What is the hardest coaching job in world sport?

What is the hardest coaching job in world sport?

We are talking about the ‘poisoned chalice’ roles — mostly big teams where standards are high, fans’ expectations are higher and where coaches also have to contend with the weight of a glorious history.

We asked our writers across all sports for their nominations for the title, from Manchester United to the USWNT via Ferrari team principal (among others). In each case, reporters were asked to focus on those teams’ wider historical context rather than simply this current season.

At the end of the article, you can vote for the job you think is the hardest in world sport. This list is far from definitive, so please do make your own suggestions in the comments below if you feel we have missed any roles out.

England (men’s international football)

Coaching the England men’s team is such a peculiar role that it even has a name attached: ‘An Impossible Job’. Former manager Graham Taylor was the subject of a documentary of the same name, which laid bare the team’s unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 1994 World Cup.

Part of this is just the natural effect of assuming this country cares more about its national team than others. Many other nations have a lot of public pressure on this role and a lot of expectation, too. Yes, in the past, the media glare in that job has been ferocious — but that is not the case in quite the same way now. And it is certainly not distinctive to England either.

Perhaps the hardest element is to bridge the gap between resources and record. The England men’s team have won one major tournament: the World Cup hosted by the country in 1966. But they now have the richest, most popular football league in the world in the Premier League on their doorstep. And yet, turning that to the advantage of the England team is a challenge that has yet to be resolved.

Can Thomas Tuchel, the current coach who this week signed a new deal until the European Championship in 2028, be the man to do that at last?

Jack Pitt-Brooke

New York Jets (NFL)

There are many layers to why coaching the New York Jets feels like an impossible job. Let’s start with the simple statement: they are the New York Jets.

There is not an NFL team that has been referred to mockingly, or derisively, or served as the butt of a joke in television shows, movies or sketch comedies quite like this team. That reputation is part of what makes it hard to work here: the “Same Old Jets” of it all, a feeling that, eventually, things will go terribly, even when it feels like there is hope.

That ties to the franchise’s history. This is a team that has not won a Super Bowl since 1969 and has not found any sort of stability at quarterback since then, either. Coaching the Jets means answering to a fanbase that has grown increasingly angry the longer their playoff-less streak (15 years and counting) goes on. Current head coach Aaron Glenn is a beloved former Jets player and he was not granted much of a grace period — after one losing season, fans are already calling for his head.

The other challenge: ownership. Woody Johnson is known to be meddlesome, impatient and easily influenced by headlines.

But really, it all falls under the “Same Old Jets” umbrella, which coaches have failed to overcome going on for a few decades now.

Zack Rosenblatt

Real Madrid (La Liga, Spain)

Managing Real Madrid is a uniquely difficult challenge. Florentino Perez, long-serving president of the record 15-time European Cup/Champions League winners, has little patience for long-term projects or planning, and no time for excuses or mitigating factors such as injuries or misfortune.

Perez fills the dressing-room with big-name players who do not always fit together well, rarely enjoy detailed tactical instruction and seldom take responsibility when the team is not doing well.

Madrid are actually owned by 80,000 members who demand the highest standards — and are surrounded by a voracious local media who mercilessly criticise anyone who even temporarily falls short.

To enjoy success in the Spanish capital, Madrid’s coach must be able to motivate and organise star players, while showing humility and intelligence in dealing with Perez, and accepting the only thing that really counts is regularly winning the biggest trophies.

Since 2000, Madrid have had 18 different coaches — and just three have won a Champions League: Vicente del Bosque in 2000 and 2002, Carlo Ancelotti in 2014, 2022 and 2024, and Zinedine Zidane in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Other coaches with big reputations and personalities who have tried but failed include Jose Mourinho, Fabio Capello, Rafa Benitez, and, most recently, former playing icon Xabi Alonso. It is no surprise that the current incumbent, another former player, Alvaro Arbeloa, is feeling the pressure after just eight games.

Dermot Corrigan

Ferrari team principal (Formula 1)

All Formula 1 team principal jobs (the closest to a head coach’s role in other sports) come with pressure. But none compares to that of Ferrari, the sport’s most historic and trophy-laden team, who demand nothing but success. All of Italy is watching.

