number8We had one in Marsden but too many gerritforward merchants partly ruined that.
Swapping Marsden for Graham Hyde was the biggest WTF moment under Francis for me. It just made no sense.
...and yet, there are still plenty of people who insist Marsden was shite.
Spikenumber8We had one in Marsden but too many gerritforward merchants partly ruined that.
Swapping Marsden for Graham Hyde was the biggest WTF moment under Francis for me. It just made no sense.
...and yet, there are still plenty of people who insist Marsden was shite.
For me I just write off anyone that didn’t rate Marsden as a dunce. There’s no point even debating with them. Similarly anybody that called Furlong ‘lazy’ when he broke his kneecap.
Holdsworth_MaraSonnerSpikenumber8We had one in Marsden but too many gerritforward merchants partly ruined that.
Swapping Marsden for Graham Hyde was the biggest WTF moment under Francis for me. It just made no sense.
...and yet, there are still plenty of people who insist Marsden was shite.
For me I just write off anyone that didn’t rate Marsden as a dunce. There’s no point even debating with them. Similarly anybody that called Furlong ‘lazy’ when he broke his kneecap.
Yeah agree. Marsden was fantastic.
Marsden was good, but he was more of a side to side player rather than a box to box creator or scorer type which is what I think we missed. As do most clubs tbf!
He was 30 and wanted to go to play in the premier league. I didn't blame him for that, and for once TF showed a bit of a human side and let him go.
Looking back, both he should have played Hughes centrally more often - he would have really benefited from modern formations rather than the basic 442 that we generally played with back then.
Rab C NesbittI can’t stand Bruce
Bruce is a funny one Rab. Whatever people say about him he gave us back some dignity in this city after 16 years in the wilderness. I will never forget those games against that lot in the first couple of years in the premiership. The 2-1 win at their place stands out because we had been on a poor run and were there for the taking. We should have been 4 up at half time.
Cooper was adored by all. A lovely man and a true gentleman.
Fry was infectious. He had a screw loose which endeared him to many.
All football clubs have dunces tbf. I think the initial question was about ‘universal admiration’. I don’t think Bruce has that by any means, as someone said he’s pretty universally disliked by fans if most clubs he’s managed, for the good reason that he’s a right whinger, blame shifter and his teams often play pretty turgid football. It’s obviously different for us because he got us promoted after all those years and near misses and the tedium was leavened by some great moments and some of the exceptional players we had (briefly). Plus he was a very sneaky player and put his own son into midfield. So b*llocks to him.
Cooper was a shining light in a terrible time for our club. It’s pretty remarkable that we’ve had such a scarcity of managers who are admired, perhaps universal admiration is almost unachievable, unless your are Keegan of course.
Holdsworth_MaraSonnerRasputinI think we were a top championship class central midfielder away from success with TF.
How a front three of Furlong, Adebola and Ndlovu wasn't better than it was is baffling...
I think Marsden and O’Connor were as good as any pair in the division. They were a perfect fit for each other. But then we sold Marsden…
Didn't have much option.
Southampton offered to more than double his salary and give him the opportunity to play in the PL.
Understandably he wanted to go.
As a bit of a younger fan I don't remember back to TF days, but I'd go with Hughton, think he did fantastic work. Don't forget we also had the Europa league that year too and were unlucky to not get through the group stage, while being in the championship. The 6-0 millwall away game was that year too.
As for reviews I'd give to other fans, Rowett I'd be relatively positive about, Pep Clotet I quite liked too, then the obvious choice of Eustace probably being the one I'd speak most highly of. I think he's still learning, but a very bright and likeable young manager.
Sounds like a lot, but when you consider we've probably had near 15 managers in my time watching blues, it's not a lot really. I started at the end of Bruce's reign, so I've got no particular strong feelings toward him
My mate found himself sat next to him on a flight to Portugal , my mate had no idea who he was or what he did for a living , my mate is a very good golfer and they got talking about golf , he was told he was sat next to Steve Bruce and he was still none the wiser....lol said he seemed a nice enough bloke though
TamI remember being stuck in a hotel in Croydon one night, as I was in the area for a couple of days for work. We’d just sacked Cooper and were looking for a replacement. The midweek regional football highlights were on, and I think that Elton Welsby was the presenter. I remember Barry Fry being a guest and he was dressed like a Chicago gangster from the 1920s. I thought, ‘gawd, I hope we don’t get anyone like that fecking spiv’....
Terry Cooper resigned.
We were on a pretty bad run at the time. We'd lost 4 in a row without scoring, though we were 8th before that.
The Bristol City game that started the bad run is the wettest I have ever been at a game.
Hughes should have gone in there. I think TF thought he was too lightweight, and I got that at first, but his touch was so good we could hold onto the ball more. And we had players around who could do the tackling/chasing for him to an extent.
Hughes is one player you look back on and think he could have been really brilliant for us but we either never played him enough or pushed him wider where he wasn't as effective.
Yeah, he would have been superb as one of the three in a 4231 formation I think.
I liked Cooper. He is one of the few who didn't resign for a better job.
He did a good job in the chaos surrounding the collapse of Mark One.
I would say hughton, as depressing as it sounds that was probably the last really good season we’ve had. We still should have got to at least the play off final that season, as we were a better team than Blackpool were.
Have to edit it my post, Kristoff asked about a good majority of people who liked/rated a manager. That is different and we’ve had a few of those, although ‘liking’ and ‘rating’ isn’t the same thing.