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Wanderers Ways. Neil Thompson 1961-2021

Greatest Manager Ever?


globaldiver

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He (Taggart) can take all his medals and his pots and he can throw them in the bin, because he got them by cheating...

 

Brian Clough - two European Cups with a provincial club.

Not too sure where cheating came into it, but Clough would have the edge considering budgets and all that. But then again it was in a different Era, not too sure Clough could cut it in todays game.

Edited by DomRepWanderer
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Stupid fucking question - has to be Clough.

He made Derby champions and then got them to European Cup semi and then made Forest champions and won them two European Cups. A combination of ego, nous and delivery that would take 2 or 3 of the best since to generate, even if they joined forces.

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I'm weary of this latest United vomit-fest. Their fans will claim Ferguson is the greatest manager ever. No doubt they also claim the bogs in the Stretford End are the best in the world as well. It is just that brand of unadulterated arrogance that causes everyone to hate them.

 

My thanks go to Real Madrid.

 

Can we move on?

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Anyone for Herbert Chapman.

An FA Cup win and then 2 league titles with Huddersfield, a club with no history.

And then the same again with Arsenal - their first ever titles.

For cunning see this description of the Jack transfer:

"We arrived at the hotel half-an-hour early. Chapman immediately went into the lounge bar. He called the waiter, placed two pound notes in his hand and said: "George, this is Mr Wall, my assistant. He will drink whisky and dry ginger. I will drink gin and tonic. We shall be joined by guests. They will drink whatever they like. See that our guests* are given double of everything, but Mr Wall's whisky and dry ginger will contain no whisky, and my gin and tonic will contain no gin." (*Bolton directors!)

 

As Satan has said Clough's record with Derby and Forest was unparallelled. And it is nowadays tacitly accepted that Derby were robbed in the European Cuo semi because Juventus had bought the referee.

 

Shankly built a club from scratch in the second tier. But how much of the success was down to him and how much to Paisley is an open question.

 

The game has changed in the modern era - how many teams begin the season with genuine title hopes? Definitely no more than 6, and very possibly only 3.

 

Ferguson has done very well, but he has had the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time. Both his Champions League titles were very very lucky, but his domestic record has been very good indeed.

 

Busby did pretty well from scratch, and allegedly was wanted by City (who he had captained) and Liverpool (where he was player-coach), but chose United. But his handover was a mess, which must tarnish his reputation somewhat.

Edited by MalcolmW
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Stupid fucking question - has to be Clough.

He made Derby champions and then got them to European Cup semi and then made Forest champions and won them two European Cups. A combination of ego, nous and delivery that would take 2 or 3 of the best since to generate, even if they joined forces.

 

Wouldnt say he was the greatest ever, just in the top one

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Brian Howard Clough

 

Nottingham Forest

First Division (1): 1977–78

League Cup (4): 1977–78, 1978–79, 1988–89, 1989–90

Full Members Cup (2): 1988–89, 1991–92

FA Charity Shield (1): 1978

European Cup (2): 1978–79, 1979–80

European Super Cup (1): 1979

Anglo-Scottish Cup (1): 1976–77

 

A few Clough ditties :)

 

1. “Rome wasn’t built in a day, but then again I wasn’t on that particular job.”

 

2. On dealing with player disagreements: “We talk about it for 20 minutes and then we decide I was right.”

 

3. ”David Seaman is a handsome young man but he spends too much time looking in his mirror rather than at the ball. You can’t keep goal with hair like that.”

 

4. On aerial football: ”If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he’d have put grass up there.”

 

5. On the late Peter Taylor: ”I’ve missed him. He used to make me laugh. He was the best diffuser of a situation I have ever known. I hope he’s alright.”

 

6. On Martin O’Neil’s success at Leicester City: ”Anybody who can do anything in Leicester other than knit a jumper has got to be a genius. If he’d been English or Swedish, he’d have walked the England job.”

 

7. On Manchester United ducking out of the FA Cup to go and play in the 1999 World Club Championship: “United in Brazil? I hope they all get bloody diarrhea.”

 

8. On Sven getting the England job: ”At last we’ve appointed a manager who speaks English better than the players.”

 

9. After a streaker interrupted Derby’s game against Man Utd: ”The Derby players saw more of his balls than the one they’re meant to be playing with!”

 

10. ”The ugliest player I ever signed was Kenny Burns.”

 

11. On Eric Cantona’s infamous kung-fu kick at Selhurst Park: ”I’d have cut his balls off.”

 

12. ”I’m sure the England selectors thought if they took me on and gave me the job, I’d want to run the show. They were shrewd because that’s exactly what I would have done”

 

13. “If a chairman sacks the manager he initially appointed, he should go as well.”

 

14. On his biggest career regret: “Telling the entire world and his dog how good a manager I was. I knew I was the best but I should have said nowt and kept the pressure off ‘cos they’d have worked it out for themselves.”

 

15. “The River Trent is lovely, I know because I have walked on it for 18 years.”

 

16. “We used to go to the pictures every Saturday night but we had to leave a little bit early and get home and watch Match of the Day. My wife still complains she missed the last five minutes of every film we saw.”

 

17. “When I go, God’s going to have to give up his favourite chair.”

 

18. On the new offside rule: “If any one of my players isn’t interfering with play, they’re not getting paid”

 

19. To the Forest physio after Stuart Pearce suffered a concussion in an FA Cup game: ”Tell him he’s Pele and that he’s playing up front for the last 10 minutes.”

 

20. After Martin O’Neil asked why he’d been dropped to the reserves: “Because you’re too good for the first team.”

 

21. “Beckham? His wife can’t sing and his barber can’t cut hair.”

 

22. On guessing who nominated him for a knighthood: “I thought it was my next-door neighbour because I think she felt that if I got something like that I would have to move.”

 

23. After his liver transplant in 2003: “Don’t send me flowers when I’m dead. If you like me, send them while I’m alive.”

 

24. On pasty Forest midfielder Brian Rice: “I’m not saying he’s pale and thin, but the maid in our hotel room pulled back the sheets and remade the bed without realising he was still in it!”

 

25. “Ah yes, Frank Sinatra. He met me once y’know?”

 

26. “Telling a player to get his hair cut counts as coaching as far as I’m concerned.”

 

27. “Meeting my wife Barbara was the best thing I ever did.”

 

28. On meeting new signing Teddy Sheringham: “I’m calling you Edward because that’s what it says on your birth certificate.”

 

29. “I wouldn’t say I was the best manager in the business…but I was in the top one.”

 

30. ”I want no epitaphs of profound history and all that type of thing. I contributed. I would hope they would say that, and I would hope somebody liked me.”

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Shanks took LFC from bottom of the 2nd division, small crowds, 2nd in the city, to the biggest club in Europe.

 

He never won the European Cup so he certainly didn't make them the biggest in Europe. He unarguably laid the foundations but Clough's achievements are so startling you simply can't put Shankly ahead of him.

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