Worst ever managers - we have had a few

[Bazly]

A trip down memory lane up to last month, unfortunately I'm old enough to remember most of them. I'd personally hand the trophy to Holloway as the only manager who ever managed (to date) to get the team relegated to the third tier of English football.

Tom Mather P2 Win ratio 0%
Kevin MacDonald P3 Win ratio 0%
Mike Stowell P2 Win ratio 0%
Andy King P4, Win ratio 0%

Then those who had a decent run of games.

Board P18 Win ratio 16%
Frank McLintock P 40 Win ratio 12.5%
Dave Bassett P32 Win ratio 12.5%
Ian Holloway P32 Win ratio 28%

[SystonFox]

imo Holloway is the worst we have ever had. Tactically out of his depth. 

[Aus Fox]

Peter Taylor by a country mile, in terms of what he inherited to where he left us… David Pleat gets the silver medal…

Holloway can get bronze.’

 

[RoboFox]

Along with the aforementioned, Ruud has to be in the conversation. The unprecedented streak of losing without scoring. 

 

The squad was - and is - dogshit, but that was just pathetic and he didn't have a ****ing clue. 

[Gazza M]

RVN for me. Appointed by a man with the footballing intelligence of Homer Simpson. 

[CrazyKopCorner]

6 minutes ago, Gazza M said:

RVN for me. Appointed by a man with the footballing intelligence of Homer Simpson. 

FM he was thick 

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

Cifuentes runs them all close

[Stadt]

Cooper lumbered us with Ayew & Reid then broke the bank for Oliver Skipp. Two lucky wins against Southampton and Bournemouth masked what would have been been 12 winless games.

 

A 2-4-6 record with a team that came up as champions and we had our second highest net spend with that oaf. If we hadn't have sacked him we would have gone on to do what RVN's team did anyway. 

[Leicesterpool]

Sousa for me, in the previous season we finished 5th and just on penalties missed out on wembley under Pearson. To then sit bottom of the league under Sousa by the end of September. 

[Freddy]

Only that Cooper probably didn't have a say in amy signing and he only had 10 games....Marty was was out of his depth for me.

[Finnegan]

If you're measuring managers as managers not just as head coaches (ie, their impact on the whole club not just on-field performance) then I don't think there's any argument here. 

 

It's Brendan Rodgers by a massive, massive, massive distance. 

 

Forget your hate for King Power for a moment, forget that Rudkin and Top enabled him and were ultimately responsible for letting him run riot. 

 

He took a club that had had been fairly successful in the transfer market, had built and given him a pretty decent squad and had a general philosophy of mostly signing assets that could be up-sold with room to grow both in talent and value and he said **** that.

 

He implemented his "broken players" ideology, filled the squad full of his nonsense, horrifically mismanaged all of his own approved signings, plummeted everyone's value, tanked the squad's personality and then morale, erased all culture of graft, hard work and fight and then moaned about it.

 

The financial problems we're still in now can be traced back to the wage bill he helped inflate for the players he got us to sign, plenty of whom aren't good enough even for this level. If we go down to League One this year with the highest wage bill ever to be relegated from the Championship, which is likely, to go with our record for the highest wage bill to ever be relegated from the Premier League then he'll deserve significant blame for both.

 

We're still drowning now trying to tread water under the weight of his contributions to the club. Taylor, Pleat, Holloway, Allen and Co never, ever had this sort of lasting impact. 

 

Yeah, Rodgers had a "Director of Football" above him that shielded him from some of the responsibility on paper but we all know one of Rudkin's biggest failings has been surrendering control to his managers and that Rodgers was mostly pulling the strings. 

 

Liverpool knew how much of a disaster he was and curbed his influence there. We had no such sense. 

 

Was he our worst ever Head Coach? No. We've many worse, including those immediately before him and most since. But worst ever manager of the football club? For sure. 

