League One 2023/24: Top Five Managers of the Season

EFL pundit Gab Sutton picks out top five high-performing managers from League One in 2023/24.

• Read: Championship Managers of the Season
• Read: League Two Managers of the Season

5. Jon Brady (Northampton Town)

After winning promotion at the second attempt last season, Jon Brady steered Northampton to a safe, 14th-placed finish in their first year back in League One, a level that so often causes trouble for the yo-yo club.

The Cobblers didn’t add much to their squad, with just four new faces arriving in the summer, but they did manage to renew loan deals for key men Marc Leonard and Kieron Bowie, and that proved crucial to such a consistent level of performance.

Leonard shone with his playmaking in midfield, and is surely en route to bigger things, while Sam Hoskins’ 15 league goals were essential.

Elsewhere, Sam Sherring produced impeccable consistency in central defence, as one of a dependable core who kept their performance levels at a 7/10 minimum.

Brady’s motivational qualities were key to Teyn’s accomplishment, and while they’ll have to rebuild more this summer than last, they do have fresh investment to help them compete with a strengthened league.

4. Richie Wellens (Leyton Orient)

There’s no better signing Leyton Orient could make this summer than getting boss Richie Wellens tied down to a new, three-year contract.

Wellens’ leadership has brought confidence, drive, and a raising of standards to the O’s during his two-and-a-half years in E10, and after leading the East Londoners to the title in 2022/23, they’ve now secured a top-half finish.

Wellens has got the best out of Omar Beckles and Dan Happe at the back, and Jordan Brown and Idris El Mizouni in midfield; they’ll be looking to retain the latter this summer, whilst signing a good replacement for Sol Brynn in goal, adding athleticism in the full-back areas and a quality number nine.

With the right additions, Orient will feel they can make up the 11-point gap to the top six next season under Wellens’ tutelage.

3. Michael Skubala (Lincoln City)

Michael Skubala has shown two major traits in the first six months of his opening permanent stint in senior management.

The first is efficiency: it’s one thing having progressive ideas, different to predecessor Mark Kennedy, but another thing being able to implement them in-season, when so often managers need pre-season before you can really see what their team should look like.

Clearly, the way Skubala communicates his ideas makes a mark on people, and he’s got complete buy-in from the squad almost from the off.

Secondly, adaptability: just a week after talk of injuries to midfielders Ethan Hamilton and Conor McGrandles scuppering any Play-Off hopes, Lincoln’s stunning five-game winning streak began.

Skubala merely shifted Ethan Erhahon into a deeper midfield role, and deployed Jack Moylan and Teddy Bishop as dual eights – and when there was another injury, Danny Mandriou came into the side in a deeper role.

A good coach can deliver results when their best players are available, and a great one sees unavailability of those best players as an opportunity to innovate.

Skubala seems to have that, and while his Lincoln side missed out on the top six, it was 52 points from 29 games under his guidance – form that would have got them in comfortably over a full campaign.

2. Darren Ferguson (Peterborough)

Sales of seven experienced, proven League One players prompted doubts over squad depth for Peterborough in 2023/24, after last season’s dramatic Play-Off Semi-Final defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.

With a shift towards youth, and a developmental model of promoting from the academy to provide depth, it looked like a transitional campaign in prospect for the Posh – and probably would’ve been under almost any other manager.

This is Darren Ferguson, though - underestimate the Scot at your peril – and his side have amassed a respectable 84 points this season, three fewer than the tally they won automatic promotion with in 2020/21, and are the league’s top goalscorers.

Ephron Mason-Clark has been arguably the best player in the league this season, developing superbly under Ferguson’s guidance, linking up delightfully on the left with Harrison Burrows and Joel Randall to use his pace and strength to break into dangerous goalscoring areas, finding the net 14 times.

Kwame Poku has been the Posh’s creative fulcrum on the right, while centre-back Ronnie Edwards has enjoyed probably the last season of what could be a glittering career outside England’s top two leagues.

The development of Mason-Clark, Poku, Burrows and Edwards is all thanks to Ferguson, who remains one of the best managers outside the Championship this century.

1. John Mousinho

Who knows how much courage it took Portsmouth’s Sporting Director, Richard Hughes, to plump for John Mousinho as their new head coach back in January 2023.

With Pompey facing their seventh consecutive season in League One, the stakes were high, the board were being questioned, and Hughes was willing to put his faith in Oxford United’s fourth-choice centre-back.

We’re being slightly facetious, of course – Mousinho was player-coach for the Yellows, and had been on set piece duties in training – but you get our point. 

Hughes knew what the repercussions would be if he got this wrong, he knew what people would say, what the criticisms would be even at the time of the appointment – and he still trusted his instincts.

But the qualities Mousinho showed to win Hughes over in the interview process, were the same ones he showed publicly after his appointment – carrying himself with positivity, maturity and emotional intelligence, the true modern leader.

Mousinho is a master at reframing challenges as opportunities, and that’s a huge part of the ‘next man up’ culture he’s created at Portsmouth, who have responded emphatically to setbacks – especially in terms of injuries.

When Regan Poole got injured, Sean Raggett got even better, when Colby Bishop missed the odd crunch clash, Kusini Yengi thrived down the middle, or when Alex Robertson got injured, January recruits Owen Moxon, Callum Lang and Lee Evans all made an impact.

That’s why Pompey are champions, and now Mousinho is out to defy the doubters all over again in the Championship – this time with everyone right on board from the off.