The top 7 most likeable EFL Championship managers | OneFootball

Man-management is a crucial skill for any manager to learn, so here are seven who excel at this in this year's EFL Championship.

Building a successful career as a manager requires a lot of different skills, and one of the most important is the ability to manage players, so here are the seven most likeable in this year's EFL Championship.

Tactical know-how and the ability to shout non-stop for 90 minutes will only get you so far as a football manager. Man-management is one of the most important skills, and the ability to be nice in a high-pressure environment is crucial if a manager is to get on in professional football management.

"Niceness", of course, doesn't mean being a doormat. Indeed, a manager who allows his playing squad to walk all over him is unlikely to last very long in their job. But in this sense, being 'likeable' is about being able to build a positive culture within a club, treating all staff members as being crucial to its success, and helping to build an environment in which values are upheld while success on the pitch is sought.

With all of this in mind, Football League World have ranked the seven nicest managers in the EFL Championship as the 2026-27 season swings into gear. They might not all necessarily be the most successful managers in the division, but these are the seven whose personalities may make them a pleasure to work for.

7 ? ? Kim Hellberg

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The majority of managers in the Championship have been in position for less than a year, which tells its own story about how insecure a trade it is these days, but our list kicks off with someone who's only been in the English game for eight months, since his appointment at Middlesbrough.

Kim Hellberg retired from playing at 22 years of age in order to concentrate in his coaching career, and it's fair to say that this decision has paid dividends. Hellberg's demeanour hints at someone who's aware of how fortunate he is to have landed a senior position at a club in England, and his "Hell-Ball" playing style has enamoured the Boro faithful since his arrival at the club.

He also demonstrated a sly sense of humour over his appointment into the Middlesbrough position, saying that, "I've actually never used this structure in my life before" after being appointed into the position.

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Everybody loves an underdog story, and Steven Schumacher's story is one which serves as a reminder that tenacity and self-belief are important in the often insecure world of football management.

After having won the League One Manager of the Year award with Plymouth Argyle for the 2022-23 season, Steven Schumacher was appointed by Stoke City in December 2023. He only lasted nine months in the position, but his sacking from Stoke was widely considered to have been somewhat harsh.

Stoke were already in trouble by the time that he arrived at the club, but he steered them to safety by the end of the 2023-24 season and his sacking at the start of the following season, after Stoke had won two of their first five games of the 2024-25 season, was a shock to the manager himself.

Schumacher has spent his time since then largely making a mockery of Stoke's decision. Appointed into the managerial position at Bolton in January 2025, he returned the club to the Championship at the end of the 2025-26 season and remains a popular figure at The Toughsheet Community Stadium.

5 ? ? John Eustace

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There aren't many quieter managers in the Championship than Derby County's John Eustace. While there are some in the division who lean very heavily towards theatricality in their behaviour on the touchline, the Rams' boss tends to let his teams do the talking on the pitch.

Eustace has evolved a poker-faced personality since managing Derby, and it's reaped rewards. He deservedly has a reputation as a good manager to play for, and he's matched that with success on the pitch, steering the Rams clear of relegation at the end of 2024-25 and then to within a whisker of a play-off place at the end of 2025-26.

4 ? ? Mark Robins

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The benefit of hindsight offers the perspective that it was probably the right time for the club to make a change, but when Mark Robins was sacked by Coventry City in November 2024, it caused a huge amount of shock among Sky Blues fans because Robins had built such a close relationship with them.

Robins was only out of work for five weeks before being appointed into the Stoke City position, and Stoke have had little cause to rue the decision to take him on. The manager doesn't have an especially cheery demeanour, but he does understand the game deeply, and certainly seems to know what buttons to push with the fans.

When his Stoke team struggled towards the end of last season, he was reported by the BBC to have said that he wanted to "move people on who are mercenary, don't want to train and don't want to work hard", which is exactly the sort of thing that fans need to hear at the end of a long season, when things haven't necessarily been going right on the pitch.

3 ? ? John Mousinho

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Small wonder that John Mousinho is so popular at Fratton Park. Appointed to the managerial position there in January 2023, he's taken Portsmouth from League One into the Championship and has kept them there.

It's worth noting that, when he was appointed three and a half years ago, the Pompey CEO Andrew Cullen stated that "John possesses real leadership and motivational skills - evidenced by his position as captain at a number of clubs and election as PFA chairman." Mousinho has occasionally been of interest to other club, and there was a possibility at the end of the 2025-26 season that he might have been persuaded to leave the club to go to Bristol City.

But one quote from that really stood out as a demonstration of his interpersonal skills. Asked about the rumours by BBC Radio Solent in at the end of June, Mousinho said, "I was very clear at the back end of the season that it wasn't a desire that I wanted to leave, I've spoken to a lot of Portsmouth fans this summer who said it's been a tough summer and some of them are surprised to see me back in and around in Southsea."

His close relationship with the club's fans is no small part of the reason why he remains with the club.

2 ? ? Phil Parkinson

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There's a curious contradiction at the heart of Wrexham's incredible rise from the National League to the Championship in recent years. Parkinson was appointed as the manager in no small part because he was a lower-division journeyman who would understand the club's position at that time.

More than five years on, he's still there. He's the longest-serving manager in the division, and he's adjusted with the club, growing as a manager as they've ascended through to the divisions. Furthermore, this evolution has come without Parkinson losing what made him a good manager in the first place.

In May 2026, the BBC investigated the reasons behind his success, and one quote from the former Wrexham captain Ben Tozer really stood out. He described Parkinson as "a calming figure around the place", and given the amount of change there's been around The Racecourse Ground since he first arrived, that pacifying presence will be hugely important in maintaining the upward trajectory they've been on since he was first appointed.

1 ? ? Tony Mowbray

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If adversity can steer a manager towards clarity of thought in terms of their job, Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray has a greater level of understanding than most. Mowbray lost his wife to cancer when she was just 26 years of age at the very start of 1995, and 29 years later he was diagnosed with bowel cancer, from which he has since made a full recovery.

Speaking in June, following his return to Ewood Park, Mowbray spoke touchingly about his good fortune. "When I walk around the Christie Hospital in Manchester and see the hundreds of very, very seriously sick people with their bandanas on, with no hair and looking very frail, it makes me feel how lucky I am in life", he said, adding that: "I feel really blessed, honoured, proud to be coming back to such an amazing football club. I've amazing memories here, had some great times and I want to try and bring them back if I can."

With almost a quarter of a century's managerial experience behind him, Mowbray's down-to-earth bonhomie has made him a popular figure across the game, and Blackburn's 2-2 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers in the opening Championship game of the 2026-27 season indicated that may have been slightly overstated.