I echo what others had said and would break them up into four tiers.
Atkinson/Little – played some lovely stuff under both of these, both ended up with Silverware with brilliant performances in the finals. Big Ron just edges it slightly.
Gregory/O’Neill – Both played good football (most of the time). Both didn’t get the most out of the players for the money spent. Always a player short of being a really good side.
Taylor/Houllier – Overall disappointing. Taylor was restricted to ‘make do’ signings (Kinsella, Leonhardsen etc) as money dried up. Home form was good if not overly great to watch, needed to be more resilient away from home. Houllier was a strange one. Would have liked to have seen how it would have panned out in time, as it looked like he had a plan and knew what he wanted to do. Didn’t help himself with his comments.
DOL/Scottish twins – least said the better. DOL started well with only a few new players. Was glad when he departed, was convinced we would have gone down with another season in charge. Never known anyone go out of their way to alienate themselves from the club and its supporters like how he did. McLeish – His gameplan to draw our way to safety really sucked the life out us. One season was one too much. A second would have seen us drop. Lambert – One step forwards, two steps back. Was happy with his appointment, but I have never witnessed such a poor team lacking in the basics of the game. Just when you thought a corner had been turned, things always got worse.
Anyway, stats for the managers below. Some interesting reading. Both Gregory & O’Neill average more points and scored more per game than Atkinson & Little. Slightly surprising as Gregory/O’Neill sides tended to draw too many games, especially at home.
Premier League Managers Stats
P W D L F A Pts W% D% L% F/G A/G Pts/G
Ron Atkinson 98 38 27 33 118 114 141 38.78 27.55 33.67 1.2 1.16 1.44
Brian Little 130 51 36 43 159 136 189 39.23 27.69 33.08 1.22 1.05 1.45
John Gregory 148 61 46 41 195 162 229 41.22 31.08 27.7 1.32 1.09 1.55
Graham Taylor 51 15 13 23 57 66 58 29.41 25.49 45.1 1.12 1.29 1.14
David O'Leary 114 37 34 43 135 151 145 32.46 29.82 37.72 1.18 1.32 1.27
Martin O'Neill 152 61 53 38 220 179 236 40.13 34.87 25 1.45 1.18 1.55
Gerard Houllier 28 8 9 11 36 45 33 28.57 32.14 39.29 1.29 1.61 1.18
Alex McLeish 38 7 17 14 37 53 38 18.42 44.74 36.84 0.97 1.39 1
Paul Lambert 101 25 26 50 98 164 101 24.75 25.74 49.5 0.97 1.62 1
Notes
F/G = Goals for per game. A/G = Goals against per game. Pts/G = Pts per game
Houllier’s stats doesn’t include the last 5 games when Gary Mac was in temporary charge.
