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Ferguson, Guardiola, Shankly and now Martin O'Neill - the legendary managers to reach 1,000 games
Martin Macdonald
- Updated: 19 Feb 2026 04:16 CST
- 5 min read
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Martin O'Neill will reach 1,000 games in professional management when his Celtic side face Stuttgart in the Europa League playoff phase on Thursday.
The Irishman is actually in his third stint as manager at Celtic Park and his second stint this very season.
After being brought in on an interim basis to replace the departing Brendan Rodgers earlier in the campaign, he subsequently left but was then brought back in after the disastrous tenure of Wilfried Nancy.
As well as Celtic on three occasions, O’Neill has managed Grantham Town, Shepshed Charterhouse, Wycombe, Norwich, Leicester, Aston Villa, Sunderland, Nottingham Forest and the Republic of Ireland national side.
After impressing in the lower leagues with Wycombe, he made his stamp on English football with Leicester, taking the club to two unlikely League Cup victories in 1997 and 2000.
Ahead of the 2000/2001 season, he moved to Celtic and would go on to achieve iconic status in the East End of Glasgow.
The season prior, the Bhoys had finished 21 points behind champions Rangers and so the pressure was on to bridge that gap.
O'Neill's first Old Firm match against Rangers is the stuff of legend as Celtic won 6-2 at home, with the game featuring possibly the greatest Old Firm goal of all time - Henrik Larsson's audacious chip over Stefan Klos after nutmegging Bert Konterman.
Not only did Celtic bridge that gap, but overcame it, as O'Neill guided the club to a fantastic treble of the Scottish Premier League, League Cup and Scottish Cup in his first season.
He's adored by Celtic fans for the run to the 2003 UEFA Cup final in Seville and although they ultimately lost against Porto, he and the players became legends for their efforts in the competition, with victories against English sides Blackburn and Liverpool the highlights.
In his five seasons at Celtic Park, O'Neill won three Scottish Premier League titles, three Scottish Cups, and a League Cup. Remarkably, the only two leagues he lost came via margins of one point and a single goal.
| Rank | Manager | Played |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Ferguson | 2,155 |
| 2 | Neil Warnock | 1,960 |
| 3 | Vanderlei Luxemburgo | 1,819 |
| 4 | Guy Roux | 1,746 |
| 5 | Graham Turner | 1,718 |
| 6 | Arsène Wenger | 1,702 |
| 7 | Bill Struth | 1,655 |
| 8 | Luiz Felipe Scolari | 1,647 |
| 9 | Jim Smith | 1,641 |
| 10 | Willie Maley | 1,612 |
| 11 | Alec Stock | 1,584 |
| 12 | Manuel Pellegrini | 1,566 |
| 13 | Dario Gradi | 1,557 |
| 14 | Mircea Lucescu | 1,539 |
| 15 | Nigel Clough | 1,537 |
| 16 | Fred Everiss | 1,520 |
| 17 | Roy Coyle | 1,514 |
| 18 | Rubens Minelli | 1,482 |
| 19 | Alan Devonshire | 1,457 |
| 20 | Osvaldo Brandão | 1,456 |
| 21 | Brian Clough | 1,453 |
| 22 | Ricardo Ferretti | 1,452 |
| 23 | Bobby Robson | 1,446 |
| 24 | Claudio Ranieri | 1,439 |
| 25 | Abel Braga | 1,429 |
| 26 | Giovanni Trapattoni | 1,418 |
| 27 | Carlo Ancelotti | 1,404 |
| 28 | Harry Redknapp | 1,395 |
| 29 | Miroslav Blažević | 1,376 |
| 30 | Yuri Semin | 1,362 |
In 2006, after taking a spell away from football take care of his wife Geraldine who had lymphoma, he was appointed Aston Villa manager.
After a couple of seasons languishing in the bottom half of the table prior to his appointment, he made Villa a force again, battling for places in Europe, though they missed out on Champions League qualification during his time at the club.
No silverware came, but he took Villa to their first Cup final in 10 years but they lost the League Cup to Manchester United.
O'Neill would never really reach the heights of his success at Celtic again in his managerial career, but did take the Republic of Ireland to the knockout stage of Euro 2016 at national team level.
On 999 games currently, he'll reach 1,000 games in management tonight.
Which other managers have reached 1,000 games?
A lot of the most famous managers of all time have reached at least 1,000 games in management including Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp, Carlo Ancelotti, Jock Stein and Bill Shankly.
Ferguson leads the way by some distance. In fact, he is the only manager in history to reach over 2,000 games in management.
Neil Warnock is the only other manager who is close to the 2,000 mark as he managed 1,960 games in his career, with the most coming with Sheffield United.
Luiz Felipe Scolari, Ignacio Trelles, Roy Hodgson, Dick Advocaat and Giovanni Trapattoni are the only managers of 1,000 or more club games and 100 or more national team games.
Vanderlei Luxemburgo managed 1,189 in his career but did so with 24 teams which is more than any other manager in the top 100 for over 1,000 games managed.
The most active manager with the most amount of games managed is 72-year-old Manuel Pellegrini, currently in charge of Real Betis.
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