Blades Worst Manager

[mattbianco1]

Surely being a Blade got him a couple of brownie points?

It got him a few Pinchy points.

 

[mattbianco1]

David Wier!
Nigel Adkins!
Bryan Robson!
Steve Bruce!
Micky Adams!
I'm to young to go back further than Bassett so these fucking fools will do me.

Harsh on Steve Bruce. Yes he was a dick and jumped ship but he was a good manager

 

[cahill]

Adkins ( apart from results, his gobbledigook language and permatan)

Happy fucking Harry

Peters

Heath

Bruce, duplicitous lying bastard who manages to portray an image of "salt of the earth North Eastener"

 

[The Crab]

Mickey Adams for me.

An absolute unmitigated disaster. Not a single redeeming feature.

Got to agree. It was like what would happen if you put me in charge. Yes I'd make all the right noises and be full of piss and vinegar, but when it came down to it I'd be hopelessly out of my depth.

 

[The Crab]

Surely being a Blade got him a couple of brownie points?

I like Planes, but have fuck all idea how to fly one. Would you give me Brownie points for ploughing you into the Alps on the way to your holiday?

 

[Damski]

I've only been on board since the end of the Bassett era, but Wavey Dave wins this hands down for me. Yes, some of the others had more cataclysmic failures, but Weir's record speaks for itself. Statistically our worst manager in over 125 years. The morose, Scottish, white Obama.

 

[BigBed]

Oh ok, but I still think he's a cunt.

 

[Newbury Blade]

The end of the Haslam reign, drifting into the short-lived Martin Peters era were the lowest part of Blades history. From that point of view they would take the award. As Compound said, some of the players appearing at that point really did make the current squad look like world beaters.

Running them close would be Adrian Heath and Brian Robson. Interestingly enough, if you take Haslam out of that quartet, you have 3 fantastic, top quality players who were complete turdery at the management side of things.

"You've all heard of Peters and Lee ... well this is Peters and me!" We knew we were in trouble when "Happy Harry" Haslam came up with this witticism.

 

[Bladey McBladeface]

Bryan Robson for me.

Appointing Robson was (and remains) McCabe'a biggest mistake. He was desperate to get a 'big name' manager.

Robson had the most resources at his disposal and invested poorly. We've never recovered since then.

The football was terrible...he signed Lee Hendrie for god's sake.

David Weir was probably worse in some ways - he was stubborn and out of depth - but his long term damage to this club was nowhere near that of Robson. In fact, Weir was so bad that we were able to get rid of him quickly.

 

[DronnieBlade]

We have been debating the merits of Blackwell and where he stands amoungst the elite Blades Managers!
What about the worst Top Five Managers ever to be at the helm!
I will throw in a few names to discuss: (In no particular order)
McEwan, Heath, Haslam, Peters, Blackwell, Furphy, Thompson, Sirrel, Rowley just for starters

Blackwell single handedly set us back 20 years. Left the club, took 2 years to eventually land the Bury job, fucked them over as well, got binned and hasn't had a managers job since.
Uncle Colin keeps offering him coaching handouts out of sympathy for doing his missus .

Will never manage in England again. Top CV !!!

Can't think of anyone else that did that to us, can you ???

UTB

 

[I should coco]

Blackwell single handedly set us back 20 years. Left the club, took 2 years to eventually land the Bury job, fucked them over as well, got binned and hasn't had a managers job since.

I'm no fan of Blackwell but taking over from Robson, he saved us from relegation. Robson's inability to motivate and poor buys were slipping down the table and would have gone down without a whimper.

True Blackwell spunked cash too (Henderson, Ched) and made some appalling signings or bought players he had no idea how to fit in (Harper, Howard, Brittain etc) but he is streets ahead of Robson in my book.

 

[BushBlade]

Bryan Robson for me.

Appointing Robson was (and remains) McCabe'a biggest mistake. He was desperate to get a 'big name' manager.

