Who was our worst manager and why?

[EnderbyFox]

RVN for me, I've never felt disassociation with the club like I did last season on that goalless run. Utterly abject experience 

[bovril]

Gotta be Taylor. Rodgers at least had a good spell and won a trophy. RvN had mitigating circumstances. But there is nothing to redeem Peter Taylor. 

[teblin]

16 minutes ago, fox in the sox said:

Yes but Taylor had a far superior record to RVN.

Off the back of a really successful team and he ruined it.

 

RVN made a a really poor team worse.

[Dan]

Van Nistelrooy was set up to fail but he's ultimately secured us a record that will almost certainly never be broken in any of our lifetimes.

[Wymsey]

Worst owner?

[Dan]

2 hours ago, Gamble92 said:

For what they did to the club it will always (hopefully) be Taylor. 

 

But there's absolutely no doubt that 12-18 months under Rodgers were the only time I've seen a manager actively put themselves above anything/anyone at the club in order to preserve their own reputation. So for that period I'd argue he was even more catastrophic to what we had built.

 

He's obviously saved from any conversation like this for what he did before that though. 

I don't recall a manager ever who had a higher ceiling but lower floor than Rodgers.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

6 minutes ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

 

We were a mess behind the scenes but Holloway had 32 league games and a squad (although limited) that was more than good enough to stay up. He was also quite well backed in the Jan window.

 

Incredible how easy he gets off the hook with some folk. 

Imagine playing Harry Chuffing Worley in game you need to win 

 

He's in the mix just for that alone.

[Gamble92]

Just now, Dan said:

I don't recall a manager ever who had a higher ceiling but lower floor than Rodgers.

Good way of wording it. I will steal that for future pub debates. 

[AKCJ]

Just now, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

 

We were a mess behind the scenes but Holloway had 32 league games and a squad (although limited) that was more than good enough to stay up. He was also quite well backed in the Jan window.

 

Incredible how easy he gets off the hook with some folk. 

I'm no Holloway fan by any means but that squad was tragic. Just full of old blokes who had no interest. Only Gareth McAuley, Paddy Kisnorbo, DJ Campbell and Richard Stearman went on to do anything after leaving us.

 

Holloway was a part of a long list of poor managers who were left to look after a shite squad. He was awful but he's unfairly remembered against similar managers at the time because he was there when we went over the edge. If he gets sacked in the March/April that year and someone else takes us down then I think he's not getting as much of the stick that he does get. I don't think he was any worse than Levein or Kelly for instance.

[murphy]

1 hour ago, st albans fox said:

I think things changed between those coaches

taylor probably bought the players back then but under Rodgers it was much more sophisticated 

yes he probably suggested a few but it would mostly be those identified by recruitment 

 

as a coach, he was way ahead of many we had over the decades 

 

yes it went sour because ultimately it was all about him and we couldn’t afford to indulge him 

Trouble is, Rodgers suggested (demanded?) the recruitment team.   Lee The Legend Congerton.  

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

7 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

I'm no Holloway fan by any means but that squad was tragic. Just full of old blokes who had no interest. Only Gareth McAuley, Paddy Kisnorbo, DJ Campbell and Richard Stearman went on to do anything after leaving us.

 

Holloway was a part of a long list of poor managers who were left to look after a shite squad. He was awful but he's unfairly remembered against similar managers at the time because he was there when we went over the edge. If he gets sacked in the March/April that year and someone else takes us down then I think he's not getting as much of the stick that he does get. I don't think he was any worse than Levein or Kelly for instance.

 

I'm not saying the squad was good – but it was capable of staying up. The rest of this is all a bit hypothetical, no? He didn't get sacked. He had 30+ games, he made us worse, he took us to the third tier.

 

Absolute shite.

[davieG]

10 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

I'm no Holloway fan by any means but that squad was tragic. Just full of old blokes who had no interest. Only Gareth McAuley, Paddy Kisnorbo, DJ Campbell and Richard Stearman went on to do anything after leaving us.

 

Holloway was a part of a long list of poor managers who were left to look after a shite squad. He was awful but he's unfairly remembered against similar managers at the time because he was there when we went over the edge. If he gets sacked in the March/April that year and someone else takes us down then I think he's not getting as much of the stick that he does get. I don't think he was any worse than Levein or Kelly for instance.

Levein had to sell £2m worth of players Holloway had more than £5mill spent on players

[dmayne7]

2 hours ago, Gamble92 said:

For what they did to the club it will always (hopefully) be Taylor. 

 

But there's absolutely no doubt that 12-18 months under Rodgers were the only time I've seen a manager actively put themselves above anything/anyone at the club in order to preserve their own reputation. So for that period I'd argue he was even more catastrophic to what we had built.

 

He's obviously saved from any conversation like this for what he did before that though. 

