There are very, very few managers in the modern game who have not played at a notable level, and these days it seems as though when a well known player retires from the game they are presented with two options; the media side of things, or coaching.
Most pros will do their coaching badges late in their career as a way to stay connected in the game after hanging up the boots, Keith Andrews and Damien Duff are examples of this close to home, and although most are earning their qualifications without an immediate plan, some are thrust directly into management.
Sometimes it doesn't work out too well. Alan Shearer comes to mind as someone who tried to jump in at the deep end and as a result has not returned, but sometimes, it seems like it was meant to be.
Here are five managers who within their first year of retiring as a player had proven their ability to manage at a high level.
Jurgen Klopp
Evidence that you don't have to be a great player to be a great manager, Jurgen Klopp enjoyed a solid if unspectacular career where he became a hero at Mainz.
Upon his retirement in 2001, he was immediately appointed as manager and was tasked with taking the club to the German top-flight for the first time since the 1960s. And he did it. After winning his first game in charge it was clear that he was cut out to be a motivator, and soon repaid the club's confidence with Bundesliga promotion in the 2003/04 season.
Two years later, the club were playing UEFA Cup football, and Klopp had established himself as one of the more promising young managers in Europe. He resigned from Mainz in 2008 after results took a turn for the worse, but was quickly snapped up by Borussia Dortmund who were looking for an identity, and the rest is history.
Roberto Mancini
Another one who wasted no time in testing themselves in the realm of management was Roberto Mancini, who cut a loan spell with Leicester City short after just four games to manage a Fiorentina side in financial crisis.
Mancini was looking to prove himself as a manager despite having not completed the necessary badges, and won a Coppa Italia in a topsy-turvy season that saw him step eventually step down with the club in the relegation zone. That may not sound like the most comfortable of starts but Mancini had shown enough to persuade Lazio to appoint him, and from there his career took off, restoring Inter to dominance before winning a Premier League at Manchester City.
He was able to become a respected manager by the end of a season in which he started as a player on loan at Leicester, that's impressive.
Diego Simeone
Like Klopp above, Simeone retired as a player to take the position of manager at the club he was playing for, with Racing in Argentina in 2006.
Having left the club following a change of president at the end of that season, Simeone was appointed as manager of Estudiantes de La Plata and in his first season managed to win the club's first title for 23 years. River Plate was his next job and another title followed before he was given his first chance in Europe with Italian club Catania.
Having kept the side up against the odds, Simeone returned to Argentina for a second spell with Racing that was cut short when Atletico Madrid came calling. Having been at the club twice as a player, he was already a hero, but Simeone became a legend when he delivered a La Liga title to Atleti and broke the Real Madrid/Barcelona duopoly in 2013/14.
Kenny Dalglish
Perhaps the smoothest transition of them all. Regardless of how you view his most recent spell in management with Liverpool, there's no denying that Kenny Dalglish had a ridiculously successful start to his managerial career while he was still a player.
Dalglish was made player-manager of Liverpool in the wake of the Heysel Stadium disaster and was able to immediately continue the club's success domestically by delivering the league and cup double, Liverpool's first, in his first season.
After his final appearance as a player in 1990 Dalglish would last another year before deciding to move on, and at Blackburn he managed to secure Premier League promotion via the playoffs in his first season before going on to win the Premier League in 1994/95.
Dalglish never quite regained that kind of glory again, but he did enough in his first two spells as manager to guarantee legendary status forever.
Garry Monk
His first match as player-manager of Swansea was a 3-0 win over bitter rivals Cardiff City, and the club would enjoy a decent Europa League while avoiding relegation which was enough to see Monk offered the job on a permanent basis at the end of the season.
His time at Swansea ended in a sacking after a poor run of results, but he has since changed the atmosphere around Leeds United and has offered the supporters hope going forward with the impressive job he has done thus far.
That's five of the smoothest transitions, and ironically four of the smoothest managers in all of football in general. (Sorry Kenny!)
