Top 8 hardest managerial jobs in the EFL Championship ranked | OneFootball

Football League World looks at the hardest jobs in the Championship right now

Managing certain clubs within the EFL Championship presents no shortage of trials and tribulations, with some jobs significantly easier than others.

From lofty expectations to a lack of financial backing, instability away from the field and playing squad limitations, there are many variables that can make certain second-tier jobs extremely challenging and that's exactly what Football League World will be looking at in a breakdown of the EIGHT hardest managerial roles at this level right now - ranked in descending order of difficulty.

8 ? ? West Ham

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Getting the ball rolling is West Ham, who have an embarrassment of riches at their disposal and that means Nuno Espirito Santo's role may just be envied by Championship managers alone - yet the vast resource comes with steep expectation and demand, making this job harder than you may initially think.

Of course, anything other than automatic promotion would represent something of a failure following the Hammers' surprise return to the Championship after 14 years away, and they were able to retain talismanic winger Jarrod Bowen while adding the likes of Arne Engels, Joel Piroe and Manor Solomon to boost their credentials as firm title favourites.

Expectation at boardroom level is significant and it's only the same among West Ham supporters, who would be beside themselves if the East Londoners were to fall short of achieving promotion back to the Premier League at the very first time of asking.

7 ? ? Lincoln City

On the complete other end of the spectrum, where the difficulty of the job at hand with Lincoln City is perhaps contradicted as the plucky underdogs bid to upset the odds for a second successive season after winning the League One title with more than 100 points last time out.

But that, coupled with the Imps' surprise relative ease at adapting to the Championship in the club's first second-tier campaign since 1961, displays how well-run they really are both on and off-the-pitch in the face of constraints that would usually prevent an ascent of this kind.

Much of Lincoln's history has been spent in the lower divisions and they were playing National League football less than a decade ago, though despite having the seventh-lowest wage bill in League One, they still romped to the title under Michael Skubala.

The difficulty, of course, is with the limited finances on offer at the LNER Stadium, which pale in comparison to just about every other team in the Championship. That's why the Imps lost star playmaker Jack Moylan to Cardiff City over the summer, and Skubala's decision to leave for Bristol City only amplified the difficulty for joint-managers Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw.

Yet, now under new management after the pair assisted Skubala in 25/26, Lincoln are defying the odds once again, with Cohen and Shaw making the job look much easier than it would be for an externally-appointed manager.

6 ? ? Preston North End

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Whereas West Ham and Lincoln are new to the division following many years away, Preston North End's perpetual residency in the second-tier without ever staking a real promotion push has long left fans frustrated - but it's now a relegation battle that likely lies ahead and the task at hand will not be an easy one to complete for whoever comes in to replace Paul Heckingbottom.

The Lilywhites parted company with Heckingbottom after taking six defeats from their first seven matches and, despite elevating the investment from what we're typically used to seeing in this corner of Lancashire over the summer, a number of problem positions - namely higher up the pitch - went neglected in the market in what now feels a depleted squad in urgent need of re-shuffling.

It's one of the weakest in the Championship, all things considered, and when you factor in the additional challenges of long-term fan unrest and inconsistent transfer backing, the top job at Deepdale is rarely an enviable one.

5 ? ? Stoke City

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Much like West Ham, Stoke City can call upon the sort of serious financial muscle that makes one element of the job extremely alluring, yet the expectation that has accompanied the club's expenditure after falling out of the Premier League in 2018 has not been met by any stretch of the imagination and a consistently-high managerial turnover perfectly displays the difficulty.

There's hope that Mark Robins can finally put it all together, but so many before him have failed and the ex-Coventry City boss represents the Potters' eighth permanent manager in as many years.

The club's key decision-makers have not been afraid to pull the trigger over the years, which is perhaps justified when you consider that - according to per Transfermarkt figures - approximately £143 million has been shelled out on transfer fees since the summer of 2018 without a single league finish higher than 14th position.

That provokes wider questions surrounding Stoke's recruitment policies with both the playing squad and managerial appointments alike, though, and while the resource is certainly available, the number of managers to have fallen short at the Bet365 Stadium speaks volumes.

