Michael Beardmore
BBC Sport journalist
The new football season is already a month old.
And while the garden might be rosy for Manchester City, Liverpool, Brighton, Arsenal and a few others, some Premier League clubs have had far more underwhelming starts.
Fans - and maybe chairmen - will already be casting glances at the market of available managers and coaches.
At present, this talent pool appears to be impressively deep.
BBC Sport takes a look at some of the out-of-work big names awaiting their next big assignment.
Thomas Tuchel
The 51-year-old German spent little more than 18 months in the Premier League - but while his tenure at Chelsea was short, it was trophy-laden.
He won the Champions League, Uefa Super Cup and Fifa Club World Cup in his first few months, and the Blues reached both FA Cup and EFL Cup finals in the next season too.
Disagreements with the club's new owners nevertheless meant Chelsea dispensed with his services.
A subsequent spell with Bayern Munich did not go to plan, but Tuchel remains the man to have taken Paris St-Germain closest to Champions League glory - they reached the 2020 final under his guidance - and his resume is hugely impressive.
Gareth Southgate
After eight years as England manager, taking the Three Lions to two European Championship finals, Southgate is on the market again.
The 54-year-old's only experience in club management was a three-year stint at Middlesbrough from 2006 to 2009 but - after his achievements with England - surely it will not be long before he returns to the game.
Manchester United were heavily linked with a move for Southgate in the summer, until they backed current boss Erik ten Hag.
Frank Lampard
Tuchel's predecessor at Stamford Bridge, Blues legend Lampard earned credit for the job he did during a difficult 18 months for the club between 2019-21.
Hamstrung by a transfer embargo, the ex-England midfielder still guided Chelsea to a top-four finish, an FA Cup final, helped youngsters like Reece James flourish and arguably set the platform for Tuchel's success.
Having previously taken Derby to the Championship play-off final, his stock was high after his Blues exit but, after a year fighting fires at Everton and a forgettable interim Chelsea return, Lampard has been out of management since May 2023.
Graham Potter
When he was sacked by Chelsea - yes, them again - in April 2023, few would have expected Graham Potter to be out of a job for long. But almost 18 months later, here we are.
Potter's short stay at Stamford Bridge did not work out amid a huge squad overhaul, but he previously received widespread acclaim for his work at Brighton, having initially honed his managerial skills with Swedish club Ostersund and Swansea.
The 49-year-old turned Brighton into a respected Premier League force in three years on the south coast and remains heavily touted for any high-profile job that becomes vacant - including the England post.
David Moyes
David Moyes has never managed Chelsea! However, he had a fruitful spell in London until recently.
The 61-year-old Scot is a free agent after four and a half years at West Ham, where he not only provided regular European football against the odds but guided the Hammers to a Europa League semi-final and the Europa Conference League title.
Given the success he achieved at Preston and Everton earlier in his managerial career, Moyes will surely have suitors at some point in the near future.
It is to his enormous credit that he has come back strongly from his ill-fated season as Sir Alex Ferguson's hand-picked successor at Manchester United.
Xavi
One La Liga title in two and a half years was not enough for Barcelona to offer club legend Xavi an extended stay in the Nou Camp dugout.
The 44-year-old did, however, keep the Catalan giants dining at most of football's top tables during a lengthy period of financial uncertainty and upheaval.
The prospect of him following one-time mentor Pep Guardiola to the Premier League is surely a salivating one for footballing purists.
Zinedine Zidane
Speaking of midfield maestros, the mercurial Zinedine Zidane has been out of management since leaving Barcelona's Clasico rivals Real Madrid in 2021.
The Frenchman is untested as a coach outside the Spanish capital but his record there, with admittedly vast resources at his disposal, was jaw-dropping.
He led Madrid to three successive Champions League titles - a first for any coach - in his first spell, and won a La Liga title in his second tilt at the job. But could any club carrying a torch for the 52-year-old tempt him back - bar his beloved Real?
Jurgen Klopp
The ex-Liverpool boss has said he wants at least a year away from the game - and that he would never manage another Premier League club apart from the Reds.
Many a well-intentioned promise has been broken in football, of course, but perhaps Klopp's comeback really will come outside England.
The 57-year-old - who won virtually every major trophy club football has to offer during his nine years at Anfield - will surely have Europe's heavyweights forming a queue when he does decide the time is right to return.
Who else is out there?
Alan Curbishley is still waiting for the call. Many managers who looked destined for great things in the Premier League have slipped back into near anonymity, such is the harsh nature of the game.
As well as bosses with Premier League experience, the continent is awash with available talent.
Multiple Serie A winner Max Allegri awaits a new challenge after a decade, across two spells, at Juventus, while ex-Roma and Lyon boss Rudi Garcia was ditched by Napoli last year.
Joachim Low has spent three years waiting for the phone to ring after a 15-year spell as Germany boss that brought Die Mannschaft the most recent of their World Cup triumphs.
Niko Kovac, a Bundesliga title-winning boss with Bayern Munich, left Wolfsburg in the spring, while Edin Terzic ended his Borussia Dortmund reign in June after a run to the Champions League final.
Stefano Pioli, the 58-year-old who has managed AC Milan and Inter Milan among a string of top Italian teams, remains on the market, as does long-time Porto boss Sergio Conceicao, who ended his seven-year reign this summer.
And one more Stamford Bridge alumnus deserves a mention - veteran Maurizio Sarri, whose eccentricities made for good fun at Chelsea in 2018-19 and who left Lazio after three years in March.