It is something Fred Vasseur, Ferrari’s team principal since 2023, felt last year. The team narrowly missed out on the title in 2024, only to then slide backwards and endure a winless season, despite the blockbuster signing of Lewis Hamilton. By mid-season, Vasseur was facing deep scrutiny in the press. Even with a new contract signed last June, that spotlight will only dim once success arrives.

Vasseur is Ferrari’s fifth team principal since 2014, with each of the past four changes coming abruptly in response to a lack of success. Simply fighting for wins is not enough to satisfy Ferrari’s board, the Italian press, or its fans watching around the world. Championships are the only currency they want to deal in.

Vasseur is acutely aware of that, his goal being to finally be the person to end Ferrari’s title drought (they last won the drivers’ title in 2007 and the constructors’ crown in 2008) and succeed in F1’s toughest job. But he needs to break the trend of his predecessors to make that happen.

Luke Smith

Manchester United (Premier League)

Manchester United’s 20 top-flight league titles, dating back to 1908, have been won by only three men: Ernest Mangnall, Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson. That is the same number of league-winning managers that Liverpool have had since 1990, Chelsea have had since 2010 and Manchester City have had since 2012.

It took United five attempts to land on Busby’s true successor. That was long enough, but their next permanent manager will be the seventh since Ferguson’s retirement after winning 38 trophies in his 26 years in charge.

That success made United one of the biggest clubs in the world — almost certainly the biggest in the English-speaking world — but also set an almost impossible standard to meet.

Whoever eventually puts United back on their perch, in Ferguson’s parlance, will have to work with an unpopular ownership, an insatiable media and a long list of ex-players who have been there, won it and started a podcast.

But most of all, they will need to match the expectation that United should be the dominant force in English football, even more than a decade on from the last of those league titles.

Mark Critchley

Tottenham Hotspur (Premier League)

Tottenham are, in theory, one of the world’s most promising football clubs.

Based in London, an international financial and sporting capital, they can attract talent over competition from most teams in the Premier League and beyond, and their world-class stadium and training ground are, or at least should be, a dream to operate in. They also have wealthy owners.

All of this leads to high expectations, but Spurs, irrespective of the manager, have consistently fallen short.

Now-USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino is considered the club’s most successful manager in the 21st century, taking Tottenham to a Champions League final and their highest finish in Premier League history (second). It felt like a golden age in waiting, but Spurs lost that final to Liverpool in 2019 and did not become English champions under Pochettino, failing to capitalise on the moment.

Since then, Spurs have been on a steady decline — and no one has got particularly close to rescuing them over a sustained period.

No matter who has stood in the dugout, whether it has been Premier League winners Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte, or Ange Postecoglou (who delivered the club’s first trophy in 17 years last season at the expense of the club’s worst league finish since 1976-77), Nuno Espirito Santo or Thomas Frank — the latter was sacked on Wednesday after only joining in June while Spurs have appointed the Croatian Igor Tudor until the end of the season — the product has never consistently matched the near-league-leading ticket prices. And the coaches are the ones who regularly take the blame.

Tottenham currently sit 16th in the Premier League, which led to the board moving on from Frank this week.

The potential of the young squad and the opportunity for investment should make them an exciting proposition for many top-class head coaches. But almost every type of manager has tried to establish Spurs as league and Champions League contenders post-Pochettino — and all have failed.

Elias Burke

Chelsea (Premier League)

The average tenure of a permanent Chelsea manager this century is 532 days, or 17 and a half months. Across almost two decades of ownership under Roman Abramovich, the club ruthlessly chewed through many of the world’s most famous and successful coaches, banking a steady flow of trophies and pressing the ‘eject’ button at the first sign of failure.

It says something, then, that the Stamford Bridge dugout has become an even less forgiving environment since Abramovich, a Russian oligarch, sold up in 2022, following UK government sanctions imposed on him after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Liam Rosenior is BlueCo’s fourth permanent head coach appointment in four years, and those numbers do not even account for Thomas Tuchel — the Champions League winner they inherited and quickly sacked, now in charge of England — or Frank Lampard, who returned for a second miserable stint as caretaker boss in 2023.

To win at the highest level with one of Europe’s youngest squads and satisfy a demanding and increasingly disillusioned fanbase is challenging enough. Then there is Chelsea’s unique executive structure, with co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart heading up an increasingly sprawling brain trust overseeing everything from recruitment to injury prevention and management.

It is a structure that can only accommodate a head coach, not a manager, and both Mauricio Pochettino (in charge from 2023-2024) and Enzo Maresca grew weary of working within it. Rosenior, promoted with startling speed from BlueCo sister club Strasbourg, has been handed an incredible opportunity so early in his coaching career — but also a frighteningly difficult path to walk.

Liam Twomey

New York Yankees (MLB)

Picture this: the biggest media market in the country. The franchise with by far the most World Series championships. The most intense fans in the game.

Those are just a few things breathing down the neck of the manager of the New York Yankees.

Calling it a tough job would be a major understatement. It even appears to take a physical toll — just look at the before and after photos of Joe Torre and Joe Girardi, who held the position before Aaron Boone took over in 2018.

Pressure like this exists nowhere else in baseball. Other teams tank for higher draft picks or trade their best players to retool, giving up today for a better tomorrow. In the Bronx, there is no such luxury. The Yankees must win every year — the fans demand it.

To the credit of owner Hal Steinbrenner, he does spend money bringing in some of the sport’s biggest names. But with great talent on the field also comes great expectations in the dugout — all while the manager is forced to explain his decisions to reporters twice a day while maintaining harmony between the clubhouse and the decision-makers in the front office.

In the biggest city in the U.S., being Yankees manager is a job nobody else can relate to.

Brendan Kuty

Chelsea (Women’s Super League)

You only need to look at the furore that followed recent defeats by Arsenal and Manchester City — and read The Athletic’s in-depth piece on the crisis happening behind the scenes — to understand the pressure that comes with managing Chelsea women. Sonia Bompastor has only lost three of her 37 Women’s Super League matches in charge of Chelsea since she was appointed in 2024, but there are still fans unhappy with the French manager.

Bompastor is a victim of her own success. Last season, she led Chelsea to an unbeaten domestic treble, and the expectations set by her predecessor and now-USWNT coach Emma Hayes, who won 16 trophies in her 12 years at the club. The standard at the club is unforgiving, and entertaining the idea of anything but total dominance is seen as a failure.

The only women’s club team with comparable expectations are Barcelona, where squad cohesion is helped by the fact that so many of the players are also longtime Spain team-mates. Bompastor has to integrate big-name signings from across the globe. Having such an array of talent is a blessing, but it leaves her with nowhere to hide.

The rest of the WSL are also narrowing the gap on Chelsea, whereas the only real threat to Barcelona’s dominance in Spain are Real Madrid, and even they have only beaten Barca once in 24 meetings.

Cerys Jones

United States (women’s international football)

The U.S. women’s national team’s win at the 1999 World Cup set a new bar and served as a catalyst not only for the women’s game domestically but around the world.

The head that wears the crown has always been heavy: until recently, the expectation of the USWNT was to not only win, but to annihilate opponents (think that 13-0 drubbing of Thailand at the start of their 2019 World Cup campaign). Head coach Emma Hayes will doubtless have found that out for herself since being appointed in 2023.

If anything, the job has become harder as the talent gap between the U.S. and every other nation has narrowed; they are No 2 in FIFA’s world rankings, trailing World Cup winners Spain.

Balancing sustainable player development while still achieving results — yes, even in international friendlies — is a delicate balance to strike under the spotlight, and there may be no stage more daunting in women’s football than the USWNT.

Tamerra Griffin

Watford (English Championship)

It is beyond a joke, really. Just think of the Grampa Simpson meme showing him walking in and out, and that is Watford.

The second-tier side go through head coaches — it is ironic that they give them such a lofty title in the first place — quicker than you can say, “another one bites the dust”.

Since the Italian businessman Gino Pozzo bought the club in 2012, he has micro-managed his way through 23 incumbents of football’s hottest seat. For context, there had been 34 in the club’s 109-year history before then.

Only five coaches have lasted a whole campaign. Five seasons — including this one — have seen three different men in the dugout. In 2014-15 and 2019-20, there were four.

It appeared the hire-and-fire culture worked, as Watford spent six of seven seasons in the Premier League from 2015 to 2022. But they are not even a yo-yo club anymore. The string has snapped, the parachute payments from Premier League relegation have stopped, and that revolving door keeps on turning. Next!

Adam Leventhal

Bayern Munich (Bundesliga, Germany)

It is a mistake to think of the Bayern Munich job as a coaching role — it is much more than that.

