Who was our worst manager and why?

[Parafox]

7 hours ago, sylofox said:

I don't solely blame Holloway. The main fault for that relegation was mandric  we changed our manager more times that season than some people change underwear.

 

I remember feeling quite excited by Mandaric as owner and Holloway as manager when they first took charge but my God that changed to abject despondency within a few months.

 

Holloway still haunts me as a manager for us. Mandaric was nothing more than a crook.

Edited 4 September 2025 by Parafox

[Parafox]

6 hours ago, Stadt said:

Glad Cooper has been mentioned multiple times.

 

Inherited a talented squad that had just won the Championship, it contained lots of players that had performed in the PL previously, oversaw our record net spend on dross like Skipp, Ayew, Reid and Edouard. 

 

We were incredibly shit in his games, the Forest home loss whilst they were chanting his name was disgusting. Somehow we kept scabbing points and 4 points at 10 men Southampton and Ipswich (two of the fellow worst sides in PL history) papered over the fissure. He ignored Fatawu and Ricardo for most of his tenure too. RVN was shit but the damage had mostly been done.

 

Not defending the incompetent fool, but weren't they injured for most of his time here?

[Parafox]

3 hours ago, sdb said:

Glad to see RVN being mentioned. He really was that bad. We've had some shockers but he seemed the most clueless to me. Taylor was terrible and then lots of useless crap that luckily came and went before too much damage was done. I'm hoping no one has mentioned Rodgers, however annoying he may have been! 

Rodgers, although not the worst we ever had, deliberately sabotaged us (mainly by repeatedly playing Danny Ward even though it was obvious he was useless) because the board wouldn't give him money to spend and his ego made him believe he was bigger than us. 

Edited 4 September 2025 by Parafox

[Stadt]

3 minutes ago, Parafox said:

 

Not defending the incompetent fool, but weren't they injured for most of his time here?

Ricardo perhaps, prior to Farawu’s injury he was on the bench mostly 

[whoareyaaa]

Leivein 

Taylor

Cooper

Edited 4 September 2025 by whoareyaaa

[pmcla26]

Cooper for me. He was handed the blue print to success by Enzo and put us another 2 years behind minimum by coming in and changing it straight away. 
 

All we needed to do was upgrade in a few positions by adding some quality and physicality to cope with the Premier League whilst keeping the shape the same. Was so obvious. 

[Parafox]

In no particular order:

 

Levein

Taylor

RvN

Cooper

Holloway

Pleat (not as bad as others but, bad)

Sousa,

 

 plus Rodgers for being a ****.

 

The list above may have been out of their depth/incompetent but Rodgers was capapble and proven but scuppered us with his arrogance. And I'll never forgive him.

 

 

 

 

Edited 4 September 2025 by Parafox

[DJW1]

1 hour ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

Hamilton bought Steve Moran for a club record £300,000 in 1986. Always felt like he was meant to be Lineker's replacement.

I'd forgotten about Moran. Alan Smith had signed for Arsenal and stayed til the end of the season, but perhaps mentally he was already at Highbury

[DJW1]

1 hour ago, murphy said:

Wasn't it Mark bright? 

 

,I seem to remember first game of the season after selling Lineker, he was back with his Everton side .  We won 3-1, Bright scored two and never did much again for us. 

Just checked, Bright signed in 84 and Sealey in 85.

[Guppys Love Child]

Rodgers......

 

For all he did to the club running up to his long overdue sacking.

 

How he blamed anyone but himself for all the failures. He suffers from  "Mary Poppins Syndrome" in its quintessential form.

 

His mapulatinion of the media with BS, then building mental bridges, by hi-lighting all the bad things outside the sphere of his control that were bad at the time  in every 'effing' interview just to preserve the "Rodgers Brand'" for when he was eventually sacked.

 

So he could utter the career saving line.. "See I told you it wasn't my fault."   

 

If he could have managed as well as he 'spun the retoric' we would have won the Champions League.

 

 Blaming the fans, saying we made the players uncomfortable.

The list of this sh1t head's antics, whilst not endless was pretty long.

Hate is a strong word, but I reserve it for this odious little cretin. He acted in a way and  exhibited a whole lot traits  I just find deplorable in a human being.   

[winteriscoming]

Levein did well keeping us up with shit players and no money to spend. 
As did Kelly. 
In my lifetime the worse are 

Taylor 

Holloway 

Rvn 

Cooper

[AyewJoking]

8 hours ago, teblin said:

For me it’s Taylor. RVN was bad but Taylor bought lots of crap players too. RVN didn’t do that. 

definately would have if he had the chance

[robski]

8 hours ago, teblin said:

For me it’s Taylor. RVN was bad but Taylor bought lots of crap players too. RVN didn’t do that. 

RVN wasn’t given the chance….Thank God 

[robski]

4 hours ago, sylofox said:

 

As above. I was also told this at the time. They had a few stand up arguments about it infront of staff and players. So I was told.