Robson had the most resources at his disposal and invested poorly. We've never recovered since then.

The football was terrible...he signed Lee Hendrie for god's sake.

David Weir was probably worse in some ways - he was stubborn and out of depth - but his long term damage to this club was nowhere near that of Robson. In fact, Weir was so bad that we were able to get rid of him quickly.

I think the only reason Weir didn't do as much damage is because KM wasn't letting him spend big money and we had the prince's money to allow Clough to completely rebuild the squad. Had the prince's cash not been available I dread to think where we'd have ended up.

Blackwell, for me, was just a continuation of the Robson era. He's a good coach and whilst his job was primarily coaching, in his first season after he took over from Robson, he did OK. But as soon as he had to be a proper manager - buy and sell players, motivate them over the long term etc, he started to fail. And the longer he was there, the more damage he did. He wasted huge amounts of money on unsuitable players. Players who either didn't fit our system or were injury prone. All on good money.
He left us with the most talentless side I have seen us have at Championship level with a huge and unsustainable wage bill.
The only mitigation for Blackwell is that Robinson was there for some of that time and I wonder how many of the bad deals we did, to bring players in and retain existing players, were down to him.
But CW has already signed more decent players (for the level we're at) in his first window than Blackwell did in five. And with the same restraints as Blackwell had, having to reduce the wage bill and get players off the books.

 

[Bladey McBladeface]

I think the only reason Weir didn't do as much damage is because KM wasn't letting him spend big money and we had the prince's money to allow Clough to completely rebuild the squad. Had the prince's cash not been available I dread to think where we'd have ended up.

Blackwell, for me, was just a continuation of the Robson era. He's a good coach and whilst his job was primarily coaching, in his first season after he took over from Robson, he did OK. But as soon as he had to be a proper manager - buy and sell players, motivate them over the long term etc, he started to fail. And the longer he was there, the more damage he did. He wasted huge amounts of money on unsuitable players. Players who either didn't fit our system or were injury prone. All on good money.
He left us with the most talentless side I have seen us have at Championship level with a huge and unsustainable wage bill.
The only mitigation for Blackwell is that Robinson was there for some of that time and I wonder how many of the bad deals we did, to bring players in and retain existing players, were down to him.
But CW has already signed more decent players (for the level we're at) in his first window than Blackwell did in five. And with the same restraints as Blackwell had, having to reduce the wage bill and get players off the books.

And yet despite that he was 90 mins away from getting us into the Premier League.

Blackwell also oversaw a huge upturn in form when we appointed him.

I know that he has his detractors, but Blackwell was sacked way too early into the season. I honestly don't think he can be considered amongst our worst managers.

 

[Revolution]

And yet despite that he was 90 mins away from getting us into the Premier League.

Blackwell also oversaw a huge upturn in form when we appointed him.

I know that he has his detractors, but Blackwell was sacked way too early into the season. I honestly don't think he can be considered amongst our worst managers.

If football still exists in 50 years, Blackwell, Clough and Porterfield will all have one thing in common: Blades fans will look at their records and be unable to understand why they were sacked when they were.

- Porterfield moved the club forward every single season and won 2 promotions
- Clough got us from the relegation zone to the Playoffs and 2 semi finals
- Blackwell almost worked a miracle in 2008, narrowly missed promotion in 2009, and held his own amidst sales of his best players and injuries in 2010.

And yet in each case, if you were there, the sackings are understandable, even if you don't agree with them. One common factor is poor quality football at the end of their tenures, despite healthy league positions. Another is the nagging feeling that it could and should have been better.

(nobody will understand Danny Wilson's sacking either, but that's different as most people thought that was stupid at the time it happened)

 

[BushBlade]

And yet despite that he was 90 mins away from getting us into the Premier League.

Blackwell also oversaw a huge upturn in form when we appointed him.

I know that he has his detractors, but Blackwell was sacked way too early into the season. I honestly don't think he can be considered amongst our worst managers.

