Best ever manager

[Fox92]

All this talk about foundations seems frivolous to me. I can give Walsh credit (since Kante isn't even a "Pearson signing".)

But let's look at what Pearson did before he was sacked. He had a supposedly very good team with Cambiasso also. What did he achieve? Just above relegation. Foundations mean nothing without someone who can manage in the Prem. Someone who knows how to get the best out of the players. I've seen great improvement, especially with the defense. I'm sorry, but Pearson was out of his element. I give credit to Pearson for getting the team out of the lower leagues, and that's it (and overlook his faults because of that...but no more than that). I think Pearson is to be revered for his accomplishments, but they stopped as soon as he was sacked. No top of the bus for him. No special mention. No credit at all. It is certainly Ranieri's team that is at the top. If we drop next year, will we be giving Pearson credit for that also?

 

Kante is a sort of Pearson signing considering Pearson bid for him. Raneiri didn't even want Kante. Fuchs and Huth are both Pearson signings too.

 

And since when has 14th position been "just above relegation"? His job was to survive and that was accomplished. 

[UpTheLeagueFox]

Wasn't Pearson also the one willing to sell Vardy back to Sheffield Wednesday (if you believed those rumours)? He didn't get them all right.

 

Only the gullible Pearson-haters believed that one. Wasn't true. Wasn't close to being true.

 

Ranieri has.. Kante

Only probably one of the best players we will ever see here for gods sake

 

Scouted long, long before Ranieri arrived. Can't really credit Claudio for that one. Was due to sign before the managerial change.

[Corky]

Adams did well in getting us promoted but we should've stayed up, the amount of leads and late goals we conceded was criminal really. 3 home wins in the season is awful too.

 

O'Neill is still the best for now but Ranieri will be our best ever if he wins the league, no question.

[Guest Col city fan]

I was raised in the Little and ONeill years but how can anyone NOT say Ranieri is the best? Win the league or not...our first ever manager to get us into the elite of Europe. Now is the best ever time to be a City fan.

I'm walking around the hotel in Jamaica in a rather smart City casual shirt and have all sorts of people congratulating us...I kid you not.

[Donut]

Ranieri is the best ever. There is no discussion to be had.

[bovril]

People these days seem to spend their entire lives comparing this and that and the other.

 

Maybe just try and enjoy every achievement in their own right.

 

This this and this.

 

Having said that, pistols at dawn with anybody who puts NP ahead of MON. Crazy talk.

[Leicester_Numan]

At this point

1 O'Neill

2 Pearson

Ranieri has no rating yet as he still hasn't even had a full season and has so far only achieved the preliminary round of the Champions League. If we win the league, he'll go to the top of the pile. Whether he stays there, remains to be seen.

[Dodgy Bob]

Kante is a sort of Pearson signing considering Pearson bid for him. Raneiri didn't even want Kante. Fuchs and Huth are both Pearson signings too.

And since when has 14th position been "just above relegation"? His job was to survive and that was accomplished.

None of them are really Pearson signings though, they're Walsh signings all of them. I think at this club at this time we can seperate the manager from the signings and judge them only on what they achieved with the players they had. On that measure, getting us promoted and narrowly keeping us up was a good achievement from Pearson. Good but not special considering how good the team was. What Ranieri has done is special. The two are miles apart.

[Fox92]

None of them are really Pearson signings though, they're Walsh signings all of them. I think at this club at this time we can seperate the manager from the signings and judge them only on what they achieved with the players they had. On that measure, getting us promoted and narrowly keeping us up was a good achievement from Pearson. Good but not special considering how good the team was. What Ranieri has done is special. The two are miles apart.

Of course the two are miles apart. Nigel Pearson has managed, generally, at the second tier (and lower with Carlisle). Raneiri has managed some of the biggest clubs in Europe. And of course what Raneiri is doing now is special, we are top of the top flight and we've never won it. He'll be our greatest manager ever if we win the league

Pearson did very well considering the state of ge club when he walked in. He rebuilt the squad, stabled us off field and laid a solid foundation for the next manager. Raneiri has taken us to the next level.

