Past Managers, Love or Hate?

[paul_e]

I've probably done this before, so hopefully it's vaguely consistent, but my popularity rating for managers of the Premier League era is as follows:

Great managers

Emery
Little
Atkinson
Gregory
Smith
Sherwood
Gerrard
McLeish
Lambert
Di Matteo
Garde
Bruce
Houllier
O'Leary
O'Neill

Absolute pillocks

Emery has now just shaded it over Sir Brian for me, because achieving 4th with the injuries he had, whilst retaining his positive demeanour and politeness shows what a great bloke he is. The bottom four I really, really dislike intensely. The ones in the middle (below Smith) are a bit of a morass of rubbish and/or being twats.

Literally my only ocmplaint with is is that I'd have MoN at the top of the group of shit because whilst he is a complete and utter c**t there were a couple of seasons where many of us believed we might be going somewhere and, until nswe came in, it was the only period of sustained positivity amongst the fans in a 20year spell of mediocrity. I'll give him a slither of credit for that. The only other change is that, despite him only being a caretaker, I'd have to include Black in that group as well.

[paul_e]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7eKDkLNlp-/?igsh=MWRsM2d5N3BsbzdzZw==

That's actually great, it's the sort of thing that would be lauded as genius if it came from someone like Guardiola.

I'm all for focusing on detailed tactics, making plans to create confusion in the opposition and generally trying to play in a way that stacks the cards in your favour by controlling the play, it's clearly something that is needed but I'm also a rugby player. I know full well that sometimes the best thing to do is to just let pure physicality carry you, be that a big fucker winning everything in the air (or smashing through tackles in other sports) or a quick fucker who defenders just can't catch up to. Having tactics to make the most of those advantages is when you start winning things.

[VillaTim]

Worst manager for me was Bruce

Hated every single minute of his tenure knew it was never going to work The bloke was useless
He had the best and most expensive squad in the championship and managed to finish 13
Honestly I’d back myself to have done better

The following season when we should’ve pissed the league by 10 clear points we get to the play-off final and as usual play Bruceball and deservedly lose

Football was rubbish. The tactics were rubbish. Bruce was rubbish

His tactics were Neanderthal, he got a few results because we in general we had better players than anybody else, but he still managed to turn that squad into a total box standard mid table championship team, now that he was the king of

He never started anything he never steadied any ship, he never stopped any rot He just continued it in the most boring fashion imaginable, supporting Villa during his time was absolutely dire

The day he left was a great day for me and Villa and we never looked back
Everywhere he’s gone since he’s stunk the place out

He was absolutely rubbish



( he was a very good player mind but it don’t count because it wasn’t for us)

Worse than Gerrard ? Yeah ok what a load of B******s.

By a distance

Ahahahahahahahah ok . Look me in the eye and say that.

[Risso]

I've probably done this before, so hopefully it's vaguely consistent, but my popularity rating for managers of the Premier League era is as follows:

Great managers

Emery
Little
Atkinson
Gregory
Smith
Sherwood
Gerrard
McLeish
Lambert
Di Matteo
Garde
Bruce
Houllier
O'Leary
O'Neill

Absolute pillocks

Emery has now just shaded it over Sir Brian for me, because achieving 4th with the injuries he had, whilst retaining his positive demeanour and politeness shows what a great bloke he is. The bottom four I really, really dislike intensely. The ones in the middle (below Smith) are a bit of a morass of rubbish and/or being twats.

That Sherwood is as high on that list as he is (I’d have MON above him but I understand the disdain) is fuckin nuts!  So many shite managers.

Thank the lord above we have finally got a great one now. 

It's based on popularity rather than ability. Even though he was a bit of an idiot, and more than a bit inept, he kept us up first season, and gave us the extremely enjoyable semi win against Liverpool. I don't recall that he ever said anything bad about the fans and in the intervening years seems to have retained a bit of a soft spot for us. That for me makes him more likeable than anybody underneath him, even if in the case of somebody like O'Neill, they were clearly much better managers.

[Steve67]

Liked Little, SGT, BFR, Dean and MON, when he arrived.

Disliked MON for what he did, the sulky twat, Dr Jo, Graham Turner, O'Leary, Gerrard, Di Matteo, Sherwood, Black McLeish, Garde.

Meh, Bruce, Gregory, Houllier, Lambert

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

We probably need a graph with 2 axes - Likeability vs Success; and plot each manager that way.

[PaulWinch again]

Liked Little, SGT, BFR, Dean and MON, when he arrived.

Disliked MON for what he did, the sulky twat, Dr Jo, Graham Turner, O'Leary, Gerrard, Di Matteo, Sherwood, Black McLeish, Garde.

