Xabi Alonso, Pep Guardiola and the 21 best managerial jobs from around Europe in the 2023-24 season - ranked

Mainz seemed completely doomed when Bo Henriksen was appointed in January, with the club nine points from safety in the Bundesliga. However, the Dane masterminded a stunning turnaround off the back of a Harry Kane-inspired 8-1 walloping by Bayern Munich, as Die Nullfunfer went nine games unbeaten to finish the season two points clear of the relegation play-off place.

The domestic season was a thoroughly uninspiring one for Dortmund and Edin Terzic, with BVB finishing fifth in the Bundesliga, a whopping 27 points behind German champions Bayer Leverkusen, and exiting the DFB-Pokal at the round-of-16 stage. However, despite all of that, Terzic finds himself on the cusp of history with one game left to play this season: the Champions League final against Real Madrid on Saturday.

The young coach has overseen an impressive European campaign, with the underdogs' semi-final defeat of Paris Saint-Germain particularly eye-catching- a result that incidentally helped to secure Champions League qualification next season as the UEFA coefficient handed the Bundesliga a fifth spot.

Bigger things beckon for Arne Slot, who is on his way to the Premier League to replace Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, but he bid farewell to Feyenoord by delivering more silverware and another memorable campaign in Rotterdam. Although he was not able to retain the Eredivisie title he claimed in 2023, Slot guided Feyenoord to a Dutch Cup triumph and they were PSV's closest challengers in the league, finishing second to qualify for the Champions League.

Ultimately it was a case of what could have been for Klopp and Liverpool, as a challenge for a potential quadruple in what would become the German's final season at the club eventually evaporated. Still, it was a season to remember as a rebuilt Reds side recovered from a rough 2022-23 campaign to play their part in a scintillating Premier League title race against Manchester City and Arsenal, only falling away at the death.

A third-place finish was commendable, and they still collected some silverware along the way in the form of the Carabao Cup. Klopp will be deeply missed at Anfield, in the Premier League and beyond.

It's official: Arsenal are a big club once against. Although they weren't able to land any silverware in 2023-24, the Gunners were able to prove that last season's Premier League title challenge was no fluke as Mikel Arteta and his side pushed Man City even further this time around, taking the race to the final day.

Finishing two points behind the City juggernaut is no mean feat, and Arsenal were only one point shy of the famed Invincibles' total 20 years prior. Their return to the Champions League was fairly impressive too, although the Spaniard will be frustrated that he couldn't overcome Thomas Tuchel's Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals.

It's difficult overstate just how well Heidenheim have done this season under Frank Schmidt - the longest-serving manager in German football history.

Promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time ever after snatching the second-tier title on the final day of 2022-23, they were widely expected to drop straight back down to the 2. Bundesliga. Instead, they defied expectation throughout a remarkable season and were never under threat of relegation, finishing in the heady heights of eighth place to earn a place in next season's Conference League.

Suddenly the most sought-after manager in English football, Kieran McKenna has made history by guiding Ipswich Town to back-to-back promotions and ending the club's 22-year wait to return to the Premier League.

The Tractor Boys finished just one point shy of champions Leicester City, with their dominant, ball-playing approach earning the team and its manager plenty of admirers along the way. However, McKenna's reputation has burgeoned to the extent Ipswich have had to fight to have him lead them into their new Premier League era, amid interest from Chelsea, Brighton and Manchester United.

Although they were aided by Ajax's capitulation elsewhere, PSV impressively topped Slot's Feyenoord to claim a first Eredivisie title in six long years in Peter Bosz's first season with the Dutch giants, losing just one match along the way.

Veteran former Barcelona and Sevilla frontman Luuk de Jong had a huge say in their success, scoring a ridiculous 38 goals in all competitions and assisting some 18 more. The striker also became the Rood-witten's all-time top goal-scorer in the Champions League as Bosz guided them to the knockout rounds for the first time in eight years.

