The Heroic Managers That Saved Their Football Clubs

The Heroic Managers That Saved Their Football Clubs

When you think of the greatest managers of all time, the same names tend to crop up in the conversation. Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, or a personal favourite of mine, Johan Cruyff.

In fact, I emplore you to think of any of the greats of management. What have almost all of them had in common? Financial backing.

Now that's all well and good, some of them have still achieved incredible feats of triumph and success on every stage imaginable, but what about those managers who excelled without quite so much money to fall back on?

Not necessarily those that beat the world with no resources, because that would be ridiculous, but the ones who oversaw wildly successful projects at an individual club, leaving them unrecognisable by the time they departed.

It's always a good habit to leave a place better than you found it, so here is a shortlist of some of our favourite examples of managers transforming a club on a limited budget, using only their tactical prowess and talent to ingrain within the side a winning culture.

Brian Clough – Derby County

Brian Clough is remembered as one of English football’s best managers and most memorable characters, and his time at Derby County was the birth of his illustrious career.

By the time he arrived at the Rams, they had been festering in the second division for a decade, and he wasted no time in enforcing his rule upon the club.

He sacked numerous members of staff, from scouts to tea ladies, in order to build the culture he wanted at the club, as well as laying the foundations of his soon-to-be successful side by allowing the departures of most of the players and overhauling the squad with signings.

A 22-game unbeaten run helped push the Rams over the line in 1968/69 as they won the second division, going on to finish ninth in their first year back in the top flight.

"He's like fundamentally, single-handedly, it feels like made this club from just a club to a great club."

Derby County head coach Paul Warne has paid tribute to the club's greatest ever manager, Brian Clough, 20 years on from his death.#DCFC pic.twitter.com/c7fAi44kGo

— BBC Sport Derby (@BBCDerbySport) September 20, 2024

The 1971/72 season concluded in dramatic fashion as Derby won their final match to establish a one point lead at the top of the table, only for both Leeds and Liverpool to drop points and allow Derby to win the title.

This was their first Division One title in their 88-year history, also marking their first major piece of silverware since 1946.

Clough had, as if by magic, transitioned every fibre of Derby’s being into a club of winners, causing the stagnation they had experienced in the second division to feel as though it were a memory left long behind.

Things turned pretty sour in the following years, as Clough’s outspoken nature became more of an issue with the board than ever before, not to mention his new-found tendency to break British transfer records without approval from those above him.

He departed on terms that were about as bad as they could get, leading the fans to call for his reinstatement and the board’s resignation, neither of which ever happened.

He went on to experience sensational success with Nottingham Forest, which placed him firmly into the list of best British managers ever, but it was the excellent job he did at Derby that put Brian Clough on the map.

Mark Robins – Coventry City

Following successful periods at Rotherham and Barnsley, Mark Robins was brought in to lead Coventry on a three-year contract.

He lasted five months in the role before embarking for Yorkshire to manage Huddersfield. Now that would make for a really boring story, so let’s jump to March 2017, when Robins returned to the Sky Blues to find them in the depths of League Two.

His first silverware with Coventry came just over a month later, when they returned to the East Midlands from Wembley with the EFL Trophy.

Robins’ first full season in charge was one that put him in the history books for Cov and further won the adoration of the fans, when he led the side to sixth in League Two before winning the play-off final, confirming their first promotion in an astounding 51 years.

In 2019/20, Coventry unleashed an unprecedented domination on League One, losing only three games across the entire season and, obviously with a record like that, winning the league.

Finishing 16th in their first Championship season in nine years was a promising start, and their final league positions only improved in the years following – the next season they worked their way up to 10th, before a remarkable 2022/23.

By this point, Coventry had become a fierce Championship competitor and were quickly accelerating ahead of mid-table sides that looked to have plateaued in comparison.

May 2023 was a time of jubilation as they reached the play-offs in fifth place, an outstanding achievement given the years of instability the club was fighting off the pitch.

Disastrous mismanagement from their ownership meant that, across the 2010s, Coventry were hit with points deductions and, for a time, didn’t even have their own stadium as a result of issues over the rent.

It's fitting that Stoke play Coventry on the anniversary of Mark Robins sacking.

The most important figure in Coventry's recent history, Robins took them from League Two to the edge of the Premier League in five years.

Despite having to play home games in Birmingham and… pic.twitter.com/rEZ9YOLNUk

— Second Tier podcast (@secondtierpod) November 7, 2025

As they became flirtatious with the Premier League, defeating Middlesbrough in the semi-finals of the play-offs, they entered into a final that the neutral adored – they faced Luton Town, another side who were drastically overachieving following their own belligerent ownership and rebuilding process.

Going the full distance wasn’t meant to be for Robins and Coventry, as they failed to gain promotion to the top flight and, despite an unbelievable FA Cup run the following season that saw them narrowly defeated in the semis (I still can’t believe how hard-done by they were), the manager’s contract was terminated in November 2024 after a slow start to the season.

