TOPIC: Worst ever British Manager

1. Gregg Abbot
2. John Barnes
3. Colin Calderwood

Honourable mention for Paul Simpson

Bobby Charlton...

1.Martin Wilkinson - Having to get advice off some of the players as to which team to pick.
2. Steve McLaren - Consistently fails and smiles about it, and gets sacked, but then always returns in another plum, well paid job - then fails again, and smiles about it, and gets sacked.
3. Graham Kavanagh - No explanation necessary.

musher441 wrote:
I left Kav out as im not sure if hed class himself as British

Michael Knighton

1,2 & 3 - Aidan McCaffrey

End of thread...

Dancingbear wrote:
Aye. Fair enough. Never thought of that.
Go for Harry Gregg then.
Equally as bad and he was from the North side.

CCU wrote:
Sod off Dan. What about David Mcreery?

Poor, but not in McCaffrey's League. Christ it was piss to watch then!!!

Didn't the wally with the brolly get Middlesbrough to a European final, and win the German title?

Wilkinson was abysmal like.

Alan Shearer

Roddy.

I know, same as Kav.

But.

deeksme wrote: Any success he had is nullified by the unforgivable act of smiling.

Dancingbear wrote:
I take it your kidding Dancing!!
I know Abbott wasn't well liked in the end but.......

'WE' have had far worse managers....

Martin (tactical genius) Wilkinson
Harry (bloody god awful dreary) Gregg
Keith (the invisible magician) Mincher
Michael ('We don't need a manager') Knighton
And the worst from me.....Graham (I really haven't a clue what the bloody hell I'm supposed to be doing) Kavaghan

deeksme wrote:
He did indeed get to the Uefa cup final.That's the least he should have achieved with the millions he spent and the players at his disposal.
He had a squad which consisted of Mark Schwarzer, Gareth Southgate, George Boateng, Ray Parlour etc, and a forward line of Mark Viduka and Hasselbaink.
He also had players like Woodgate, Juninho, Ugi Ehiogu at his disposal. All good players at that time. Spent an absolute fortune, and won nowt.

deeksme wrote:
He won the dutch title with fc twente, His reign at Wolfsburg was a disaster. So it was a dutch title, not german.

Stinkyturner wrote:

Wazza wrote:

I know one managing a British team, Van Gaal, Muphys law indeed.....

McClaren won a league cup with Boro I think. SO probably not the worst of all time considering how many pots they've won!

Read someones autobiography once, could have been Phil Stants, and there was a tale about Wilkinson in it. He was selling Stant( or whoever) and Stant didnt want to go but couldnt stand Wilkinson. Anyhow he was saying bye to the club shop girls and Wilkinson walked in, he said Phil hows it come to this I dont want you to go I rate you blah blah blah, Stant said I dont want to go, Right said Wilkinson Im phoning the chairman and stopping this move!!! He walked into the club shop girls office and shut the door, 30 mins later Wilkinson still hadnt come out so Stant walked in to find Wilkinson had climbed out the office window and went home!!!!! Strange bloke

Alan Shearer
Harry Redknapp

The worst manager to get regular top flight employment was Alan Ball.

Lee Clark is the one that gets me, can't work out how you can keep being so inept at a job but someone else will give you a chance.

deeksme wrote:
Fair comment mate.
Just my opinion of him.Its no big deal.
I personally don't like him or his smug character.
I really don't get how he keeps getting good jobs as his record says you should avoid him like the plague.
And he's proving it yet again at Newcastle.

Anyone saying Steve McLaren quite frankly knows bugger all about football. Granted he's not the best but to say he's one of the worst is laughable. Led an unfashionable club to their only Dutch title ever and led an even more unfashionable English club to their only ever major trophy and a European final. Fantastic achievements in anyone's book.

If you'd have said Gary Megson or Bryan Robson then you'd be a lot closer to the mark.

franksidebottom wrote:
Nah.Dont agree.
With the amounts of money he spent and the players he had at his disposal over his reign a league cup final should have been the minimum requirement.
He only lasted in the job so long because Gibson gave him the benefit of the doubt on so many occasions.
I'll give you Gary Megson though. Forgot about him.

musher441 wrote:
Do you mean Bryan Robson as in Bryan 'Pop' Robson. If so I agree.

Flatcap wrote:
God yeah. He was bad.
It took him less than 2 months to destroy everything Stokoe had built up over about 5 years.

Tell you what when you look at how much money Mark Hughes has spent and never won out he must make top 10

David Platt
Tony Adams
Alan Ball
Jim Fallon
Graeme Souness
Alan Shearer
John Carver
Michael Knighton

Profpieman wrote:
14 years ago today he won the League Cup, was a very good Manager at Rovers after that - Career went wrong when he left. Jury is out at Stoke like, seems to be really trusted mind the Coates.

