Greatest Leicester City XI - Manager

[davieG]

Today, in our quest for the greatest ever Leicester City side, we have to choose a manager. After this week's shortlist of goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and strikers, we have managed to get the choice down to six.

Again, the manager's performance at City is paramount and not what he did before or after.

 

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For that reason, the likes of Sven-Goran Eriksson, who had a successful career across Europe, but fared less well at City, did not qualify.

 

This increasingly difficult and controversial search now has its last shortlist.

 

 

Micky Adams

From: April 2002-October 2004

Verdict:@ A manager’s job is never easy, and Adams had the added complication of a club that was in financial freefall as it headed towards administration after the disastrous era of Peter Taylor. Adams took control when relegation from the Premier League was inevitable, and then set about getting the club straight back up from the Championship. City’s style of play was not pretty and relied on a pressing game and set-pieces, but it worked. However, then came the La Manga scandal and a Premier League campaign blighted by conceding late goals, and Adams left the club in late 2004.

Jimmy Bloomfield

From: July 1971-May 1977

Verdict: Has there ever been a better and more entertaining football side than the one under Bloomfield’s reign? It was an exciting and proud time for City fans as the Londoner brought in a series of players from the capital, and the team plied their trade in the top half of the top flight. Many of the players who played in that team are still revered today – Frank Worthington, Steve Whitworth, Graham Cross, Alan Birchenall, Jon Sammels, the list goes on. However, despite great expectations, there was no silverware – and FA Cup semi-final was the best that Bloomfield achieved during his six years at Filbert Street.

 

Matt Gillies

From: November 1958-November 1968

Verdict: Ten years in the top job shows just how good a job the Scotsman did. A former City player, Gillies took over in the late 1950s and transformed the club’s fortunes. There were two FA Cup finals, in 1961 and 1963, and two League Cup finals, including the first piece of silverware. A shrewd operator in the transfer market, Gillies was responsible for bringing in the likes of Gordon Banks and Davie Gibson. A loyal man, who credited his coach, Bert Johnson, with much of City’s success, Gillies resigned after his trusted friend’s sacking.

 

Brian Little

From: May 1991-November 1994

Verdict: Much of Little’s era is tainted by the fury of City fans at his defection to Aston Villa early in the 1994-95 season, where he made his name as a player. However, let us not forget that this is the manager that instilled some pride and excitement at Filbert Street, with three Wembley play-off finals after some lean and tedious years. Some of the football may not have been pretty, and some of the signings dubious, but the plan worked. Of course, Little was also the man behind the masterstroke to suddenly convert centre-back Steve Walsh to centre-forward.

 

Frank O’Farrell

From: December 1968-June 1971

Verdict: The Irishman took over after the long reign of Matt Gillies, when City were destined for relegation from the old First Division. However, after a great cup run, O’Farrell took City to their last FA Cup final, the 1969 defeat to Manchester City at Wembley. He led City to the Second Division title two years later, but his talents had been noticed elsewhere. The City boss was appointed to be the new manager of Manchester United, in the summer of 1971, to replace the legendary Matt Busby. Sadly for O’Farrell, and for his trusted assistant Malcolm Musgrove, the move to Old Trafford never worked out for them.

 

Martin O’Neill

From: December 1995-June 2000

Verdict: Let us just look at the record of another Irishman – promotion, four top-10 finishes in the Premier League and silverware, with two League Cup triumphs in three finals. Those victories, of course, also brought European football to Leicester for the first time in many years. Although O’Neill had a now well-documented difficult start to his City career, it was then almost entirely heady days for the Blue Army. His elevation to legendary status was helped by turning down the overtures of both Everton and Leeds before he eventually succumbed to the charms of Celtic in 2001.

 

Also considered, but failed to make the shortlist:

Norman Bullock@ (December 1949-February 1955) was a post-war manager with a five-year plan to take City to the very highest-level, and the club’s board were impressed. The man who brought the legendary Arthur Rowley to City, Bullock took them to the Second Division championship in 1954. However, life in the top flight did not go according to plan for Bullock, and problems with his players at a Whitley Bay hotel led to his sacking. It was a problem that a manager nearly 50 years later would come to sympathise with.

 

Peter Hodge@ (September 1919-May 1926) was the secretary/manager, and it was always a joint role until the Second World War. Hodge guided Leicester Fosse to First Division respectability and was well-respected in the game. A shrewd operator in the transfer market, he signed goal-scoring machine Arthur Chandler for virtually nothing. Hodge won the Second Division title in 1925, but was then tempted away from the club by Manchester City, where he signed one Matt Busby.

 

Mark McGhee@ (December 1994-December 1995) is a much derided figure for the way he left Filbert Street for Wolves, and for some of his arrogant pronouncements. However, he tried to get City playing a fluent passing game before Barcelona even thought about it. When it worked, City were brilliant, but when it didn’t... If McGhee had stayed at Leicester, something really good might, just might, have happened.

