Expect lots of drama on the touchline next season

Next season’s English Premier League (EPL) will feature a glittering array of the best managerial talent in the world — as well as their giant egos. The Daily Telegraph assesses how seven of the best will fare ...

To anyone who thought we were already hopelessly in the grip of the cult of the football coach: You have seen nothing yet.

After a refreshingly unusual season in which the manager played a bit part in the central narrative, as the quiet, restrained and dignified Manuel Pellegrini and Claudio Ranieri did their best to merge into the background, we are about to see our touchlines invaded by the big beasts once again. Across the country, the egos have landed.

Next season’s EPL will boast the most glittering array of managerial talent in the world. With the possible exception of Diego Simeone, all the top names of the coaching game have gathered in England.

As with everything in modern football, it is money that is driving the acquisition of managerial superstars.

With the new broadcast deal about to kick in, leading clubs have acted in advance of their intravenous cash injection to bring in the big names to help them attract the best playing talent there is.

But there is something more to the heady accumulation of leading coaches: The modern football club needs to be generating interest in everything it does.

As Louis van Gaal has just discovered, a manager rooted to his seat in the dugout, clutching his folder of notes, unmoved and apparently uninterested, does not generate sufficient Facebook likes for the aggressive digital commerce of the new football.

As the most visible face of the business, the manager has to be creating headlines with everything he does, keeping the brand in the arc light of attention, spewing out the social media hits.

Coordinated displays of passion are a prerequisite, the press conference becomes a performance, the touchline a bit of theatre. Maintaining the soap opera plotline is now a commercial requirement.

And from next season, with the arrival of impresario coaches such as Pep Guardiola and Antonio Conte coinciding with the imminent return of Jose Mourinho, the plotlines will be snaking across the game. One week it will be Pep against Jose, the next Jose against Arsene Wenger, the third Jose against Jurgen Klopp.

More than ever before in the game’s history, the managers will hog the attention, write the headlines, and become the story.

Whether they make the football any better, mind, we will have to wait and see.

THE CHAMPION

Claudio Ranieri, Leicester City

Eighteen months ago, Ranieri’s career looked to have reached the buffers. Defeat to the Faroe Islands while in charge of Greece appeared to have dispatched him to the has-been skip, washed-up and past-it. Last season’s gloriously unexpected title win gifted him a reputation like none he had previously enjoyed.

Wise, charming and tactically astute, he converted a modest club into EPL champions.

He is clever enough, however, to recognise that lightning is unlikely to strike twice, that his second season in charge has no chance of being as blessed as his first.

He can expect his opponents to be ready to pick off the best of his squad, and he will need to manage the expectations of owners who now assume this is how it always works.

THE ARGENTINE

Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham

Pochettino has turned fast pressing into an art. If just watching his Tottenham team in action is an exhausting process, imagine what it must be like for Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier and the rest, obliged to sprint into every tackle.

Direct qualification for the Champions League gives him early opportunity to test his methodology against the sharpest of opponents.

And, soon to be in possession of a giant cash machine in the shape of the new White Hart Lane, he will have a muscular presence in the transfer market.

The one significant failing in Pochettino’s CV is the growing suspicion that he may not be able to close the deal. The manner in which his Spurs team went astray within sight of the finishing post hardly suggests the title will be imminently collected.

THE OLD ONE

Arsene Wenger, Arsenal

Even Wenger, a man whose hide is apparently made of tungsten, must have been embarrassed by the revelation that last season’s second place was his team’s best finish since 2005.

For the club with the most sizeable match-day revenue in the richest league in the world, even he must recognise that ranks as a thin return. Wenger, though, will soldier on, eulogising his team’s character even when no sober observer can see any evidence of such quality.

The return of Mourinho will hardly brighten his hangdog demeanour. But the early signing of Granit Xhaka this summer suggests a willingness to address a long-standing issue in his midfield. You never know, this could be the year it all comes good. Or not.

THE GRUMPY ONE

Jose Mourinho, Manchester United

The urgency with which United sought Mourinho’s signature does not suggest his self-esteem will have been too damaged by his dismissal from Chelsea.

He is a serial winner and a brilliant tactician. It remains to be seen how much he will adapt to the assumptions of his new office when it comes to the promotion of youth and an attacking style of play. More likely, he will be the same old Jose, prioritising victory in the short-term over any sense of building a dynasty.

THE MESSIAH

Pep Guardiola, Manchester City

The world’s most coveted coaching talent will arrive in Manchester after an aggressive three-year pursuit by City. The club hierarchy knew what they were after — a leader to turn them into European champions.

Guardiola’s messianic qualities will be tested as never before in his new job. When he arrived at Munich, he was taking over the European champions. At the Etihad, he takes on a side that finished fourth in the league. Negotiating the qualifying round of the Champions League will be his first priority, building a team around the excellent Kevin de Bruyne will take slightly longer.

THE NORMAL ONE

Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool

In his seven months in charge at Anfield, Klopp has restored a sense of optimism to a club close to nervous meltdown.

Steering a thin and vacuous squad to two Cup finals he promised much, even if ultimately he delivered nothing.

However, what will have pleased the Liverpool owners is how he has improved the players he inherited. His celebrations of success resonate with a fan base who expect passion from their figureheads.

THE HAIRY ONE

Antonio Conte, Chelsea

One thing we can be sure of is that Antonio Conte will not march into his first press conference as Chelsea manager making smart remarks about his specialness. A tough-as-teak midfielder with Juventus, he turned into an intense, furrow-browed touchline coaching presence.

After completing an apprenticeship at Bari, Atalanta and Siena, he returned to Juventus to steer his former club to three successive Serie A titles. Many are in awe of Conte’s verbal agility as a coach, continually astonished by the way he could so quickly identify issues and articulate solutions. Chelsea fans can only hope his interpreter is up to the job.