Adkins' managerial ranking

[blade too long]

Nigel Adkins.

Good bloke and a good manager.

Shame he got sacked.

brutal irony

 

[Lane Ender]

In my time after the legend of John Harris I can't slag Furphy he was in charge of our best season in the last 50 years.
Then their was Sirrel, Happy Harry and Peters what a trio that was.
Middle years Mcewan,Heath and Robson horror trio.
Recent trio Weir,Clough and Adkins not a clue between them
Chuck Adams in there yep we've had some clowns

 

[alcoblade]

Nigel Adkins.

Good bloke and a good manager.

Shame he got sacked.

Barney - stand up guy, respected by all on the forum.

UTB

 

[maidmarion]

Robson was the worst one for me. As I've said on here before, he was sacked before I could carry out the threat of not setting foot in the Lane again until he had gone.

 

[sitwell]

Adkins was a huge dispointment he wasn't hugely backed in the market but what he did bring in was a waste of the money he was given.

Weir was in the wrong job in football management I don't ever expect him to get a full time management job again.

Adams was out of his depth from game one but again he was given little to work with, the damage was already done over the proceeding two years by the board.

Heath was brought it to bring about a managed decline until Macdonald and Green could make an exit.

Clough and Robson are the ones that most annoy me, pound for pound in financial terms they were backed more than probably any managers in our history and blew it.

You keep saying that but Clough brought far more money into the club than he spent and far more than the previous managers.

 

[alcoblade]

You keep saying that but Clough brought far more money into the club than he spent and far more than the previous managers.

Are you sure? John Brayford's fee and contract - about £3,000,000, before we start on the rest of the huge squad he assembled.

I recognise the value of the cup runs. Selling Maguire was just the transfer of an asett, who's actual value was developed before he arrived.

UTB

 

[Harry's Game]

You keep saying that but Clough brought far more money into the club than he spent and far more than the previous managers.

Ermmmm not more than Warnock brought in.

And if I brought in a good wage from The Bank of England I wouldn't expect Credit for then blowing it down the casino.

 

[Bladesince59]

http://footballleagueworld.co.uk/ex...lks-regarding-charlton-athletic-managers-job/

Its hard to knock Robson considering he was pissed most of the time, so he didnt do bad for a drunken shit

Agreed, Adkins had no such excuse except that he was a useless twat.

 

[Lane Ender]

You keep saying that but Clough brought far more money into the club than he spent and far more than the previous managers.

Forget the money the last two seasons have been utter misery football wise.
Having said that the social side at home games gets better.

 

[Lane Ender]

Agreed, Adkins had no such excuse except that he was a useless twat.

He really was and we had great expectations initially.
How wrong we were.

 

[Lane Ender]

It will be interesting Adkins next pit stop . With Asia and China opened up with football money , the world is now a oyster for failed managers .

UTB

Or the National Leagues

 

[Grizzly blade]

Some interesting points here.

I still find it amusing people can blame Clough for Adkins failings.

Clough took over a side heading towards relegation, with one or two decent players. His budget wasn't as big as many here believe and he managed to get the best out of talented players like Murphy, Connor and Maguire, while persuading some other players to come who were in reality way out of our wage budget.
He got results in the cup, and thus brought in huge revenues for the club.
Clough had to deal with losing 2 good players from there and replacing them as cheaply as he could considering he also needed several other areas strengthening.

Adkins took over a play off side, lost Murphy and failed miserably to replace or strengthen. His signing were nothing short of a disaster, and he never really knew how to get the best from the players. He fell out with one or two, and the rest is history. With the budget he had, he's up there with Robson and Blackwell for me for wasting money, or in Blackwells case just bringing in crap. I have no doubt that had he stayed we would have been mid table again and getting worse. I had no confidence he was able to bring in players on lower budgets...none at all.

 

[Bladesway]

theyve had 11 managers in 10 years at chelsea won 3 titles 3 domestic cups and the champions league
so the number of managers a club uses has no bearing whatsoever
and its always down to the manager , he picks the players spends any money given and lets players go
tell me a game where mccabe picked a team

Apart from the fact this is all utterly irrelevant bullshit, can you tell me who let Quinn, McDonald, McGuire, Murphy and the rest go? Clue, it was all signed off by the same bloke.

McCabe may not pick the team but he pretty much picks the players that leave. Usually the good ones.

 

[St Annington]

SUFC record P 5428 W 2225 (40.9%) D 1313 (24%) L 1890 (35%)
Adkins record P 54 W 22 (40.7%) D 14 (26%) L 18 (33%)

I understand the reasons why we all think SUFC had a bad season last year. But statistically we actually just had a typical SUFC year.

