Rank Villa's managers since Sky ruined football

[DaveD]

Very good - Big Fat Ron + Brian Little
Promising but ultimately disappointing - M'ON + John Gregory
Not great - Taylor + Houllier
Absolute dog shit - O'Leary + McLeish + Lambert

Can't argue with that

seconded

Yeah looks about right to me too

[Fred]

I can't belive DOL is not ranked worst. Never has a manager of our club shown as little respect to the club than DOL.

[MorrisNielson]

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.

[PeterWithesShin]

Brian for me over BFR. We were more consistent, people seem to forget we finished 5th in 97. At times we played some great stuff under Atkinson, but not this endless fantastic attacking football that seems to get mentioned. Even in 92/93 we were only the joint 8th highest scorers, even Oldham scored more. Not forgetting the 1 goal in 11 games in his first season. Or how we crap we were for the last 35 odd league games of his reign.

[adrenachrome]

Brian for me over BFR. We were more consistent, people seem to forget we finished 5th in 97. At times we played some great stuff under Atkinson, but not this endless fantastic attacking football that seems to get mentioned. Even in 92/93 we were only the joint 8th highest scorers, even Oldham scored more. Not forgetting the 1 goal in 11 games in his first season. Or how we crap we were for the last 35 odd league games of his reign.

I agree with you, PWS, although most of the Villa fans I know go with BFR.

[MorrisNielson]

Brian for me over BFR. We were more consistent, people seem to forget we finished 5th in 97. At times we played some great stuff under Atkinson, but not this endless fantastic attacking football that seems to get mentioned. Even in 92/93 we were only the joint 8th highest scorers, even Oldham scored more. Not forgetting the 1 goal in 11 games in his first season. Or how we crap we were for the last 35 odd league games of his reign.

Under BFR, most folks just remember the period from November 92 to February 93 when we played some unbelievable stuff and the 94 League Cup run. The rest gets put to the background. Didn't the goalless run coincide with the green sand?
With the 96/97 season we finished 5th despite carrying Curcic for most of the season. If he had fitted in who knows where we would have finished............

[PeterWithesShin]

To put into context what Brian achieved in 95-97 with the 4th and 5th place finishes, it's the only time since 1933 we've finished in the top 5 in consecutive seasons.

[Pat McMahon]

To put into context what Brian achieved in 95-97 with the 4th and 5th place finishes, it's the only time since 1933 we've finished in the top 5 in consecutive seasons.

I remember a pre-season preview in 1996 in one of the papers where Ferguson was quoted as saying Villa were the team to watch out for.

[dave.woodhall]

The thing about BFR was that people liked him. As Terry Weir said, when he was around we got the publicity and enjoyed the attention we deserve. He was a populist and the common factor from time immemorial at Villa Park is that whoever follows a populist will struggle. It happened with Vic Crowe after Tommy Docherty, with Brian after BFR and Sir Graham after John Gregory. It was also going to make whoever followed O'Neill struggle in comparison.