| Ranking Town's worst managers 09:42 - Jan 9 with 8538 views | Herbivore |
Thought it was worth doing an updated one of these in light of Cook's demise and departure. Given how his time here went, he has to be seen as a legit contender. I'm sticking to a list of five and I should caveat my list with the fact that I started supporting Town under John Duncan so haven't included anyone prior to his time in charge (or ultimately Duncan himself as it goes).
1. Paul Hurst - whilst Cook styled himself as demolition man, Hurst really did demolish a competent Championship squad and replaced it with dross. We've still not recovered.
2. Paul Cook - perhaps a touch controversial, but the shortness of his tenure speaks to his level of failure. To manage a worse record than Paul Lambert did in the third tier with the players at his disposal takes some doing.
3. Roy Keane - could easily have been a spot higher or indeed a spot lower, swapping with my number 4 on the list. Spunked away the only millions Evans ever really invested in fees on average players and seemed to lack almost every quality you need to be a manager.
4. Paul Lambert - frankly I'm stunned I have him this low but it speaks to the 'quality' of the opposition. After coming in and saying some nice things that led to a short term uplift in performances (though not results) he seemed to lose all desire and any clue. Famously blew an almost open goal shot at promotion off the back of 27 points from our opening 11 games by inexplicably engaging in a season long game of Lambingo.
5. Paul Jewell - what to say really? Inherited a bit of a mess from Keane and then smeared that mess around a bit for just under 2 years. Occasionally 5 game runs of looking great invariably followed by 10 game runs of looking like a pub team. By the end he looked totally lost and should have been put out of his misery much sooner.
That's my list. It's a packed field, despite all of the managers listed having managed Town within the last 12 years. [Post edited 9 Jan 2022 12:36]
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 20:01 - Jan 9 with 1471 views | PJH |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 19:55 - Jan 9 by footers |
What are your first impressions of McKenna and his two performances so far, PJH? Looks decent, doesn't he? [Post edited 9 Jan 2022 19:55]
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Yes, impressed so far.
I was finding it very hard identifying with this squad as there are so many new players and I was generally very underwhelmed by Cook at Portman Road from very soon after he arrived until the day he unexpectedly but happily for me, left.
I think that McKenna might get things out of this squad that Cook mostly failed to do.
I think I can now start to enjoy going to games again rather than wondering why I am there, even in the rain at Gillingham. |  | | |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 20:23 - Jan 9 with 1410 views | Mullet |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 19:19 - Jan 9 by The_Romford_Blue |
I just can’t stress it enough how much I disagree here. He was nowhere near as damaging as Hurst, Keane or Jewell.
Jewell filled the side with loans and nearly got us relegated.
Keane sucked the life out of the squad and fans with his awful attitude.
Hurst sold a team of championship players and replaced them with sh*te, ultimately relegating us.
Ok cook failed to get us promoted but the football wasn’t dreadful, there was plenty of good moments and he showed genuine respect about our club. He’s nowhere near our ‘worst ever manager’ and shouldn’t even be in the discussion. |
As with your nonsense about the Wycombe game below you’re confusing your preference with facts. We are not talking about them as men, but managers snd in that regard Cook had the most money and kept us at our lowest position/ form whilst blowing any decent chance of promotion he inherited.
That doesn’t mean ultimately Hurst was better for example, but by the metrics of what actually being a manager is he’s on the high end of the list for worst ever.
The idea he produced anything comparable to being in contention or even too if the championship is part of the delusional stuff spewing out on here this season. |  |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 20:32 - Jan 9 with 1391 views | Radlett_blue |
Going back a bit, Jackie Milburn was Town's worst ever appointment. His only experience was as player-manager of Irish part timers Linfield & it was obvious to anyone that he didn't have the personality to manage a football team. Town won 15 out of 62 league games under him & were heading for back to back relegation until he was mercifully relieved. Some will say he founded Town's youth scheme - that's as may be, but he was an utterly hopeless manager.
Hurst is the worst of the modern era as he dismantled a reasonable 2nd tier squad & brought in hugely over-priced 3rd tier players.
Keane is #3 - inherited a team just outside the play offs, spent a fortune & 18 months later Town were heading for relegation.