 

Gordon Milne@ (August 1982-May 1987) was a quiet man and not the charismatic figure of many City bosses. Cash was tight at City during his reign and he worked on a minimal budget but, for three years, he kept City in the top flight against all the odds. Respected for his work, but not overly popular with the fans, he moved to become general manager before it all went wrong for City under new Bryan Hamilton. Milne managed successfully for many years in Turkey, where he became the longest-serving ever foreign coach.

 

Jock Wallace@ (June 1978-July 1982) is unlucky not to make the shortlist. The appointment of the Glasgow Rangers manager as City boss was a true British soccer sensation at the time. The charismatic, tough, ex-Royal Marine had notorious training session and was a great motivator. He stopped City from sliding into the third tier of English football after the nightmare regime of Frank McLintock. Wallace took City to the Second Division championship, but City soon slid back down as the purse strings at Filbert Street were tightened.

Read more: http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/story-19546124-detail/story.html?#ixzz2ZZku90kN 

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[Mark_w]

No Pearson?

[Fox92]

Martin O'Neill in my liftime, but a special mention to Micky Adams who did a fantastic job here, especially when you take into consideration everything that was going on off the pitch. 

[nickyboy]

Has to be King O'Neill

[Happy Fox]

Matt Gillies if he doesn't win it, I would be very surprised.

[davieG]

Matt Gillies if he doesn't win it, I would be very surprised.

Well he wont because like the other polls people will vote for who they know and not necessarily what they achieved and who can blame them. Football is a very personal thing and in people's hearts and minds.

 

I've voted for Gillies but MON stands along side him, it's a shame we couldn't have kept him a while longer.

[DennisNedry]

I think Martin O'God will win this, and I think that for the first time in all of these polls, he will actually win because he deserves it, not because he's recent and people don't know the older nominees.

[teblin]

No Pearson?

Better than mark McGhee

[davieG]

I think Martin O'God will win this, and I think that for the first time in all of these polls, he will actually win because he deserves it, not because he's recent and people don't know the older nominees.

In your opinion, I could argue that if you'd been around during the Gillies reign and saw the scintillating and successful football he produced he would win because he deserves it but won't because the poll is totally biased towards the more recent eras.

[Loggy88]

In the 70s bit no mention of Keith Weller, that is shocking! Has to be O Niell for best ever manager

[Bob Weasel Fox]

Martin O'God

But Gillies and Bloomfield must push him close

I quite liked Jock Wallace personally (manager when I first started supporting Leicester)

[Zingari]

Gillies for me overall ( although i think he owed some of the credit to Dave Halliday's team building )

 

Bloomfield  definitely built up our most glamourous and exciting team 

 

O'Neills side was more workmanlike than entertaining , but he was still a great manager 

[foxaholic]

In your opinion, I could argue that if you'd been around during the Gillies reign and saw the scintillating and successful football he produced he would win because he deserves it but won't because the poll is totally biased towards the more recent eras.

Agreed  10th under Gillies would have been regarded as failure . Surely  the manager in 1926  when we came within a point of winning the top division regardless of  date must be included

[Kitchandro]

We nearly won the double with Gillies and reached 2 cup finals. The only thing O'Neill really has over him is one more League Cup win. Of course the eras were very different so it's hard to compare in some ways.

[Zingari]

We nearly won the double with Gillies and reached 2 cup finals. The only thing O'Neill really has over him is one more League Cup win. Of course the eras were very different so it's hard to compare in some ways.

I suppose it was still Matt Gillies's team that got to the final in 69 too . He only resigned a few months earlier through ill health and the board trying to push him out after a heavy defeat to Everton , if i remember correctly 

 

Coincidentally it was Gillies that signed Martin O'Neill for Forest 

[weller7]

Martin O Neill was a revelation but the football under Jimmy Bloomfield was as exciting as I've seen at the club

[Leicester_Numan]

Voted O'Neill, the best in my time as a City fan

[TrentFox]

Sad that Bloomfield may not get much of a look in. We played some fabulous football under him and were genuinely a force at that time. On a good day, we could beat anyone ...... says he that still voted with the herd !!

[suffolk fox]

Martin O Neill was a revelation but the football under Jimmy Bloomfield was as exciting as I've seen at the club

Totally agree voted o'neil though cos of cup wins.

[DANGEROUS TIGER]

Matt Gillies was a man who built the best Leicester City side ever, and one which would have demolished any side since, including MON's side.

 

Two FA Cup finals, and a Football League Cup win, over Stoke City, on a shoestring. Easily the best manager this club has ever had. 

 

MON,  in second place.

[OzFox]

Gillies for me overall ( although i think he owed some of the credit to Dave Halliday's team building )

 

Bloomfield  definitely built up our most glamourous and exciting team 

 

O'Neills side was more workmanlike than entertaining , but he was still a great manager 

 

Sums it up for me