Exclusive: Don Goodman names the 3 greatest EFL Championship managers of all time | OneFootball

Don Goodman has spoken to FLW to name, in his opinion, the three greatest Championship managers of all time.

Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman has revealed who he believes to be the best three Championship managers of all time.

To trace back to the inception of England's second tier, you would have to go all the way back to 1892, before the first modern Olympic Games had taken place, before Penicillin had been discovered and 42 years before the first ever FIFA World Cup.

It would suffice to say that a lot has happened since then.

Jump forward 112 years later to 2004 and the English second tier was rebranded as the iconic Championship that we all know and love.

There have been hundreds of managers to have graced the Championship, some more successful than others.

To determine who is the greatest Championship manager of all time is a thankless task that requires taking everything into account from games managed, trophies won, win percentage etc…

It would be easier to celebrate each manager in their own right rather than determine the best of the bunch.

However, FLW tasked Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman with ranking his top three Championship managers of all time, and it would be safe to say he struggled in his decision.

Don Goodman provides his opinion on the top three Championship managers of all time

Speaking exclusively to Football League World, Don Goodman has provided us with his opinion on the top three Championship managers of all time.

Goodman said: "It's a very difficult question. And how do you quantify the greatest managers to manage in the championship? It's an almost impossible question, very subjective.

"Is it managers that managed in the Championship and went on to manage their countries, like Roy Hodgson, Steve McLaren, Gareth Southgate for England, Chris Coleman for Wales, Alex McCleish for Scotland, Mick McCarthy for Ireland? It's impressive.

"Is it somebody that went on to do remarkable things? Brendan Rodgers, at Leicester, winning trophies, playing in the Champions League, winning multiple trophies at Celtic?

"Is it what the likes of Sean Dyche did with Burnley, got them up a couple of times and then kept them there for a very long time in the Premier League?

"Chris Wilder to take his boyhood [club], Sheffield United, from League One to the top 10 Premier League.

"Is it promotions? Obviously, I think Neil Warnock, Steve Bruce, Daniel Farke, and Scott Parker top that list. I mean, they're all incredible, and you could make cases for all of them to be in the all-time top three greatest ever.

"But for me, Neil Warnock has to go in there. [He] got promoted with some unfashionable clubs, unexpected promotions, not always the budget that could match others.

"I think then it's about guys whose teams I really loved watching.

"So Eddie Howe, for me, when I look that he brought Bournemouth from almost on the brink of bankruptcy in League Two up to the Premier League. [He has] since gone on to win Newcastle's first domestic trophy in was it seventy years? And got Newcastle into the Champions League, throughout the last three seasons.

"And Marcelo Bielsa. As a Leeds lad, I watched him grab a club that was on its knees, pick it up by the neck, and drag it to the Premier League with largely the same players.

"And I think it's the way they played and the improvement that he got out of players that, with respect to them, were probably considered fairly average championship players.

"He turned them into great championship players, and there's too many to mention.

"So long answer, but that would those would be my personal three, but good grief, if you asked anybody else, they could easily choose a very, very different three.

Another unpredictable season of Championship football awaits

The 2025/26 Championship season is well underway, with some huge surprises having already taken place in the early stages of the campaign.

Ruben Selles was the first to lose his job, having lost all six of the matches he took charge of at Sheffield United, and has been replaced by the returning Chris Wilder, who himself was sacked by the Blades just three months earlier.

With Ipswich Town, Southampton and Leicester City all having dropped from the Premier League and Birmingham City, Charlton Athletic and Wrexham all having earned promotion the season prior from League One, this season is set to be another enthralling one.

Both Birmingham and Wrexham have spent levels of money never before seen by a club promoted from the third tier, making the battle towards the bottom of the league an even trickier one than normal.

With at least 40 more games to be played, whilst most managers likely won't see out the season with their current employers, there is ample time for some in the second tier to make legends of themselves and write their name in the history books.