FIFA have released the ten-man shortlist for the best coach of 2016 in the men’s game, with no space for Arsene Wenger this year despite him generally making an appearance regardless of what else is going on.

The full list includes most of the people you’d expect to see on there but when I showed it to the team at Cannon Towers, the first reaction was ‘what did Klopp achieve? Losing to Sevilla in a final?’

It’s a fair point.

Liverpool didn’t even finish high enough in the league to qualify for the Europa League again.

The same could be said for Mauricio Pochettino, whose side bottled the title in the best possible way at the end of last season.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to argue that Wenger should be included if you’re going to include Klopp and Pochettino. There have many years when he’s been in the mix and he shouldn’t have been.

In a press release, FIFA said, “The winner of The Best FIFA Men’s Coach 2016 will be chosen through a combined voting process, in which 50% of the decision will be based on the choices of all captains and head coaches of national teams around the globe. The other 50% will be split between the result of an online public ballot with football fans and submissions from a selected group of over 200 media representatives from the six continents.

“Voting for player and coach of the year in 2016, in both men’s and women’s football, starts on 4 November and will close on 22 November.The final lists of three nominees for these categories – as well as for the FIFA Puskás Award and the brand new FIFA Fan Award – will be announced on 2 December.”

The FIFA list in full:

  • Chris Coleman (Wales/Welsh national team),
  • Didier Deschamps (France/French national team),
  • Pep Guardiola (Spain/FC Bayern Munich/Manchester City),
  • Jürgen Klopp (Germany/Liverpool),
  • Luis Enrique (Spain/FC Barcelona),
  • Mauricio Pochettino (Argentina/Tottenham Hotspur),
  • Claudio Ranieri (Italy/Leicester City),
  • Fernando Santos (Portugal/Portuguese national team),
  • Diego Pablo Simeone (Argentina/Atlético Madrid),
  • Zinédine Zidane (France/Real Madrid).

There surely can only be on winner – Claudio Ranieri – right?

Let us know who you think should win in the poll below: