Where Did It All Go Wrong....

[brian green]

If we come up again it is unlikely that our team will have four players of the ability of Jack, John, Tyrone or Tammy.  We may well come back again.  When it happens depends on having fewer players in our team who are not so unspeakably inferior.

[ChicagoLion]

If we come up again it is unlikely that our team will have four players of the ability of Jack, John, Tyrone or Tammy.  We may well come back again.  When it happens depends on having fewer players in our team who are not so unspeakably inferior.

The critical signing was replacing Tammy and they got that spectacularly wrong.

[brian green]

In spades.  Replaced an England striker with one who does not like heading the ball.  How bad do you have to be in football before you get a boot up the arse.

[olaftab]

Not marketing ourselves properly in the 90s when we were finishing in the top 4, winning cups and consistently in Europe. This coupled with Doug selling 5 years too late in my opinion is where it all went wrong. More specifically would be want could have happened if we had signed a better option that Collymore for £7 million when we still had Yorke.

I agree with all of what you have said except Collymore. It was on paper a perfect signing. The team that won the League cup in 96, reached the FA cup semi final and finished 4th was not properly supported by Ellis. He was happy with that achievement instead of having the vision to invest and really dominate English football. That was a chance missed to keep us in the elite group.

[Sexual Ealing]

It was obviously that fucking Leicester game.

[dave.woodhall]

Not marketing ourselves properly in the 90s when we were finishing in the top 4, winning cups and consistently in Europe. This coupled with Doug selling 5 years too late in my opinion is where it all went wrong. More specifically would be want could have happened if we had signed a better option that Collymore for £7 million when we still had Yorke.

I agree with all of what you have said except Collymore. It was on paper a perfect signing. The team that won the League cup in 96, reached the FA cup semi final and finished 4th was not properly supported by Ellis. He was happy with that achievement instead of having the vision to invest and really dominate English football. That was a chance missed to keep us in the elite group.

Brian Little was perfectly happy with the amount of money he had; we just bought the wrong players.

[TonyD]

Moscow

[hilts_coolerking]

I said at the beginning of MON's final season that it was clear his strengths had got us to 6th but his weaknesses would prevent us from going any higher.  I thought that would have been the ideal time to replace him but that was considered to be disloyal.  Fast forward to the beginning of the following season and we all saw just what disloyalty was.  We've never since been in a such a strong position to attract top drawer managers.

[LeeB]

I said at the beginning of MON's final season that it was clear his strengths had got us to 6th but his weaknesses would prevent us from going any higher.  I thought that would have been the ideal time to replace him but that was considered to be disloyal.  Fast forward to the beginning of the following season and we all saw just what disloyalty was.  We've never since been in a such a strong position to attract top drawer managers.

This, in answer to the original post, is where it all went wrong.

[Drummond]

Yep. Agreed.... pretty much a perfect storm of wrongness!

Wrong manager, wrong director of football, wrong players.

Wrong CEO and wrong owners too.

[PeterWithesShin]

25th December 1938.

[Risso]

I said at the beginning of MON's final season that it was clear his strengths had got us to 6th but his weaknesses would prevent us from going any higher.

Completely agree. It was unfortunate for him that his transfer sights didn't extend further than the shores of the UK and Ireland.  He was seemingly addicted to buying completely over-priced UK based players.  Wasn't it Lerner's refusal to sanction the signing of McGeady for £10m+ that finally led to Pubehead spitting his dummy and walking?

[N'ZMAV]

bloke who sits next to me at work reckons if DOL had the cash MON had it wouldn't have gone wrong...

[Exeter 77]

25th December 1938.

The day between a 0-2 defeat at home to Grimsby and a 5-1 win at Sunderland apparently.

[Sexual Ealing]

bloke who sits next to me at work reckons if DOL had the cash MON had it wouldn't have gone wrong...

As he demonstrated with pug-nosed panache when he was at Leeds.