Past Managers, Love or Hate?

[dr.chekov]

Loved: Brian Little. Knew he’d one day come back to manage us. Last time I thought fate played a role in Villa’s fortunes.

Hated: Billy McNeill. I was a teenager so easier to hate stuff/people than nowadays. And we were utter shite.

[pablo_picasso]

Absolutely fucking love- Emery, Atkinson, Little
Like- Taylor, Gregory, Smith
Not bothered- Garde, Sherwood, Di Matteo
Dislike- Bruce, Houllier, Lambert.
Absolutely fucking despise with a passion only limited by law- Gerrard, O'Leary, O'Neil, McLeish

If there are any others I have missed, then lump them in "not bothered" as they weren't important enough to remember.

[Tayls_7]

I'm old enough to have remembered how Graham Turner was regarded but I can't really.  Brain fog. I wanted him to do well because he'd arrived from God's county.

[rob_bridge]

Speaking of past managers, Steven Gerrard has been talking about us to the telegraph. Sorry if it's already posted.

Steven Gerrard:
I actually felt my own performance at Villa was really good. I actually felt I went to the next level in terms of what I had learnt from Rangers. I felt like I had grown. But we had a bad run of results. I have to own that & take full responsibility for that..”

“I think when top footballers are not performing at their level I am not going to pull any punches. We had players who weren’t giving what I felt they should have been giving at the time & that’s my responsibility..”

“Villa is a fantastic club. It was an incredible opportunity at the time & I have nothing bad to say. The owners gave me a fantastic chance..”

“The initial period, our form was top 8 in the Premier League & obviously the opinion of me now from a lot of people will be that I failed, if you like, but I know there was a period there where we got an awful lot of things right. We had the team doing okay..”

After he had a pre season and several of his own signings and dropping Mings, Luiz, Watkins and various others.

1   Bournemouth   2–0   Aston Villa   Kings Park, Bournemouth
13 August 20222   Aston Villa   2–1   Everton   Aston, Birmingham
20 August 20223   Crystal Palace   3–1   Aston Villa   Selhurst
28 August 20224   Aston Villa   0–1   West Ham United   Aston, Birmingham
31 August 20225   Arsenal   2–1   Aston Villa   Holloway
3 September 20226   Aston Villa   1–1   Manchester City   Aston, Birmingham
16 September 20228   Aston Villa   1–0   Southampton   Aston, Birmingham
2 October 20229   Leeds United   0–0   Aston Villa   Beeston, Leeds
10 October 202210   Nottingham Forest   1–1   Aston Villa   West Bridgford
16 October 202211   Aston Villa   0–2   Chelsea   Aston, Birmingham
20 October 202212   Fulham   3–0   Aston Villa   Fulham

We beat 2 of the bottom 4, drew with another and lost to the worst Chelsea side in 30 years.

Still he can continue to be deluded if he so wishes.

[Hillbilly]

Crowe yes
Saunders yes
Barton yes
Turner no
McNeill very no
Taylor yes
Venglos shame really
Atkinson yes
Little yes
Gregory yes
Taylor never go back
O’Leary fuck off
O’Neill no
Houllier no
McLeish should have stayed away
Lambert no
Sherwood strangely ok by me
Garde no
Di Matteo no
Bruce 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.

[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.

[Hookeysmith]

Its like i was with ex girlfriends

Since SUE i cannot even remember any that were there before 

[Drummond]

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.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Most Loved
"Villa have amazing support. If you hung 11 Villa shirts on a washing line five thousand fans would turn up to watch them!"..,The Doc. (win %age 28.26)

Most Hated
"There is a genuine bunch of fans and then there is a fickle mob who get on your back very quickly,"...O'Leary. (win %age 35.88)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Aston_Villa_F.C._managers

[rougegorge]

If managers are successful, then generally people are going to love them. Similarly if they fail, the converse generally applies.

I thought these ranged from poor to bad, but I didn't find them detestable people:
Garde, Turner, McNeill, Venglos, McLeish

I thought these were good and likeable or personable:
Taylor, Atkinson Little, Smith

I didn't really warm to these, whatever the verdict:
O'Leary, Houllier, Lambert

[Risso]

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.

Gregory in no way deserves to be grouped along with Houllier. I'd have the latter firmly in the Villains camp.

[Sexual Ealing]

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

[Monty]

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

That's where I am overall.

[olaftab]

I assumed we're not including Unai in this thread?

Yes, and I hope he surpasses Sir Ron's achievement and touches those of our most successful Manager, I mean The Secretary.

[Neil Hawkes]

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

Agree with 99% of that.
I liked McLeish, nice bloke - I wonder if he would have been better than Bruce if he had joined us at at that time instead?