Top 11 biggest manager severance payouts in football history

No one hires another manager with the intention of firing them later, but we all know that's what usually happens.

There's the honeymoon phase, which occurs at the beginning of a new endeavor. During this time, a new leader can often provide a boost to the team, and the team members are receptive to hearing a new perspective. This phase is characterized by a generally positive outlook, even when faced with challenges.

Then life gets back to normal, and both sides are less willing to forgive each other. As we're seeing so many managers have been sacked this season.

Usually, the only thing left to figure out at the end is the divorce bill, also known as the sacked manager pay-off, and some of them are huge. The total cost of these managers' sacking bills worth is approx £174.7 million. Let's divide this sum, here are the top 11 biggest manager severance payouts in football history:

11. Andre Villas-Boas: Chelsea (£12m)

In 2011, Chelsea paid a lot of money to get Villas-Boas from Porto, and they had to pay a lot of money again to get rid of him.

The hope was that he would be the next Jose Mourinho, and he has shown that he is a good coach in Europe, though probably not the best.

He was in charge for less than a year, but that season, his team won the Champions League under Roberto Di Matteo.

10. Mauricio Pochettino: Tottenham (£12.5m)

Tottenham like to keep their best players under long-term contracts, which is fine as long as the club wants to keep them.

In May 2018, Pochettino signed a new five-year contract, and for a long time, it seemed like Spurs couldn't get rid of him.

But Spurs chose to get out of the contract after only 18 months, and they had to pay a huge amount to get out of the deal they thought would protect them.

9. Graham Potter: Chelsea (£13m)

Chelsea has fired manager Graham Potter following their 2-0 loss to Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge. Potter took over for Thomas Tuchel in September, signing a five-year contract. Chelsea, on the other hand, had dropped to 11th place in the Premier League after only 12 wins in 31 games in charge.

Reports state that Potter will not receive the full sum of his £50 million deal, with the Daily Mail stating that Chelsea will only pay a fourth of that amount, or £13 million. Potter will continue to be entitled to severance compensation, having received approximately £190,000 per week throughout his stint at West London.

8. Thomas Tuchel: Chelsea (£13m)

The second last person to leave was Tuchel, who was told to leave by the club's new owner, Todd Boehly. Boehly said that he and Tuchel did not have the same goal for the club.

Still, £13m probably didn't seem like that much compared to what Boehly has spent since taking over at Chelsea.

7. Fabio Capello: Russia (£13.4m)

This list is mostly made up of Premier League clubs, but the cost of getting rid of Fabio Capello for Russia was shocking to anyone.

Capello took over the Russian team in 2014, and he was meant to lead them to the World Cup in their own country in 2018. He lived just 18 months.

Some say he might have gotten more than the £13.4 million that was said at the time, but either way, it sounds like good work if you can get it.

6. Luiz Felipe Scolari: Chelsea (£13.6m)

Okay, it looks like we're going back to Chelsea right away. When Scolari moved from Brazil (through Portugal) to the Bridge, it was a big deal.

Scolari was fired in February of his first season, even though Chelsea had the most goals in the Premier League, was in the top four, and had made it to the knockout rounds of the Champions League.

The money hasn't stopped him from loving football, though. In fact, he had nine jobs after Chelsea, and at age 75, he was still working in his home country of Brazil.

5. Jose Mourinho: Tottenham (£16m)

Here comes the boss who gets paid the most. Jose Mourinho is one of the best football coaches of all time, and he also has a very good lawyer.

By the time he got to Tottenham, he might have lost a little of his star power, but his track record still made sure he got paid well.

That helped when they fired him in 2021 and gave him £16m for just leaving. Surprisingly, it's not even close to being his second-biggest payoff, let alone his biggest.

4. Laurent Blanc: PSG (£17m)

Huge amounts of money are put into PSG, and with that comes big demands. We all know that high expectations lead to a lot of boss turnover.

Since their fate-changing takeover in 2011, PSG has had a lot of different managers, but none of them have done as well as Laurent Blanc.

Blanc worked for PSG and won three league wins, but he was fired because the team didn't do well in Europe. In 2016, he was paid £17 million for that, but PSG are still not doing well in Europe and are still looking for their first Champions League title.

3. Jose Mourinho: Chelsea (£18m)

When Jose Mourinho got paid £18 million in 2007 for not winning the Premier League or the Champions League for the third time in a row, it was easy to feel sorry for him.

He changed the club and made them winners over and over again, but he was not allowed even a small drop in performance for a single season.

At the time, it was a record payoff, but he and one other man would both break it later.

2. Jose Mourinho: Manchester United (£19.6m)

Mourinho and Manchester United seemed like a good match, and it was a job he seemed to have always wanted. At times, it was even a happy marriage.

He won two awards right away, but it's become clear since then how many problems he was having with himself while he was at the club.

Even though there were good times in the marriage, the divorce bill was huge, but not the biggest.

1. Antonio Conte: Chelsea (£26.6m)

Even though Jose Mourinho may be the king of payoffs, Antonio Conte has made the most money ever. In fact, nothing else was even close.

In his first year in charge of Chelsea, Conte won the Premier League. In his second year, he won the FA Cup. But it seems that wasn't enough for the people in charge at Stamford Bridge.

At the end of that second season, they fired him, which according to their 2017-18 financial statements cost them £26.6m.