He got us to a playoff final with resources and a team many managers would have got promoted.
As I've already said, he's a good coach and when he first took over his job was effectively a coaching job. Charlton have just seen an upturn in form after sacking Slade and they didn't even have a manager. We were shocking under Robson, hugely under performing and with many players very demotivated. It wasn't the biggest task to turn that round.
In my opinion, now and at the time, Blackwell was sacked too late. Sacking him when we did was stupid and it really gave Speed no chance with the squad he was left with.

I'll accept he may not have been as bad as Haslam, Heath, Robson or Weir but he did a huge amount of damage to our club. Every club he's managed has been relegated after he's been sacked; Leeds, Us, Luton, Bury. I find it hard to believe that's just a coincidence. When we should have been investing in our future, he pissed all the money away on crocks, shit loans and the wrong signings.

 

[Balham]

Reverse order of manager by ability since I took an active interest in United:

1) Bryan Robson: given the biggest transfer budget in United's history yet managed to piss it all up the wall with some awful tactics and poor decisions. No surprise when he was relieved of his duties after 7 months in charge. Kevin McCabe's single biggest mistake and the first domino in the series which led us to where we are today

2) Micky Adams: scrapes into second last ahead of David Weir (more on him next) by virtue of the players he had at his disposal. Came in when we had a disjointed dressing room but proceeded to alienate and then dispose of the players best suited to keeping us in the Championship. Has the honour of the worst ever start as a Blades manager, not winning until the 14th attempt by which stage we were pretty much doomed. Clueless and catastrophic.

3) David Weir. Talked a good game but proved woefully inadequate when it came to putting that into action. Seemed to be incapable of turning anything around and his signings and tactical decisions ended up smacking of desperation (Daryl Westlake in central midfield with Joe Ironside as the lone front man in the 1-0 away defeat at Carlisle springs to mind)

4) Nigel Adkins: if he'd have managed half as well as he talked we'd have been fine. Persisted with over the hill players, staid tactics and an unerring ability to piss off the United fans. It felt like he was angling for a pay off from January and he eventually got one in June.

6) Kevin Blackwell: started well taking over from Robson but by the play-off in 2009 defeat the cracks were beginning to show. Limited tactics and an abrasive attitude didn't help. Fitting, really, that he was the first manager to suffer a derby double defeat in nearly 100 years.

And into those I have better memories of:

7) Nigel Clough: turned around a sinking ship taking over from the terrible Weir regime. Provided some excellent cup memories (Flynn's goal at Villa, scoring our first goals at the new Wembley) but was so far up his own arse by the end of his reign that he couldn't see that we needed to play centre halves to have any chance of winning a game of football

8) Danny Wilson: that first season...some great memories. He, too, struggled to turn things around when they started going awry.

9) Chris Wilder: by virtue of having had less than half a season in League One but all the signs are there that he could well become a Blades legend. Straight talking and tactically innovative. I was wrong on him (but I'm not posting a full apology until we're promoted )

10) Neil Warnock: the only manager to have got us promoted in 25 years. Even if that achievement took him 6 years it's still more than any of the other managers on this list were able to achieve. He's the best of an average-to-bad bunch.

 

[oldblade]

For me no-one can hold a candle to Haslam. In three years he took an upper mid table second tier team to the verge of the 4th tier AND spent a lot of money in the process. He was given over £100,000 each (when that was a lot of money and when United had never previously signed a player for that kind of money) to sign Sabella, Matthews, Finnieston, Tibbott and de Goey and also signed the likes of Anderson, Richardson, Bourne, Trusson and Hatton for what was - by 2nd and 3rd tier standards - sizeable sums. Add that to Boxing day and a chronic inability to win away (only 10 wins in those 3 years and 5 of them were in September/October 1979) and I challenge any other manager to match such an appalling record over a sustained period.

Think you've summed it up perfectly.