 

[I should coco]

I understand the reasons why we all think SUFC had a bad season last year. But statistically we actually just had a typical SUFC year.

Lies, damned lies and statistics....

You seem to have overlooked the fact that those results were in the Third Division.

We are 21st in the all time top league table, so for most of our history we would have been in there.

http://www.myfootballfacts.com/All-TimeTopFlightPointsTable1888-89to2010-11.html

All-Time English Football Top Flight Table from Season 1888-89 to 2015-16
# Club Played Home Away Goal Points
Won Drawn Lost F A Won Drawn Lost F A Diff
1 Liverpool 4,020 1,203 469 338 4,045 1,945 660 533 817 2,572 2,955 1,717 5,437
2 Arsenal 4,020 1,156 497 357 3,918 1,985 667 541 802 2,723 3,059 1,597 5,398
3 Everton 4,404 1,200 540 462 4,253 2,425 592 566 1,044 2,614 3,683 759 5,229
4 Manchester United 3,664 1,098 415 319 3,621 1,755 650 483 699 2,704 2,938 1,633 5,181
5 Aston Villa 4,070 1,106 468 461 4,049 2,385 537 500 998 2,559 3,692 531 4,712
6 Chelsea 3,284 837 433 372 2,927 1,903 477 424 741 2,072 2,743 353 4,073
7 Tottenham Hotspur 3,280 872 378 390 3,128 1,977 466 424 750 2,004 2,669 486 4,044
8 Manchester City 3,506 949 402 402 3,307 2,032 416 456 881 2,103 3,096 282 3,988
9 Newcastle United 3,388 906 388 400 3,177 1,980 407 435 852 1,946 2,934 209 3,834
10 Sunderland 3,302 864 404 383 3,110 1,893 390 370 891 2,004 3,159 62 3,481
11 West Bromwich Albion 3,032 728 373 415 2,760 1,892 354 370 792 1,775 2,921 -278 3,061
12 Blackburn Rovers 2,720 716 311 333 2,704 1,707 301 340 719 1,602 2,641 -42 2,947
13 Bolton Wanderers 2,802 719 328 354 2,575 1,702 298 313 790 1,581 2,765 -311 2,824
14 Sheffield Wednesday 2,582 693 307 291 2,469 1,521 287 305 699 1,507 2,499 -44 2,781
15 West Ham United 2,358 546 305 328 2,064 1,518 256 283 640 1,280 2,178 -352 2,577
16 Derby County 2,468 644 289 301 2,436 1,539 262 296 676 1,328 2,371 -146 2,510
17 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2,422 651 274 286 2,484 1,524 292 272 647 1,547 2,428 79 2,480
18 Leeds United 2,060 564 256 210 1,877 1,061 282 267 481 1,202 1,723 295 2,455
19 Nottingham Forest 2,178 533 272 284 1,805 1,226 267 277 545 1,264 1,945 -102 2,404
20 Middlesbrough 2,400 576 313 311 2,099 1,406 237 288 675 1,300 2,307 -314 2,401
21 Sheffield United 2,356 600 297 281 2,164 1,418 271 263 644 1,367 2,344 -231 2,363

 

[St Annington]

Lies, damned lies and statistics....

You seem to have overlooked the fact that those results were in the Third Division.

We are 21st in the all time top league table, so for most of our history we would have been in there.

 

[St Annington]

Lies, damned lies and statistics....

You seem to have overlooked the fact that those results were in the Third Division.

We are 21st in the all time top league table, so for most of our history we would have been in there.

