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Asha

Best Leicester Manager Since War

By Asha, in Leicester City Forum

Best Manager Ever (leicester) (since war)  

119 members have voted

  1. 1. Best manager since war

    • Tom Mather
      1
    • Johnny Duncan
      0
    • Norman Bullock
      0
    • David Halliday
      0
    • Matt Gillies
      10
    • Frank O'Farrell
      0
    • Jimmy Bloomfield
      6
    • Frank McLintock
      0
    • Jock Wallace
      4
    • Gordon Milne
      0
    • Bryan Hamilton
      0
    • David Pleat
      1
    • Brian Little
      1
    • Mark McGhee
      0
    • Martin O'Neill
      87
    • Peter Taylor
      5
    • Dave Bassett
      0
    • Micky Adams
      1
    • Craig Levein
      2
    • Rob Kelly
      1

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Thracian

Thracian

Posted
Posted

Dead easy. Matt Gillies. Four major Cup finals. Entertaining footballing. Only time we were seriously in contention for the League and Cup double. Six-nil win over Manchester United with Law, Best, Charlton etc.

Regular wins over top sides of the day like Liverpool. Some of the best players we ever had like Gordon Banks, Davie Gibson, Peter Shilton, Ian King, Frank McLintock, Colin Appleton and more. Just a terrific team.

From Wikepaedia:

Gillies played for Motherwell, Bolton Wanderers and Leicester City. He was later manager of Leicester from 1959 to 1968. He took charge of a total 437 games, the most of any manager in the club's history. He led Leicester to their first major trophy success, the League Cup in 1964, and took them to three other cup finals: the FA Cup in 1961 and 1963, and the League Cup in 1965, though they lost in the latter three.

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lcfc_jme

lcfc_jme

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I would have to say MON, simply because the furthest back I can remember ('cos of my age) is Brian Little, and in the time since we had him and I have been a City fan, MON has done the best job, achieving the most and making us the best we have been in my lifetime.

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Ajax Treesdown

Ajax Treesdown

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Dead easy. Matt Gillies. Four major Cup finals. Entertaining footballing. Only time we were seriously in contention for the League and Cup double. Six-nil win over Manchester United with Law, Best, Charlton etc.

Regular wins over top sides of the day like Liverpool. Some of the best players we ever had like Gordon Banks, Davie Gibson, Peter Shilton, Ian King, Frank McLintock, Colin Appleton and more. Just a terrific team.

From Wikepaedia:

Gillies played for Motherwell, Bolton Wanderers and Leicester City. He was later manager of Leicester from 1959 to 1968. He took charge of a total 437 games, the most of any manager in the club's history. He led Leicester to their first major trophy success, the League Cup in 1964, and took them to three other cup finals: the FA Cup in 1961 and 1963, and the League Cup in 1965, though they lost in the latter three.

How many did he win?

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FNQ

FNQ

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Posted

Dead easy. Matt Gillies. Four major Cup finals. Entertaining footballing. Only time we were seriously in contention for the League and Cup double. Six-nil win over Manchester United with Law, Best, Charlton etc.

Regular wins over top sides of the day like Liverpool. Some of the best players we ever had like Gordon Banks, Davie Gibson, Peter Shilton, Ian King, Frank McLintock, Colin Appleton and more. Just a terrific team.

From Wikepaedia:

Gillies played for Motherwell, Bolton Wanderers and Leicester City. He was later manager of Leicester from 1959 to 1968. He took charge of a total 437 games, the most of any manager in the club's history. He led Leicester to their first major trophy success, the League Cup in 1964, and took them to three other cup finals: the FA Cup in 1961 and 1963, and the League Cup in 1965, though they lost in the latter three.

With such a brilliant team, why didn't we actually win things?

Surely one league cup win is a serious underachievement?

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Thracian

Thracian

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With such a brilliant team, why didn't we actually win things?

Surely one league cup win is a serious underachievement?

It all depends who you're playing against.

Reaching three FA Cup Finals at a time when its prestige was highest was an amazing achievement with little money and a very small squad of players and it was generally said that the effect of injuries on our small squad cost us the double in the early 60's when we reached the Cup Final and topped the old First Division.