As for "Walsh signings". Well, I never see it like that. He found them but, as always, the manager takes the credit. You can't criticise Pearson for one thing then not give him credit for his signings. Whether you like it or not, the majority of this squad were signed by Pearson.

[trabuch]

At this point

1 O'Neill

2 Pearson

Ranieri has no rating yet as he still hasn't even had a full season and has so far only achieved the preliminary round of the Champions League. If we win the league, he'll go to the top of the pile. Whether he stays there, remains to be seen.

 

Unbelievable.

[Fox92]

Wasn't Pearson also the one willing to sell Vardy back to Sheffield Wednesday (if you believed those rumours)? He didn't get them all right.

 

 

 

You do realise Vardy wanted to quit football and Pearson had to convince him not too. He was never ever going to sell him. Vardy worked on his own game during the summer and became a better player.

 

The only criticism I have of Pearson is that he changed the team around too often last season. 

[Lionator]

At this point

1 O'Neill

2 Pearson

Ranieri has no rating yet as he still hasn't even had a full season and has so far only achieved the preliminary round of the Champions League. If we win the league, he'll go to the top of the pile. Whether he stays there, remains to be seen.

 

I certainly wouldn't put Ranieri ahead of the other managers who've got us to the champions league preliminary stage...oh wait. 

[Dodgy Bob]

Of course the two are miles apart. Nigel Pearson has managed, generally, at the second tier (and lower with Carlisle). Raneiri has managed some of the biggest clubs in Europe. And of course what Raneiri is doing now is special, we are top of the top flight and we've never won it. He'll be our greatest manager ever if we win the league

Pearson did very well considering the state of ge club when he walked in. He rebuilt the squad, stabled us off field and laid a solid foundation for the next manager. Raneiri has taken us to the next level.

As for "Walsh signings". Well, I never see it like that. He found them but, as always, the manager takes the credit. You can't criticise Pearson for one thing then not give him credit for his signings. Whether you like it or not, the majority of this squad were signed by Pearson.

If it's as clean cut as "the manager takes the credit" then Ranieri takes the credit for Kante, possibly our greatest signing of all time. I don't think it's as simple as that though given we know Walsh basically signed Kante. I think Walsh is such a special case that he warrants, indeed fully deserves to have his contribution recognised, even if that means taking a little bit of credit away from both Pearson and Ranieri.

[Guest LCFC_World]

You simply cannot compare the managers. They have all done different things for the club that has been equally important. We wouldn't be where we are now with out Pearson and Ranieri has improved things beyond our expectations.

Would Ranieri have got us out of league 1 and the championship? Who knows.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

I put Pearson, Little and Adams high up this list because as well as their achievements, they managed and subsequently helped pick up the club in a time of duress and in Pearson and Adams's case, they seemed to have a special bond with the club (and Adams in particular with our fans).

Martin O'Neill was more of a 'Mourinho': selfish, difficult character. Sure, it doesn't make his fantastic achievements any the lesser, but the man clearly has no bond to the club at all despite his great run at City. Since he's viewed as one of our legends, this has always grated on me somewhat and affects how highly I rate him.

[Babylon]

Ranieri has.. Kante

Only probably one of the best players we will ever see here for gods sake

A player we bid on before he even arrived... good one.

[Jace]

Ranieri has.. Kante

Only probably one of the best players we will ever see here for gods sake

 

Think you need to do a bit more research on this pal........

[Babylon]

No they weren't internationals but it demonstrates the quality of players Pearson had at his disposal. I'm not using that against him. If you'd read my previous comment you would see I tried to seperate 'achievements' and 'managerial talent'. Pearson achieved a great deal but for me that's more down to Walsh's ability to find a bargain than Pearson's managerial talent. Comparisons with Adams show that it's possible to achieve what Pearson achieved with an arguably weaker side, and that's why I'd potentially put Adams ahead of Pearson in terms of managerial talent.

 

Good lord... Adams took over a squad still filled with many players signed under O'Neill, proven premier league players. Pearson took us over in league one, bought a new team, got us promoted, got us to the play offs, left, came back, built a whole new team all over again, got us promoted and kept us up.

