Champions League is fertile ground for new managers, but knowhow could be key later on

The Champions League is back, and the managers running the touchlines this season tell us something interesting: experience matters, but it is not the only thing that matters.

Fourteen of the 36 clubs entering the competition this season are led by managers who have been in post for less than a year. Another 14 have been at their clubs for two years or more. Eight sit somewhere in the middle, having qualified in their first full season and now stepping up to prove themselves at the top table. It is a genuinely mixed field, and the history of the competition suggests that is not a bad thing.

New Managers Win This Trophy. Always Have.

Both of Chelsea's Champions League triumphs came under managers appointed that same year. Carlo Ancelotti won it with Real Madrid in year one, twice, across two separate stints. Zinedine Zidane took over at Madrid and won three on the bounce from the off. Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique both lifted the trophy with Barcelona at the earliest possible opportunity. Hansi Flick finished his first season at Bayern with a treble. The idea that you need years to bed in before you can compete in Europe is simply not supported by what has actually happened.

Liverpool fans will have noticed that Andoni Iraola's situation is not unlike the one Rafael Benítez was in when he first took the Anfield job, and Benítez went and won the whole thing. No guarantees, but the precedent exists.

That said, the betting markets are not backing the newcomers. PSG are the favourites, with Luis Enrique now into his fourth season at the club. The two-time defending champions have a squad that runs deep and face far lighter domestic pressure than their main rivals. Barcelona, Arsenal and Bayern Munich make up the rest of the top four in the odds, and their managers are all among the 13 longest-serving in the competition as the league phase begins.

The Mourinho Factor

Here is where it gets genuinely interesting. The next four most fancied clubs all have managers appointed this year, which you might read as a weakness. But do not confuse being new at a club with being inexperienced in the competition. [Manchester United's own situation this season](getohedz/football/manchester-uniteds-front-four-show-flashes-but-need-more-time) illustrates how transition can cut both ways, and Real Madrid's new man is the sharpest example of why rookie status means nothing here.

José Mourinho arrives at Madrid having managed 160 Champions League matches, the fifth highest total in the competition's history. Ancelotti leads that particular chart on 218 games. Mourinho has not gone past the last 16 since 2014, and by his own standards that is a run he will want to end. He has the talent at Madrid to do it.

The eight managers Mourinho faces in the league phase have, between them, managed fewer Champions League games than he has alone. The 24 least experienced managers in this season's competition add up to less than his total. Inter's Cristian Chivu has 10 games of Champions League experience. Manchester City's manager has six. Manchester United's has one. Liverpool's has none.

With 16 points in the league phase the established benchmark for automatic qualification to the last 16, every manager, regardless of track record, starts with the same first job in front of them. [The Premier League talking points this season](getohedz/football/premier-league-10-talking-points-from-the-weekends-action) suggest domestic form is already separating the contenders from the rest.

Get to 16 points. After that, the managers who know what this competition demands in the knockout rounds might just have the edge.