The starting point for the record 34-time German champions is that anything less than a domestic double of trophies each season is seen as performing below par, with every unconvincing performance — even in victory — subject to inquest.

But then there is the rapacious Bavarian and national media, for whom negativity about Bayern is big business, and a dressing room always loaded with forthright personalities and egos.

The club’s elders, Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, present a separate challenge. Hoeness, the honorary president who played for Bayern from 1970 to 1979, rarely has an unspoken thought, especially about the standard of the team or the quality of coaching, meaning that plenty of scrutiny comes from inside the club, from seemingly unimpeachable figures.

A Bayern coach needs tremendous presence, but also the humility to know their place at certain times and when to be deferential. That is a balance few have found in the club’s modern history.

Seb Stafford-Bloor

LA Lakers/New York Knicks (NBA)

The hardest coaching job is one where expectations are high, patience is low and, sometimes, the view is irrational. In the NBA, that means the jobs at two high-profile teams on each coast.

The Los Angeles Lakers head coach lives under constant strain. Pressure is intensely high for a fanbase (and ownership) used to winning. The Lakers have won 17 NBA titles, the second-most in league history. They are not used to losing. Even winning the NBA Cup (a feat with a nebulous value) is not enough. Darvin Ham was fired in 2024, the year after making the conference finals and hanging a Cup banner.

The Lakers have had 11 coaches in the last 25 years but only one has lasted more than three seasons in the job: Phil Jackson (from 1999-2004 and 2005-2011). Even Frank Vogel was fired in 2022, two years after winning a title.

The New York Knicks head coach feels the pressure, too. There have been 15 of them since 2000. But that franchise has not won an NBA championship in 53 years. The owner is demanding and impatient, and success is only success on the right terms.

After two decades of ineptitude, Tom Thibodeau was fired last spring, despite leading the Knicks to their best finish in a quarter-century. Good luck to the new coach, and the one who replaces him.

Mike Vorkunov

Brazil (men’s international football)

There is an old cliche about the difficulty of coaching national teams in football. Clubs have big fanbases, sure, but they are splintered and spread around. When you manage a country, the number of people who think they can do a better job than you is roughly equal to the entire population.

In Brazil, that number is about 210million. Nearly all of them are obsessed with football. The older generations remember a time when the national team were the dominant force in the international game. The rest grew up hearing the tales and watching the videos — and many will still have seen one or two of the more recent World Cup wins (Brazil have lifted the game’s most prestigious title a record five times). It is understandable that expectation often curdles into entitlement.

What complicates things is a knot of competing dynamics. There are the zigzagging inferiority/superiority complexes when it comes to how Brazilian football compares to that played in Europe. There is the deathless debate around the compatibility — or otherwise — of winning and entertaining. There is also the fact that Brazil’s national self-image is so bound up with football.

The Brazil coach is not just picking 11 players and planning corner routines. He has to plot a course through all of that other stuff, all while loaded down by the weight of history. It is no great wonder most fail.

Jack Lang

Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL)

No NHL coaching job is quite like it.

A longest-in-league-history championship drought means bringing the Stanley Cup to Toronto would all but guarantee instant legendary status and a statue outside the arena. The problem? That same historic drought — and all the failures along the way — have added to the pressure and noise in hockey’s largest market.

Canada’s most populated city counts a fanbase that has only grown in the face of annual disappointment. The Maple Leafs, the NHL’s most valuable team, last won the Stanley Cup in 1967. There were just six teams in the league at the time. Today, there are 32.

Since Punch Imlach led the Leafs to that last championship, 21 other coaches have tried — and ultimately failed — to satisfy a starved fanbase. Despite the billions of dollars invested over the years into the team’s expensive roster, facilities, resources and staff, the Leafs have never won more than two playoff rounds in a single season in that time.

From 2005 to 2012, the Leafs did not even make the playoffs, adding to their sense of perennial heartbreak. Four coaches failed during that time. Two of them won the Stanley Cup elsewhere — giving weight to the notion that the Leafs might be cursed.

With 25 games remaining this season, the Leafs are in danger of missing the playoffs altogether for the first time in a decade. Craig Berube, a former Stanley Cup-winning coach who has been leading Toronto since 2024, is the latest person in the hot seat.

Joshua Kloke

Celtic/Rangers (Scottish Premiership)

Putting this season aside, the job of coaching one of Scotland’s big two could be naively regarded as a cakewalk. Historically, and certainly since the turn of the century, their budgets have dwarfed those of every other Scottish team. Your job, therefore, is to finish in front of the club over the road. Simple.

