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The 10 biggest managerial payouts: Nagelsmann, Mourinho, Conte…

Football, as any club chairman will tell you, is a costly business. Just take a look at how much clubs like Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester United and PSG have spent in getting rid of managers.

There’s a lot of attention on the gargantuan transfers paid between clubs for superstar players, but sometimes coaches can prove just as expensive – especially when it comes to sacking them. Some of the biggest names in football have received colossal pay-offs in compensation.

Without further ado, here are the 10 biggest managerial payouts in football history.

10. Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham) – £12.5m

Less than six months after leading Spurs to the Champions League final, Pochettino was ruthlessly handed his P45. He’d been at the helm for over five years and taken charge of almost 300 matches.

But he had three and a half years left on his contract, resulting in a hefty payout.

“Yes,” Daniel Levy responded to Standard Sport when asked if sacking the Argentinian was the hardest decision he ever had to make at Tottenham.

“Because you have to understand I had built up a personal relationship with Mauricio over five-and-a-half years.

“It is not something I ever wanted. Personally, it was incredibly difficult, I told him that and he understood. He’s been in football, he understands.

“It’s not personal and I’m sure he’ll come back stronger and get an opportunity to manage another great club.”

Pochettino went on to manage PSG for 18 months, winning the Ligue 1 title during his only full season in charge, and has strongly been linked with a return to Tottenham.

He reportedly went on to pocket a further £8.5million after leaving his post in Paris.

9. Thomas Tuchel (Chelsea) – £13m

Chelsea owner Todd Boehly cited a lack of “a shared vision” as the reason for sacking the German tactician, who reportedly received a severance package worth £13million.

A poor start to the 2022-23 campaign saw Tuchel ousted and replaced with Graham Potter, who cost £21.5million to get out of Brighton according to the Seagulls’ recently released accounts.

Costly business all round.

Graham Potter during the Premier League match between Fulham and Chelsea at Craven Cottage, London, January 2023.

READ: The 6 biggest fees paid for a manager: Potter, Mourinho, Rodgers…

8. Fabio Capello (Russia) – £13.4m

The decorated Italian coach might’ve been underwhelming as England boss but that pales in comparison to his stint in Russia.

The Russia FA appointed Capello as a respected big name, with a view to him delivering a successful showing when they hosted the 2018 World Cup.

But he lasted just 18 months of his four-year contract and received a hefty bunse for departing early. Successor Stanislav Cherchesov led Russia to a respectable quarter-final placing in 2018.

7. Luiz Felipe Scolari (Chelsea) – £13.6m

One of those Abramovich-era stints it’s easy to forget actually happened, given how brief it was.

The Brazilian World Cup winner lasted just seven months in the job and was paid off to the tune of £13.6million.

“Felipe has brought many positives to the club since he joined and we all feel a sense of sadness that our relationship has ended so soon,” read a Chelsea statement in February 2009.

“Unfortunately the results and performances of the team appeared to be deteriorating at a key time in the season.

“In order to maintain a challenge for the trophies we are still competing for we felt the only option was to make the change now.”

6. Jose Mourinho (Tottenham) – £16m

Over the past 10 years, Spurs have paid a grand total of £55million in sacking managers, with Mourinho’s departure in April 2021 the priciest of the lot.

5. Laurent Blanc (PSG) – £17m

‘Larry White’ was the second big-name appointment of the Qatar Sports Investment era at the Parc des Princes. He remains the longest-serving.

The Frenchman arrived after Carlo Ancelotti left for Real Madrid and delivered the Ligue 1 title in each of his three seasons in charge.

He signed a two-year contract extension in February 2016 but left just four months later, costing the Parisiens a reported £17million.

4. Jose Mourinho (Chelsea) – £18m

Chelsea and Jose Mourinho? We’re sensing a theme here.

This was the first time around. The Portuguese coach received a then-record £18million compensation fee after his shock departure in September 2007.

QUIZ: Can you name every Chelsea manager in Premier League history?

3. Jose Mourinho (Man Utd) – £19.6m

Not again.

Mourinho’s biggest payout came from Manchester United, whom he left in acrimonious circumstances in 2018. The decision to hand him a contract extension earlier that year proved costly – very costly, in fact, to the tune of £19.6million.

2. Julian Nagelsmann (Bayern Munich) – £23.7m*

*Final figure pending.

The dust is settling on this one and we’re sure there’ll be negotiations over a final figure. But German outlet Bild claim Bayern will have to pay Nagelsmann about €27million (£23.7million) if they’re to stump up the full amount of the remainder of his lengthy contract, which ran until 2026.

The perennial Bundesliga champions also paid a world-record managerial transfer fee of €25million to get the 35-year-old coach out of RB Leipzig. So that’s over €50million all-in. Ouch.

1. Antonio Conte (Chelsea) – £26.6m

“When you are a manager of a team, you hope to stay for many years,” Conte recalled of his bitter 2018 exit from Stamford Bridge.

“I spent two amazing seasons with Chelsea. The first season, after a 10th place the previous year, we won the league with a team that, at that moment, wasn’t the best team in the Premier League.

“The second season we won the FA Cup. We did a fantastic job with Chelsea but then, sometimes, it’s not enough.

“When a club decides to send you away, you have to show great respect about this decision. You can be disappointed and a bit frustrated but you have to show great respect for the decision the club has made.”

The uncoupling ended up dragging on and on, with Conte suing Chelsea and winning a legal battle and a further £85,000 from Roman Abramovich in January 2020. The total cost of the Italian’s sack was reportedly a mammoth £26.6million.


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