Past Managers, Love or Hate?

[Risso]

I think if I'd have met Saunders as a kid , I would still be in counselling now ! On the Scary Manager scale no one comes near Sir Ron.

He was built like a brick shithouse. He was managing in the days when a few pints and a packet of Benson and Hedges were seen as modern elite fuelling, but he had a physique that would put Cristiano Ronaldo to shame.



Think that was from his Norwich days.

[dave.woodhall]

When Saunders rang my house the phone stood to attention.

[Steve67]

At a time when it was two points for a win, Ron's overall record with Villa was 1.52 points per game apparently.  That's pretty impressive. 

[pauliewalnuts]

When Saunders rang my house

*** CLANG! ***

[RamboandBruno]

Bruce assembled the bones of the team that got us up - McGinn, JT, Elmo, AEG. Credit due where required.

JT wasnt playing in the team that got promoted and the way Bruce started that season until we got the boot, we were heading for mid table at best. It took and up, down and then very up (10 game run from Smith/Grealish) to get us into the play offs.

JT was part of the team that got us up though.

He wasn’t, him, Snodgrass etc didn’t have contracts renewed, or loans continued after the play off loss and subsequent financial meltdown. We had a shit show of a defence, which Bruce allowed until he was sacked. Smith came in and had to make do (Bree and Elphick as a pair for one or two dismal games I seem to remember) until he got Tuanzebe back from injury (a Bruce loan fair doo’s) and brought in Mings on loan.

Terry was brought in as coach under Smith.

[john e]

Bruce assembled the bones of the team that got us up - McGinn, JT, Elmo, AEG. Credit due where required.

Dean Smith perform miracles to get that team out the championship

Bruce had turned it into such a championship level team that when we went up we had to get rid of nearly all the players and buy in a completely new side

Honestly he was so bad it still upsets me to think he was anything to do with Villa

[PeterWithesShin]

You can say Bruce steadied things, but with the money we spent and squad we had at that level it was hardly some Herculean achievement. You can also say that we had our worst league finish since 1974 under him.

[Mellin]

Most managers, even the unpopular ones signed some great players. O'Leary signed Laursen and Solano, Lambert got Benteke, Bruce gave us McGinn and Gerrard brought in Kamara.

Laursen has a case for being my favourite player. Didn't O'Leary bring in Freddie B too? Half a league winning standard of defence imo. If memory serves he didn't get much out of either due to injury.

[LeeB]

O'Leary actually got closer to Champions League qualification than O'Neill or anyone else did until now.

[Gareth]

Graham Turner - hopelessly out of his depth
Billy McNeill - didnt want to be here, it showed
Graham Taylor - mk1 walked on water for me
Dr Josef Venglos - nice idea Doug but way too soon
Ron Atkinson - fun football, ended at right time
Brian Little - nice guy and good times, again ended at right time
John Gregory - generally good but can’t ignore the bottle job of that Cup final (& very nearly the semi too)
David O'Leary - utter moron who just didn’t get the club in any way - selfish and hopeless
Martin O'Neill - can’t get past the way he left for anything - had some great times with his team but it was about him always
Gérard Houiller - Liverpool obsession was annoying but would have been intrigued if he had had another summer
Alex McLeish - nice guy, made a mental career decision (well 2 actually!)
Paul Lambert - hopeless hopeless
Tim Sherwood - tactics Tim, good sound bites and that semi vs a Liverpool was great fun
Remi Garde - non entity
Roberto Di Matteo - another who didn’t seem to get the club
Steve Bruce - Tim nice but dim - should have walked the Champ with the squad he had…worst performing of all the managers for me
Dean Smith - ledge…another who ended at right time with reputation intact…wouldn’t be where we are without
Steven Gerrard - utter fraud…
Unai Emery - potentially the greatest?

[dave.woodhall]

I've said it many times but the biggest mystery of the lot to me was how O'Leary behaved. If he'd kept quiet he would have ridden the protest wave and been reasonably popular but instead he went out of his way to alienate everyone.

[Pete3206]

O'Leary actually got closer to Champions League qualification than O'Neill or anyone else did until now.

Blew it at Southampton if I recall correctly. In any case, we'd have needed to beat Man U in the final game and you know what always happens there.

[Risso]

I've said it many times but the biggest mystery of the lot to me was how O'Leary behaved. If he'd kept quiet he would have ridden the protest wave and been reasonably popular but instead he went out of his way to alienate everyone.

I remember the pound sign protests when we were bottom three after he first took over. There were posters with "Top 3 manager, bottom three board" (or words to that effect) outside the ground. The second half of his first season and the first half of his second were very, very good. It's a little bit odd how he's done next to nothing since. I know he's a twat, but there have almost as big a twats and worse managers who have worked continuously since then.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'm not sure any manager has matched the career suicide that Mr Fickle did that season.

[Jane]

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.

Sorry but harsh on Sherwood, who gave me one of the best days of being a Villa fan in that semi-final at Wembley. And he seems quite nice.