 

Edited 5 March by Finnegan

[Fox92]

Holloway took us to our lowest ever position. And with a squad that was more than good enough of staying up. We should never have been a third tier club.

[Finnegan]

1 minute ago, Fox92 said:

Holloway took us to our lowest ever position. And with a squad that was more than good enough of staying up. We should never have been a third tier club.

 

It absolutely wasn't "more than good enough." It was pretty awful and wasn't a surprise at all it went down. 

 

Could it have stayed up with a better coach? Yeah possibly but it was a much worse squad than the one we have now. 

 

Allen deserves a lot more stick for assembling as much of it as he did. Holloway was an easy target because his chipper personality grates on people, especially when things aren't going well, but it was a big ask to keep us up. 

 

I don't completely hate him and I don't think he'd even make my list of top 5 worst managers in my lifetime. 

 

[davieG]

Agree with @Finnegan re worst manager of Rodgers for his over all impact on the club but coaching / entertaining wise my bottom 5 in my time in date order.

 

McLintock

Taylor

Bassett

Holloway

Nistelrooy

[Winstonthedog]

Craig Levine .... seriously what was he all about 

[davieG]

8 minutes ago, Winstonthedog said:

Craig Levine .... seriously what was he all about 

He was under instructions to cut costs dramatically so was always going to struggle which makes it difficult to judge whether he was anything but an average manager

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Peter Taylor for dismantling everything MON built 

 

RVN for that no scoring home run of games 

 

Rodgers for having the hump and sabotaging us from within 

 

CFuentes. For being out of his depth and dull football 

 

Holloway for being a buffoon and taking us down playing for q draw

 

Levein. For buying loads of rubbish players from Scotland and just a poor time 

 

I also dislike Mark McGhee with a passion but can’t say he should be in the worst. 

[Manley Farrington-Brown]

1 hour ago, Gazza M said:

RVN for me. Appointed by a man with the footballing intelligence of Homer Simpson. 

Unfair. Homer Simpson was brilliant, sat in front of the back four, directing play for Anderlecht in the 1980s.

 

Also, McLintock and Taylor took over decent to good first division sides and destroyed them in no time flat. Pretty much everyone else mentioned here was handed a load of shite and just failed to make it any better.

[Stadt]

1 hour ago, Freddy said:

Only that Cooper probably didn't have a say in amy signing and he only had 10 games....Marty was was out of his depth for me.

Skipp, Ayew and Reid have all the hallmarks of Cooper signings. 
 

Skipp - England U17s under Cooper, took MGW to Forest on th back this link and similar at Swansea.

 

Ayew - signed his brother twice ffs

 

Reid - PL experience is something he parked for at Forest, you cod tell who were his signings and who were the clubs.

 

BEK and Okoli were pretty obviously not his players. Buonanotte, no idea on that one.

[Guppys Love Child]

2 hours ago, Aus Fox said:

Peter Taylor by a country mile, in terms of what he inherited to where he left us… David Pleat gets the silver medal…

Holloway can get bronze.’

 

From a true management view I agree with your first 2  but RvN in at 3 for me.

 

But worst manager is Rodgers for me, the above 3 were just crap/ incompetent/out of their depth etc.

  The odious, backstabbing, gucci belt wearing, little troll is just a thoroughly despicable human being, who exhibited all the trates I hate in people in general.

Hate is s strong word  but I reserve it whole heartedly for that  C U Next Tuesday.

 

And breathe........

 

 

[jayfox26]

1 hour ago, Finnegan said:

If you're measuring managers as managers not just as head coaches (ie, their impact on the whole club not just on-field performance) then I don't think there's any argument here. 

 

It's Brendan Rodgers by a massive, massive, massive distance. 

 

Forget your hate for King Power for a moment, forget that Rudkin and Top enabled him and were ultimately responsible for letting him run riot. 