But in that respect, there is nowhere to hide. If you are Rangers and you wind up behind Celtic, you might as well have finished bottom. The same is true in reverse. To attend an Old Firm fixture, as the rivalry is known, is to understand the frenetic, vitriolic, passionate and sometimes poisonous world of football in Glasgow. It looks like easy street when it goes well. It is an untold nightmare if it goes badly.

And, very often, the fate of a coach is wholly dictated by the structure around them and above them. Strain at boardroom level filters down onto the pitch, affecting resources and the quality of performances.

You have seen that at Rangers for more than a decade. You are seeing it at Celtic now. Yes, Wilfried Nancy was a disaster of an appointment, sacked after 33 days in charge last month — but when were Celtic last set up to fail as they seem to be at present? It made Nancy’s job a hospital pass, regardless of whether the former Columbus Crew coach was ever the right fit.

With regards to Glasgow, Vince Lombardi was bang on: there is no room for second place. It is sink or swim from a manager’s first morning in post — and rather them than me.

Phil Hay

Fenerbahce (Super Lig, Turkey)

There is a phrase in Turkish football which roughly translates as “titles are won at the airport” — a reference to the big-name signings who are often greeted with frantic scenes when they get off the plane to finalise their deals.

The idea that new arrivals will inevitably mean success is an attitude shared by club presidents, too. The message to their coaches is “we’ve given you the stars, now win something”.

Which is part of the reason that coaching any of Istanbul’s big three clubs — Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas — is almost an impossible job. Plenty of cultures think of football as a form of religion, but there are not many cities that do so with such chaotic intensity as Istanbul.

Good luck to anyone in charge of any of them, but right now the biggest pressure is on Fenerbahce. Historically the most successful club in Turkey (they have won 28 Turkish titles to Galatasaray’s 26), they have not been champions since 2014, their longest-ever drought, and have had to watch Galatasaray demolish them for the last three seasons.

They are on their 11th different manager since that last success, and things are getting desperate: Jose Mourinho was sacked earlier this season and the man now in the hot seat is former Belgium manager Domenico Tedesco.

Nick Miller

Alabama (college football)

Kalen DeBoer took on maybe the greatest challenge in college football history two years ago by signing up to be the coach who replaced Nick Saban. Saban produced an unprecedented run of six national titles in 17 seasons at Alabama from 2007 to 2023.

Alabama fans became accustomed to ruling the sport under Saban. But it has historically set the standard at national championship for its football program, long predating Saban. Before him, coach Bear Bryant won six national championships with the football team during the 1960s and 1970s and their excellence stretches back almost a century — with their 30 Southeastern Conference football championships by far the most in the history of the storied league.

In the early to mid-1900s, a time in the United States when elite Northeast universities and large institutions in the Midwest often ruled the sport, Alabama was a Southern powerhouse and source of pride for much of the state, though in-state rival Auburn also commands similar support. That Iron Bowl rivalry is yet another aspect that makes the Alabama job so difficult. An otherwise successful season can be severely damaged or even ruined by a loss to Auburn in the regular-season finale.

There is a saying that college football is like a religion in the Deep South, as much a part of a fan’s identity as their faith. Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, capacity 100,077, is among college football’s largest and most hallowed cathedrals. Successful coaches at Alabama become legends. Coaches who fail to meet the lofty expectations, even respected alumni such as Ray Perkins, Mike DuBose and Mike Shula, are forever remembered for their shortcomings.

Ralph D. Russo

India (cricket)

India are international cricket’s sole powerhouse. Even if Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand can compete in terms of the talent of their first team, India have a much deeper overall pool. The country has a total population of more than 1.4billion.

Given the perceived player advantage they possess, the coach faces immense scrutiny from all corners in a country that views the sport as a religion and its stars as gods. No sport rivals cricket’s status and no celebrities rival cricketers’ popularity in India.

India wield immense financial firepower as a result and a considerable influence over cricket’s global body, the International Cricket Council. Jay Shah, the son of the nation’s home minister, is the council’s chairman.

Those elements also make the coach’s job a fairly thankless one as India are expected to — and arguably should — beat every team they face.

Anantaajith Raghuraman

What do you think the hardest coaching job in world sport is? Have your say below.

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