http://www.myfootballfacts.com/All-TimeTopFlightPointsTable1888-89to2010-11.html

All-Time English Football Top Flight Table from Season 1888-89 to 2015-16
# Club Played Home Away Goal Points
Won Drawn Lost F A Won Drawn Lost F A Diff
1 Liverpool 4,020 1,203 469 338 4,045 1,945 660 533 817 2,572 2,955 1,717 5,437
2 Arsenal 4,020 1,156 497 357 3,918 1,985 667 541 802 2,723 3,059 1,597 5,398
3 Everton 4,404 1,200 540 462 4,253 2,425 592 566 1,044 2,614 3,683 759 5,229
4 Manchester United 3,664 1,098 415 319 3,621 1,755 650 483 699 2,704 2,938 1,633 5,181
5 Aston Villa 4,070 1,106 468 461 4,049 2,385 537 500 998 2,559 3,692 531 4,712
6 Chelsea 3,284 837 433 372 2,927 1,903 477 424 741 2,072 2,743 353 4,073
7 Tottenham Hotspur 3,280 872 378 390 3,128 1,977 466 424 750 2,004 2,669 486 4,044
8 Manchester City 3,506 949 402 402 3,307 2,032 416 456 881 2,103 3,096 282 3,988
9 Newcastle United 3,388 906 388 400 3,177 1,980 407 435 852 1,946 2,934 209 3,834
10 Sunderland 3,302 864 404 383 3,110 1,893 390 370 891 2,004 3,159 62 3,481
11 West Bromwich Albion 3,032 728 373 415 2,760 1,892 354 370 792 1,775 2,921 -278 3,061
12 Blackburn Rovers 2,720 716 311 333 2,704 1,707 301 340 719 1,602 2,641 -42 2,947
13 Bolton Wanderers 2,802 719 328 354 2,575 1,702 298 313 790 1,581 2,765 -311 2,824
14 Sheffield Wednesday 2,582 693 307 291 2,469 1,521 287 305 699 1,507 2,499 -44 2,781
15 West Ham United 2,358 546 305 328 2,064 1,518 256 283 640 1,280 2,178 -352 2,577
16 Derby County 2,468 644 289 301 2,436 1,539 262 296 676 1,328 2,371 -146 2,510
17 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2,422 651 274 286 2,484 1,524 292 272 647 1,547 2,428 79 2,480
18 Leeds United 2,060 564 256 210 1,877 1,061 282 267 481 1,202 1,723 295 2,455
19 Nottingham Forest 2,178 533 272 284 1,805 1,226 267 277 545 1,264 1,945 -102 2,404
20 Middlesbrough 2,400 576 313 311 2,099 1,406 237 288 675 1,300 2,307 -314 2,401
21 Sheffield United 2,356 600 297 281 2,164 1,418 271 263 644 1,367 2,344 -231 2,363

If SUFC have played 5428 games in total, and 2356 of those games have been in the top flight; then over 3000 games have not been in the top flight. Even allowing for the 5428 figure including cup games, then I would suggest the split between SUFC games in the top flight/not in the top flight is pretty much 50/50

 

[dblade56]

Since I started supporting the Blades at 4 yrs of age we've seen some terrible managers.

From the list below I feel that Weir, Peters and Sirrel were the worst.

My favourites, Gentleman John (Harris for the young 'uns), Bassett, and Cloughie.

I know there is a lot of flack for Clougie, but he took a team destined for relegation, got us to two cup semis and gave me some fantastic memories (Villa away, Fulham away, Wembley, BDTBL vs Spurs, Southampton, to name but a few). I would have given him another year to try and get us promotion, but I was OK with him going when Adkins came in. Never too old to make a mistake.

Manager From To Played Won Drawn Lost Win %
John Harris 13-Apr-59 11-Jul-68 424 174 102 148 41.0%
Arthur Rowley 11-Jul-68 06-Aug-69 43 16 11 16 37.2%
John Harris 06-Aug-69 05-Dec-73 188 84 45 59 44.7%
Ken Furphy 07-Dec-73 06-Oct-75 80 27 22 31 33.8%
Cec Coldwell (acting) 06-Oct-75 16-Oct-75 1 1 0 0 100.0%
Jimmy Sirrel 16-Oct-75 27-Sep-77 81 20 23 38 24.7%
Cec Coldwell (acting) 27-Sep-77 26-Jan-78 20 9 5 6 45.0%
Harry Haslam 26-Jan-78 16-Jan-81 158 50 40 68 31.7%
Martin Peters 18-Jan-81 30-May-81 16 3 6 7 18.8%
Ian Porterfield 06-Jun-81 27-Mar-86 226 98 58 70 43.4%
Billy McEwan 27-Mar-86 02-Jan-88 86 27 25 34 31.4%
Dave Bassett 21-Jan-88 12-Dec-95 393 150 101 142 38.2%
Howard Kendall 13-Dec-95 27-Jun-97 82 34 27 21 41.5%
Nigel Spackman 27-Jun-97 02-Mar-98 43 20 17 6 46.5%
Russell Slade (acting) 02-Mar-98 09-Mar-98 2 0 1 1 0.0%
Steve Thompson (acting) 09-Mar-98 02-Jul-98 17 5 6 6 29.4%
Steve Bruce 02-Jul-98 17-May-99 55 22 15 18 40.0%
Adrian Heath 15-Jun-99 23-Nov-99 22 7 5 10 31.8%
Russell Slade (acting) 23-Nov-99 02-Dec-99 2 0 1 1 0.0%
Neil Warnock 02-Dec-99 16-May-07 388 165 100 123 42.5%
Bryan Robson 22-May-07 14-Feb-08 38 14 12 12 36.8%
Kevin Blackwell 14-Feb-08 14-Aug-10 125 53 36 36 42.4%
Gary Speed 17-Aug-10 14-Dec-10 18 6 9 3 33.3%
John Carver (acting) 14-Dec-10 30-Dec-10 3 1 2 0 33.3%
Micky Adams 30-Dec-10 10-May-11 24 4 15 5 16.7%
Danny Wilson 27-May-11 10-Apr-13 106 55 31 20 51.9%
Chris Morgan (acting) 10-Apr-13 10-Jun-13 7 2 2 3 28.6%
David Weir 10-Jun-13 11-Oct-13 13 1 2 10 7.7%
Chris Morgan (acting) 11-Oct-13 23-Oct-13 3 1 1 1 33.3%
Nigel Clough 23-Oct-13 25-May-15 104 49 30 25 47.1%
Nigel Adkins 02-Jun-15 12-May-16 54 22 14 18 40.7%

