Sacked managers

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davidpinder

davidpinder

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I started watching in the late 80's when Harry was in charge since then we have had plenty of managers some sacked, some left, out of the ones that were sacked who do you think should have been given longer? Or maybe you agreed with the sacking at the time but wondered later if it was the wrong decision or which if not all did you agree with.

Dave Bassett - I think his time was up and we needed change.

Kendall, spackman, Bruce all left there post

Uncle Neil - I actually believe he should have been given the chance to get us back up and I also think he might have.

Bryan Robson - He was a disaster and was rightfully sacked IMO

Kevin Blackwell - should have accepted his resignation after burnley, cost us a whole pre season and our championship status in the end.

Speed then left his post

Mickey Adams - yes end of chat

Danny Wilson - as good a football as I've seen us play, still kept us in a playoff spot on a shoe string budget in 2nd season wrongfully sacked IMO

David Weir - I think the right decision just wasn't happening

Nigel Clough - Really can't decide, I really like his replacement in Adkins but also think he had identified what we needed this season we will never know I suppose just hope Nigel mark II can do it on a shoe string this time.

Thoughts???.
 

Spackman gave me some of my favourite Blades moments. That first game against Sunderland. He was driven out, as was Bruce. I can't remember is Kendall was again, but then again, he probably can;t either.
 
robbiez666 said:
Spackman gave me some of my favourite Blades moments. That first game against Sunderland. He was driven out, as was Bruce. I can't remember is Kendall was again, but then again, he probably can;t either.
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The highlight for me was when we beat a really strong Boro side at the Riverside and it was live on TV.

Back to OP...
Very sad to see Harry go but it was probably the right time.
Kendall signed some really good players which should have got us promoted really.
Think Warnock should have got another season too.
Robson - only thing he did right was manage to sign Beats.
Blackwell - poor mans Neil Warnock
Wilson - deserved better but appeared not to have a back up plan when Ched got sent down.
 
davidpinder said:
I started watching in the late 80's when Harry was in charge since then we have had plenty of managers some sacked, some left, out of the ones that were sacked who do you think should have been given longer? Or maybe you agreed with the sacking at the time but wondered later if it was the wrong decision or which if not all did you agree with.

Dave Bassett - I think his time was up and we needed change.

Kendall, spackman, Bruce all left there post

Uncle Neil - I actually believe he should have been given the chance to get us back up and I also think he might have.

Bryan Robson - He was a disaster and was rightfully sacked IMO

Kevin Blackwell - should have accepted his resignation after burnley, cost us a whole pre season and our championship status in the end.

Speed then left his post

Mickey Adams - yes end of chat

Danny Wilson - as good a football as I've seen us play, still kept us in a playoff spot on a shoe string budget in 2nd season wrongfully sacked IMO

David Weir - I think the right decision just wasn't happening

Nigel Clough - Really can't decide, I really like his replacement in Adkins but also think he had identified what we needed this season we will never know I suppose just hope Nigel mark II can do it on a shoe string this time.

Thoughts???.
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I would definitely have kept Wilson. The timing of his dismissal was ludicrous. He adapted his style to account for his budget and the players available to him and generally did well.

As silly as it sounds, we were sunk well before Adams came in. I think his style of play (hustle, bustle and get the ball in the box) would have stood a chance of getting us out of this bastard of a division. I would have given him our first full season down here, then, irrespective of whether he gained promotion, got rid and got a Championship quality manager in.
 
Bassett – probably the right time to go.
Kendall – meh.
Spackman – a shame.
Bruce – meh.
Heath – had to go.
Warnock – should have been given another year.
Robson – had to go.
Blackwell – the right time for him to go was either post-playoffs or at the end of the following season. As much as I disliked him, I highly doubt he'd have taken us down either that season or subsequent seasons.
Speed – unsure if he'd have kept us up anyway.
Adams – had to go.
Wilson – should have been allowed to see out the season.
Weir – had to go.
Clough – right decision.
 
For me Wilson was a mediocre manager. The team he managed had an embarrassment of riches at this level and the core of his team were good Championship players, certainly in the first two seasons.
 
