Who are your 5 worst Blades managers since 1975?

[Deleted member 875]

The dinosaur Kevin Blackwell. At least Robson could attract players.

What's your favourite flavour of Bostik?

 

[Darren]

The two who wasted our big cash when we had it:

Joint worst 1 and 2: Kendall and Robson.

Followed Robson and couldn't manage a highly paid squad of good players: 3. Blackwell.

4. Peters
5. Sirrel

That would be the Blackwell who took Robson's "highly paid squad of good players" flirting with relegation and just missed out on the play offs with them in 07-08 and then took them to the verge of automatic promotion and the play off final in 08-09. Clearly he had no idea how to manage them....

There seems to be a collective lunacy on here when it comes to Blackwell. No-one is suggesting he is the greatest manager ever, but given the (admittedly low) standards of the United managers over the last 40 years, he is one of the highest acheivers. Only Bassett and Warnock got us to the top division. Apart from them, Blackwell was the manager who came closest.

 

[Deleted member 875]

Since the early/mid 80s,

Bassett
Colin Wanker
Blackwell
Spackman
Clough
Kendall
Porterfield
Wilson
Bruce
Thompson
Carver
Morgan
Speed
McEwan
Heath
Adams
Weir
Flopson/Nobson/Alcopopson (c) Hando

 

[JJ Sefton]

That would be the Blackwell who took Robson's "highly paid squad of good players" flirting with relegation and just missed out on the play offs with them in 07-08 and then took them to the verge of automatic promotion and the play off final in 08-09. Clearly he had no idea how to manage them....

There seems to be a collective lunacy on here when it comes to Blackwell. No-one is suggesting he is the greatest manager ever, but given the (admittedly low) standards of the United managers over the last 40 years, he is one of the highest acheivers. Only Bassett and Warnock got us to the top division. Apart from them, Blackwell was the manager who came closest.

I have to agree.

 

[DI36O]

If you want me to be pedantic Warnock was the start of the slippery slope.

Are you labelling the one person who managed to achieve promotion from any division in the last quarter of a century as the butterfly to our current hurricane?

I'm more comfortable pinning that on Robson. Bouncing back was more than achievable and he got nowhere near.

 

[Revolution]

I have to agree.

So do I. I always think that Blackwell gets more than his fair share of grief because:

1. Some of the football was boring to watch.

2. No one who played for him seems to have a good word to say about him.

These things will fade with time. I reckon that he will end up like Porterfield - if you were there at the time, you know why Porterfield was fired, but if you look at the record in a vaccuum, it looks a daft decision.

Same applies to Danny Wilson (though that was a daft decision at the time). His record will look better as memory of performances fades.

 

[Grecian2000]

There seems to be a collective lunacy on here when it comes to Blackwell. No-one is suggesting he is the greatest manager ever, but given the (admittedly low) standards of the United managers over the last 40 years, he is one of the highest acheivers.

We keep having this argument so I'll spell it out again.

He started us on the road to ruin. I can't be arsed to look up the thread from a couple of years back where I did a points per game analysis for him, but every year we were getting worse under him and by an accelerating rate..
EVERY club he has managed has done exactly the same (that's all 4, 100%). No club has manged to avoid relegation either with him in charge or within a season of him leaving. The reason being, he leaves the club with a poor squad, poor attitude (he's a known bully) and with a footballing ethic that is guaranteed to fail.

If he'd just done it to us, then fair do's, he might have got a bad break. The fact he does it everywhere speaks for itself.

 

[JJ Sefton]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6067202.stm

 

[Darren]

We keep having this argument so I'll spell it out again.

He started us on the road to ruin. I can't be arsed to look up the thread from a couple of years back where I did a points per game analysis for him, but every year we were getting worse under him and by an accelerating rate..
EVERY club he has managed has done exactly the same (that's all 4, 100%). No club has manged to avoid relegation either with him in charge or within a season of him leaving. The reason being, he leaves the club with a poor squad, poor attitude (he's a known bully) and with a footballing ethic that is guaranteed to fail.

