I said explicit achievement. Leagues, cups, top positions. A little example, Di Francesco was someone I highlighted years ago for how well coached his Sassuolo side were, their movements, their cohesion. For their level, he did 'achieve' spectacularly with them, but they were not the explicit kind of trophies, at least to football fans. The substance of the work though, the movements, the player improvement is what gets assessed and unsurprisingly enough, he's at Roma now. You want to spot a coach before he hits the big time, that's what you need to look at.
Trophies are a measure, but for me, my interest only gets piqued when a coach does it with a lesser side. Loading up on titles with the likes of Barca, Bayern, Psg, City, Juve means very little to me. Not denigrating their achievement but there's too much 'noise' from the player quality to precisely isolate the work of the coach. Doing it with the likes of Dortmund and Valencia though, that's worth further examination. You simply don't con your way to repeated success with lesser sides. It's a better filter than looking up titles won with major clubs, for sure.
But ultimately, I can see for the most part the details on a pitch, it's best to go to the substance.
