Friday, 11 April 2003.
It is 32 years since he led a team in an FA Cup tie but the late Sir Matt Busby is still the top cup coach of the modern era according to research conducted for Official FA Community partner McDonald's.
The Old Trafford legend steered Manchester United to 61 wins in the world's most famous cup competition.
Bill Shankly is second with 49 wins but is being challenged by modern day United legend Sir Alex Ferguson who has emerged victorious from 47 FA Cup ties in his 16 years at the Theatre of Dreams.
The cup charisma of Graham Taylor puts him fourth with 45 wins and Sir Bobby Robson (joint 11th) is the only other current top-flight coach after Ferguson and Taylor to figure in the top 20 with 38 wins in his long managerial career.
Looking at this weekend's semi finalists Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger (joint 27th) has steered his Arsenal side to 28 FA Cup wins and his Blades counterpart coach Neil Warnock is just outside the top thirty with 21 FA Cup wins. But Warnock has won twice as many cup ties as Chelsea coach Claudio Ranieri (10 wins) and Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier (nine wins).
Meanwhile in the other semi-final, Southampton boss Gordon Strachan has 14 cup wins compared to his Watford counterpart Ray Lewington (7 wins).
McDonald's is putting the spotlight on cup coaches as it continues its drive with The FA to recruit 8,000 coaches across England to help develop participation and raise skill levels in the national game.
Commenting on the findings, former Manchester United youth coach Eric Harrison, who now acts as McDonald's National Football Coach said: "Cup coaching is an art in itself. Cup football puts the onus on the manager. A well motivated and expertly coached team can triumph over any other. Kevin Ratcliffe at Shrewsbury showed that in this year's competition and I know Neil Warnock and Ray Lewington will be telling his players how it can be done this Sunday.
"History tells us that the odds are fairly good that we'll see a team outside the top flight in the Final for the first time in 11 years (Sunderland vs Liverpool in 1992) because that's the magic of the FA Cup."
|
Position |
Coach |
No. of
FA Cup Wins |
|
1 |
Matt Busby |
61 |
|
2 |
Bill Shankly |
49 |
|
3 |
Alex Ferguson |
47 |
|
4 |
Graham Taylor |
45 |
|
5 |
Harry Catterick |
43 |
|
6 |
Brian Clough |
40 |
|
7= |
Bill Nicholson |
39 |
|
7= |
Joe Mercer |
39 |
|
7= |
George Graham |
39 |
|
7= |
Cliff Britton |
39 |
|
11= |
Stan Cullis |
38 |
|
11= |
Bobby Robson |
38 |
|
13 |
Don Revie |
37 |
|
14 |
Alec Stock |
36 |
|
15 |
Tommy Docherty |
35 |
|
16= |
Jim Smith |
34 |
|
16= |
Ron Atkinson |
34 |
|
18 |
Kenny Dalglish |
33 |
|
19= |
Arthur Rowley |
32 |
|
19= |
Dave Sexton |
32 |
|
21= |
Dario Gradi |
31 |
|
21= |
John Lyall |
31 |
|
23= |
Barry Fry |
30 |
|
23= |
Howard Kendall |
30 |
|
25= |
Terry Neill |
29 |
|
25= |
Dave Smith |
29 |
|
27= |
Arsene Wenger |
28 |
|
27= |
Jimmy McGuigan |
28 |
|
27= |
Arthur Turner |
28 |
|
27= |
Harry Potts |
28 |
*Research methodology:
The McDonald's Cup Coach research was compiled by the Association of Football Statisticians.
All current Football League and Premiership managers' career histories have been included to ascertain which managers have the most successful record in The FA Cup. Selected former managers have also been included, including the most successful post-war managers.
The information has been organised to show number of wins in each round of the FA Cup by the selected managers over the entire course of their careers.
Qualifying, preliminary and 3rd- 4th place play-off games have been included. Where matches have been drawn but the team managed has won as a result of a penalty shoot-out these have been included as wins.