 

 

100%. I think you almost need to split it in 2 and say the first part is of the greatest we've had, and the second is without doubt the worst. He undid far more than Taylor did without the mitigating factors that caused further damage (ITV Digital collapse, stadium etc). 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

31 minutes ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

Imagine playing Harry Chuffing Worley in game you need to win 

 

He's in the mix just for that alone.

Out of position too! 

[st albans fox]

39 minutes ago, murphy said:

Trouble is, Rodgers suggested (demanded?) the recruitment team.   Lee The Legend Congerton.  

Can’t argue with that 

[Dan]

2 hours ago, AKCJ said:

Brendan put himself before the club and it set us back years. Taylor was awful vs the position of the club at the time.

 

However, while Ruud inherited a club in disarray on and off the pitch, the output was unbelievably bad.

 

1 win, 1 draw, 16 losses between 14th December and 26th April.

 

We went from 8th December to 3rd of May without scoring a home goal.

It's just astonishing to me this team didn't only not finish bottom, but didn't even finish second bottom.

 

I think last years PL had three of the worst ten all time PL sides. A proper anomaly.

[Footballwipe]

Tbh it's probably RvN due to just how much life he sucked out of the club, fans, players and probably his own career. Absolutely hopeless.

 

But a word on Taylor. We gave him the keys to the castle, we have him millions of pounds to refresh what was fast becoming an ageing squad. We gave him the task of replacing our powerhouse striker and teaming him up with a troubled, but a revered striker.

 

We had so, so much opportunity that summer to get it right. European football, money, a solid PL presence. I dunno if he's the most "hindsight" bad manager we had. Sure there were clues (unable to manage Collymore, terrible away record after November, signing Junior bleedin Lewis) but the true scale of his disaster never really kicked in until Wycombe onwards.

 

By the time he'd done and spent another £7.5m on Walker, Scowcroft (4 goals in 34 PL games in 00-01) and Wise and essentially spaffed every penny we gave him up the wall. The fact he never really accepted or recognised the damage he caused, either, is something to hold. We were a team of strong personalities, and we gave the job to someone utterly incapable of managing strong personalities.

 

On Holloway - He came in with a lot of hype and promise (remember the fvcking face masks). This motormouth entertainer who had a half decent track record, and who we fought to get from Plymouth. Weird season, that, no team in the history of the Championship (2004 onwards) has gone down with as many points. We also had the second best defensive record, but the worst scoring record that season. We were useless in attack, and nearly 20% of our goals came in wins at home against Watford & Norwich City.

[AKCJ]

52 minutes ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

 

I'm not saying the squad was good – but it was capable of staying up. The rest of this is all a bit hypothetical, no? He didn't get sacked. He had 30+ games, he made us worse, he took us to the third tier.

 

Absolute shite.

I'm not saying he was any good. I just think he gets put on a level above because he was the one to eventually take us down. IMO everyone we had between Micky Adams and Nigel Pearson was as bad as each other. None of those managers were any good and I think that that was why we found ourselves in League 1.

 

I feel as though i'm white knighting for Ian Holloway ffs  

[Fox92]

Out of the managers I've seen (I started going regular around the Adams era) I would say Van Nistelrooy and Holloway. Van Nistelrooy broke a football league record. The amount of games we went without scoring was criminal. I missed so many games last season and it was because of him. 

 

Holloway for leading us to our worse ever position. The squad he had wasn't even that bad too, plus he signed two good Championship players in Howard and Oakley. Criminal he got us relegated with that team and for the first time in our history too. Clown.

 

Can't stand either of them. Understand why the main answer would be Taylor though.

Edited 4 September 2025 by Fox92

[CrazyKopCorner]

It has to be Taylor as he destroyed a very good side. 

 

RVN didn't have much to work with but FM he couldn't build a sand castle that bloke. 

 

I'd be checking for signs of madness as continually did the same thing expecting a different outcome. Compete and utter madness. 

[Corky]

Van Nistelrooy correctly gets the criticism for the home run of losing but Taylor lost 13 away league games in a row. He took over a fine squad, had loads of money to spend and wasted it. We lost 3-0 at home to Palace (who finished 21st  in Division One) in the League Cup to add to Wycombe. Two horrendous results. Brought in the destructive influence of Wise and Eric Hall whilst the standard of player dropped alarmingly. Lee Marshall, need I say more?

 

His tenure almost finished us. Comfortably the worst, all things considered.

[TonyN11]

Ian Holloway gets my vote

[bmt]

4 hours ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

Too young to remember Pleat or McLintock.

 

Toss up between Taylor, Holloway, Sousa, Cooper and RvN for me in terms of how desperate they all felt.

He was absolutely shit but that still feels harsh on Cooper haha 

[Leicesterpool]

RVN.... just seemed to give in too easy.

[Bob Weasel Fox]

It's a choice between Tater Peeler or Steve Cooper or RVN for me with notable mentions for Ian Holloway and as others have said Bodgers for how Brand Brendan was 2 years of utter excuses and protecting his own Legacy