Six EFL Managers To Watch In 2025

EFL pundit Gab Sutton picks out six EFL managers to watch in 2025, starting off with a big statement… 

1. Danny Röhl (Sheffield Wednesday)

Danny Röhl has the potential to win a World Cup with Germany one day.

A huge statement? Perhaps. Don’t get me wrong: that’s true of scores of talented, young coaches, many of whom won’t make it, and there’s a hell of a long way to go.

Yet there’s something unique about what Röhl has achieved at Hillsborough. He arrived in October 2023 with the club in crisis, having suffered one of the worst starts in second-tier history.

Röhl kept the Owls up with top half form, and they now find themselves just three points off the Play-Off places – all under a questionable ownership regime.

But it’s about more than just results: there’s a consistency to the way they play. Röhl’s side operate with a 3-2-5 in-possession shape that can transcend into 2-3-5 as play progresses, and doesn’t compromise on that – yet there’s flexibility in the configuration.

For instance, the IP back-three might come from Barry Bannan dropping to the left of Dominic Iorfa and Di’Shon Bernard, or it might come from Max Lowe tucking in from left-back.

Alternatively, the front-five might come from Lowe underlapping Djeidi Gassama on the left and Anthony Musaba holding the width on the right, or it might come from Yan Valery underlapping Musaba with Gassama holding the width.

Plus, the Owls don’t seem to take wild pot-shots, instead they’re very intentional about their play in the final third and put all their focus into creating clear cut chances which, again, speaks to excellent coaching.

Expect huge things from Röhl in 2025. 

2. Johannes Hoff Thorup (Norwich)

Similarly to Röhl, there’s a clear process and style in place at Norwich City, implemented by Johannes Hoff Thorup.

The Canaries haven’t been able to produce the best version of it at times this season, with October’s long-term injury to Josh Sargent knocking them off course, among other absentees, as Thorup looks to get his ideas across in his first season.

However, City’s incredible home goalscoring record, with 31 scored in 13 outings at Carrow Road, suggests they could be a real force, once they work out how to replicate more of that output away from home.

With Borja Sainz suddenly going goal-crazy under the Dane’s guidance, and the likes of Kellan Fisher and Oscar Schwartau developing nicely too, this feels similar to Daniel Farke’s first season at Norwich, 2017-18’s building campaign that preceded their title-winning success.

This time next year, City could be hard to resist.

3. John Eustace (Blackburn)

Blackburn have been one of the Championship’s surprise packages this season, and John Eustace is largely to thank for that.

There was a sense of apathy in the Rovers fanbase in pre-season, with many feeling progress would be impossible until the Venkys sell up, but Eustace’s down-to-earth people skills and honest man management has brought everyone together.

As such, the Lancashire outfit are performing well above the sum of their parts, currently in the Play-Off scramble in 7th with 10 clean sheets to their name, thanks to the trio of goalkeeper Aynsley Pears, and centre-backs Danny Batth and Dom Hyam - while Sondre Tronstad is emerging as one of the top midfielders in the division.

Given the good work Eustace also did at Birmingham, he seems to be gaining a reputation for consistently building teams that can perform better than the sum of their parts. 

4. Rubén Sellés (Hull)

Ruben Sellés might be a relatively young manager at 41, but he’s been coaching since the age of 16.

With the Portuguese boss having what’s now a quarter of a century’s head-start on the high-profile ex-players who go straight into management after hanging up their boots, is it any wonder England’s golden generation are struggling in the hot-seat?

Highly-rated as a coach at Southampton, Sellés had to demonstrate excellent people skills like patience at empathy at Reading, where he did great work in spite of off-field turmoil.

The Valencia-born coach’s sides are known for aggressive, high-pressing with a front-three all involved, ideally with a young, energetic side.

Hull’s poor recruitment in the summer, and resultant slow start under Tim Walter, means Sellés would do well to do more than firefight for the rest of this season - but he could be somebody to watch in the next campaign. 

5. Chris Davies (Birmingham City)

In some ways, managing multi-billionaire-owned Birmingham in League One was the perfect way for Chris Davies to ease himself into his career as a number one, after assisting Brendan Rodgers, previously, at Celtic and Leicester.

If Davies can begin by winning a league title, he can give himself real confidence and momentum as he hopefully moves into the top two divisions of English football, hoping to make an impact on the leagues.

In other ways, though, Blues’ unprecedented financial muscle for the level means it’s impossible to overperform: you either deliver what’s expected, or you don’t.

So, if promotion is achieved, Davies will go into the Championship, still, as something of an unknown quantity, in terms of how good he is when the playing field is level.

At the same time, he’s still demonstrating some extremely encouraging qualities at St Andrews, implementing a clear stylistic and strategic blueprint right from the off, whilst showing authoritative leadership when required.

All the signs point to a high-potential manager: we just might have to wait for next season to see how good he really is. 

6. Matt Bloomfield (Wycombe)

Matt Bloomfield has the potential to create and continue a hugely exciting project at Wycombe Wanderers, the club at which he spent 19 years as a player – and has already spent coming up to two years as a manager.

Bloomfield’s legendary status at Adams Park fosters a sense of stability, akin to one the Chairboys enjoyed under his predecessor, Gareth Ainsworth, who spent 11 years in the hotseat.

And, while Ainsworth managed to get Wanderers into the Championship on a tiny budget, thanks to his culture-led methods, with the club owned by the Supporters’ Trust for much of his tenure, prior to the Couhig takeover, ‘Blooms’ has more to work with in terms of resources.

The Buckinghamshire outfit are now owned by a Kazakhstani billionaire in Mikheil Lomtadze, and run by an experienced Chief Football Officer in Dan Rice, who has worked at various Premier League clubs.

So, with managerial stability, strong infrastructure and financial health all put into the melting pot, the results should be positive for Bloomfield and Wycombe, who find themselves as high as 2nd in League One - having expected to be among the Play-Off contenders this year.

Bloomfield’s drive is such that he lives in Essex, and gets up at the crack of dawn every morning to have a two or three hour car journey to the training ground, and is still often the first one there. 

Those four to six hours in the car, though, without screens, gives him far more reflection time than most managers who might, without the need to travel a long distance, would spend more time consuming information and less time processing it - and might therefore be less likely to make the best quality decisions.