We have had some less than perfect managers over the last 40 years, but Haslam stands out as by far the worst. In my humble opinion no one else comes close.

 

[Good Pinch Of Snuff]

McEwan, Heath, Weir in no particular order

 

[BushBlade]

Think you've summed it up perfectly.

We have had some less than perfect managers over the last 40 years, but Haslam stands out as by far the worst. In my humble opinion no one else comes close.

I suppose it depends on how you judge a bad manager; whether they were just hopeless or by the damage they did to the club during their tenure.
But it's apparent that Haslam was both hopeless and caused problems that took several years and a change of ownership to resolve. Although I do think that had the prince not come on board when he did and had Weir been allowed to continue for longer, we'd have seen the bottom tier again.

You could argue that in most of the cases, they were poor managers, or managers that just failed at our club but Weir and Heath just weren't managers, in any form.

 

[ljk]

I'm pretty surprised Blackwell is taking so much criticism.

As many have mentioned he was really evidently limited and could have been a truly terrible manager for us, but circumstances were kind to him. After Bryan Robson bought players like he was playing a video game, Blackwell inherited a good squad who were massively underachieving. Just getting rid of Robson and the fans' response gave everyone a boost, so cheeky Kev could do his best Warnock impression and blab on about 'having bollocks' in interviews.

Obviously as the players retired and moved on and he started to struggle to answer his 'what would Neil do?' mantra, we wilted and he was exposed. To say he actually was one of our worst managers is pretty weird, though. Luckily for him he was at the right place at the right time to offer what limited things he had to offer. He could easily have been in Micky Adams position.

The decision to sack Blackwell two games into a new season is the most baffling move I've seen and the worst the board have made. There may be a myriad of reasons that we were finally relegated, but they are all traceable back to that monumental fuck up.

 

[coolhandluke]

Heath - Peters - McEwan - Haslam - Robson

 

[United Aren't Back.]

We have been debating the merits of Blackwell and where he stands amoungst the elite Blades Managers!
What about the worst Top Five Managers ever to be at the helm!
I will throw in a few names to discuss: (In no particular order)
McEwan, Heath, Haslam, Peters, Blackwell, Furphy, Thompson, Sirrel, Rowley just for starters

Adkins. Dragged the club to the very pits that bastard. All the crap talk spouted over the years by people so impressed by the spirit of Sheffield United and then that man comes and offers them a chance to toss it off royally at 3 times the average wage for the division.Wanker .

 

[SK10Blade]

Wow, so many argument and different views but for me the worst five are Robson, Robson, Robson, Robson and Robson. Nobody else came close.

 

[Slim Man]

Blackwell doesn't deserve half the stick he gets. He was a good bloke for us under Warnock and did a good job in full charge under hard circuimstances after Robson left us in a mess. We'd have never gone down with him in charge.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Blackwell single handedly set us back 20 years. Left the club, took 2 years to eventually land the Bury job, fucked them over as well, got binned and hasn't had a managers job since.
Uncle Colin keeps offering him coaching handouts out of sympathy for doing his missus .

Will never manage in England again. Top CV !!!

Can't think of anyone else that did that to us, can you ???

UTB

Complete bollocks.

 

[United Aren't Back.]

Adkins ( apart from results, his gobbledigook language and permatan)

Happy fucking Harry

Peters

Heath

Bruce, duplicitous lying bastard who manages to portray an image of "salt of the earth North Eastener"

He's a greasy slimeball that squashed nosed tit Bruce. Creepy to an extreme.

 

[blade too long]

win ratios

warnock
42.4
blackwell
42.3
bassett
38.1
robson
36.8
weir
7.69
heath
30.43
SPEED
33.33

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Steve Bruce is a reyt geezer. Won't hear a bad word against him.

 

[Leonardo Green]

Weir is probably the worst. Adkins name should be in the discussion for our lowest finish in 30+ years

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

And he missed that penalty against us in the FA Cup.