 

[Dog Blade]

Robson for me. Wasted so much and we're still paying for his mistakes.

Adkins had a massive budget in comparison to most, and had cash to spend available too. He had 'no one on his list'. Wow.

 

[Grecian2000]

If SUFC have played 5428 games in total, and 2356 of those games have been in the top flight; then over 3000 games have not been in the top flight. Even allowing for the 5428 figure including cup games, then I would suggest the split between SUFC games in the top flight/not in the top flight is pretty much 50/50

1. The VAST majority of game outside the top flight have been in Division2 so results only gained in Division3 are NOT the norm.
2. Win % is vastly overrated, especially between generations, when for most of our history a draw was worth 50% of a win but is worth less now at only 33% of a win.
3. Different times demand different things from a manager (e.g. You would expect a team newly promoted to be less well equipped than an established team) and financial restraints (real and imagined in some cases) are a valid excuse on many occasions for not doing as well as we would have expected.

All in all you pays your money and takes your chance on who will/won't do you a good job. We all have opinions on who has been good, not so good, shit, but it doesn't matter a fuck in the long run because we are never going to be the ones picking the manager.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Not sure I buy the sweeping statements regards some of our managers.

Take Robson who replaced Warnock. He was told we needed to play possession football, a passing game because Warnocks style was seen as old fashioned. Robbo did have us controlling possession in early games. However it was a culture shock to the supporters, loads of possession but NEVER looking like scoring. However in fairness the opposition never looked like scoring either. The matches lacked any kind of goal mouth action and were boring.
In later months he tried to play more a more direct Warnock style but it confused the players and some played patient passing and some were direct meaning we were all over the place.

Take Blackwell. He was told to bring back the direct Warnock style and passion. To be fair in the 1st season with the pressure off, he was really good with plenty of exciting uptempo matches. The problem with Blackwell is that he tried to copy the Warnock and was a disciplinarian leading to player fall outs which he couldn't repair. Whereas Warnock had much more charisma and could fall out badly with players but later win them round. I also though Blackwelll struggled to handle the pressure when in his 2nd season.

Take Weir. Similar to Robson he was told to adopt the Barcelona tippy tippy style and it was impressive in his 1st match against Notts County. However we lost Kevin Mcadonald and his plan fell down. Felt a bit sorry for him as he was obsessed with playing a passing return possession game. We looked great around the centre circle area but never looked like scoring etc

Clough I'm still not sure about.
He seemed great at some things and shockingly poor at others.
I sensed that NC was quite clever in that he wanted slow and steady progress each season.
It's ironic that a manager that can provide instant success is nearer getting the sack whereas NC seemed to provide just to right amount of progress to stay in the job.

Adkins seemed a bit of a con man, spoke really well but it was all words.
He was almost too positive and some of his comments made no sense
He only had my support becusse he had this fantastic track record, so he must be good.

 

[St Annington]

1. The VAST majority of game outside the top flight have been in Division2 so results only gained in Division3 are NOT the norm.
2. Win % is vastly overrated, especially between generations, when for most of our history a draw was worth 50% of a win but is worth less now at only 33% of a win.
3. Different times demand different things from a manager (e.g. You would expect a team newly promoted to be less well equipped than an established team) and financial restraints (real and imagined in some cases) are a valid excuse on many occasions for not doing as well as we would have expected.

All in all you pays your money and takes your chance on who will/won't do you a good job. We all have opinions on who has been good, not so good, shit, but it doesn't matter a fuck in the long run because we are never going to be the ones picking the manager.