Warnock had probably ran his course from a personal perspective, a lot of water under the bridge and I think the "victim complex" that McCabe has developed would have been seized upon and done to death by Warnock if given another season.

Sacking Blackwell was knee-jerk. Yes he was a dinosaur in footballing terms and we'd have had a miserable season in the bottom 6 but I think ultimately we'd have stayed up.

Wilson was a harsh and badly timed sacking but that first season he had some of the league's best players at his disposal and we really should have been over the line by the time Ched was sent down. Second season he did well with a much worse team, we were stuttering but don't think he'd have done any worse than Morgan did.

Clough going seemed a poor decision at the time but was largely nullified by the fact that we got a good replacement (on paper) in Adkins. Cloudy was given a good budget and squandered some but he was rebuilding in the right way.

We really do need stability now but with the "shoes off" brigade and a trigger happy chairman it won't take much more than a play off failure this year for NA to be fired.

One things for certain we'll have paid about 20 years in salaries for 8 years work to the various managers since Warnock left dependent on what kind of pay-offs the managed to negotiate. Shocking really when you think that could have gone on other more beneficial ventures.
 
Warnock - We did not renew his contract and rightly so as I think he had run his course with us after nearly a decade in charge. True he did very well on a very tight budget but when he was given money to spend 9 times out of 10 he wasted it on some very mediocre players.

Robson - He made a couple of decent signings but apart from that pissed very good money away. He had to go and should never have been given the job in the first place.

Blackwell - We should have accepted his resignation when he offered it because he was going into the season after the play-off defeat not wanting to be in the job. He also had a habit of falling out with players which ultimately helped us lose the play-off final. He had to go but it was such bad timing to get rid of him when we eventually did and it started the downward spiral to League 1.

Speed - I don't blame him for wanting to go and manage Wales. (R.I.P Gary)

Adams - He had to go and I could not see him getting us out of League 1 either.

Wilson - Terrible timing to sack him so late in the season, he should have at least been allowed to finish it. Although I would not have kept him on for the following season.

Weir - He probably had some good ideas of what he wanted to do with the team but we did not have the time to see if he would become a good manager or not. Never fully understood why we appointed him in the first place as we needed an experienced manager to kick us on. He had to go and he is better off being someones assistant.

Clough - He was building something good but his stubbornness cost him in the end. I expected him to be given one last chance to get us promoted but somehow he managed to talk himself out of the job.
 
I think that, rather than 'should he have been given more time?', the question in most cases is 'should we have employed most of them in the first place?' Serial failures, people with little or no experience of management, blokes with little discernible talent.

Take Weir. His record - in his first-ever job as manager - was incredibly poor. His entire reputation is built on piggy-backing people like Warburton (like Kidd at Man. City). But one day, given the law of averages, he might put together a winning team. Then, no doubt, some will be claiming that 'we didn't give him enough time...' The same rose-tinted thinking applies to Clough - minimal entertainment value (unless you count guessing whether we'd beat Villa one week and promptly lose to Crewe the next...) and we'd be no further forward if he'd stayed than we are now.

Having made the decision to employ some of these wasters, you've got to cut your losses. Don't ever feel sorry for football managers. Most of them are a blight on the game.
 
coaxingstar71 said:
I think we missed a great opportunity with Spackman, really good side, new wing back style and some great football..... then the board intervened.
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Spackman looked to have the makings of a very good manager as you say and things were looking good, too good for our board as you say. Decided to go for a career in the media didn't he ?. Wasted.
 
davidpinder said:
I started watching in the late 80's when Harry was in charge since then we have had plenty of managers some sacked, some left, out of the ones that were sacked who do you think should have been given longer? Or maybe you agreed with the sacking at the time but wondered later if it was the wrong decision or which if not all did you agree with.

Dave Bassett - I think his time was up and we needed change.

Kendall, spackman, Bruce all left there post

Uncle Neil - I actually believe he should have been given the chance to get us back up and I also think he might have.

Bryan Robson - He was a disaster and was rightfully sacked IMO

Kevin Blackwell - should have accepted his resignation after burnley, cost us a whole pre season and our championship status in the end.

