What next for victorious manager Hernan Crespo - Chelsea, Italy, or continue at Al Ain?

In his relatively brief coaching career so far, Hernan Crespo has been at clubs for a good time not a long time. He has been in management for around a decade now, and Al Ain is the seventh club he has coached already.

It stands to reason his stay in the Garden City could be brief, too, notwithstanding the historic success of Saturday night, when his side became champions of Asia for the second time. The shelf life of the majority of managers in UAE football is generally not much longer than that of fresh fruit.

In the aftermath of the thrilling win over Yokohama F Marinos, the Argentine was not overly keen to think about the future. And fair enough, too. His side had just achieved something for the ages. They had earned their right to celebrate it.

The future can wait. But where, for Crespo, might that be? Does he try to build a dynasty at Al Ain? Or look to keep rolling on elsewhere? When does he take his shot at one of Europe’s big leagues?

Even if their stay has been short, Al Ain has often proved to be a good entry for a manager to have on their CV. The club have had some very good ones in the past couple of decades.

Tite had a brief spell there, before going on to have a long stint in charge of his native Brazil, up until the Qatar World Cup.

Zlatko Dalic was a darling of the Ainawi for the best part of three years, in which time he delivered four trophies. He went straight to managing Croatia to the 2018 World Cup final, then the semis four years later.

And Serhiy Rebrov delivered Al Ain’s most recent league title, during a two-year stint up until May 2023. He is now coach of the Ukraine team who are heading to Euro 2024.

Crespo has had a good look round in his coaching career so far. Those seven clubs he has