 

Doesn't matter if Walsh had a lot to do with it, Pearson appointed the bloke, he was part of his team. It's like me trying to take the credit totally off Adams and giving it to O'Neill as he signed lots of the players. It's Pearson's ethos of hard workers, with the right mentality and his ability to choose who does and doesn't need to stay at the club. People lambasted him for wanting Danns, Mills and Beckford out.

 

What Adams did was good under the circumstance, but he was handed the players also by others. Just as you claim Pearson was handed players by Walsh, so the argument doesn't stack up.

[David Hankey]

You simply cannot compare the managers. They have all done different things for the club that has been equally important. We wouldn't be where we are now with out Pearson and Ranieri has improved things beyond our expectations.

Would Ranieri have got us out of league 1 and the championship? Who knows.

There is no argument over this question. No other manager of Leicester City has taken us so close to winning the Premiership title. 

[bovril]

When O'Neill took took over in early 1996 we had won one trophy in our 110 year history. Within 4 years we'd won 2 more.

 

He's top, for the next four weeks anyway.

[Mark_w]

Nigel Pearson appoints people now? I thought the employer (the owners) did that. Considering the owners paid Hull a fee for them, I'd say it was more Pearson asking and the owners signing them

 

I'd already edited it for you, either way Nigel Pearson is undoubtedly the reason we have Steve Walsh you can't really deny that. It's quite reasonable to give him credit for that because Steve Walsh is clearly more important than any individual player we've signed.

[Jace]

Pearson clearly knows how to build a decent management team which regardless of his attitute has been the main reason for our recent success. Even now with him negotiating going to Villa he is looking to bring Chris Powell in who is an excellent choice. The bloke is clearly doing something right 

[Finnaldo]

so what? Our scouts found a player while he was manager? We probably have several targets from when he was in charge? Like amartey.

If you're going to credit Pearson for all the scouts signings over his reign, you have to do the same with Ranieri.

Otherwise, stop clutching at straws to credit Pearson for anything and give the credit to the scouts, as its obvious isn't it? Regardless of the manager, the club believe in the scouts and will go for them targets regardless.

We have one of the best scouting systems, best sports science, all of which Pearson brought to the club and which we are thankful of. But unfortunately the bit he was actually directly responsible for, managing the players, tactics, managing media.. He fell short. Hence why he went and his staff stayed.

 

If it wasn't for Pearson, we wouldn't have Walsh.

 

Even if we had Walsh, we'd probably be stuck down in the lower reaches of the Championship with Leeds and Forest having lacked one of the best managers at Championship level and been stuck with someone like Steve Cotterill.

 

Pearson was tactically average and seemed to miss the right time to alter or make subs in the Prem. Other than that he was superb. Ranieri is a level above and is a tactical genius, and pushed us above and beyond with the assistance of Pearson's excellent structure that he put in place.

 

Ranieri deserves all credit for this season as the man who drove us to the Title, but to say Pearson's legacy didn't put him in a superb position to achieve this and was a key factor is insulting to Leicester City as a club. if you can't give a man who saved this club as it stood on the brink and took it to a position where this could become a reality, sorry but you deserve to support Leeds or Forest.

[Fox Ulike]

How is this even a debate? Ranieri.

 

O’Neill and Pearson achieved great things. But they only ever achieved what a club like Leicester should achieve when it is at its peak: Leicester, Norwich, Birmingham, QPR, Middlesbrough, Swansea. All these clubs have won the League Cup. All these clubs have won promotion and finished in the top 10… It’s a great achievement, but one that should expected of clubs of this size every now and again.

 

However, none of them have ever qualified for the Champions League. Not even close.  Most of these clubs won’t qualify for the champions League if it runs for the next 1,000 years. Yet we have done this under Ranieri. How can this compare to winning the League Cup??!!

 

It’s funny how our CL qualification suddenly looks routine now that it’s been done…  No doubt next season people will be moaning if we are outside the top 4!!

[Finnaldo]

And my personal opinion is:

 

1) Ranieri

2) O' Neill

3) Pearson

 

No debate.