Speed then left his post

Mickey Adams - yes end of chat

Danny Wilson - as good a football as I've seen us play, still kept us in a playoff spot on a shoe string budget in 2nd season wrongfully sacked IMO

David Weir - I think the right decision just wasn't happening

Nigel Clough - Really can't decide, I really like his replacement in Adkins but also think he had identified what we needed this season we will never know I suppose just hope Nigel mark II can do it on a shoe string this time.

Thoughts???.
Click to expand...

Can't argue with most of that David. It was sad that two of those legends, Harry & Warnock had to leave in such sad circumstances. Both were classed as a success with us, and significant that they knew how to, let's say, gee the lads up, during their half time talks. Wonder what their reaction would have been to recent performances ?
 
Rodley said:
For me Wilson was a mediocre manager. The team he managed had an embarrassment of riches at this level and the core of his team were good Championship players, certainly in the first two seasons.
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As someone rightly said, should have had a back up plan for the Ched eventuality, as should Cloughie when Harry went. Wilson didn't have much time to fix it, whereas Nigel had a whole season. We did play some good stuff under Danny but we also played dire as well ,especially towards the end of his time with us.
 
Another Nigel, Spackman would have gone onto great things I'm sure had the board backed him 100%.

When the signs are there that you have a good manager that is the time to back him to the hilt.
 

Harry Bassett maybe seen as a manager not suited to the modern era. Just consider this...

Alex Ferguson born 1941. Harry born 1944. Ferguson appointed to Man Utd in 1986. Harry appointed to the Blades in 1988. The Blades lost faith in Harry in 1995(?). Man Utd retained their faith in Fergie.

Ferguson would never be considered as a manager not suited to the modern era.

Not wishing to compare ourselves with Man Utd but there's a huge message there to our board. If things are not going right then re-visit the problem and all agree on a strategy on putting right the wrongs. Don't just get rid.
 
crucialkneeligaman said:
Spackman looked to have the makings of a very good manager as you say and things were looking good, too good for our board as you say. Decided to go for a career in the media didn't he ?. Wasted.
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Yes and he seemed to have a very progressive attitude, something I think we have lacked before or since. Funnily enough I'm sure I caught a glance of him on MOTD on the touchline at a game but I can't remember which team. According to Wikipedia, he's currently employed with Glenn Hoddles Academy.
 
The best 2 bassett and warnock both instilled the never say die attitude, even at 2 behind you knew the team would and probably could claw its way back in a game.
Both got players to run through brick walls for them, and could turn really ordinary players in to crowd favourites purely on endeavour
 
Have to say, a couple of the views above that I gave weren't what I felt at the time. Blackwell for example I was delighted to see the back of, Wilson I had mixed views on at the time. In retrospect both look very poor decisions that did us no favours at all.
 
I suspect, although I have no real proof, that Spackman was the mouthpiece and Willie Donachie the footballing brain behind him.
It all started to go a bit tits after Donachie pissed off to join big Joe at City and the boards loss of bottle (i.e selling Deane/JAF) might not have happened if he'd stayed.
Quite a shower that lot taken as a whole!

Going back a couple of years, probably the most successful manager would be Porterfield who, on a season by season basis, had done really well but had started making some dreadful decisions (trying to replace Edwards with Withe anyone!) and, also, had probably come to a natural end when he was outed.
 
Dave Bassett - Achieved miracles on an absolute shoestring. Imagine if he'd been given the sort of riches that Kendall and Spackman/Green were subsequently allowed to spend. If he'd been given that money while we were 9th in The Premier League, I'm personally convinced that we would have gone on to become an established top flight club, reached finals, won a trophy!

If he'd been given it later by MacDonald instead of allowing Kendall and then Green to waste much of it on overpaid players, bloated squads and mostly negative football. You're not telling me that he wouldn't have been able to rebuild from scratch and get us promoted and established again.

Neil Warnock - When he got us promoted, McCabe should have given him a three year contract. The message should have been "We're taking a long-term view here. If we don't stay up this season, keep the squad together and bring us straight back up. Then you've one more year to get us established before we look at it again". That way everybody would have known where they stood and we would have had the stability we needed.

