Worst Manager

[Gareth]

So, first thing this morning a pal at work (a Newcastle fan, so also in a good mood) asks me, if Guardiola is the best manager you've ever had, who was the worst? We're talking post-Mercer/Allison here. Off the top of my head, I came up with Steve Coppell, although he didn't hang around long enough to do any real damage I suppose. So who d'you think?

[KunDB]

Alan Ball, 1995/6 season, what an absolute total twit of a manager.

Got City relegated, 11 game start without a win and we could have saved ourselves final game of the season, but didn't. With 10 minutes left against Liverpool we equalised, one more goal would have saved us, but Ball miscalculated and got the players to keep the ball in the corner, we got relegated on goal difference with Coventry and Southampton surviving. Quite frankly Liverpool had given up so a goal was very possible.

I hated Ball for that for many, many years and it took even longer for the pain to subside.

[KunDB]

The Relegation Story:

Back in 1995-96 the battle to avoid relegation from the Premier League had gone right down to the wire.

Coming into the final day, Manchester City, Southampton and Coventry City were all level on 33 points. Alan Ball's Manchester City, whose goal difference was seven goals worse than their rivals, occupied 18th spot, the final relegation place (the fates of QPR and Bolton having already been sealed). They welcomed third-placed Liverpool to Maine Road on the final day, Coventry hosted mid-table Leeds and Southampton took on Wimbledon, themselves not mathematically certain of survival, at the Dell.

Things didn't start well in Manchester â€" a Steve Lomas own goal after six minutes gave Liverpool the lead and four minutes before half-time Ian Rush made it 2-0 to the visitors. At the break the games at Highfield Road and the Dell were both goalless.

Hope for City came in the shape of an Uwe Rösler penalty after 71 minutes and seven minutes later Kit Symons equalised. Maine Road went bananas, but the home side still needed to score again if Coventry and Southampton held on for draws. Ball and his players were perfectly aware of this, but what they hadn't counted on was duff information. Somehow Ball got the impression that Southampton had gone behind. "He called me over and said: 'We're up, kill this game off, just do whatever you can," recalled Loma s years later. It was the unfortunate Northern Irishman who took the ball to the corner flag and began playing for time.

It was the substituted Niall Quinn who alerted Lomas to the mistake. "I had gone off 15 minutes from time and was watching it on TV," said Quinn. "So I had to run up the tunnel and get the message on that we needed another." It was all in vain. It ended 2-2 and City were relegated on goal difference. Somehow Ball survived the debacle, but after three games of the following season he was out.

[gavin]

Kinnell there's a lot of competition for worst manager. Frank Clark wasn't exactly a footy genius.

Best manager for me is still Mercer, followed by Mancini then Pep, Wilf Wild and Pellegrini. But Pep has time. He needs a Europena trophy to match Joe.

[lee]

howard kendall for being a judas cnut

[goat]

phil neal

[nimrod]

phil neal

Kinnell, thanks for that, Id wiped that useless twot from my memory

[Swiss]

Alan ball hands down for me, from his squeaky voice to his shit tactics.
Then Frank Clark.
Stuart Pearce runs near, but I like him as a person.

[gavin]

Shit football under Pearce but at least he didn't get us relegated.

[nimrod]

Alan ball hands down for me, from his squeaky voice to his shit tactics.
Then Frank Clark.
Stuart Pearce runs near, but I like him as a person.

Above based on statistics ?

[bry the guy]

allan ball he said he enjoyed that after liverpool thrashed us 6-0

[Stephen Paul]

Ball for me

had a soft spot for Horton for some reason

[Swiss]

Above based on statistics ?

Yep, based on how much other fans felt sorry for us!

[Rowley Birkin QC]

I won't bag Horton. He was all right.

My overriding impression of Frank Clark at the time was that he'd already lost interest in football long before he took on the City job. I couldn't hate him - he just seemed to be the manager we deserved. Like some dead albatross hanging around our necks. A penance for all our past and numerous sins that we just had to go through.

Two votes from me -

Worst manager (in a tactical, football sense) = Alan Ball

Worst manger (in a historical, pivotal moment sense) = Howard Kendall

[gavin]

Kendall did a good job at City. I was very annoyed at him at the time left but with time I understand that he wanted to go back to his own club as he saw it. We had a couple of good finishes under Reidy when he left so it is not like we fell apart when he left. I would have preferred better football but we had to be realistic.

[Swiss]

Coppell

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Was Coppell around long enough for us to tell?

[nimrod]

I thought Kendall did a good job in the brief time he was here he signed a couple of players immediately and we stopped losing... it's like he could see exactly what was needed unfortunately he fucked off

[Swiss]

Was Coppell around long enough for us to tell?

33% win ratio

I did a quick check. Ball has a 26% win ratio but I didn't check old cranky boy.

Coppell, Kendall are around the 33% mark

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Surely the Coppell sample is too small to be statistically relevant?