Jewell #4 - inherited Keane's mess, but after a short term recovery, made things worse. |  |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 20:50 - Jan 9 with 1352 views | positivity |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 18:57 - Jan 9 by BiGDonnie |
None of that really means much, other than the financial state which isn't really a managers responsibility. A manager should and will be judged on results. If we're looking at that, Cook's the worst. Worse than Hurst - particularly with the 'experience' he was supposed to have. If he was that experienced he wouldn't have got shot of everyone last season and fooked up the play off push. |
financial state is a manager's responsibility. if he spends badly, the club goes backwards, far more of a long lasting legacy than a few results! |  |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 20:53 - Jan 9 with 1346 views | positivity |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 18:55 - Jan 9 by Herbivore |
Some of those things are at least partially outside the manager's control, which is why I tend to weight it more towards results. Ultimately managers are judged by the results they achieve, not by attendances or whether fans think they are likeable. And it's easier to leave an improved squad (on paper) if you've been given lots of financial backing than it is if you've been expected to work on a shoestring. Based purely on what they did here I do find it hard to make a case for Cook being the least bad of that crop but appreciate some rate him higher based on liking him more. |
some are, some aren't, but you could also argue that results are at least partially outside the manager's control!
i didn't particularly *like* cook, but feel he did much less damage to the club than many on the list, which is why i'm not surprised many look on him more kindly than your ranking | |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 20:59 - Jan 9 with 1338 views | Herbivore |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 20:53 - Jan 9 by positivity |
some are, some aren't, but you could also argue that results are at least partially outside the manager's control!
i didn't particularly *like* cook, but feel he did much less damage to the club than many on the list, which is why i'm not surprised many look on him more kindly than your ranking |
You didn't particularly like Cook? Come off it, you bent over backwards to defend him and you're doing so again now. We don't necessarily know yet how much damage Cook has done. If McKenna pulls off a blinder and takes us up then it's not much, if we're stuck here for another season and we lose some of our better players and have to have another rebuild then that ups the damage done. | |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 21:46 - Jan 9 with 1289 views | Darth_Koont |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 20:23 - Jan 9 by Mullet |
As with your nonsense about the Wycombe game below you’re confusing your preference with facts. We are not talking about them as men, but managers snd in that regard Cook had the most money and kept us at our lowest position/ form whilst blowing any decent chance of promotion he inherited.
That doesn’t mean ultimately Hurst was better for example, but by the metrics of what actually being a manager is he’s on the high end of the list for worst ever.
The idea he produced anything comparable to being in contention or even too if the championship is part of the delusional stuff spewing out on here this season. |
Nobody’s saying that.
What’s happened to you? You’ve suddenly got all the reactive, knee-jerk energy of a Trump supporter with a similar unwillingness to accept grey areas. |  |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 21:51 - Jan 9 with 1271 views | Darth_Koont |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 20:53 - Jan 9 by positivity |
some are, some aren't, but you could also argue that results are at least partially outside the manager's control!
i didn't particularly *like* cook, but feel he did much less damage to the club than many on the list, which is why i'm not surprised many look on him more kindly than your ranking |
Well said. | |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:02 - Jan 9 with 1251 views | PJH |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 20:32 - Jan 9 by Radlett_blue |
Going back a bit, Jackie Milburn was Town's worst ever appointment. His only experience was as player-manager of Irish part timers Linfield & it was obvious to anyone that he didn't have the personality to manage a football team. Town won 15 out of 62 league games under him & were heading for back to back relegation until he was mercifully relieved. Some will say he founded Town's youth scheme - that's as may be, but he was an utterly hopeless manager.
Hurst is the worst of the modern era as he dismantled a reasonable 2nd tier squad & brought in hugely over-priced 3rd tier players.
Keane is #3 - inherited a team just outside the play offs, spent a fortune & 18 months later Town were heading for relegation.
Jewell #4 - inherited Keane's mess, but after a short term recovery, made things worse. |
Jackie Milburn was certainly not very good.
He did sign Frank Brogan, Danny Hegan and Gerry Baker though, so it was not all bad.
Also Joe Broadfoot and Mick McNeil. | | | |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:04 - Jan 9 with 1242 views | Mullet |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 21:46 - Jan 9 by Darth_Koont |
Nobody’s saying that.
What’s happened to you? You’ve suddenly got all the reactive, knee-jerk energy of a Trump supporter with a similar unwillingness to accept grey areas. |
Are you not reading the thread then? As for that made up ad hominem stuff……. I’d say the forum is almost unanimous in having no hatred for Cook as a bloke, but this bizarre insistence he played great football, won games at any reasonable rate or was close to being a manager worthy of the title just isn’t factual.
There’s no grey area in that, just tedious muddying if the waters from people who can’t accept they were duped by someone or something. | |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:06 - Jan 9 with 1237 views | Mullet |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:02 - Jan 9 by PJH |
Jackie Milburn was certainly not very good.