First ones I thought were Roy Harford and Brian Kidd. Harford bought only 1 player in the Summer after becoming Champions - Matty Holmes. Brian Kidd made some very bad contracts as well as bad buys, think he gave Ashley Ward 15k a week for 4 seasons but that may have been Roy Hodgson.

musher441 wrote:
There's managers who've spent a hell of a lot more money than McLaren at much more fashionable clubs and won bugger all. Mark Hughes and Brendan Rodgers sprint to mind. Boro had never won a major trophy in their history and they also finished 7th reached the following years UEFA cup final. Not bad going for one of Britains worst ever managers!! Bryan Robson before him probably spent more money on the likes of Junihno, Ravanelli and Boksic than McLaren did yet he won nowt. The manager who succeeded McLaren took them down where they're still at today. You're so far wide of the mark its untrue!

I suppose Twente's league title was just luck aswell was it?!!!

Wazza wrote:
Stand corrected then pal, I thought it was Souness that won Blackburn that cup

Profpieman wrote:
Aye it was, was just saying that for old times sake!

Hughes is a Manager who seems to be better without money, did very well with Wales and you have to applaud the side he built at Rovers - some great signings who moved on for much more money. He also gave us trips to Krakow, Rotterdam, Leverkusen and Salzburg - will always be grateful to him and if Pedersen could have headed right at Old Trafford an FA Cup Final as well.

A lot of players who played under Ferguson must have looked at what he achieved and thought "well this managing is a piece of piss, I'll give that a go" and then turned out to be [censored] hopeless. Don't like Fergie but he must have been a great manager to give that impression to them.

Bryan Robson
Roy Keane
Gary Neville
Steve Bruce and his 10 million clubs
Paul "is it cos I is black" Ince
Gordon "won a 2 horse race" Strachan

Mark Hughes i'd say is average, and that's about it for the fergie entourage

It's like a selection box of relegation candidates

Peter Reid with his monkey heed?

franksidebottom wrote:
Calm yourself down man. You'll give yourself a heart attack.
You've got your opinion, I've got mine.
It's really no big deal.
McLaren spent a fortune on that duck egg Maccaroni and Benito Carbone(paid him crazy money during a 3ish month loan)..
He signed players for big fees such as Hasselbaink, Viduka, Yakubu(who was at his peak when he signed) 3 strikers who should be winning you matches.
Gareth Southgate,( who played at the back with Woodgate when Woodgate could really play)
Other big money players signed such as Ugo Ehiogu, Ray Parlour, Gaizka Mendieta, Bolo Zenden,George Boateng, Danny Mills,Geremi, Juninho(2nd time around).
All top players who should be winning games consistently but didn't.
Added to good players already at the club like Woodgate, Stewart Downing.
These are just a few off the top of my head.
I only remember these as they were part of the teams I watched now and again when over there visiting a mate of mine.. There may be more.
He should have done better in my opinion.
I agree about Robson aswell by the way.

Neil Lennon.
Anyone can win the league in Scotland with Celtic but when he goes to another club what can he do?

CCU wrote: Curle in positions 4-10 I presume Dan?

CCU wrote:
Aiden doesn't deserve that. In just over one season in charge he signed:

Kelham O'Hanlon - v good lower league keeper
Andy Barnsley - reliable defender
Simon Davey - cracking midfielder
Andy Watson - talented striker
Dean Walling - turned out to be a BP legend
Tony Gallimore - quality left back
George Oghani - crowd pleaser!

In many ways he started to build the team that Wadsworth took up and arguably demonstrated a better eye for a player than most of our managers before or since!

musher441 wrote:
Hasselbaink and bolo zendan went to boro on free transfers, he did waste a few quid thou.

Who was that big Brazilian midfielder they had as well. Remember seeing him score a 25 yarder at the stadium of light but cant remember his name?.

Dancingbear wrote:
Long curly hair??
Emerson.
I seem him as well but I think he was signed by Robson and gone before McLaren came.
Might be wrong though.

musher441 wrote:
Thats the fella. No idea who he played under though, just couldnt remember his name.

The Archer wrote:
Should've been a scout then!

We finished 92nd in the Football League in his only full season. We were shit...

I'm calm as you like my friend, you're right it's no big deal but basically you're wrong! This thread is about the worst ever British managers and you've named one of the most successful of recent times simply because you don't like him!

Just reading his Wikipedia page and the evidence gets worse from your point of view, 2 FA cup semi finals, highest league placing for 30 years, first ever European qualification, first ever major trophy, European final in his 5 year spell at Boro and that's before he even went to Holland and won the league!!! You've even said yourself what a good side he built by naming all his good signings.

You say he should have done better at Boro. What else should he have done?