It would be churlish to deny that he is up there, and given his longevity and sheer list of medals, it is difficult to think of another manager in history who has been so resilient, so adaptable and capable of surviving to fight another day.
12 league titles, two European Cups, countless FA and League Cups. All achieved with a glorious attacking style, and some of the best players to grace the Premier League – Eric Cantona, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs. And Cristiano Ronaldo, perhaps the best of all. And also done with the regeneration of a team several times over.
The only other manager who can come close is surely Albert Batteux, the Frenchman who coached two Stade Reims during their dominant period in French football in the 1950s, and a time when they got to two European Cup finals, only being denied success by the all conquering Real Madrid team of the time.
He was also the first coach of a great France team; though one which like his club teams, fell just short at the top level. He managed the side in the 1958 World Cup, where Just Fontaine scored 13 times, setting a record beaten by Ronaldo in 2002, albeit achieved in more games. The golden generation of the 1950s also reached the semi finals of the 1960 European Championships, but were surprisingly beaten by Yugoslavia in the semi-finals.
Batteux then moved onto St. Etienne, who replaced Reims as the dominant team of the time in France whilst he was there. They too, reached the European Cup final, this time beaten by the new force in Europe, Bayern Munich, who had just replaced the legendary Ajax team of the 1970s. Though he had been replaced by Robert Herbin by then, Batteux in total dominated French football for two decades with two different teams. And considering that Marseille’s 1993 European Cup title was later stripped for cheating, Batteux came closer than anyone else to lifting Europe’s most prestigious cup with a French team, and the St. Etienne team he built were just two shots which hit the woodwork away from lifting the crown. But Batteux’s sides fell agonisingly short at the final hurdle, something Ferguson’s have not. His contribution to football is up there though, with the very greatest.
Michels was the Ajax coach who led that team during their first two of three successive European Cup triumphs of the 1970s, and more importantly, developed the concept of total football. Though as he explained later, it was more of an accident than by design, it was his Ajax side which developed a system whereby they constantly swapped positions, narrowed the pitch and squeezed the opposition when without the ball, and then when they won it back, passed it at pace, stretching and opening up the pitch to create space.
That Ajax team was about the creation and manipulation of space, and no team has arguably done it as well until the Barcelona team of recent years. In terms of medals won, Michels comes second to many, including Ferguson. But Michels’ legacy was far wider reaching. That Ajax team, of Ruud Krol, Johan Neeskens, Johnny Rep, formed the majority of the Holland team of the 1970s.
That Holland team, based as it was on Ajax, played in the same style, that of Michels’ total football. They wowed the world with their play at the 1974 World Cup, beating Brazil in the semi-final. Let us not forget that Brazil had won the competition four years earlier, 4-1 against Italy in Mexico, with Carlos Alberto’s famous fourth goal. That Brazil team was, and still is revered. And Holland destroyed them. Not only did they completely outplay Brazil, but they fundamentally changed the way Brazil played.
Brazil’s philosophy fundamentally changed after that game, as they concluded that their skill was not enough against the Europeans anymore. This Holland team were a match for anyone technically, but crucially, their pressing and squeezing of space was a physical challenge Brazil just could not cope with. It lead to the systematic change where Brazil looked for and fast tracked bigger, taller, stronger players, a trend which has seen the South Americans win just two World Cups in almost forty years, when they had previously won three in twelve. It is only now that Mano Menezes is trying to revert to the old Brazilian style.
That Holland team lost the final of the 1974 World Cup, but they are remembered far more than the team they were beaten by, Germany. And that is because they largely beat themselves. One nil up without Germany having even kicked the ball, they lulled themselves into complacency with 25 minutes of utter dominance. The Germans could not get a kick in. And then they won a penalty. The rest was history.
But that Holland team left an indelible mark on a generation, as did Ajax. And as did one player in particular, Johan Cruyff, the heart of those teams. Cruyff is another contender for the greatest manager of all time.
Consider what he has done. Cruyff played for Barcelona after leaving Ajax, before returning as a coach, leading the club to a record four successive titles. The Dutchman created the dream team with the likes of Romario and Hristo Stoichkov that was the stand out team of the 1990s until AC Milan and Ajax won successive European Cups in style.
Consider the three teams who have achieved the remarkable feat of going through a season unbeaten in the modern era. Ajax, AC Milan and Arsenal. Ajax were coached by Louis van Gaal, and Arsenal by Arsene Wenger; both disciples of the ideas of total football, pressing hard and passing the ball at pace to find the man in space. The AC Milan team of 1994 may have been coached by Fabio Capello, but it was the team put together and created by Arrigo Sacchi, whose ideas were also heavily borrowed from Michels, and whose team was the last to retain successive European Cups.
But back to Cruyff. He has been integral to Barcelona winning their four European Cups. The first was won under his management, at Wembley in 1992 against Sampdoria. But it was his captain, Pep Guardiola, and his concept, La Masia, which set in place a sequence of events which have led to the Barcelona/Spain domination of the present day, the axis which is the 21st century version of the Ajax/Holland era of the 20th.
La Masia of course, is where players have been trained for the last twenty years to play in the Ajax way, passing and moving, creating space, keeping possession, and pressing hard. Guardiola’s team may play wonderful football, but he is absolutely meticulous about making sure his team press high up the pitch and aggressively, squeezing the pitch to make it as small as possible out of possession, as Ajax and Holland did when Cruyff played. Barcelona now play in the style implemented in the 1990s by Cruyff, which has created Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Leo Messi and countless others since the Dutchman left his post in 1994. And this Barcelona team are the essence of the Spain side, who play in the image of the Catalans.
The Catalans of course, play in the image of Cruyff, and Cruyff played in the image of Michels.
Ferguson will rightly go down as a legend of all time, but surely none can trump Michels. The Dutchman’s influence on the game has been greater than that of any other coach. He created one of the greatest sides ever to play the game, possibly the greatest, and then influenced most of the other great teams of the years since. Holland, AC Milan of the late 1980s, Barcelona of the early 1990s and late 2000s, Holland of the 1970s, the current Spain side.
Football has been priveliged to have had the likes of Ferguson, Cruyff, and Albert Batteux. But none comes close to the remarkable and continual impact that Michels continues to exert over the game.