He did sign Frank Brogan, Danny Hegan and Gerry Baker though, so it was not all bad.
Also Joe Broadfoot and Mick McNeil. |
I remember being at Cov away when senior assured us Hurst was worse then old Milburn. He’s certainly been rehabilitated since Evans got rid of Mick hasn’t he? | |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:09 - Jan 9 with 1229 views | GeoffSentence |
It's been a good few years for John Duncan |  |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:13 - Jan 9 with 1214 views | witchdoctor |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:02 - Jan 9 by PJH |
Jackie Milburn was certainly not very good.
He did sign Frank Brogan, Danny Hegan and Gerry Baker though, so it was not all bad.
Also Joe Broadfoot and Mick McNeil. |
took some proper beatings under ‘wor jackie’ but he has been credited to setting up our youth scheme so kudos for that.. |  | | |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:17 - Jan 9 with 1211 views | bazza |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:04 - Jan 9 by Mullet |
Are you not reading the thread then? As for that made up ad hominem stuff……. I’d say the forum is almost unanimous in having no hatred for Cook as a bloke, but this bizarre insistence he played great football, won games at any reasonable rate or was close to being a manager worthy of the title just isn’t factual.
There’s no grey area in that, just tedious muddying if the waters from people who can’t accept they were duped by someone or something. |
Hardly calling it being duped, by wanting a manager to succeed, and to be fair, some of the football played under cook was some of the best in years albeit about 3 games, .. and some of the football was the worst. I find it a little harsh to say he was the worst out of them all, I also believe what happened with the squad last season wasn’t all down to him, their cards were marked, they knew it, hence the poor finish to the season. The squad that that just took 7 points from 9 is the squad he assembled, unfortunately for him, he didn’t know what to do with it, and surrounded himself with other people who also didn’t.. but overall definitely still not the worst. |  | | |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:19 - Jan 9 with 1206 views | PJH |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:06 - Jan 9 by Mullet |
I remember being at Cov away when senior assured us Hurst was worse then old Milburn. He’s certainly been rehabilitated since Evans got rid of Mick hasn’t he? |
Personally I have all five in that OP as worse than Milburn taking into account all factors (as I see them and remember them).
Jackie Milburn was left with a largely ageing team by Sir Alf although along with the good players that I mentioned he did sign a fair amount of rubbish.
It is coming up to four years since we had a good manager, perhaps we have got one now. | | | |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:22 - Jan 9 with 1198 views | Mullet |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:17 - Jan 9 by bazza |
Hardly calling it being duped, by wanting a manager to succeed, and to be fair, some of the football played under cook was some of the best in years albeit about 3 games, .. and some of the football was the worst. I find it a little harsh to say he was the worst out of them all, I also believe what happened with the squad last season wasn’t all down to him, their cards were marked, they knew it, hence the poor finish to the season. The squad that that just took 7 points from 9 is the squad he assembled, unfortunately for him, he didn’t know what to do with it, and surrounded himself with other people who also didn’t.. but overall definitely still not the worst. |
But we aren’t talking about wanting him to do well here, it’s beyond that.
He modelled himself as demolition man, he slated them, he shunned them openly for weeks, he assured us Morsy would fix the humiliation etc. It was publicly and privately all in him. There’s only Brizzle infused conspiracy that really argues with fact on any of that.
Besides we’ve moved away from what was said, he may still rank lower than Hurst who had completely different effect snd treatment from Evans. However, anyone else never did as badly by any measure.
It’s all subjective stuff trying to mitigate his failure here. | |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:23 - Jan 9 with 1184 views | Mullet |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:19 - Jan 9 by PJH |
Personally I have all five in that OP as worse than Milburn taking into account all factors (as I see them and remember them).
Jackie Milburn was left with a largely ageing team by Sir Alf although along with the good players that I mentioned he did sign a fair amount of rubbish.
It is coming up to four years since we had a good manager, perhaps we have got one now. |
I think so. Gut feeling alone suggest Kmc might go on to be as good as Mick here, if not beyond. But who knows? At least that mystery is back | |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:27 - Jan 9 with 1176 views | Darth_Koont |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:04 - Jan 9 by Mullet |
Are you not reading the thread then? As for that made up ad hominem stuff……. I’d say the forum is almost unanimous in having no hatred for Cook as a bloke, but this bizarre insistence he played great football, won games at any reasonable rate or was close to being a manager worthy of the title just isn’t factual.