SUFC record in Div 3 since 1981 when 3 points was introduced

P 414 W 183 (44%) D 105 (25%) L 126 (31%)
Adkins League record P 46 W 18 (39%) D 12 (26%) L 16 (35%)

So Adkins slightly down on average. I don't think Adkins was a good fit for SUFC and i'm glad he's gone, but to start stating he is possibly the worst manager SUFC have ever had is slightly over exaggerating - and I recognise that you aren't the one saying it. But that's what started this thread.

 

[Grecian2000]

stating he is possibly the worst manager SUFC have ever had is slightly over exaggerating

No argument from me there (although I probably wouldn't have put "slightly").

 

[I should coco]

So Adkins slightly down on average. I don't think Adkins was a good fit for SUFC and i'm glad he's gone, but to start stating he is possibly the worst manager SUFC have ever had is slightly over exaggerating - and I recognise that you aren't the one saying it. But that's what started this thread.

Agreed.

He was bad, but not that bad. Actually some of the worse stuff I saw at BDTBL was McEwan 87/88, Basset 87/88 and 94/95, Thompson 98, Warnock 01/02 and then of course the post Premier years.

Basset and Warnock more than made up for it with some fantastic memories when it was going well, but McEwan, Robson and Weir were all at least as bad as Adkins.

I suppose the reason that people disliked Adkins so much was that he seemed completely divorced from reality. Not only could he not admit we were shit, but he went out of his way to praise the 'unseen work' of Hammond etc. A bit King Canute (probably good anagram material that).

 

[alcoblade]

I suppose the reason that people disliked Adkins so much was that he seemed completely divorced from reality. Not only could he not admit we were shit, but he went out of his way to praise the 'unseen work' of Hammond etc. A bit King Canute (probably good anagram material that).

Yep, I think people would have been far more forgiving if they could relate to what he said. I could switch off to it, but when you hear managers like Wilder speak, you realise what you were missing.

UTB

 

[Sheffsteel]

I think being United manager in league 1 is like being England manager. They are under pressure immediately and it doesnt take long before fans are baying for blood because both United and England have under performed for decades, hence the latent anger.

Regards Adkins initially I liked his positivity but I noticed that we could play a boring 0-0 draw with no goalmouth action and he'd spend most of the post match interview talking about "another great defensive performance" "it's another clean sheet boosting confidence" "not losing is a good habit for any team" "the forwards worked their socks off" "one day we're going to thrash someone" "it's always tough playing clubs like Fleetwood because this is their cup final so they raise their game" "don't like to talk about individuals but I thought Hammond was superb today and he'll only improve" "the fans might be frustrated but we need to be United in all this" "I can guarantee I will work so hard to bring the success this club deserves" "the players have been fantastic in training and morale is so high" "we're working so hard to bring in a centre back but they have to be better than what we've got" etc etc

 

[Bladesman]

Adkins was just a wrong fit for us at that moment in time. A lot of players that the club wanted to move on and still want to move on even now, which meant not much room to sign players on a permanent basis. Shifting so many players (10 or more?) in one go was going to be a tall order for any manager.

Adkins big mistakes were Woolford and Hammond but if either of those players have rinsed the club for money then thats not Adkins fault, its the twats that negotiated the deals. The club ditched Brannigan (rightly so) and took on a technical board (still no fucking clue who is on this) to oversee signings and I assume to prevent us being taken for a ride by players agents. Then it turns out the technical board were not doing their job right hence the daft situation with Hammond's deal. McCabe has since ditched some of the technical board which highlights the problems at the top before we even question the managers.

I think long term Adkins would have been successful for us and brought through the talent from the Academy, once the dross from the squad had finally been shifted this summer. Sadly we have been in this league too long and he was always going to struggle to keep his job if he didn't hit the ground running. I assume Wilder will be expected to do well from the word go or he will be gone soon enough.

 

[blade too long]

Apart from the fact this is all utterly irrelevant bullshit, can you tell me who let Quinn, McDonald, McGuire, Murphy and the rest go? Clue, it was all signed off by the same bloke.

McCabe may not pick the team but he pretty much picks the players that leave. Usually the good ones.

so in 10 years your moaning about 5 players going
you dont mention any we brought in

 

[s35blade]

Well Weir was taking us down so lets not get too carried away with how bad Adkins was.

 

[Bladesway]

so in 10 years your moaning about 5 players going
you dont mention any we brought in

No, if you wanted 10 years I would talk about the entire team Blackwell had that McCabe dismantled or his ridiculously badly timed sacking of Wilson, Blackwell and Clough. Not to mention selling our leading scorer Blackman a couple of years back. But you keep believing he's done a great job. Weirdo