Meh, Bruce, Gregory, Houllier, Lambert

“Black McLeish” sounds like the antagonist of a Celtic fairytale

[BC Villain]

SGT1 : loved.  Exactly who we needed at the time.  Should never have allowed Ellis to talk him into returning in 2002 though.  Losing to Small Heath twice tarnished him, though still did some good things.

Venglos: respected   Lovely guy, but wrong place at wrong time

Atkinson: Loved.  Villa through and through and did some great things.  Cup win probably saved him though as our league form from mid 93 to end of 94 was ropey at best.

SBL: Loved.  Rare example of brilliant as a player and brilliant as a manager as well.  Ran out of steam towards the end though.

Gregory:  indifferent.  No doubt loved the club, but also loved himself a bit too much as well.

D'OL:  Despised.  Utter arsehole who repeatedly took the piss out the fans and couldn't stop talking about Leeds.

M'ON:  indifferent. Wasted a huge chance to build a legacy by doing everything on the short term.  Moscow drove a wedge between him and the fans that never healed.  Unforgivable to walk out when he did.

Houllier:  indifferent.  Turning up at his first press conference in a bloody red tie told you how it was going to end.

Mcleish:  indifferent.  Couldn't blame him for taking the job,  but would have had to win the quadruple to win people over.

Lambert:  disliked.  Supported his appointment, but got spooked by getting battered at Chelsea and he never recovered.  Broke record after record, but all the shit ones.

Sherwood:  Disliked.  Played up to the flash cockney geezer and made self-preservation an art.

Garde:  disliked.  Was out of his depth from the start, but never had a chance with what he inherited.

RDM:  disliked.  Never good enough.  Far too lazy and dined out on luckiest champions league win ever.

Bruce:  indifferent.  Did some good things,  but was beginning to undo them when he left.  Got to preoccupied with taking digs at the fans.

Smith:  loved.  United the club and brought us back to the top flight.  Sad day when he left, but it was the right time as it saved things turning nasty.

Gerrard:  wanker.  Completely rubbed the players up the wrong way to the point where they wouldn't play for him.

Emery:  love.  Completely changed the club.  Just needs a trophy now.

[dave.woodhall]

Of the ones I've spoken to:

Tommy Cummings was a nice enough bloke who admitted he wasn't good enough and was here at our worst.

Tommy Docherty was a surprisingly soft-spoken, almost gentle man whose affection for the Villa was obvious decades after he left.

Ron Saunders had presence and then some. I'm glad I never really spoke to him because I fear I wouldn't have liked him. But as with everything else about him, none of that matters.

Tony Barton was the nicest, most modest man you could ever meet. He seemed genuinely surprised at how highly he was thought of.

Graham Turner is the first to admit he shouldn't have been offered the job or taken it, but he couldn't turn it down

Sir Graham was everything you'd expect.

Jo Venglos was happy to tell you about his success elsewhere. Ahead of his time in England but not really cut out to manage here.

BFR loves football. He loves watching it, talking about it, living it.

Brian Little walks on water.

John Gregory I never warmed to. There was always something of the Ukip/Reform voter about him.

Alex McLeish is a lovely fella. Like Turner he should never have been offered the job but couldn't refuse it.

Steve Bruce stopped the rot but couldn't do any more.

Deano is you and me in the dug-out.

[ez]

Sacking Barton was bad but then replacing him with Shrewsbury Towns' Graham Turner  is astonishing. What was Ellis thinking?

[PeterWithesShin]

I assume the thinking was that Turner was the next Graham Taylor. He was only 36 when we appointed him and he'd done wonders at Shrewsbury. He's still the only manager to lead them to the second tier, and FAC QFs. He probably wasn't ready for the Villa job, especially with the 80-82 team breaking up because of Ellis, including losing Shaw and Cowans.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Imagine if we'd have appointed a Ferguson or a Clough back then when we had the profile to do it.

[PeterWithesShin]

In another universe we dominated the 80s. Even from '83 on we had a number of good players, many of whom went on to win trophies elsewhere. A combination of injuries and Ellis meant we spent most of it being shit instead.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Worst manager for me was Bruce...


The day he left was a great day for me and Villa and we never looked back
Everywhere he’s gone since he’s stunk the place out

He was absolutely rubbish

We certainly did look back. We looked back and said 'where's the bloody defence?'. Correct if I'm wrong as we've had so many poor mangers up until this point but wasn't it Bruce that left us without a defence? If memory serves the only defender we had was his son on here.

[PeterWithesShin]

Jedi at CH, ah those were the days. After Bruce we could field a defence, just, but we did pretty much destroy James Chester in doing so as there was no one else.