To have won the double then would have been akin to Watford winning the European Cup I'd say.

It is always easy for people who never watched a team to mock their achievements but I would certainly rate three FA Cup Finals and one League Cup win at that time as more than matching Martin O'Neill's two League Cup wins and no FA Cup Finals.

The teams of the two managers were so different in style it is fairly pointless to compare them. I thoroughly enjoyed watching both and would certainly never try to guess which was more likely to beat the other.

As in the Arsenal 3-3 - and Arsenal were a super side at the time - you could never write off any O'Neill team. O'Neill was a remarkable personality and his team reflected that. They played some rousing football but were never what I'd call a classy side.

The 60's Leicester could produce some breathtaking football to match the very best on occasions. Bill Shankly's Liverpool were both brilliant and relentless but Leicester were something of a bogey side for them and I mentioned the 6-0 against Manchester United which wasn't the only time they beat the team which won the European title and there were many other memorable victories.

As I say, the main drawback was injuries and lack of back up because you didn't have five subs in those days and the pitches got really heavy, unlike today's billiard tables.

The fans seemed to like Leicester too. Attendances were generally much higher than today and that despite the lack of anything like the relative comforts we have at the ground today. Howard Riley, right winger at the time, is still around the ground today. I wonder what he'd say.

Player for player I'd rate the 60's side better.

O'Neill's great gift was his Clough-like ability to get the best out of people, to spot their strengths, play to them and get the individual to cog into the team.

Sixties Leicester had the best goalkeepers in their history by a distance in Banks and Shilton, unquestionably their best-ever number 10 in David Gibson, an outstanding centre-half in Ian King and wing-halves in McLintock and Appleton, whose fearsome determination, energy and ability was legendary.

The team flowed. They complimented each other so well that, at their best, they were considered by everyone in the first divison to be extremely dangerous opponents.

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Thracian

Thracian

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Steve Beaglehole.

Not an obvious candidate because he's a maverick - a guy whose idea of playing football properly is to get the ball, keep the ball and score as many goals as possible.

If his ideas ever caught on the game would be ridiculous. Scorelines of 5-4 or 6-3 would be commonplace and fans would be easily mistaken for drunken revellers at Christmastime because of the smiles on their faces and the ceaseless gestures as they walked home describing the various goals they'd seen.

When an official from the FA saw Beaglehole in action he insisted on him explaining the signals he was making to his team because, being an England man, he had never seen anyone actually waving players forwards with that familiar sweeping action that has become Beaglehole's personal trademark.

The only thing Beaglehole's reported to know about defence is that the one at home needs painting.

Several times he's been reported to the authorities for fielding too many players but it turned out the FA spy had counted the Leicester Academy players in the opposition penalty box and not realised there were no City shirts anywhere else on the field, except the goallie who he missed cos all officials are short-sighted..

Referees had noted that they used more pencil writing scores down than bookings and sendings-off, something totally unique in football.

And the same refs also complained that matches at Belvoir Drive were ruining their fitness regimes cos they only had to patrol one half - while their assistants didn't want to be involved at all cos they just got cold standing in one half of the field with absolutely nothing to do.

The problem for Beaglehole's players is that having been runners-up in their League last season, top this season and having also won the Westerby Cup, they've got to spend at least another year in the classroom readjusting their thinking to first team requirements.

The whole idea of winning possession then hoofing the ball is alien and will have to be changed. Then there's the loneliness of joining a first team attack and finding your the only one in it. And you have the daft little rule that's recently been introduced at the Walkers about the scoring process.

"We score one, they score one..." is not an easy concept for the Under 18's but they'll adjust just the same as they'll get used to the advanced practise of playing the ball sideways and backwards whenever the first team take the lead.

It's not just results that set Beaglehole apart. It's also his attitude to the team ethic.

"Players have to realise its not all about fun at Leicester City," said Beaglehole wisely.

"Players in the Championship are on big money. Winning at our level is one thing - we love it - but do that at first team level and you can be putting a £5000-a-week opponent out of a job.

