Past Managers, Love or Hate?

[N'ZMAV]

I think that Sherwood was exactly what we need when he was appointed. I think sometimes we forget how bad things were when he arrived. Pretty much everyone thought we were down after that Hull defeat and 'performance'. We needed a cocky fecker to come in and use enthusiasm and cockiness etc to lift everything, players and fans. It sounds stupid now but his "A sherwood team wins" kind of guff was needed.

I also think he was exactly what we didn't need to be in charge at the start of the following season.

Always my view on Sherwood.

I think people forget just how bad we were before he came in. Which was sort of unofficially Leicester in the 5th round.

At the point he joined we were on a run of 2 wins and 8 goals in 21 league games.

At the time he left he had taken us back to a similar level of crapness. The relegation is on him.

Ideally, with hindsight, Sherwood needed to go after the FA Cup Final - however, whoever came in the next season we was going down - no way could we handle losing Benteke and Delph, less so Vlaar - but we lost all leadership.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Lambert was the most depressingly bad one, but don't think he was as up his own backside as DOL and Stevie Me.

Im terms of actually hating them, I'd have DOL 1st and Gerrard 2nd.

DOL had such an overinflated opinion of himself and thought Villa were nothing.

[N'ZMAV]

with DOL, do you think he'd have done better than MON, with those players and the money?

my god he was a bell end.

[ez]

With all managers, when things are going well on the pitch a lot is forgiven. DO'L would have been pretty much universally popular in the summer of 2004 I think. Even under Gerrard we had an initial bounce and some decent results in his first few months that suggested he knew what he was doing. With both of them, as soon as the wheels came off on the pitch, their thin skinned arrogance was there for all to see. Pair of twats.

I still put Lambert above them in the hatred stakes though. His team were so monumentally depressing to watch in that winter of 2014/15 and then all that crap he came out with about wanting to be sacked afterwards. Bellend.

Remember him saying we were outstanding when we were absolute dross and his treatment of Darren Bent. Lambert was an idiot.

[Mellin]

I don't really hate O'Leary. Really enjoyed that season we finished sixth. It wasn't a bad side and Angel was at his best. Yeah, he was a twat, but we definitely weren't underachieving, aside from the final season.

Lambert's tenure was just a pit of misery, but the rug had been pulled by that point and it sits with Lerner rather than the manager. Did I like him? No. Did he have much to work with? Also no.

I really save it for the two who had a great opportunity and blew it. O'Neill and Gerrard. The former set us up for years of misery by blowing a fortune and achieving fuck all (same highest position as DOL), whilst Gerrard took a top 6-8 squad and turned it into relegation fodder. It's that which winds me up more than if they're a cock or not.

And the both are, fwiw.

[Brend'Watkins]

What was Gerrard’s role in the Kamara signing? Was he as influential as is supposedly the case?

[Footy-Vill]

Northampton Town boss Kevin Nolan says he finds it hard to believe Steve Bruce is managing at the same level as him.

"He's a top manager, I can't believe he's in League One. Someone of his calibre and experience, I didn't ever think I'd see him at this level”

With Villa, despite being a Prem experience manager, some of the football Bruce served up at times was even lower!

[brontebilly]

Sherwood is definitely a dickhead, but I don't mind him too much, as far as dickheads go.

Think he gets way too much credit for the FA Cup, considering we were already in the QF before he took over, and the final was just mortifying.

Equally, I think he gave us a short term boost and kept us up with our league performances.

He should've been given a nice little bonus after the season ended, and cut loose. I would add 'easy with the gift of hindsight', but those were my thoughts at the time.

He did keep us up though. By the end of Lambert's reign we looked completely doomed. That last night in Hull was rock bottom stuff. He galvanised us a bit anyway and we stayed up. He's like that fling you have at the end of a relationship. Great fun until you realise they are single for many reasons.

Sherwood is a complete spoofer let's be honest, naturally never managed again and found his true calling in the SSN studio.

Houllier and Gerrard were the two worst I think. Both had decent players and budgets available to them but were woeful at man management.

Up to Emery, Villa Park was a managerial graveyard for 30 years. We finished the careers of most of them.

[Sexual Ealing]

The sad thing about Lambert is that he clearly had something in his early days, but he seemed to decide that £X million was enough to be Lerner's human shield for a few years. I wonder whether he still feels that way.

[RamboandBruno]

I absolutely couldn’t stand Houllier at Villa. He may have inherited in his view an undisciplined lot from O’Neil, but he also gave off the feeling that we were beneath him. That watery eyed touching the Anfield sign shite when we played up there, was totally disrespectful to our support. Not related to this point, but he also played a much weakened team in a FA Cup QF replay at an imminently beatable Man City at that time, when we were pretty much mid-table.
Gerrard was a massive tosser, massively out of his depth. There have been so many highs under Emery, so this is a minor victory compared, but the fact Emery’s successes have shed no doubt on Gerrard utter shiteness as a football manager, is a lovely added bonus.

[LeonW]

with DOL, do you think he'd have done better than MON, with those players and the money?

my god he was a bell end.

I actually reckon he would have done better with the money MON had. With the limited money DOL had (as he was forever telling us) apart from Djemba djemba, he spent it quite well with Sorensen, McCann, Solano, Laursen, Bouma, Hughes all coming in for relatively little money. Baros was decent in his first season although relatively expensive. Phillips was a good signing as a back up striker.

[Sexual Ealing]

Nah, like Gregory, O'Leary was a chequebook manager with no eye for a player. The more he spent the worse we got.

[Mister E]

... I really save it for the two who had a great opportunity and blew it. O'Neill and Gerrard. The former set us up for years of misery by blowing a fortune and achieving fuck all (same highest position as DOL), whilst Gerrard took a top 6-8 squad and turned it into relegation fodder. It's that which winds me up more than if they're a cock or not.
And the both are, fwiw.

I think this is where I'm at. I abhor McNeill and Bruce but MON and Stevie Me take the biscuit.

[LeonW]

Nah, like Gregory, O'Leary was a chequebook manager with no eye for a player. The more he spent the worse we got.

His only real outlay was Baros. The rest were pretty much all around the couple of million mark unless I’ve missed some.

[Exeter 77]

O'Leary felt like a bloke who thought he was doing us a favour by 'stooping' to our level. He thought he was stamping his authority by taking the decision to drop Ollie Mellberg on the opening day at Portsmouth when all he was doing was weakening the team. See also Gerrard with Tyrone Mings. Alienating a fan favourite at the beginning of a managerial reign rarely ends well.