Better quality Premiership players could have been signed on three year contracts, with the knowledge that the parachute payments would fund the wage bill for three years even if we went down.

Instead, we once again dispensed with a successful manager and lavished our new found riches on the wrong man and the wrong players at the wrong time.
 
Grecian2000 said:
I suspect, although I have no real proof, that Spackman was the mouthpiece and Willie Donachie the footballing brain behind him.
It all started to go a bit tits after Donachie pissed off to join big Joe at City and the boards loss of bottle (i.e selling Deane/JAF) might not have happened if he'd stayed.
Quite a shower that lot taken as a whole!
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Agree with that. The season-ending injuries to McGrath and Whitehouse, both key to the team, worsened things too.

You've just reminded me of the fans rallying behind the unsellable Gareth Taylor as he was lined up for a move away. Not our finest hour that...
 
Grecian2000 said:
I suspect, although I have no real proof, that Spackman was the mouthpiece and Willie Donachie the footballing brain behind him.
It all started to go a bit tits after Donachie pissed off to join big Joe at City and the boards loss of bottle (i.e selling Deane/JAF) might not have happened if he'd stayed.
Quite a shower that lot taken as a whole!
Click to expand...

He had very good players here and that flattered him. After his spell with us he achieved the square root of naff-all as a manager.

I'd only rate a manager if he's had sustained or repeated success. That's what makes Adkins appointment a coup.
 
Ah, the Spackman myth arises yet again. He was a fucking appalling manager. The 'great career nipped in the bud' theory doesn't withstand even the most cursory analysis. He was Charles Green's puppet. He had never heard of Borbokis and Dellas until they arrived at The Lane. They were scouted and signed by Charlie. Spackman needed a backbone transplant but never registered an interest.

After leaving the Lane he was sacked by both Barnsley and Millwall after quickly demonstrating his ineptitude. So quickly in fact, that he failed to last a full season at any one of his three clubs.

This nonsense belongs in the same bin as "Kozluk was quick" and "Monty was a ball winner". Utter, complete, unmitigated, top-class, 24-carat bollocks.
 
LoughboroBlade said:
Bassett – probably the right time to go.
Kendall – meh.
Spackman – a shame.
Bruce – meh.
Heath – had to go.
Warnock – should have been given another year.
Robson – had to go.
Blackwell – the right time for him to go was either post-playoffs or at the end of the following season. As much as I disliked him, I highly doubt he'd have taken us down either that season or subsequent seasons.
Speed – unsure if he'd have kept us up anyway.
Adams – had to go.
Wilson – should have been allowed to see out the season.
Weir – had to go.
Clough – right decision.
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To add to the above list, I also remember
Joe Mercer (although I can't remember if he was in charge at my earliest games)not sacked but took a "step down" :) to manage Man City
John Harris - The best ever in my humble opinion
Arthur Rowley
Cec Coldwell (twice as caretaker)
Ken Furphy (achieved the highest league finish in my time but sacked the season after)
Harry Haslam
Martin Peters
Ian Porterfield
Billy McEwan
Danny Begara
Jimmy Sirral

Senility on my part prevents further recollections
 
The issue hasn't been sacking the manager, it's been getting the next appointment right that's held us back. Since McCabe bought the club, I reckon we've only got that decision right twice as only Clough and Blackwell have left the club higher in the league than they found it.

Warnock -> Robson FAIL
Robson -> Blackwell SUCCESS [qualified!]
Blackwell -> Speed FAIL
Adams -> Wilson FAIL
Wilson -> Weir FAIL
Weir -> Clough SUCCESS
Clough -> Adkins JURY OUT
 
LoughboroBlade said:
Agree with that. The season-ending injuries to McGrath and Whitehouse, both key to the team, worsened things too.

You've just reminded me of the fans rallying behind the unsellable Gareth Taylor as he was lined up for a move away. Not our finest hour that...
Click to expand...

