2, Sir Alex Ferguson / Arsene Wenger

** Ferguson’s combat with Wenger was the most enduring of all his duels, beyond skirmishes with Kenny Dalglish, Kevin Keegan and Rafa Benitez. The two men were poles apart: one the pugnacious Scottish product of the Govan shipyards, the other a French footballing sophisticate. Wenger arrived in 1996, months after Ferguson’s United had achieved a second league and FA Cup double. Their rivalry endured for 17 years until Ferguson’s retirement in 2013. The trophies tally in that time ran 23-11 in Ferguson’s favour. Ferguson used his weekly pre-match press briefing to indulge in his so-called “mind games”, needling Wenger about Arsenal’s “arrogance” and disciplinary record. His greatest achievement remains the treble of Champions and Premier Leagues and FA Cup in 1999. Wenger secured his own place in history by guiding Arsenal unbeaten through the Invincibles campaign of 2003–04. The 49-match sequence ended explosively at Old Trafford in October 2004 when Ferguson, amid angry clashes in the tunnel, was struck by a pizza thrown from inside the Arsenal dressing room. Years later, in April 2018, Wenger was afforded a standing ovation on his last game at Old Trafford and was presented by long-retired Ferguson with an engraved silver vase.

3, Don Revie / Brian Clough

** The tone of the 1970s rivalry between Clough and Revie was captured by David Peace in The Damned United and Mike Hooper’s subsequent film. Yet the rivals had much in common. Both were born in Middlesbrough, both were England forwards in the 1950s who played at different times for Sunderland. Revie launched into management in 1961 with Leeds who he converted from Second Division mediocrity to a power in the land and beyond. Yet Billy Bremner, Johnny Giles, Norman Hunter, Jack Charlton and Co won only six major trophies for Revie with football mixing the superb and the ruthless. Similarly Clough resurrected Derby but with far more flamboyance. He was one of the first TV-personality managers never shy of a controversial opinion. A persistent critic of Leeds’ methods, Clough was surprisingly appointed their manager when Revie left for England in 1974. Clough angered his already-antagonistic new team by telling them: ““The first thing you can do for me is throw your medals in the bin because you’ve never won anything fairly.” He lasted only 44 days before rebounding to win two Champions Cup with Nottingham Forest. Revie, by contrast, quit a collapsing World Cup campaign for lucrative exile in Dubai.

4, Cesar Luis Menotti / Carlos Bilardo

** Argentina’s first two World Cup-winning coaches saw football very differently. Menotti guided Argentina to hosting success in the controversial finals of 1978 and left after the second round exit in Spain four years later. Menotti demanded aggressive positivity from his team but it was aggression which was paramount for Bilardo, who succeeded him. Bilardo had ‘form’ as a member of the notoriously cynical Estudiantes de La Plata team of the late 1960s. He was the older by seven months so their careers were concurrent. They met only once as players, in a 2-2 draw between Boca Juniors and Estudiantes in 1965. They first clashed as coaches eight years later when Menotti was a championship winner with Huracan while Bilardo was saving Estudiantes from relegation. Bilardo’s success in the Metropolitano with Estudiantes in 1982 made him Menotti’s obvious successor. The two had reportedly agreed not to criticise the other but the next year Bilardo was upset to learn that Menotti had criticised the team after a friendly with Valladolid. Bilardo called Menotti “a turnip, red on the outside and white inside.” He had the last laugh in 1986 when his Diego Maradona-inspired team regained the World Cup. Bilardo lasted four more years until quitting after defeat by Germany in the 1990 final.

5, Arrigo Sacchi / Fabio Capello

** Sacchi appeared an almost impossible act for Capello to follow at Milan when he left for the Italy job in 1991. Yet Capello would prove equally if not more successful. President Silvio Berlusconi appointed Sacchi in 1987 after his Serie B outfit Parma had beaten Milan in the Coppa Italia. Sacchi revolutionised Calcio with his zonal defence and attacking power generated by the acquisition of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard to complement Italy sweeper Franco Baresi and playmaker Carlo Ancelotti. Sacchi’s Milan won two World Club Cups, two Champions Leagues, two UEFA Super Cups, Serie A and the domestic Supercoppa. In 1991 Berlusconi promoted Sacchi’s assistant Capello, former Italy, Juventus, Milan and Roma midfielder, to the top job. The task appeared a poisoned chalice. Yet Capello was undaunted. Milan, under the new Mister, won nine major trophies in five seasons at home and abroad. These included the magisterial 4-0 destruction of Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona in Athens in 1994. Capello said: “It was easy for me to go into the dressing room and tell them: ‘Arrigo says you’ve already reached the top, that many of you should have been sold. So let’s go out prove this isn’t the case.’”