If he'd just done it to us, then fair do's, he might have got a bad break. The fact he does it everywhere speaks for itself.

What he might have done had he stayed longer with United is neither here nor there. The fact is that all the time he was actually managing United saw us consistently challenging for either automatic promotion or the play offs from the 2nd tier. The reason we were getting worse* was that we were selling our best players and replacing them with poorer players. That was down to financial constraints, Given that, having us round the top of the 2nd tier throughout his spell was a rather good achievement.

By all accounts Blackwell is not a very nice man. I think that blinds a lot of people to his relative success at the Lane. Remember this thread is about managers' acheivements at the Lane, not elsewhere.

* Actually we weren't

2007-08 9th
2008-09 3rd
1009-10 8th

One season we sent forward, one season we went back, but still further forward than his first season.

 

[Revolution]

We keep having this argument so I'll spell it out again.

He started us on the road to ruin. I can't be arsed to look up the thread from a couple of years back where I did a points per game analysis for him, but every year we were getting worse under him and by an accelerating rate..
EVERY club he has managed has done exactly the same (that's all 4, 100%). No club has manged to avoid relegation either with him in charge or within a season of him leaving. The reason being, he leaves the club with a poor squad, poor attitude (he's a known bully) and with a footballing ethic that is guaranteed to fail.

If he'd just done it to us, then fair do's, he might have got a bad break. The fact he does it everywhere speaks for itself.

I'd have a lot more sympathy for this argument if Blackwell hadn't have to deal with the loss of Kenny, Naysmith, Kilgallon, Walker and Naughton. None of that was his fault. And that's just the Defence.

Of course we were getting worse. McCabe gave up in January 2009 and over the next 2 years got rid of most of our good players.

There is a good argument that Blackwell is good for one year and then you move on. He resigned in May 2009. Who decided to keep him?

 

[JJ Sefton]

I don't know how much Blackwell was to blame for Luton's meltdown either.

 

[Darren]

I'd have a lot more sympathy for this argument if Blackwell hadn't have to deal with the loss of Kenny, Naysmith, Kilgallon, Walker and Naughton. None of that was his fault. And that's just the Defence.

Of course we were getting worse. McCabe gave up in January 2009 and over the next 2 years got rid of most of our good players.

There is a good argument that Blackwell is good for one year and then you move on. He resigned in May 2009. Who decided to keep him?

But then, even in 2009-10 with the loss of all but one of those players for most of the season (Walker and Naughton sold, Kenny suspended and Naysmith injured) and one half way through (Kilgallon), we were still serious play off contenders for most of the season.

 

[Darren]

I don't know how much Blackwell was to blame for Luton's meltdown either.

It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that Blackwell is a generally shit manager, but that his 2 plus years managing United saw him at the peak of his career. Rather like Robson at Boro perhaps, we don't count his successes there as absolving him from the charge of shitness at the Lane, so why should Blackwell's shitness elsewhere be taken into account when considering his tenure at the Lane?

 

[JJ Sefton]

It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that Blackwell is a generally shit manager, but that his 2 plus years managing United saw him at the peak of his career. Rather like Robson at Boro perhaps, we don't count his successes there as absolving him from the charge of shitness at the Lane, so why should Blackwell's shitness elsewhere be taken into account when considering his tenure at the Lane?

Fair point. I was pretty bored by most matches I saw under him but I'd rather be bored in the top half of the Second Division than bored bobbing around in the Third. Plus, if Blackwell got out of a chair to chuck summat in the bin at Bramall Lane McCabe had sold it before he got chance to sit back down again.

 

[Darren]

Fair point. I was pretty bored by most matches I saw under him but I'd rather be bored in the top half of the Second Division than bored bobbing around in the Third. Plus, if Blackwell got out of a chair to chuck summat in the bin at Bramall Lane McCabe had sold it before he got chance to sit back down again.

Of the squad Blackwell inherited from Robson only Morgan, Montgomery and Quinn were still there when he left.