When you consider how impressive Coventry now look under Frank Lampard, it is clear just how revolutionary Mark Robins was for the Sky Blues in turning them from League Two relegation fodder into a Championship force to be reckoned with.

Frank Schmift – Heidenheim

Steven Gerrard, Francesco Totti, Paul Scholes, you can all take the backseat. I don’t think you’ll find anybody as devoted to one club as Frank Schmidt has been to Heidenheim.

Retiring as the club captain in 2007, he made his return to the side within a few months as interim head coach with the side in the fifth tier of German football.

The story that follows is one of football’s great fairytales.

Schmidt’s first two years in charge ended with back-to-back promotions, ascending the side into the third tier, where they would only remain for another two seasons.

By 2014, Schmidt had taken Heidenheim, a town with a population of 58,000 (less than the amount of people you can seat in the Emirates Stadium), to 2.Bundesliga, where they were expected to crumble and fall back away.

They spent the next few years steadying the ship, as such a meteoric rise had the very real potential of turning into just as hard a fall, so focused on establishing themselves as a mainstay in the division.

By spending time solidifying in the second division, Heidenheim built a stronger foundation to be able to push on from, investing money the likes of which they had never seen into facilities around the club and an exciting scouting network.

2023 came around and they saw off all competition, winning the league title and hurling themselves into the Bundesliga for the first time.

🚨🇩🇪 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 | Heidenheim will STAY in the Bundesliga! They won their play-off match against Elversberg. ✅

Frank Schmidt has been Heidenheim's manager for 18 YEARS — he took them from the 5th division all the way to the Bundesliga.

The journey continues! 👏 pic.twitter.com/sbUJjruBf0

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) May 26, 2025

But the story doesn’t end there.

After just one season in the pinnacle of German football, Heidenheim qualified for European football in the Conference League, where they went on to host comparative behemoths Chelsea in the group stages.

In 17 years of leading the club of the town he was born and raised in, Frank Schmidt achieved what is perhaps the single greatest transformation of a club by a manager, as well as breaking the record for the longest consecutive managerial stint in German football history.

From captaining your hometown club, to literally taking them from the 5th tier to European football.

Heidenheim's story is magic and so is Frank Schmidt's.

The tale continues for the German club... pic.twitter.com/i8E3ClhcHg

— FootballWeb (@footballwebx) November 8, 2024

Admittedly, they’ve had a difficult start to this season and are gasping for air at the foot of the table, but more than enough miracles have already happened in Heidenheim, what’s one more to keep them in the Bundesliga?

Eddie Howe – Bournemouth

New Years Eve, 2008. Bournemouth are in the relegation zone in League Two and are staring down the barrel of liquidation. Eddie Howe, a player who has made more than 250 appearances for the side, becomes interim manager, and he has quite the task on his hands to help his team survive.

As a result of their financial woes, the Cherries started the season on -17 points, which left them almost destined for relegation out of the football league and into the jaws of the Conference, which is notoriously difficult to get back out of.

By some miracle, Howe leads Bournemouth to safety on the final day after winning all of their final three games of the season.

Fast-forward one year and he takes them up to second. Doomed for the drop turned into a promotion party after his first full season in charge as they rise to League One for the 2010/11 season.

Come January of that season, Bournemouth are in the League One play-offs, but Howe can’t resist the appeal of a job in the Championship, and departs for Burnley.

The move didn’t quite work out.

18 months after his switch to Lancashire, he makes a return to Bournemouth in the opening months of 2012/13, earning his second promotion with the side as they arrive in the Championship.

Finishing 10th in their first season, Howe appeared to have enacted a miracle in 2015 as they conquer Watford on the final day to win the Championship title, bringing Bournemouth into the top flight for the first time in their history.

Eddie Howe at Bournemouth:

May '10: Promoted
May '13: Promoted
May '15: Promoted
May '16: 16th in PL
May '17: Record PL point total#AFCB pic.twitter.com/3q30cZIuGZ

— bet365 (@bet365) May 13, 2017

The Cherries spent five years in the Premier League under Howe, finishing as high as ninth and establishing themselves as a giant killer.

Unfortunately, they suffered relegation in 2020 during Covid-19, causing Howe to leave the club after 25 years as a player and manager, feeling it was "the right time for the club to have a change".

Harry Redknapp, the iconic ex-Premier League manager, sang Howe’s praises for his time at Bournemouth, saying; “The job he has done has been incredible.

"He took a club struggling into the championship - which was a miracle - and then into the Premier, which I thought was impossible to do.

"Then for five years he had us playing incredible football, beating everybody at different times - it has been amazing”.

From the clutches of falling out of professional football to the top half of the Premier League within less than a decade, Eddie Howe established himself as a hero for Bournemouth, who still benefit now from the foundations he placed.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Happy birthday to Eddie Howe, the man who took Bournemouth from 23rd in League Two to the Premier League and the man who took Newcastle from the relegation zone to the Champions League. 👏❤️ pic.twitter.com/M8pXQ50cIg

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) November 29, 2024

Howe has since seen success at Newcastle, bringing a major trophy to the Geordies for the first time in 56 years.