John Gregory

[Villan82]

Remember how cocky Gregory was in his first week, months and year? He brought a real swagger to the job.

[eamonn]

And rightly so. In an annualised league table for the calendar year 1998 we would have been runners-up. Given the poor results under Brian in Jan/Feb which partly led to his departure, we probably would have finished ahead of Arsenal with Gregory's average points per game from the rest of the year.

Pretty drastic fall from grace though. In a Jan-Dec 1999, we would have come 14th!

[Villan82]

I recall things went very stale under Little with the Collymore signing being a total flop and that he sort of left the job out of the blue with JG's appointment being a real shock one. As you say, our form under JG that calendar year was top 2 and the football wasn't bad either. Merson and Dublin were good signings. Not so sure about some of the ones that followed: Stone and Watson or example. Things went a bit dour thereafter and that cockiness seemed a bit misplaced as we trudged through games in following seasons.

[dave.woodhall]

I never liked Gregory at the time but in hindsight he did a remarkable job doing as well as he did with all the splits and factions at the club. He was superb at getting the supporters onside as well, although whether that helped long-term is open to debate.

[eamonn]

Why weren't you a fan, Dave? His personality or how the quality of football declined under his watch?

[dave.woodhall]

Why weren't you a fan, Dave? His personality or how the quality of football declined under his watch?

The football was often dire and he was a bit too populist for me. He was BFR without the style.