There’s no grey area in that, just tedious muddying if the waters from people who can’t accept they were duped by someone or something. |
But there’s little to no insistence about that. And it’s bizarre you think that there is.
So, there’s no ad hominem beyond trying to understand why you’re being a bit of a tw@t about it.
You have been better than this. | |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:30 - Jan 9 with 1156 views | positivity |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 20:59 - Jan 9 by Herbivore |
You didn't particularly like Cook? Come off it, you bent over backwards to defend him and you're doing so again now. We don't necessarily know yet how much damage Cook has done. If McKenna pulls off a blinder and takes us up then it's not much, if we're stuck here for another season and we lose some of our better players and have to have another rebuild then that ups the damage done. |
disliking someone's personality is different from wanting them to succeed and thinking they had a chance to improve given their track record.
sometimes a marmite character be it a jose, a mick, a fergie or a cook is what a club needs at a particular point.
if mckenna gets us up (this season or next), it'll be at least partially thanks to players who've come here because of cook
(and "bending over backwards to defend him"? all i said is i don't find it surprising that many people rate him above lambert et al. at best that's damning with faint praise!) [Post edited 9 Jan 2022 22:31]
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:30 - Jan 9 with 1156 views | reusersfreekicks |
1 Hurst
2 Lambert
3 Keane
4 Cook
5 Jewell |  | | |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:34 - Jan 9 with 1139 views | chrismakin |
Hurst
Keane
Jewell
Lambert
Cook |  |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:37 - Jan 9 with 1129 views | bazza |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:34 - Jan 9 by chrismakin |
Hurst
Keane
Jewell
Lambert
Cook |
Ahhhhh fu@k it, they were all shiite, they all individually ripped a piece of the clubs heart out, who cares who was worse , it’s history now, king McKenna is our leader !!!! | | | |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 23:30 - Jan 9 with 1079 views | Ryorry |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 22:37 - Jan 9 by bazza |
Ahhhhh fu@k it, they were all shiite, they all individually ripped a piece of the clubs heart out, who cares who was worse , it’s history now, king McKenna is our leader !!!! |
Quite. We've finally appointed, after 13 years of ME grunge, grind & guessing (allegedly on the "advice"of 'Arry), someone who's not 20thC old skool but is actually forward looking, thoughtful, analytical & intelligent about football, we played our most organised & attractive football for years yesterday, and people are posting 5 pages on looking back at who our worst ever manager was!  |  |
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| Ranking Town's worst managers on 09:11 - Jan 10 with 940 views | Bluroo |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 16:59 - Jan 9 by Darth_Koont |
I didn’t say he was hard done by, certainly not in accepted footballing terms.
But I would have given him more time. As I think the expectation that anyone can get a completely new team and squad working well within a few months is pretty silly, even if that seems to be the norm for expectations nowadays.
FWIW I think it has worked out well with McKenna. He’s clearly much more focused on the off the ball stuff than Cook which was probably why Cook’s team struggled most for consistency. It takes away the elusiveness of players’ form and converting chances, which we were over-reliant on. |
The notion that Cook deserved more time and nobody can get a new team working well in a few months are two completely busted myths based on what KMac has achieved in just 2 weeks. Unless you think this is what Cook would have been capable of had he stuck around.
To which I'd say, there was no chance. Zilch. Nada. Cooks limitations far exceeded merely an ability to coach the players to work a bit harder off the ball. With KMac the training philosophy is completely different and far more dynamic. The players are learning things now that Cook didn't have a clue about.
I also beleive the defence that "Cooks football was much more attractive" is spurious at best. It was largely hoofball compared to the liquid football we saw on Saturday.
With the same players.
Cannot beleive people are still saying Cook deserved more time after what we are now seeing. | | | |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 09:22 - Jan 10 with 932 views | gtsb1966 |
| Ranking Town's worst managers on 16:59 - Jan 9 by Darth_Koont |
I didn’t say he was hard done by, certainly not in accepted footballing terms.
But I would have given him more time. As I think the expectation that anyone can get a completely new team and squad working well within a few months is pretty silly, even if that seems to be the norm for expectations nowadays.
FWIW I think it has worked out well with McKenna. He’s clearly much more focused on the off the ball stuff than Cook which was probably why Cook’s team struggled most for consistency. It takes away the elusiveness of players’ form and converting chances, which we were over-reliant on. |
How can you say Cook should have been given more time and then write that third paragraph. It doesn't make sense. [Post edited 10 Jan 2022 9:26]
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