Past Managers, Love or Hate?

[Clark W Griswold]

Since SGT1;

Like a lot - SGT, Big Ron, Little, Smith, Unai.
Like - Gregory, O Neill.
Neither here nor there - Venglos, McLeish, Bruce.
Not keen - Houllier, Lambert, Sherwood, De Matteo, Gerrard.
Can’t stand - O Leary, Garde.

That isn’t completely to do with how successful they were although it is partly, just generally what I thought of them overall, different circumstances have an effect also. I think Unai could end up being out on his own as he’s the most talented of the lot, quite comfortably.

[Nev]

Heroes: Saunders, Barton, Sir Graham, Big Ron, Brian Little, Smith.

Ands: Dr Jo, Gregory, Turner, Houlier, MON, Garde, Scottish Manager, Di Matteo, Sherwood.

Villains: Billy Mac, DOL, Gerrard.

Pretty much agree with this, though as someone who lived further away and couldn't get to matches, I quite liked Gregory.

You missed Bruce off the list.

In the 'Ands' group, I think there is a mix of incompetence, arrogance and poor fits for the club. The blokes in the Villains list have, at least, two out of the three.

Bruce fits firmly into the Ands, who, generally, tried to a certain degree but ultimately came up short. Add Scottish Manager Ii to that list as well. I forgot him.

The latter 3 were just arseholes who deliberately put their interests ahead of the club. The Tories if you like where the Ands are Labour/Liberal Dem and the heroes cannot be compared to any political party without firmly insulting their impeccable character.

[TopDeck113]

Saunders should be untouchable, but the manner of his leaving and where he pitched up next still rankles. 
SGT Mk I; BFR; Sir Brian and Sir Dean all left the club in a far better place than they found it. (So did MON but decided to torch his reputation by flouncing out.) 

I will always think fondly about Vic Crowe, Tony Barton and John Gregory.  Dr Jo and SGT Mk II - right man, wrong time and I'm particularly sad how it ended for the latter.  Graham Turner was the wrong man at the wrong time, but I think he was a decent bloke and was happy for him that he got a degree of success with Wolves.

The three whose image I metaphorically have pinned to my dartboard are McNeill, O'Leary and Gerrard.   Lambert a close fourth.

(I've deliberately not included SUE as tenures should only be judged once they're over.)

[Mister E]

Docherty - great publicist; shame we didn't do better.
Crowe yes
Saunders very yes
Barton yes
Turner no
McNeill very no
Taylor very yes
Venglos shame really
Atkinson yes
Little yes
Gregory yes
Taylor never go back
O’Leary fuck off
O’Neill yes, on appointment; no eventually
Houllier yes, on appointment; no eventually
McLeish should have stayed away
Lambert yes, on appointment; no eventually
Sherwood strangely no
Garde no; strange choice really
Black - why; just, why?!!
Di Matteo no
Bruce very no
Smith yes
Gerrard fuck right off

Having done that run through I think the ones I like understand what a privilege they have. The ones I hate think they are doing us a favour. The rest just seemed to think it was a job and they’d see what happened.

Pretty much summed up for me, although I've added a couple of comments in italics. And, I agree about the privilege thinking.

[Villa in Denmark]

Going back to the start of my Villa supporting days.

Saunders - Love
Barton - Love
Turner - Meh
McNeil - Hate
Taylor Mk I - Love
Venglos - Meh
Atkinson - Love
Little - Love
Gregory - Meh
Taylor Mk II - Meh
O'Leary - War of the Roses level hate
O'Neil - Hate for the damage he did on leaving
Houllier - Meh
McLeish - Hate for putting my son off watching the Villa with me.
Lambert - Meh
Sherwood - Hate (or maybe it's Tom "shortlist of one" Fox)
Garde - Meh
Black - Hate
De Mateo - Meh
Bruce - Meh
Smith - Love (especially for getting my son back into watching us again.)
Gerrard - Hate

[andyh]

From the ones in my supporting lifetime:

Total C-words: Gerrard, O'Leary
Clueless twat: Sherwood
Really rather bad: McLeish, Lambert, Garde, SGT Mk II, Houlier, Di Matteo, Bruce
Nearly, but not quite: O'Neill, Gregory
A nice idea, but no: Dr Jo
Some great football but I cannot forgive the choice of language: Atkinson
Heroes: SGT, Little, Smith
Divine: Emery

Pretty much my thoughts exactly.
My only caveat would be around Gerrard and Lambert.