4 ? ? Sheffield United

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There's no getting away from the fact that Sheffield United are very much on the slide both on and off-the-pitch, and that's precisely why the Bramall Lane hot-seat has become increasingly difficult to occupy in recent times.

A turgid mid-table finish in the previous campaign spelled doom, with the expiration of United's three-year parachute payments package without a promotion push to compensate forcing Chris Wilder to cash in on a number of prized assets such as Andre Brooks, Gus Hamer and Callum O'Hare.

Remarkably, though, Wilder was unable to pay a transfer fee for a single player, as various loan and free transfers were instead struck to offset the losses.

The days of the Blades' top-dog status and significant spending at this level are now etched in the past and both Wilder and the Bramall Lane faithful are visibly frustrated with the current state of play.

Indeed, the eerie threat of a potential 12-point deduction after the company used to buy the club was placed into liquidation by the High Court last month shows the scale of the challenges that Wilder faces right now, and with serious questions surrounding COH Sports' ownership of United as a whole and even the Blades boss' own position in charge, the red-and-white quarters of the Steel City are not a happy - or easy - place to be.

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Cardiff City may not look like a club who present the third-most challenging job in the Championship at face value, but the underlying difficulties are profound and make it no stretch to say that Brian Barry-Murphy has worked miracles since his arrival last summer.

The Bluebirds have a burgeoning academy system that, through Barry-Murphy's excellent work, has provided the nucleus of a now-competitive first-team squad with a swift second-placed League One promotion to its name and can eventually reap serious financial rewards, and the side's ceiling as a whole is high through shrewd acquisitions in recent years such as Alex Robertson, Yousef Salech and the aforementioned Moylan.

Yet, it would be hard to ignore just how impressively the Irishman is papering over the real cracks that still linger beneath the surface. A perennial, and well-documented, lack of footballing expertise at boardroom level has been succinctly reflected in Cardiff's high turnover of managers and players alike over the years, leaving Barry-Murphy with limited day-to-day support and what many supporters would feel is inconsistent backing in the transfer window, too - even if the head coach is known for his picky policy with signings.

Cardiff have often been characterised by a chaotic lack of direction, and though both stability and success have been found in Barry-Murphy, exactly what would happen if he were to depart may send shivers down the spines of Bluebirds fans galore.

The demand for success among supporters in the Welsh capital has previously broken many of his predecessors and Vincent Tan is never afraid to take action either, affording limited time to get it right when the going is tough.

2 ? ? Watford

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It would be amiss to overlook Watford right at the sharp-end of this list owing to the Hornets' remarkably-absurd hiring-and-firing managerial policy, providing a revolving managerial door without peer throughout the EFL and beyond.

Alessio Dionisi is currently the man at the helm but exactly how long that remains the case for is a real mystery, with no fewer than 24 different managers having taken charge since the controversial Pozzo family's takeover in the summer of 2012.

Previous promotions and Premier League status perhaps papered over the cracks, though supporters have now grown increasingly critical of the club's ownership in recent years following a succession of middling mid-table finishes - with the scope to go beyond that and return to the top-flight hampered by a lack of tangible investment, repeated sales of star performers and, of course, a complete inability to gradually build a long-term identity.

The current model is anything but stable or sustainable, and the Pozzo's trigger-happy nature means few jobs offer up more difficulty.

1 ? ? Blackburn Rovers

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Ultimately, though, the most testing managerial role in the Championship can be found at Ewood Park, which has become defined by toxicity and unrest in recent seasons as the Venky's unpopular ownership continues to alienate supporters.

Significant spending restrictions have only left Blackburn Rovers handicapped and largely unable to compete higher up the table, creating a high managerial turnover and no shortage of animosity behind the scenes.

Fan protests are not uncommon and Blackburn are unable to strengthen season-on-season, which is why they have been tipped by the masses to suffer relegation under the returning Tony Mowbray this season.

Mowbray has, of course, previously worked magic in East Lancashire, although he's facing the problem that so many of those before him have done in having his hands tied, and that's what led to the club making just four signings during the summer window.

Blackburn will be expected to struggle as a result, even if they have started the season in stronger fashion than you would've anticipated, and until the club assumes new ownership, it's hard to see how the difficulty of managing Rovers will decrease.