10 famous managerial rivalries in football

Managers from opposing camps clash for a variety of reasons – footballing ideology sometimes being the least of them. Successful managers usually have huge egos, and when one successful manager is pitted against another, sparks are sure to fly. There is also a standing dispute between coaches who have learnt their trade as former players, and coaches who have picked up their tactical acumen from coaching institutes.Coaches also often engage in stunts that are meant to intimidate the opposition or take away the heat from their players who might be in trouble. As many have said of legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson, players like to play for coaches who are boisterous and give tall speeches because they then feel they are part of a larger cause; a coach’s confrontational attitude rubs off on his players.Here, we take a look at 10 of the most incident-filled managerial showdowns in modern football, in no particular order. The verdict passed is not a reflection of the results the rivals have enjoyed over each other, but rather a subjective reading of who has come out with the upper hand in terms of psychological dynamics.

#1 Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger

Manchester United and Arsenal were the two best English clubs during the 1990s and until Chelsea arrived as a powerhouse, and the managers of the two teams shared an accordingly acrimonious relationship. Sir Alex Ferguson was the more senior of the two, and he greeted Wenger to the Premier League job with these words – “They say he’s an intelligent man, right? Speaks five languages. I’ve got a 15-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast who speaks five languages.”

Wenger complained that fixtures were drawn up to favour the Manchester team and refused to shake his rival’s hand in the years in between, but finally got the upper hand over Sir Alex in 2002. After Arsenal completed a season double over United, Sir Alex called them over-physical ‘scrappers’, to which Wenger retorted – “Everyone thinks they have the prettiest wife at home”.

Sir Alex continued in his attempts to draw his rival into further psychological battles, but Wenger looked to have got the measure of his opponent by the time he made this statement in 2005 – “He has lost all sense of reality. He is going out looking for a confrontation, then asking the person he is confronting to apologise.”

The two have since been seen being more amiable during public appearances, suggesting they have called their confrontation to a draw. Besides, newer adversaries required attention, who had arrived threatening to knock both of them off their perches.

Verdict: Tie