 

He took a club that had had been fairly successful in the transfer market, had built and given him a pretty decent squad and had a general philosophy of mostly signing assets that could be up-sold with room to grow both in talent and value and he said **** that.

 

He implemented his "broken players" ideology, filled the squad full of his nonsense, horrifically mismanaged all of his own approved signings, plummeted everyone's value, tanked the squad's personality and then morale, erased all culture of graft, hard work and fight and then moaned about it.

 

The financial problems we're still in now can be traced back to the wage bill he helped inflate for the players he got us to sign, plenty of whom aren't good enough even for this level. If we go down to League One this year with the highest wage bill ever to be relegated from the Championship, which is likely, to go with our record for the highest wage bill to ever be relegated from the Premier League then he'll deserve significant blame for both.

 

We're still drowning now trying to tread water under the weight of his contributions to the club. Taylor, Pleat, Holloway, Allen and Co never, ever had this sort of lasting impact. 

 

Yeah, Rodgers had a "Director of Football" above him that shielded him from some of the responsibility on paper but we all know one of Rudkin's biggest failings has been surrendering control to his managers and that Rodgers was mostly pulling the strings. 

 

Liverpool knew how much of a disaster he was and curbed his influence there. We had no such sense. 

 

Was he our worst ever Head Coach? No. We've many worse, including those immediately before him and most since. But worst ever manager of the football club? For sure. 

 

100%. Rodgers left in 2023 and 3 years on, his stench is still fully ingrained in the club. He inherited a good squad and a club that had become an established prem team, had initial success with said squad but then spent way too much, bloated the wage bill and ultimately left the disaster we are seeing now. The financial as well as culture issues, deep rooted within the club can be traced back to him. I genuinely despise him, which in some ways is a mad thing to say about the manager that won us our first ever fa cup. 

[everton carr]

1 hour ago, Stadt said:

Cooper lumbered us with Ayew & Reid then broke the bank for Oliver Skipp. Two lucky wins against Southampton and Bournemouth masked what would have been been 12 winless games.

 

A 2-4-6 record with a team that came up as champions and we had our second highest net spend with that oaf. If we hadn't have sacked him we would have gone on to do what RVN's team did anyway. 

You do know signings are decided by a team of 5 who all have to agree.We spent less then both Southampton and Ipswich the net spend was around 30M it's nothing.Shows what a small club we are if you think 20M is .breaking the bank.Not saying Skipp is worth 20M but that's not a great deal of money these days.

[Stadt]

10 minutes ago, everton carr said:

You do know signings are decided by a team of 5 who all have to agree.We spent less then both Southampton and Ipswich the net spend was around 30M it's nothing.Shows what a small club we are if you think 20M is .breaking the bank.Not saying Skipp is worth 20M but that's not a great deal of money these days.

Cannon was a January transfer and so was Woyo so the net spend 88m - 35m  (euros/transfermarkt). 53m euros so about £46m net.

 

We don't know the exact transfer approval process but it's pretty obvious Skipp, Ayew and Reid were die cast Cooper signings. Can you imagine Maresca asking for those three?  

[Foxin_Mad]

Its always been Taylor for how he destroyed the O'Neill team, however I think Cifuentes come pretty close, despite the problems at this club, it should not ever be struggling in this division with this set of players. He was a complete and utter halfwit of a manager, unfit team, terrible tactics, not improved one thing one bit during his time here. Truly abysmal running, pressing and xg stats. 

[everton carr]

18 minutes ago, Stadt said:

Cannon was a January transfer and so was Woyo so the net spend 88m - 35m  (euros/transfermarkt). 53m euros so about £46m net.

 

We don't know the exact transfer approval process but it's pretty obvious Skipp, Ayew and Reid were die cast Cooper signings. Can you imagine Maresca asking for those three?  

Ayew 5M  BDR free transfer both signed as squad players. No don't think Enzo would have accepted having to sign bargain basement players. He would have wanted a budget of over 100M to give us a fighting chance