals in 648 games for the Blues, but his time in management at Stamford Bridge was less fruitful. In his first stint between July 2019 and January 2021, the ex-England international had a respectable winning percentage of 52.38 in 84 matches.
But in his caretaker spell between April and June 2023, it was an unmitigated disaster. Lampard won just one of his 11 matches in charge with a 9.09 win percentage. He is doing better at Championship side Coventry City now, though.
Guus Hiddink has put together a glittering CV over more than 30 years in management. He has been in the dugout for PSV Eindhoven, Real Madrid, the Netherlands, Valencia, and more. So after Luiz Felipe Scolari was sacked by Chelsea in early 2009, there was a lot of excitement among fans when Hiddink was tasked with steadying the Blues’ ship for the rest of the season.
He guided them to an FA Cup triumph, and his side were arguably robbed in their Champions League semi-final aggregate loss to Barcelona, where some questionable refereeing calls went against them. Hiddink left with a win percentage of 72.73, but in another caretaker stint between December 2015 and May 2016, that dropped to 37.04. He inherited a Chelsea team sitting 16th in the table and could only guide them to a 10th-place finish, though he did break the record for the longest unbeaten streak as a new manager (12 games).
The famous quote of, ‘Can they do it on a cold, rainy night in Stoke?’ came during one of Tony Pulis’ spells at the Potters. Rory Delap’s long throws, pitches that were as compact as possible, and upsetting the Premier League big boys were part and parcel of his time at the Staffordshire outfit.
Pulis took hold of the reins at Stoke in November 2002 and had a 35.88 win percentage before leaving in June 2005. But his second stint led to them earning promotion to the Premier League, staying in that role for nearly seven years (2006-13), and his win percentage rose to 36.64 despite being in a higher division. He even got them playing in Europe. Chapeau!
One of the most illustrious names on this list, Italian disciplinarian Fabio Capello did not suffer fools gladly in his managerial career. He enjoyed a huge amount of success, but his second stint at Real Madrid didn’t prove to be as fruitful. He guided Los Blancos to La Liga success in 1997 and had a 64.58 win percentage between May 1996 to June 1997.
When he returned in July 2006 for a year, Capello won another league title, but that win percentage dipped to 56. Moreover, the former Roma boss also had a much more successful spell at AC Milan between 1991-96 rather than in 1997-98.
One of the most likeable and respected managers in recent memory, jovial Italian Claudio Ranieri is part of a select contingent of coaches to manage a team three times. The former Leicester City boss, who famously guided the Foxes to Premier League glory in 2016, took charge at Roma between 2009-11, March-May 2019, and then November 2024 to June this year.
His first stint yielded a winning percentage of 55.95, his second spell dropped to 50, and in his most recent stay, he won 61.11 per cent of his games as Ranieri guided them to fifth and into Europe again. The word evergreen comes to mind.
After his sacking by Sunderland a few months prior, following the Black Cats’ Premier League relegation in May 2017, there wasn’t much clamour for David Moyes to take over at West Ham in November of that year. While he guided them to top-flight safety, with a win percentage of 29.03, many fans were okay with moving on from the Scot for the next season.
When he returned in December 2019, the ex-Preston North End boss repeatedly got them into Europe and guided them to Conference League glory in 2023. His win percentage grew to just under 45, too. Amid West Ham’s current malaise, many feel it was a mistake to let the now-Everton boss leave last year.
The self-appointed ‘Special One’ took the footballing world by storm when he swept in at Chelsea in the summer of 2004, fresh off of winning the Champions League with FC Porto. Jose Mourinho’s first Blues team will go down as one of the greatest ever Premier League sides as they romped to a domestic double. Another league title followed, along with an FA Cup and a Carabao Cup, before he was sacked in September 2007.
His second spell, between June 2013 and December 2015, led to another domestic double, but his points per game dropped from 2.22 to 1.96. The Portuguese was once again relieved of his duties in December 2015 after overseeing nine losses in Chelsea’s first 16 league games of the season.
Zinedine Zidane, aka ‘Zizou’, went from being arguably the greatest player of his generation to one of Real Madrid’s most successful managers with apparent ease. The Frenchman spent 18 months managing Los Blancos’ B team before taking over the first team in January 2016.
In just under two and a half years, he won three straight Champions League crowns, a Supercopa de Espana, two UEFA Super Cups, two FIFA Club World Cups, and La Liga. When he returned in 2019 for just over two years, the win percentage dropped from 70.47 to 60.53, but Madrid still won the league title and a Supercopa de Espana. He is a winning machine.
Jupp Heynckes is another example of a player who had a successful career as a player, with the forward coming in at fourth on the German Bundesliga’s all-time scoring list, but had more success as a manager with periods at Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, and Benfica, and more. In his first of three Bayern spells, he won 57.07 per cent of his games and led them to Bundesliga glory in 1989 and 1990, as well as two DFL Supercup triumphs in 1987 and 1990.
Heynckes had an even better second stint at Bayern, winning a treble in 2013 with the DFB-Pokal, Bundesliga and Champions League. He returned for a third spell in 2017 and won another league title.
So, who is the fairest of them all? Well, it’s Don Carlo, of course. Legendary Italian boss Carlo Ancelotti has won just about everywhere he has gone in football, but his second spell at Madrid is, arguably, one of the most eye-catching.
A Champions League, a Copa del Rey, a UEFA Super Cup, and a Club World Cup were secured in his first spell between 2013-15 but his second comprised two La Ligas, one Copa del Rey, two Supercopa de Espanas, two Champions Leagues, two UEFA Super Cups, one Club World Cup, and one FIFA Intercontinental Cup. Now he is in charge of Brazil’s national team, but he may be the best example of a manager having more success when returning to his former team.