It was always going to be a question of where and not if Pep Guardiola would feature on this list. In the Catalan's relentless pursuit of perfection, Man City were unable to repeat their treble feat of 2022-23, where they dominated both domestically and in Europe. It looked for some time like they would be able to replicate their exploits, but they will have to settle for a simple Premier League title this time around after coming up short against Champions League experts Real Madrid in the quarter-finals and losing to Manchester rivals United in the FA Cup final.

City were arguably not at their best for long periods of the campaign, but the fact they were able to recover and build the momentum to retain their league crown - a historic fourth in a row - is testament to the manager.

Club Brugge are no strangers to winning the Belgian Pro League, but 2023-24 will go down as one of the most unlikely titles in their history under Nicky Hayen, whose last senior managerial role came at Welsh minnows Haverfordwest County.

Hayen was promoted from his role as Under-23s coach to replace the axed Ronny Delia at the end of the regular season in March, with Brugge finishing fifth - 19 points behind leaders Union Saint-Gilloise. However, in the Championship round, the Blauw-Zwart remained unbeaten in 10 games - winning seven - to claim the trophy.

Hayen also guided Brugge to the semi-finals of the Conference League, where they suffered a narrow defeat to Fiorentina.

Unai Emery has seemed hell-bent on proving a point with Aston Villa in the Premier League after his failed spell at Arsenal, and he cranked things up several notches in 2023-24. Powered by a breathless brand of attacking football, personified by 27-goal top-scorer Olly Watkins, the former European Cup winners have reached Europe's elite club competition for the first time in 41 years, qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in their history.

Emery has had a truly transformative effect, and none of Europe's elite will relish visiting Villa Park next season. The Villans arguably should have been fighting for European silverware this season, too, but they were stunned in the Conference League semi-finals by Olympiacos.

Girona did their utmost to disrupt the established order in Spain this season, grappling with big hitters Real Madrid and Barcelona the whole way before eventually being forced to settle for third place in La Liga, above Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid. Michel's side even topped the table for long periods, but ultimately fell a little short as Real opened up an unassailable lead late in the campaign.

Nevertheless, the manager deserves huge credit for guiding the relative minnows - who form part of the City Football Group - to the Champions League for the first time in the club's history with a versatile and exciting squad.

Is Simone Inzaghi Europe's most underrated manager?! The Italian surely now deserves his flowers after claiming the first Scudetto of his managerial career in 2023-24, and doing so at a canter. Inter finished the season 19 points ahead of their nearest challengers, city rivals AC Milan, and left the rest in their dust on the way to a first Serie A crown since 2021. The title win was made all the more sweet as they confirmed it with victory over Milan way back in April.

After reaching the final last season, their Champions League campaign was less impressive this year as they were dumped out in the last 16 by Atletico Madrid, but the Scudetto will more than make up for that.

Ruben Amorim has done it again. Having ended Sporting CP's long, long wait for a league title in 2021, he has guided the club to a second in three years, despite working on a far smaller budget than main domestic challengers Benfica and Porto.

Amorim oversaw just two league defeats all season as Sporting finished the campaign with a 10-point cushion to Lisbon rivals Benfica in the league, thanks in no small part to 43-goal former Coventry City striker Viktor Gyokeres. They will do well to keep hold of the frontman and his manager this summer, however, with some of Europe's leading clubs said to be circling for two men who may have outgrown the Primeira Liga.

There was a trend of relatively lesser clubs disrupting the established order across Europe in 2023-24, and Thiago Motta's impressive Bologna side were Italy's agitators as they breached the top six and ultimately ended a 60-year absence from Europe's premier club competition, catching the eye with their possession-based, high-risk style and solid defence.

A fifth-place Serie A finish was enough to secure a place in the Champions League for the first time ever thanks to the performance of Italian sides in Europe this season. Sadly, though, Motta won't be sticking around to guide them on their journey after Juventus came a-calling.

You might be wondering who Christian Ilzer is, and that's fair enough. The answer to that question is that he is the manager who has finally loosened Red Bull Salzburg's vice-like grip on the Austrian Bundesliga. For the first time in 10 years, Austria has a new champion: Sturm Graz.