Holloway was a pillock with annoying accent 

[Stadt]

Cooper getting sacked early did his rep no end of favours. Had he gone 5 games later he’d be more reviled like he should be

[Mickyblueeyes]

34 minutes ago, winteriscoming said:

Levein did well keeping us up with shit players and no money to spend. 
As did Kelly. 
In my lifetime the worse are 

Taylor 

Holloway 

Rvn 

Cooper

I might be mistaken but for the time, Levein had a decent budget. He had to clear out a lot of Adams dad’s army but brought in guys like Fryatt and Hume so were over £1m each. Paddy McCarthy, Momo Sylla, Strephen Hughes. Rab Douglas, Peter Gilbert and the great Elvis Hammond.
 

I think he had the entire David Connolly sale. A lot of the rubbish was his signings. I mean, the amount spent is nothing compared to nowadays but back then, considering what Adams had (and Kelly after him), he was backed somewhat

[420Hashish]

Whoever the current manager is whenever the team loses according to half this forum

[jayfox26]

Taylor was terrible and destroyed everything O' Neill had built. Holloway was dreadful as well and Cooper and RVN. 

 

I still always come back to Rodgers though. He may not be our worst, especially as he won us our first ever fa cup and got us our 2 highest finishes (other than 15-16) but the way he acted in his final season here will always leave a bitter taste. 

 

The likes of Taylor etc were all terrible managers but they all tried their best but ultimately weren't good enough. Nobody can even say Rodgers tried in that final season, he actively sabotaged us as he'd thrown his toys out the pram because he wasn't given any money. Let's not forget it's him and his mate congerton that played a huge part in the club being where it is now, and we have been set back years as a result. 

 

Top and Rudkin are ultimately to blame for our demise but Rodgers has blood on his hands and his stench is still lingering over the Club now! I genuinely detest that horrible little cretin and that is a crazy thing to say about the manager that won us our first fa cup. 

[Filbert Fireworks]

Peter Taylor - That was a terrible time. 

 

RVN - Just as bad if not worse but a shorter stint and think the club realised he was woeful so didn't give him a transfer window.

9 home games without a goal. 

 

 

[MPH]

Honorable mention for Megson.. stocked us full of RBs and then buggered off.

 

 

Personally the most turgid of football I ever watched was under David pleat. We couldn’t string more than 3-4 passes together.

 

 

Also for Pleat-  me and a few friends got to the stadium one afternoon hoping to see them off to an away game. Ironically against Luton..got all the players autographs as they got on to the coach.. last one  on was David Pleat. Saw us standing there waiting for his autograph and said “ oh you’re waiting for me are you.?”  We all grinned and nodded. He had some kit and boots in his hands  so said “ let me put these in my seat and I’ll be back down. “ He climbed up the steps,  told the drive to go, doors closed and they drove off. Left us all standing there like  like idiots, book and pen in hand..

Edited 4 September 2025 by MPH

[lcfcbluearmy]

RVN and it’s not even a competition is the worst manager we have had, most destructive though is Rodgers

[ACF]

Last 18 months of Rodgers destroyed the club more than Cooper and RVN did, but I can’t say he was the worst manager.
 

Cooper destroyed what was promising under Maresca, as he is so limited as a manager, he didn’t know any other way. RVNs job was impossible and also the total wrong hire, based off what Cooper had left. 
 

Cooper takes the cake for me, purely for the off field and transfers.

[AyewJoking]

1 hour ago, Filbert Fireworks said:

Peter Taylor - That was a terrible time. 

 

RVN - Just as bad if not worse but a shorter stint and think the club realised he was woeful so didn't give him a transfer window.

9 home games without a goal. 

 

 

Ruud wouldnt be so hated if he was sacked after a few weeks but his refusal to quit just rubbed salt into the wounds of a record breaking stream of utter horse shit

[The Horse's Mouth]

People saying rodgers are genuinely mental  . I started in the levein era, for me it’s only two candidates in Ruud and Holloway. And I think ruud edges it in the fact that the season was over within a month despite taken over in a reasonably strong position.

[Heathrow fox]

5 hours ago, DJW1 said:

For me (born in 1966) it´s probably Bryan Hamilton (1986-7). He inherited a decent team from Gordon Milne and took us down to the then Division 2 and had us in the relegation zone there the following season until he was replaced in December by David Pleat. 

McClintock was our 2nd worse manager.

As commented before, Taylor started very well but it fell apart after the Wycombe game.  Pleat was great in the first half-season but the defence became a shambles and he had to go to prevent relegation to Div 3. 

In a couple of those cases the fans wanted rid of the previous manager (Bloomfield before McClintock and Milne before Hamilton) even though they´d done pretty well.

I think Milne signed Sealy?Hamilton gets away without mention in these worst ever manager threads because hardly anyone was there to witness it.Awful  manager.Broke the transfer record twice btw.