Not our fault. They didn't say "Well if we don't sell Taylor we're going to sell Deane or Fjortoft or both instead".
If they had spelt it out like that, fans would obviously have been less resistant to the sale of Taylor.
MacDonald tried to shift the blame on the fans after the sales but it was never the case that we chose Taylor over the other two.

The big mistake made by United that season was signing both Saunders and Marcelo when we already had Deane, Fjortoft, Taylor and Katchouro on the books. Obviously unsustainable in the long run but why continue to sign expensive players right up to the point where you suddenly pull the plug and start selling them off.
 
Sothall_Blade said:
Dave Bassett - Achieved miracles on an absolute shoestring. Imagine if he'd been given the sort of riches that Kendall and Spackman/Green were subsequently allowed to spend. If he'd been given that money while we were 9th in The Premier League, I'm personally convinced that we would have gone on to become an established top flight club, reached finals, won a trophy!

If he'd been given it later by MacDonald instead of allowing Kendall and then Green to waste much of it on overpaid players, bloated squads and mostly negative football. You're not telling me that he wouldn't have been able to rebuild from scratch and get us promoted and established again.

Neil Warnock - When he got us promoted, McCabe should have given him a three year contract. The message should have been "We're taking a long-term view here. If we don't stay up this season, keep the squad together and bring us straight back up. Then you've one more year to get us established before we look at it again". That way everybody would have known where they stood and we would have had the stability we needed.

Better quality Premiership players could have been signed on three year contracts, with the knowledge that the parachute payments would fund the wage bill for three years even if we went down.

Instead, we once again dispensed with a successful manager and lavished our new found riches on the wrong man and the wrong players at the wrong time.
Click to expand...

Bladey-Bladey parochial nonsense par excellence!

Bassett - I am indeed telling you precisely that which you invite us not to tell you. His race was run, his time was up. Just as you are now, he was living in the land of the dinosaurs long after everyone else had moved on. You are kidding yourself, but not me.

Warnock - When he got us promoted, McCabe should have given him the sack. The message should have been "We know you're out of your depth at the top level. We won't stay up this season, because you never have and never will keep a club in the top division. We're going to appoint a proper top-flight manager and stay up.

You old hoofers really die hard, don't you?

Kick it Long, Kick it Hard, Kick it High. It's the Bladesfans' Way....
 
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Pinchy said:
Bladey-Bladey parochial nonsense par excellence!

Bassett - I am indeed telling you precisely that which you invite us not to tell you. His race was run, his time was up. Just as you are now, he was living in the land of the dinosaurs long after everyone else had moved on. You are kidding yourself, but not me.

Warnock - When he got us promoted, McCabe should have given him the sack. The message should have been "We know you're out of your depth at the top level. We won't stay up this season, because you never have and never will keep a club in the top division. We're going to appoint a proper top-flight manager and stay up.

You old hoofers really die hard, don't you?

Kick it Long, Kick it Hard, Kick it High. It's the Bladesfans' Way....
Click to expand...

In the 2-3 year period we are talking about, Bassett finished 3rd with Crystal Palace and lost in the Play-Off final (we were 9th).
He then won the Championship title and promotion with Nottingham Forest while we were struggling to finish 6th.
The facts suggest that his race wasn't yet run, his time wasn't yet up. We would have done better with him than we did without him.

Not really worth responding to the rest of the usual childish drivel.
 

Dave Bassett - Probably had to go at that point but clearly had more to give somewhere else

Kendall - enjoyed watching his team, unlucky not to get us up

Spackman - inherited a good team & sucked the life out of it.

Bruce - makings of a good manager with no principles

Our Neil - Clearly should have been let go after promotion (harsh?!) or given chance to do again what he proved he could do.

Bryan Robson - He was a disaster and was rightfully sacked IMO - putting it lightly ! - the main architect of where we are now?!

Kevin Blackwell - should have accepted his resignation after burnley, if not before.

Speed - never really got the impression he was taking us anywhere,

Mickey Adams - yes end of chat - a division too high, would have suited us a few months later?!

Danny Wilson - Had the best squad this division has ever seen and still didnt get us up

David Weir - I think the right decision just wasn't happening, bad decision bringing him in though.

Nigel Clough - Would have liked to see him given another year.
 
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