Top Five EFL Managers of the Season 2024/25

EFL pundit Gab Sutton has handpicked his top five managers of the 2024/25 season, from the Championship, League One, and League Two - ranked from 5th to 1st.

5. Richie Wellens (Leyton Orient)

After 16 games, Leyton Orient found themselves struggling in 21st place in League One, with just four wins and nine defeats. Many believed the team was missing the impact of key loan players and showing signs of second-season syndrome.

Performances in that opening third of the campaign, though, hadn’t been too bad; they’d shaded the territory in all those games, bar 3-0 defeats at Shrewsbury and Wycombe, they’d typically been getting into good areas, and were just a bit shot-shy.

Since, then, we’ve seen Dan Agyei, Jamie Donley and Jamie Donley all find form, and with that extra bit of final third incision, they’ve accrued a whopping 60 points from 30 games, with only runaway leaders Birmingham - obviously - accruing more in that timeframe.

The O’s had another dip with five straight defeats across February and March when circumstances went against them - like a good start at St Andrews before Jack Currie’s questionable dismissal, and a 2-1 home loss to Charlton in which they’d been the better team only for their visitors to score twice in injury time.

Again, though, they responded at the crucial stage, going into the final day with five wins on the spin, meaning they can secure a Play-Off spot at Huddersfield if they match or better Reading’s result at home to Barnsley.

Either way, it’s been a great season for Orient, that’s raised the stock of star men like goalkeeper Josh Keeley and versatile midfielder Ethan Galbraith, but also Richie Wellens, who has won League Two titles before, but has now comprehensively proven he can also deliver in League One with the right financial and infrastructural support. 

4. Grant McCann (Doncaster Rovers)

One of the great qualities of Grant McCann’s sides is that they come to the boil at the right time.

The Northern Irishman’s League One title-winning Hull side finished with 11 wins in 15; the Peterborough side he took charge of in February the following season ended with four wins in nine, albeit not enough to save their Championship status; and it’s been the same at Doncaster.

Rovers were 20th in March of last season, following an injury-hit campaign, but a stunning 10-game winning streak saw them finish 5th and get into the Play-Offs, and while this year they’ve been in League Two title contention all season, they’ve also finished 10 unbeaten.

McCann was a driven, energetic, tenacious midfielder in his playing days with a thirst to make things happen, and at Donny he’s built a team that mirrors him in many ways; they’ve had a real durability that’s allowed them to finish seasons strongly, at a time where other teams fumble at the business end.

An athletic side that’s full of running, with the jewel in the crown that is Luke Molyneux, has seen the South Yorkshire outfit secure a top three berth.

McCann remains an ambitious manager, now with some valuable experience, and is keen to re-introduce himself to the upper echelon of the EFL – he’ll be aiming to do more than survive if he stays with Doncaster in League One next season. 

3. Chris Davies (Birmingham City)

We only have five managers to pick from out of the entire EFL this season, and if we had more we’d go for other managers, like John Eustace, Gary Bowyer, and David Artell, who have done outstanding work without being the ones to take the top honours.

It may still seem harsh, from the outside, to exclude those who have delivered on a budget, kept teams up from difficult positions or overseen seismic progress, in favour of somebody who, in terms of the pure 1-24, has merely met expectation.

With Chris Davies, however, it’s not just what’s been achieved that means he deserves this inclusion, it’s how it’s been achieved: with a clear style of play stamped right onto the team from the get-go, with strong, authoritative, modern man management qualities, and with a record-breaking Football League points tally of a minimum 108 with one game to play.

And, while there is a direct correlation between success and spending power, it’s also very common for teams with a huge financial advantage to struggle with the unique challenges it can bring - such as too many players, scattergun recruitment, an imbalanced team that shoehorns in star names or egotistical culture.

Birmingham haven’t once suffered from any of that, and so much of that is down to Davies, who not only has an elite coaching profile, having assisted Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou at various clubs, he also knows the extra ingredients that are required to translate advanced ideas into a competitive senior environment.

So, yes, Davies has had a great hand, but he’s also played his hand extremely well, and looks an exciting young manager coming into the top two divisions of English football.

2. Scott Parker (Burnley)

Burnley's defensive record is simply extraordinary.

The Clarets have amassed an astonishing 30 clean sheets in the Championship this season and, almost as impressively, they only conceded once in each of the other 15 games.

Widely accepted logic is that it’s possible to produce a great defensive performance and still concede one, through the opposition scoring a belter from outside the box or a moment of brilliance.

So, for the Clarets to go a whole league campaign without shipping more than once in a game is phenomenal.

Nobody has ever conceded fewer than 15 in a league season, and the only two teams who have managed that tally - 1888-89 PNE & 2004-05 Chelsea - did it over 22 and 38 games respectively, rather than 45 or 46.

And, we can safely say that regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s lunchtime hosting of Millwall, Burnley will have the best defensive record in the history of English football on a per-game basis (0.33).

Goalkeeper James Trafford’s shot-stopping has been key to this, likewise stand-out defensive contributions from the back-four of Connor Roberts, CJ Egan-Riley, Maxime Estève and Bashir Humphreys, latterly replaced through injury by Lucas Pires - but Scott Parker has shown excellent organisational qualities.

Don’t disregard the attack, though: Burnley built solid foundations in the first half of the season, but they also had 11 goalless draws up to mid-February, but that began to change after Marcus Edwards arrived on loan from Sporting Lisbon in January.

Edwards brought a different level of craft, skill and guile to proceedings, which unlocked doors for them to score 27 goals in their last 12 games, with the likes of Josh Brownhill, Jaidon Anthony and Zian Flemming finishing in strong goalscoring form.

Questioned at the time of appointment, Parker has quashed doubters and records alike. 

1. Daniel Farke (Leeds United)

Daniel Farke has had five seasons as a manager in the Championship, overseen four 90+ points tallies, has won three promotions and a minimum of two league titles: the ultimate specialist of the level.

The German’s Leeds side of 2023-24 was very effective, with a solid defensive base whilst leaning on individual quality going forward, chiefly of Crysencio Summerville.

So, it’s easy to underestimate, now, how damaging the loss of Summerville, along with Georginio Rutter and even Archie Gray, could have been.

Despite those key departures, however, Farke has evolved Leeds into a better all-round team, still with those same defensive foundations, but with more means to carve teams open, both from right-back, where Jayden Bogle has proved an inspired acquisition, and in midfield, likewise Ao Tanaka.

The Whites have been an effective transitions side when they’ve needed to unleash the pace of Dan James, but they’ve also been able to unlock their opponents in a way they struggled to do last season, with the patterns of play established through a better squad and a more extensive pre-season.

The one remaining question mark over Leeds had been the goalkeeper, Ilian Meslier, who cost them points frequently in the first three-quarters of the campaign, and Farke killing his darlings by drafting in Karl Darlow for the business end has proved his final, crucial, decision that’s got Leeds over the line.

Now, Farke returns to the Premier League, with more experience than he had with Norwich, and hopefully lessons learnt, but also greater financial support, as he looks to go from being a Championship safe bet to somebody who can deliver at the top table.