Reply With QuoteWarnock can also come under the poor manager label. It wasn’t all beer and skittles with him.Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY
| + Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
Never thought much of Jimmy Andrews
Ashurst was ok but crap when he came back
Burrows did well at first but we had no money
Eddie May was great and maybe could have taken us further with cash
Jones was a good manager at first again but I think he was far too distant
Warnock last great manager we had
Point I am trying to make is its all very well wanting a great manager but have most of us ever had one ?
And is there one out there?
Because it seems like on here a lot of you are not happy .....an understatement.....
Even playing good football under Jones I was glad to see the back of him others saw him as the messiah
It's a tough one
Warnock can also come under the poor manager label. It wasn’t all beer and skittles with him.
Jimmy Scoular - no question...
I quite liked Neil Harris, but as well as he did with getting the best out of Tomlin he never really found a balance when we had a talented squad with the likes of Moore & Wilson
Also showed a level of willingness to use young players, Mark Harris, Joel Bagan & Tom Sang had opportunities under him, as did a couple of others
There have been plenty of managers who have been well-liked by a considerable majority of the fans after their first seasons here. Frank Burrows, Eddie May, Dave Jones, Malky Mackay and Neil Warnock are some obvious examples.
It eventually turns sour for almost all managers at some stage, which is why they get moved on. But it’s pretty dumb to suggest that no manager has ever been popular here.
Hallelujah Jimmy Scoular.
In the 56 years I have been going down to watch the City, I can count all the mangers I liked on one hand almost:
Jimmy Scoular, Jimmy Andrews (75/76 season only), Frankie Burrows, Eddie May, Dave Jones. Ashurst first time around as well.
Remember from the Grange end the cries of
Hallelujah
Jimmy Scoular
To the tune of course of the Hallelujah chorus by Handel.
I agree the best manager of my lifetime with Warnock a close second
Burrows,May,Ashhurst and Dave Jones also in the mix
I wasn't born when Scoular was our manager and I guess this is a stats vs opinion post, but statistically, Scoular never ripped up any trees as our manager. It's interesting that quite a few older City fans cite him as their favourite manager, so for a young 'un like me, I'd be interested to know why.
Scoular, I think he terrified a few players …..and a few opposing managers, Brian Clough among them apparently. 9 years, he was here, you’d get a gold watch for that length of service now.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Lennie Lawrence, a good solid likeable manager who got us promoted in his first season and thereafter did well to establish the club in the Championship.
My main man though would have to be Jimmy Scoular.
A great Clough quote was, "He's a hard man is Jimmy Scoular. He had me against the dressing room wall when we beat them 5-1 at their place".
Since ive been supporting the club (promotion team under Ashurst)
Ashurst , Frankie , Eddie May , Malky , Warnock.
Theres a number id say were ok.
Then complete crap managers like OGS , Morison , Durban , Trollope , Mick , Goodfellow , Hibbit , Neal , Osman - probably many more.
It was the continuity I s’pose. He was manager from my age of 9 to 18, so from junior school through to starting work he was a constant. Those 9 years are equivalent to about 40 years now at my age. That’s the way the life clock seems to work throughout your days. 5 years nowadays fly by, yet your 5 years at senior school seemed a lifetime and you can still remember minute details, Scoular was there throughout this. Plastics, if any, were very thin on the ground, everyone was a City fan. We ‘lived’ his early days relegation scrapes, then the epic ECWC adventures, culminating in the heartbreaking near misses of promotion.
Fans of my age also lived through the ‘fan transition years’, the moving on from the rosettes & rattles eras to the raw & gritty ‘protecting our ends’ era, swapping bobble hats and cloth caps for Doc Martens & stay press. Scoular, our tough, legendary manager, was always there, snarling, shouting, ordering Lew Clayton onto the pitch with a sponge & bucket to treat a broken leg. Tales of his remarkable playing career were fresh in the memory of many, League Champion, Cup winning skipper and he was our manager.
He was loved, respected & , yes, feared but, even through sticky times, I was glad he was in our dug out. No doubt, he’d be labelled a bully today but a bully who was on our side. He’s my favourite but I’d imagine it’s because of my age and that era.
From memory, Lennie wasn't the most popular of managers. I remember him being frequently called "Lennie the Loon" on messageboards and by fans I knew at the time. He should have taken us up in his first partial season but was unfortunate with the injury time goal at Ninian Park by Stoke. Automatic promotion was almost expected the season afterwards, yet we limply fell away and only just made the playoffs. We had one good season with him in the Championship, but his second season, as we sold a few key players to pay some bills, was a write-off. I remember one press conference where Sam Hammam publicly gave his backing for Lawrence during his last season. It was cringeworthy.
Scoular didn't suffer fools gladly that's for sure. A very, very tough man and yes I suppose he would be considered a bully in today's more 'enlightened' times.
He did have the good fortune that a certain John Toshack was unearthed during his tenure but he had the nous to buy Brian Clark to play alongside him, which almost overnight made us a force to be reckoned with.
When you think of his other acquisitions, it's not hard to see why we rated him so highly. Brian Harris to bolster a leaky defence, Ian Gibson and Bobby Woodruff to give a bit of sparkle to midfield and Barrie Jones to provide some wonderful wing play. Very few dodgy signings in fact, almost the complete opposite of today.
Leaving non football issues aside Malky McKay was a manager who got the team to play attractive football and get us promoted to the Premier League where during his employment we were never in the relegation places.
Hated him as a player, but loved him as a Manager at City and really did underachieve, but he had a bit of aura about him.
Good write up Steve. Enjoyed that.
Spedger
What you haven't taken into consideration or maybe was unaware of was that Scoular never had a great deal of money to spend. If we managed to get 2 or 3 new players a year we were lucky and they were generally not that expensive. The club was owned by Fred and Viv Dewey and they kept the purse strings drawn very tight. However the players he did buy very rarely failed us.
My best years of supporting City...european games....Moscow Torpedo....Hamburg...Real Madrid.....ye gods...he did not suffer fools gladly...but we had Toshack...Dean...Clarke...Ronnie Bird.....exciting football...not like the sterile stuff served up today....maybe it's my age.....he never got promoted...but he was a great motivator.....in those days we used to travel on the same train to away games...
Alan Foggon?
I can remember liking Frank Burrows and Billy Ayre although it was along time ago and i was pretty young.
Warnock I thought was exactly what the club needed when he came.
Dave Jones for his first few years- although I wanted him gone long before he went. The man knew nothing about setting up a team, and just relied on his contacts in the game to bring in good players, who he then let do whatever they wanted. Probably the reason his teams blew up when the crunch games came around.
That's the one anomaly that came to my mind too so for you to mention it only gives weight to my argument that there were very few poor signings.
Scoular was our 'Bill Shankly'.
Posting Permissions
