RagsBack in the day I was glad to see the back of Gary Pendrey and Dave Mackay but Ron Saunders appointment was genuinely exciting, I didn't really want Jim Smith to go but Saunders with backing would have made us a top 6 team, we just lacked Garry Mabbutt and Chris Waddle.
At appointment ? ... one i was most in favour of giving it a go was Bruce
Bruce here as well. Trev's time was done - him slumped in the shadows of the dugout at Preston was a sorry sight. Bruce seemed like an exciting young manager and TBF he's one of the best we've had in the past 30 odd years.
McLeish based on what he had acheived in Scotland thought he could really cement us in Prem. I was also delighted when we got Monk.
Lou Macari. When he came that cup final was just great, but again the owners could not match the ambition.
Gary Lineker had a hand in writing that. The woke bastard.
Nikola ZigicI was absolutely convinced Karanka would get us promoted in two seasons, when he was appointed.
That went well didn't it.
Yep same lol, shows a “proven” cv doesn’t always work out.
Not one until the appointment of Rooney tbh. That excitement has been replaced by desperate hope though.
Knackers kicked. Shoulders shrugged.
I was excited when Chris Hughton was appointed and to some extent he didn’t disappoint and I think he could have done more for us if we’d held on to him.
I was excited when we appointed Stan Cullis. His previous record at Wolves was quite a CV. Two FA Cups and 3 league titles. Was wanted by Juventus when he quite Wolves.
Saunders would have forever been painted as a DVB if this was as the modern era
TF, Brucey McLeish and Hughton I felt were good appointments
Recent years have been pretty meh in terms of managers, so I was actually encouraged when JE joined as he seemed to have a decent rep as a number 2 when he came in
Felt at least there was a plan for stability after a few years of utter dross
I can understand that. I believed we’d got a good manager in Karanka, given he’d got Middlesbrough promoted, and he would take us in the right direction.
Trev
Bruce ish but been through so much in the seasons before wasn't massively exited and confident he was the answer
McLeish was a bit of a coup at the time, exiting in a credible compentant big name way
Zola was exiting, first continental coach, he would get us playing the tiki tacka stuff Watford played and we'd be awesome
Excited and Blues just don't go together....been a supporter for over 50 years and I don't think I will ever get excited by a Blues manager ever again.
Ron Saunders for me. I couldn’t believe he was joining us and we were paying him a £50k salary on a rollover contract. I remember listening to the news several times that day just to milk it all in.
I got to meet Saunders when I was a scrawny 18 year old, you could see where he got his reputation as a disciplinarian from! I also met Jim Smith, who was a very different character of course, the first Blues manager I met and who was very kind and arranged for me to meet the team the night before an away game.
MacLeish for me. He had such a decent record at rangers and his teams were proper blues. Hard to beat and hard as nails fighting to the end.
I’m convinced we’re never going to be a decent football team it’s not in our DNA you could appoint pep from Man City and we would still be shit !!