Unai Emery

[pauliewalnuts]

I don't hate Gerrard.

I just think he's entirely unqualified to be managing at the top level, and is an abysmal man-manager who should not have been anywhere near the club.

[PeterWithesShin]

Especially as it was after a game away to a club we should be 'wiping the floor with' given our respective aims at the time. Twat.

[danno]

I don't hate Gerrard.

I just think he's entirely unqualified to be managing at the top level, and is an abysmal man-manager who should not have been anywhere near the club.

His time here did make me wonder how "inspirational" a captain he actually was.

[Nev]

My favourite manager will always be SGT, given his first tenure coincided with me going regularly. And a million other things of course.

The only Manager I truly dislike is DOL, who belittled our greatest achievement and seemed to hold both the club and supporters in contempt. 

[olaftab]

Him being on the coach back to Brum having being sacked will always be very very funny. Twat.

lol... what a tight git as well. With so many millions in the bank I would have said fuck off to the coach and hired a limo to take me back home.

[olaftab]

McLeish was just a crap manager who we shouldn't have touched with the shitty end of a stick, he wasn't an especially unlikeable bloke. The biggest wanker we've had was Martin O'Neill. He actually set out to damage us, and despite his mealy mouthed words recently I will never forgive the twat for that, and it's only now that we're finally recovering from the damage he laid the foundations for.  O'Leary was probably a bigger, naturally unlikeable wanker, but he never set out to deliberately sabotage us, so he's only number two on my list.

I'd rank the managers from favourite to most hated since I've been attending regularly thus:

Little
Atkinson
Gregory
Emery
Smith
-
-
Grand Canyon sized gap between people who did well and people who were shit
-
Sherwood
Gerrard
McLeish
Lambert
Houllier
Di Matteo
Garde
Bruce
O'Leary
O'Neill


The bottom are three are set in stone, the shite above them are fairly interchangeable.

I totally agree with this list and as it is categorised. I would add Sir Ron in to the rated list. Most liked purely for wonderful football, big Ron and most hated for Moscow and walking out on the eve of season start, MON.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Agree with Risso's list but I'd have Saunders top obviously, Sir Graham for being the great human being that he was, pure class. Tony Barton was another lovely fella and Vic Crowe, manager when I first started going down Villa Park was reportedly a great Villa man. I was too young to judge but my elders always speak very highly of him.

I never like O'Neill and to this day that distain grows. He was given everything by Lerner but chose to build on quicksand so it was no surprise when he left any everything fell down. The shite he used to talk, he really knew how to play to the media circus knowing they'd only be showing 4 minutes of our game on MOTD. Often they were lucky to find 4 minutes, especially at Villa Park but the arsehole would come on post match and claim we played "scintillating football". Nothing could have been further from the truth but it kept Brand O'Neill protected for future jobs. Nobody loves Martin like Martin does. Last I heard he was studying yoga so he could perform fellatio on himself.

As for a pint, I reckon McLeish would be great company providing he never mentioned that rabble and Rangers. My guessing is he's way above it all. You'd think Deano would be great too but I have a feeling he'd be in the 'never meet your heroes'. Too intense, too soon.

[john e]

In this order

Best - Saunders, Atkinson, Little, Smith, MON ( they all made me believe again )

Worstest - Bruce, Mcliesh, McNeill, Lambert, (they all destroyed me )

[garyellis]

In this order

Best - Saunders, Atkinson, Little, Smith, MON ( they all made me believe again )

Worstest - Bruce, Mcliesh, McNeill, Lambert, (they all destroyed me )

I just can’t see how Sir Graham is not in with the best and btw Graham Turner was as poor as Mcliesh and McNeill

[john e]

In this order

Best - Saunders, Atkinson, Little, Smith, MON ( they all made me believe again )

Worstest - Bruce, Mcliesh, McNeill, Lambert, (they all destroyed me )

I just can’t see how Sir Graham is not in with the best and btw Graham Turner was as poor as Mcliesh and McNeill

Thought I’d put him in but obviously not
Hed go in right after Saunders

[garyellis]

In this order

Best - Saunders, Atkinson, Little, Smith, MON ( they all made me believe again )

Worstest - Bruce, Mcliesh, McNeill, Lambert, (they all destroyed me )

I just can’t see how Sir Graham is not in with the best and btw Graham Turner was as poor as Mcliesh and McNeill

Thought I’d put him in but obviously not
Hed go in right after Saunders

👍

[Beard82]

I think, for me, Gerrard is the worst manager out of them all.  I didn't particularly dislike him as a person, but he was just so woefully underqualified and it was such a stupid, small-time move at a time when I thought we were better than that.  It really worried me that this would be another false dawn.  it's still maybe, but it's the hope you live for. 

McLeish was another low, more because it signaled the acceptance of a downward spiral. 

I started going under BFR, I'll always love BFR and Sir Brian as we were a top team then, and it was a great time to follow villa, and as kid you came to expect that was our natural position in the order of things

Smith made me really love the villa again, after so long with really unlikeable people associated with the club, so I would say there are my top three. 

I would say though Unai is probably the best manager we have had in my memory - I really think he is the real deal.  I was thinking about it today, where people always say about his difficult time at arsenal, but he was taking over from another top, top manager.  I would imagine for him this will be the easy bit, taking over from SG.  I really think, that with a bit of luck this could be something really, really special

[N'ZMAV]

McLeish was the worst for me

[ventnorVillain]

One manager who hasn't been mentioned yet in the "good" category is Vic Crowe. The long road to being English and European Champions started with the foundations he laid back in the early 70s. Gave me (and 62, 000 others) one of the great VP nights under the lights against M** U***** in the league cup semi final in 1970, almost took us to glory in the final against Spuds, despite two divisions' difference and got us promoted from the old Third Division. He helped to develop the careers of some great Villa players (Bruce Rioch and Ray Graydon, for example) introduced some wonderful young talent (Sir Brian and John Gidman were standouts) and in my opinion never gets the credit he deserves.

[Clampy]

I didn't mind the Gerrard appointment. It was brave, a but unpredictable and I can kind of see why they gave him a crack at it. I'm just glad they acted as quickly as they did after that shitfest down at Fulham.

I didn't mind Bruce either. I think people tend to forget how fucking woeful we were when we got relegated. Then Di Matteo came along and I think then it just needed someone to come in, stop us losing and try and get us back up. He came close but it goes without saying, he should have done a lot better.

Sir Graham will always have godlike status for me.