 

[JJ Sefton]

Of the squad Blackwell inherited from Robson only Morgan, Montgomery and Quinn were still there when he left.

I do remember turning up at games, looking at the team sheet and thinking "Who the fuck is that?"

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Blackwell sent the club backwards 10 years.

No other manager in our history has ever done this.

UTB

Complete bollocks.

 

[Woodwardfan]

That would be the Blackwell who took Robson's "highly paid squad of good players" flirting with relegation and just missed out on the play offs with them in 07-08 and then took them to the verge of automatic promotion and the play off final in 08-09. Clearly he had no idea how to manage them....

There seems to be a collective lunacy on here when it comes to Blackwell. No-one is suggesting he is the greatest manager ever, but given the (admittedly low) standards of the United managers over the last 40 years, he is one of the highest acheivers. Only Bassett and Warnock got us to the top division. Apart from them, Blackwell was the manager who came closest.

I understand that point of view, it's just that in my years of watching United there have been those two periods when we overspent the rivals in the Championship and had a better squad than the vast majority. Through circumstances we entrusted Blackwell with such a major responsibility ( by our standards) and he blew it. Valiant losers win nothing and my view is that he played crude football with players capable of more, much more.

Statistics can mislead and can never paint the full picture. All the rest of my 60 years our managers have been toiling under tight budgets and fighting the odds, perhaps with the exception of Wilson in his first season.

 

[Darren]

I understand that point of view, it's just that in my years of watching United there have been those two periods when we overspent the rivals in the Championship and had a better squad than the vast majority. Through circumstances we entrusted Blackwell with such a major responsibility ( by our standards) and he blew it. Valiant losers win nothing and my view is that he played crude football with players capable of more, much more.

Statistics can mislead and can never paint the full picture. All the rest of my 60 years our managers have been toiling under tight budgets and fighting the odds, perhaps with the exception of Wilson in his first season.

The point is is that it is comparative. Kendall, Spackman, Porterfield and Haslam were all given relativelty large budgets to get us out of the 2nd tier. All failed, but Blackwell got closer than any of them.

 

[Mustela Putorius Furo]

Cameron nine? NINE?

Christ it's like a living hell because it means that we have concurrently a long-reigning Tory Government and United being shit.

Er, (and I don't think this is pedantry) we've had a Tory government for 3 months. We had a coalition government before that.

 

[Darren]

Er, (and I don't think this is pedantry) we've had a Tory government for 3 months. We had a coalition government before that.

Err, 2 months and 8 days

 

[Mustela Putorius Furo]

Err, 2 months and 8 days

Now that is pedantry!!!

 

[Darren]

Now that is pedantry!!!

Only 4 years, 9 months and 23 days to go :-(

 

[Grecian2000]

* Actually we weren't

2007-08 9th
2008-09 3rd
1009-10 8th

The season we finished 9th, he had 14 games averaging 1.92 pts per game.
The following seasons it went down and then down again (that's real decline)

We were in decline from the moment it became "his team" and his bollocks went so far inside his body they were never seen again..

I'd have a lot more sympathy for this argument if Blackwell hadn't have to deal with the loss of Kenny, Naysmith, Kilgallon, Walker and Naughton. None of that was his fault. And that's just the Defence.

Of course we were getting worse. McCabe gave up in January 2009 and over the next 2 years got rid of most of our good players.

There is a good argument that Blackwell is good for one year and then you move on. He resigned in May 2009. Who decided to keep him?

and when he was given funds to replace players (i.e. Beattie) he chose Darius Henderson.
and when we had Beattie and Sharp up front he's mysterious drop the winger and play a full back there to stifle any attacking notion.
and don't get me started on Jordan Stewart rocking up at right wing against Newcastle.
and he left us the magnificent legacy of watching Jonny Ertl playing full back in as long a 90 minutes as the bloke could have had.

Bloke turned my Saturday's from the weeks highlight to nothing more than a drudge, but hey, good (if declining) win percentage.