Gerrard, I detested with every fibre of my being from the second we were linked with him.

Lambert had a terrible hand dealt to him. But he was still useless and I vividly remember my celebrations when he was sacked.

[Legion]

Saunders LOVE
Barton LOVE
Turner INDIFFERENT
McNeill INDIFFERENT
Taylor LOVE
Venglos LIKE
Atkinson LOVE
Little LOVE
Gregory LOVE
Taylor LOVE
O’Leary HATE
O’Neill DISLIKE
Houllier LIKE
McLeish LIKE
Lambert DISLIKE
Sherwood LIKE
Garde INDIFFERENT
Di Matteo DISLIKE
Bruce LIKE
Smith LOVE
Gerrard HATE
Emery LOVE

[VillaTim]

Hate is a strong word but Gerrard really agitates me . Just as angry with Purslow for ever giving him the job. Sherwood i think took the piss a bit. O'Leary annoyed me with his utter arrogance. MON destroyed all goodwill with the way he left and the sabotage. Houllier came in and acted like a consultant in my mind , purveying over some ruins that were a bit beneath him. Most of the other managers worked hard regardless of results. What Emery has done is off the scale and we've not had a manager of this calibre in the modern football era (Prem League) .

[Exeter 77]

There were several who were just massively out of their depth such as Turner, McLeish, Lambert, Garde and Di Matteo. I can't say I was disappointed to see any of them leave.

Some had monumental egos - Gerrard, O'Leary and O'Neill even Bruce - who all to a greater or lesser extent seemed to think they were doing us a favour just by being Villa manager. Them leaving was a relief although O'Neill deliberately left us in the shit.

Some were in the the unfortunate position of the game moving on - BFR and SGT II - as well as being hamstrung by Doug. John Gregory probably falls into this category as well. My ire for them going was aimed squarely at the chairman.

One - McNeill - just wasn't interested. And should never have been appointed.

Ron Saunders, Tony Barton, SGT I, Brian Little and Dean Smith were the ones I didn’t want to see leave at any point of their tenure. Unai Emery falls into this category.

[Risso]

O'Neill was the only who one who consciously tried to inflict the maximum amount of harm possible. He was an irritating twat which you could overlook when things were going well, but he was the start of everything going tits up and it took us years to recover.

Houllier gave the impression that he didn't want to be at Villa park at all, and he should have stayed in semi-retirement. His mawkish longing for Liverpool really stuck in the craw as well.

[Exeter 77]

I forgot Houllier completely. He would probably into the ego category.

[VillaTim]

O'Neill was the only who one who consciously tried to inflict the maximum amount of harm possible. He was an irritating twat which you could overlook when things were going well, but he was the start of everything going tits up and it took us years to recover.

Houllier gave the impression that he didn't want to be at Villa park at all, and he should have stayed in semi-retirement. His mawkish longing for Liverpool really stuck in the craw as well.

That night we went back to Anfield with Houllier and his antics , we lost 0-3 makes my skin crawl.

[Chris Harte]

Graham Turner - Meh.
Billy McNeill - Meh.
Graham Taylor - Love.
Dr Josef Venglos - Meh.
Ron Atkinson - Love.
Brian Little - Love.
John Gregory - Positive.
David O'Leary - fuck off, then fuck off again, then when you get back here, fuck off again.
Martin O'Neill - (with the benefit of hindsight) twat.
Gérard Houiller - No opinion. Ran out of good health.
Alex McLeish - No opinion.
Paul Lambert - But he learned loads in Germany. No opinion.
Tim Sherwood - Likeable, but meh.
Remi Garde - Did that really happen?
Roberto Di Matteo - What were we thinking?
Steve Bruce - Like, but he was deluded. Sacked at the right time.
Dean Smith - Love (signed eight of our current squad).
Steven Gerrard - see O'Leary. Did we really bounce Smith for this?
Unai Emery - Gure Erregea.

[Meanwood Villa]

Lambert's up there with O'Leary for me. Absolute fucking bellend, in charge of the most soul destroyingly awful team I've ever had the misfortune to follow.

[Chris Harte]

Lambert's up there with O'Leary for me. Absolute fucking bellend, in charge of the most soul destroyingly awful team I've ever had the misfortune to follow.

Lambert get's away with it for me because it was obvious by then that Lerner had given up.