Up & Coming Managers
Two separate boards. Next-gen elite covers coaches already delivering at the top of a major league. Up & coming covers managers with a genuine upward curve but a shorter or lower-level sample, where ratings are provisional and move quickly.
Season: 2026/27Updated: 21 August 2026
Aged 47 or under, already established in a major league, with a GafferScore of 80 or higher and a defined, repeatable model.
A relegation with a possession model that refused to bend, followed by a title-level side built on the same principles — the rare coach who was proved right afterwards.
Possession4-2-3-1Took a 4-2-2-2 built for Austrian transition football into a Premier League rebuild and made the counter-press the team's defining habit.
High Press4-2-2-2A young coach who rebuilt a club's structure before its results, and now runs one of the most detailed set-piece and rest-defence programmes in the game.
Possession4-3-3Won a league title with a club that had never done it, using a back three that changed shape depending on which side the ball was on.
Possession3-4-2-1Kept an extreme man-to-man press through a bad start, refused to compromise, and turned the same squad into one of the hardest teams in the league to play against.
High Press4-2-3-1Learned the job in a second-tier rebuild rather than being handed an elite dugout, and came back with a build-up structure the club had been missing.
Build-Up Focus4-2-3-1A promotion and a title-winning positional model, built on the most extreme full-back inversion of any manager in the league.
Possession4-3-3Made the deliberate pause — a defender standing on the ball, daring the press — into a coaching idea other managers now copy.
Build-Up Focus4-2-3-1
Aged 40 or under with a clear upward trajectory but a shorter or lower-level sample. Ratings are provisional and expected to move quickly.
The youngest manager in the division, and the only one asking a mid-table squad to defend a halfway-line offside trap every week.
High Press4-2-3-140 and already managing in the EFL Championship, a defined possession identity built on 4-2-3-1.
Possession4-2-3-140 and already managing in the EFL Championship, a defined youth development identity built on 4-3-3.
Youth Development4-3-3
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