It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that Blackwell is a generally shit manager, but that his 2 plus years managing United saw him at the peak of his career. Rather like Robson at Boro perhaps, we don't count his successes there as absolving him from the charge of shitness at the Lane, so why should Blackwell's shitness elsewhere be taken into account when considering his tenure at the Lane?

Because he left us in terminal decline and some people don't acknowledge it. The "we wouldn't be in this mess if we kept him argument" is oft brought in, the fact he does it everywhere is a useful counter to this nonsense.

Anyway that's me. Blokes a cunt and best forgotten. Only gets brought up when we do the "worst manager" stuff.

 

[Mustela Putorius Furo]

Only 4 years, 9 months and 23 days to go :-(

I understand your disappointment... it'll take another 20 years to repair the damage the other lot caused... there are at least 3 opportunities for the electorate to lose patience before then!

 

[Darren]

The season we finished 9th, he had 14 games averaging 1.92 pts per game.
The following seasons it went down and then down again (that's real decline)

We were in decline from the moment it became "his team" and his bollocks went so far inside his body they were never seen again..



and when he was given funds to replace players (i.e. Beattie) he chose Darius Henderson.
and when we had Beattie and Sharp up front he's mysterious drop the winger and play a full back there to stifle any attacking notion.
and don't get me started on Jordan Stewart rocking up at right wing against Newcastle.
and he left us the magnificent legacy of watching Jonny Ertl playing full back in as long a 90 minutes as the bloke could have had.

Bloke turned my Saturday's from the weeks highlight to nothing more than a drudge, but hey, good (if declining) win percentage.



Because he left us in terminal decline and some people don't acknowledge it. The "we wouldn't be in this mess if we kept him argument" is oft brought in, the fact he does it everywhere is a useful counter to this nonsense.

Anyway that's me. Blokes a cunt and best forgotten. Only gets brought up when we do the "worst manager" stuff.

Your really don't like the bloke do you

It's a strange logic to blame him for our relegation when he was not manager and not give him credit for the 3 top half finishes when he was manager, but hey ho....

 

[DronnieBlade]

The season we finished 9th, he had 14 games averaging 1.92 pts per game.
The following seasons it went down and then down again (that's real decline)

We were in decline from the moment it became "his team" and his bollocks went so far inside his body they were never seen again..



and when he was given funds to replace players (i.e. Beattie) he chose Darius Henderson.
and when we had Beattie and Sharp up front he's mysterious drop the winger and play a full back there to stifle any attacking notion.
and don't get me started on Jordan Stewart rocking up at right wing against Newcastle.
and he left us the magnificent legacy of watching Jonny Ertl playing full back in as long a 90 minutes as the bloke could have had.

Bloke turned my Saturday's from the weeks highlight to nothing more than a drudge, but hey, good (if declining) win percentage.



Because he left us in terminal decline and some people don't acknowledge it. The "we wouldn't be in this mess if we kept him argument" is oft brought in, the fact he does it everywhere is a useful counter to this nonsense.

Anyway that's me. Blokes a cunt and best forgotten. Only gets brought up when we do the "worst manager" stuff.

Thats how I saw it Grecian.

Excellent post.

UTB

 

[SUFC Handsworth]

Who are your top 5 worst Blades managers from 1975-present?

David Weir
Jimmy Sirrell
Billy McEwan
Micky Adams
Adrian Heath

Haslam was the worst by a country mile. Sold a crop of exciting youngsters for next to nowt and replaced them with a load of expensive shite. Went from mid table Div 2 to the doors of Div 4 in about 3 years. He was also our manager on Boxing Day 1979

 

[Guesty]

Er, (and I don't think this is pedantry) we've had a Tory government for 3 months. We had a coalition government before that.

Well, in name only.

But yes, Tory Prime Minister if you prefer (and if we're being pedantic, it's Conservative not Tory).

 

[Grecian2000]

Your really don't like the bloke do you

Ahh, you noticed.

Just turned me from a 35 games a season (ALL home games and half the aways) into NO away's (Palace aside) and not having a season ticket for the first time since '76. Quite an achievement.