6, Pep Guardiola / Jurgen Klopp

** The duel between Guardiola and Klopp defined an English football era. Klopp landed at Liverpool in October 2015 and Guardiola at Manchester City the next year. By the time Klopp bowed out, in 2024, the pair’s teams had amassed the four highest points totals in Premier history. Guardiola, however, proved supreme in terms of major domestic and international trophies by 15-7. Notably Guardiola led City to six Premier titles, including a unique quartet between 2021 and 2024. Klopp, for all the excitement generated by his whirlwind football, paraded the league trophy only in 2020. The pair were temperamental and stylistic opposites. Guardiola adapted to English football demands the cerebral approach with which his Barcelona and Bayern Munich had lorded it over Spain and Germany. He kept on winning whether deploying a ‘false No9’ or traditional attack leader such as Erling Haaland. By contrast Klopp, a perfect fit at Anfield, imported Gegenpressing which took even the physical intensity of English football to a new level. Mostly they maintained a high level of mutual respect. Guardiola said Klopp had forced him to become a better manager while Klopp hailed his rival as “the best manager in the world.”

7, Alf Ramsey / Helmut Schon

** Ramsey and Schon were international footballers but their reputations have been sealed by their national team managerial confrontations. Both stepped up in the year after the 1962 World Cup in succession to Walter Winterbottom and Sepp Herberger. Schon had never coached at senior club level while Ramsey earned his promotion by guiding Ipswich to the 1962 league title. They met twice in friendlies before the 1966 World Cup, England winning 1-0 in Nurnberg in 1965 and at Wembley nine months later. A Wembley repeat brought England’s 4-2 extra-time fulfilment of Ramsey’s forecast at the start of his reign. Four years later, however, Ramsey’s misjudged substitutions led to a 3-2 extra-time defeat in the quarter-finals in Mexico. Schon rebuilt his team for the next European qualifiers but Ramsey merely tinkered at the edges and West Germany won 3-1 at Wembley in a quarter-final first leg. A grim 0-0 draw in the Berlin return marked the beginning of Ramsey’s long goodbye. Schon’s West Germany, built around the creativity of Franz Beckenbauer and goals of Gerd Muller, won both the 1972 European title and 1974 World Cup. England failed even to reach the finals – by which time Ramsey had been sacked.

8, Helenio Herrera / Miguel Munoz

** The late 1950s and early 1960s saw a seesaw struggle at both Spanish and then European level between the charismatic, cosmopolitan Herrera and the Madridista Munoz. Herrera was a French international fullback who has been born in Morocco and raised in Argentina. Munoz scored Real Madrid’s first goal in European competition and captained them to victory in the first two European Cup finals. On retirement he was appointed coached of nursery club Plus Ultra. In April 1960 Herrera’s Barcelona were setting the Spanish league pace when they were drawn against holders Madrid in the European Cup semi-finals. Barcelona were favourites, especially one week before the first leg when Madrid sacked coach Fleitas Solich and handed Munoz his first major appointment. Munoz’s revived Madrid won 3-1 both home and away, prompting Herrera’s dismissal by their Catalan rivals. He quit Spain for Italy and Internazionale with whom he avenged his 1960 beating by Munoz’s men in the 1964 European Cup final. Two more years and Munoz had his own revenge, this time in the semi-finals. Herrera ended his career with 16 major trophies compared with Munoz’s 14. Both had spells as coach of Spain whom Munoz led to runners-up at Euro 1984.

9, Louis van Gaal / Ronald Koeman

** Dutch superstars never shy away from butting heads as Van Gaal and Koeman have proved. Van Gaal’s domestic and international success at Ajax in the 1990s rekindled a Barcelona obsession with Dutch football dating back to Johan Cruyff in the 1970s. Barcelona had later won their first Champions Cup under Cruyff in 1989 when the winner against Sampdoria was thumped home by Koeman. Hence it appeared a match made in football heaven when Van Gaal brought Koeman back to the club as assistant. They won LaLiga in 1999 but it all fell apart a year later. Koeman returned home with Vitesse Arnhem then guided Ajax to the domestic double in 2002. However Van Gaal was appointed technical director in 2004 and upset his one-time protégé by interfering in coaching then selling star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Juventus over Koeman’s head. An open war of words between the pair made their departures inevitable. Koeman won the league with PSV and then the Spanish cup with Valencia while Van Gaal won the league with AZ before leading Bayern Munich to the German double. Their antagonism cooled in the national interest after Koeman took on Feyenoord before Van Gaal led Netherlands to third place at the 2014 World Cup.

10, Fabio Capello / Carlo Ancelotti

** Capello and Ancelotti, generous later in mutual praise, began badly. Ancelotti was Milan’s playmaker when Capello was promoted to succeed Arrigo Sacchi in 1991. Capello thought Ancelotti too old at 32 and injury prone and, while winning Serie A undefeated, replaced him with Demetrio Albertini. Later Ancelotti complained that communication between them had been difficult. Capello achieved further success in world, European and Italian competition as Ancelotti launched his own career. While Ancelotti has remained loyal to club football, Capello’s career faded out amid ultimately disappointing national team stints with England and Russia. His coaching career tally added up to 15 major trophies. These included two Spanish leagues title in separate spells with Real Madrid. Later Ancelotti would emulate him at the Bernabeu. Ancelotti’s record boasts 30 major trophies in Italy, England, France, Germany and Spain. Most notably his two spells with Madrid have included a record five Champions League triumphs. Any ill feeling between the men has long since faded. Two years ago Capello, after Madrid delivered Ancelotti’s 100^th away win the Champions League, described him as “the greatest Italian coach of all time.”