It's the club's first title in 13 years and only their second since 1999, triumphing despite the financial might of Red Bull-owned Salzburg. It went to the final day, with Sturm tasting victory and securing a place in the Champions League group stage for the first time since 2000-01 to go with the Austrian Cup they secured in early May.

The Bundesliga's status quo was well and truly shaken up in 2023-24, but while Bayer Leverkusen grabbed the headlines, Stuttgart were major disrupters, too. Under Sebastian Hoeness, the Schwabenmetropole were the best of the rest behind runaway winners Leverkusen, remarkably finishing above the likes of Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig just 12 months on from competing in the promotion-relegation play-off game at the end of 2022-23.

Second place was emphatically secured with a 4-0 win over Borussia Monchengladbach on the final day as Bayern lost elsewhere. They are now set to return to the Champions League for the first time in 15 years.

It was Brest who shook things up in Ligue 1 this season, under the tutelage of a manager who had been overlooked by French clubs for the best part of a decade in Eric Roy. Having kept Les Pirates in the top flight in 2022-23, he quite incredibly guided them to third place and Champions League qualification in his second season in charge, despite the limited resources at his disposal, deploying a simple and direct style of play.

The club has never even played in Europe, let alone the Champions League, and Roy unsurprisingly scooped the Ligue 1 Manager of the Season award ahead of Paris Saint-Germain's title-winning coach Luis Enrique.

It finally feels as though Gian Piero Gasperini has earned his flowers after securing the first trophy of a storied career with the Atalanta side that he has taken right to the top of the European game. Their Europa League triumph - delivered on the pitch by a sensational hat-trick from former Premier League struggler Ademola Lookman - was made all the more special as it was the club's first trophy in 61 years, coming the week after their defeat in the Coppa Italia final, while the 3-0 victory also emphatically ended what had been an unbeaten season to that point for Bayer Leverkusen.

As GOAL's Mark Doyle wrote in the aftermath of that glorious night, "no coach in the modern era has achieved bigger things with such a small club for as long as 66-year-old Gasperini", and this was his crowning moment. He has arguably made Atalanta the best pound-for-pound team in the world, and they could yet earn a third-placed finish in Serie A with one game to play.

Carlo Ancelotti's appetite for silverware is simply insatiable, and it could still get so much better for his Real Madrid side this season. After a disappointing campaign in 2022-23, Los Blancos and their manager have shown that unbeatable bounceback-ability once again this time around.

Powered by summer signing Jude Bellingham, Real romped to another La Liga title at the expense of Clasico rivals Barcelona, with Ancelotti describing it as the best league campaign of his career to date as Madrid lost just once, kept 21 clean sheets and conceded just 26 times.

And the season could still get so much better, as the kings of the Champions League stand on the cusp of yet more European glory; having seen off favourites Man City and edged Bayern Munich on their way to the final, Real will be expected to beat Borussia Dortmund at Wembley on Saturday to complete a sensational double.

There was only ever going to be one winner! In a season of shocks, Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen were the ultimate surprise package, as 'Neverkusen' became 'Neverlusen'. Loosening Bayern Munich's vice-like grip on the Bundesliga crown is a near-impossible feat at the best of times, but to do so by going the entire league season unbeaten simply beggars belief.

Fortune favoured them in the form of countless late equalisers and winners, but they deserved their luck and earned plenty of admirers for their progressive, attacking brand of football. Die Werkself finished the season a whopping 17 points ahead of nearest challengers Stuttgart and, incredibly, a further point ahead of Bayern as they claimed a first-ever Bundesliga title.

If that wasn't enough already, Alonso also took them to the finals of both the Europa League and DFB-Pokal. Their unbeaten run was of course routed in the former, before an unforgettable league and cup double was sealed three days later.

It will go down as one of the best seasons ever witnessed, and Alonso's name is now etched indelibly in the folklore of Leverkusen and German football as a whole.