"It's just not on. People don't realise how clever Kelly is to get a draw nearly every week. He's a good bloke and a good socialist. He'd never want to do anyone a bad turn."

So both personally and professionally there's no doubt in my mind... Beaglehole for best Leicester manager since the war. Retro football in all its glory. :thumbup::thumbup::D:D:D:clap::clap::scarf::scarf::scarf:

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Ultra

Ultra

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Posted

But in Matt Gillies' time most teams in the league operated financially on a level playing field.

When he took over, there was a maximum wage in place, commercial sponsorship was unheard of and the league had a rule entitling away teams to 25% of gate receipts. This meant that the top flight was far more competitive than it is now. Each season, around a dozen teams would begin the campaign with genuine hopes of the title. Many more would consider themselves capable of challenging for a trophy.

Had the present rules governing qualification for European tournaments been in place then, Gillies' record would look a lot better. From what I read and have been told of the 60s side, it appears that they would have been well suited to playing continental opposition, and we might have been able to attract even better players. As it was, despite a financially cautious board, we were able to break the British transfer record (something which will NEVER recur in my lifetime) when signing Allan Clarke in 1968 (and went down the year afterwards).

In view of the extreme financial limitations placed under him, the endless off-field issues with the board and the challenges of competing with teams with far higher levels of resources, Martin O'Neill has to be the choice.

However, Gillies deserves credit for two other matters:

1) After leaving us, he went to Forest and took them down.. :D:D:D

2) He signed MON for Forest, and thus introduced him to English football. :o

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Hullfox

Hullfox

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Posted

Steve Beaglehole.

Not an obvious candidate because he's a maverick - a guy whose idea of playing football properly is to get the ball, keep the ball and score as many goals as possible.

If his ideas ever caught on the game would be ridiculous. Scorelines of 5-4 or 6-3 would be commonplace and fans would be easily mistaken for drunken revellers at Christmastime because of the smiles on their faces and the ceaseless gestures as they walked home describing the various goals they'd seen.

When an official from the FA saw Beaglehole in action he insisted on him explaining the signals he was making to his team because, being an England man, he had never seen anyone actually waving players forwards with that familiar sweeping action that has become Beaglehole's personal trademark.

The only thing Beaglehole's reported to know about defence is that the one at home needs painting.

Several times he's been reported to the authorities for fielding too many players but it turned out the FA spy had counted the Leicester Academy players in the opposition penalty box and not realised there were no City shirts anywhere else on the field, except the goallie who he missed cos all officials are short-sighted..

Referees had noted that they used more pencil writing scores down than bookings and sendings-off, something totally unique in football.

And the same refs also complained that matches at Belvoir Drive were ruining their fitness regimes cos they only had to patrol one half - while their assistants didn't want to be involved at all cos they just got cold standing in one half of the field with absolutely nothing to do.

The problem for Beaglehole's players is that having been runners-up in their League last season, top this season and having also won the Westerby Cup, they've got to spend at least another year in the classroom readjusting their thinking to first team requirements.

The whole idea of winning possession then hoofing the ball is alien and will have to be changed. Then there's the loneliness of joining a first team attack and finding your the only one in it. And you have the daft little rule that's recently been introduced at the Walkers about the scoring process.

"We score one, they score one..." is not an easy concept for the Under 18's but they'll adjust just the same as they'll get used to the advanced practise of playing the ball sideways and backwards whenever the first team take the lead.

It's not just results that set Beaglehole apart. It's also his attitude to the team ethic.

"Players have to realise its not all about fun at Leicester City," said Beaglehole wisely.

"Players in the Championship are on big money. Winning at our level is one thing - we love it - but do that at first team level and you can be putting a £5000-a-week opponent out of a job.

"It's just not on. People don't realise how clever Kelly is to get a draw nearly every week. He's a good bloke and a good socialist. He'd never want to do anyone a bad turn."

So both personally and professionally there's no doubt in my mind... Beaglehole for best Leicester manager since the war. Retro football in all its glory. :thumbup::thumbup::D:D:D:clap::clap::scarf::scarf::scarf:

Sometimes you go fishing and that big old bugger just comes along and gives up without a fight.

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