Worst ever manager

[Gamble92]

6 minutes ago, Sampson said:

I do broadly agree that the 90/91 team was the worst in the club's history, even over the 07/08 side. They got less points and conceded twice the goals of the 07/08 team for example and finished in the same position in the league, but like you say, only 2 sides went down then. I think if we had gone down that season, it would've taken us several years to have gotten out the third tier and we wouldn't have run away with it like we did in 08/09.

It's funny though because player-for-player. the 90/91 team, several the team actually ended up having half decent careers for the club, at least at second tier level. There wasn't actually that much change to squad once Brian Little took over. But Brian Little was very good at getting the maximum out of mediocre players.

I mean the likes of Steve Walsh and Tommy Wright were regarded as donkeys and liabilities until Little took over. And Tony James was probably our best player back then but had his career ruined by that horrendous broken leg.

Whereas I don't think many of the 07/08 side really ended up having half-decent careers at that level for the side other than Fryatt (not including King who was only a a kid and got limited game time in the relegation season). Players like Steve Howard and Matt Oakley did really well in League One, but then struggled again when we came up to the Championship in 09/10.

Steve Howard didn't struggle when we went back up

[Gamble92]

54 minutes ago, bovril said:

Got sacked after the Charlton game.

 

He stayed because we nicked a point at home to Ipswich and then got an incredibly scrappy win at Derby. Two teams that would go down with us. You could argue they are the most costly positive results in our history. 

I thought we beat Ipswich when Izzet skied that pen. They're the only couple of seasons i get mixed up because I try and block it all out.

[bovril]

39 minutes ago, Phil Bowman said:

Ah, but if things had gone differently, other things would have gone differently. And then who knows where we’d have been in 2015-16? I certainly don’t, but almost certainly we wouldn’t have been winning the league. Would we sacrifice that title to have avoided the decade of unmitigated miserable crap that followed Peter Taylor?

 

We are where we are because of everything that has happened to us. To wish those things different is to wish us somewhere else.

I often think that. Certainly wouldn't change the past now. But it doesn't change the fact our squad was good enough to stay up under Bassett in '02 and Adams in '04.

 

I am totally at peace with Taylor though because of what's happened from 2016 onwards.

[Sampson]

3 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

Steve Howard didn't struggle when we went back up

He did. I'm sure if this forum is old enough for threads from the 09/10 season you'd see that. People just remember the excellent performance vs Cardiff in the semi-final of the play-offs, but otherwise he had a really poor season and was regarded as past it. My memory of him is him scoring about 3 goals and genuinely just giving away endless fouls and being incredibly frustrating.

Edited 1 September 2021 by Sampson

[bovril]

Just now, Gamble92 said:

I thought we beat Ipswich when Izzet skied that pen. They're the only couple of seasons i get mixed up because I try and block it all out.

Pretty horrible period. I just remember Lee Marshall running round aimlessly with a huge white collar. It was around the time of 9/11 too so weirdly my memories of that time are mixed in with that.

[mod hero]

That Lee Marshall is genuinely one of the worst players I’ve ever seen

[TheFiveTime]

Growing up in the Levein, Holloway era I was just too young to see the likes of Peter Taylor. However, I can safely say that the football played by Levein and Holloway makes me glad I did not see the era before that. It was just dreadful, depressing and dreadfully depressing. I think for me in what I saw, Holloway takes it. There was just nothing positive to say about that season and the football we played...dire

[Footballwipe]

Can't be having McLintock as the worst tbh. The whole context of Peter Taylor, what he inherited, what he left and the long-term damage that caused us to have was dreadful. Plus I don't think he's ever accepted or apologised for the absolute shit he left us in, either. Never once has he shown humility for being so absolutely crap.

 

Incidentally, I was just having a scout to see the other names linked after PT was sacked. I know Wim Jansen, George Graham and Redknapp were all linked, with both of the latter two being "close," but I've just seen an article with these additional names:

• Gordon Strachan
• Lawrie Sanchez
• David Moyes
• Trevor Francis

 

[Corky]

3 hours ago, bovril said:

Taylor was so bad it seemed to almost defy logic. How can a team lose 0-5 at home to Bolton? It was the most inept performance I've seen in the top tier. 

It was the absolute worst result we could've had. Having decided to stick with him after that appalling run and give him another sizeable amount of money to spend, we then left ourselves in a position where it was probably too late sacking the manager after one game.

 

You lose 1-0 and it's poor but they are newly promoted, bit of a setback etc. 5-0 and the whole place is wrecked.

[Foxaholic ME]

1 hour ago, surrifox said:

We hounded out a decent manager (Jimmy Bloomfield) who  brought legendary players to the club and built a hugely entertaining side and replaced him with an utter dipstick with no discernible managerial qualifications in McLintock who nearly wrecked the club . 

Even Tater peeler had a period of modest success , McLintock had none . 

Bloomfields contract was up he wasnt  hounded out. McLintoch definately  the worst . Taylors   only full season we finished  12th  and led the table early in the season. McLintoch would be rated even worse but for being a superb player for the city. However financially Taylor the worst  as his buys were criminal  although you could say giving all your mates a job is worse

[urban fox]

My first game at filbo was in 1968. My formative years as a teenager were in the seventies watching the Bloomfield boys so what followed was a lot of ups and downs but at least I grew up thinking we were a decent side, if a bit of a yo-yo club. Fortunately, I shipped out to uni in Aberdeen in ‘78 so didn’t have to witness the debacle that was mclintock first hand but remember looking on in pain from afar. By the time I was back in Leicester the jock Wallace era was coming towards its end and a period of stability under Milne. I think that is what made the pleat era so difficult to bear.

but for sheer stupidity Taylor has to take the accolade of worst ever manager simply because of the way he destroyed everything that was good about our club and the legacy that was left him by MON. I always got the impression that it was down to his arrogance in that he thought he knew better than anyone else 

[enmac]

Peter Taylor was manager of 10 club teams post City. Only once he last longer than 1 season. He must have interviewed well. 

[davieG]

33 minutes ago, enmac said:

Peter Taylor was manager of 10 club teams post City. Only once he last longer than 1 season. He must have interviewed well. 

He probably did his Norman Wisdom set.

[RumbleFox]

I’ve gone for Taylor. I think it’s more because of how close we were at that point to actually becoming an established top side. I’ve talked about it before on here but I was at the Sunderland game when Collymore got a hattrick and we looked electric. Was with a bunch of uni friends, none of them Leicester fans, and they were all purring over how good we were. I really thought we’d cracked the top 6.

 

And then it fell apart.

 

I know it didn’t quite happen this quickly but it just seemed after that game that Collymore got injured, Heskey and O’Neill left and Taylor came in and destroyed everything. Objectively we’ve had worse teams than that one but it was what it all symbolised that makes Taylor the worst for me. O’Neill was a God and gave us all a taste of what winning things was actually like. Taylor brought us all crashing back down again. It’s the hope that kills you eh? 

Edited 1 September 2021 by RumbleFox

[Clever Fox]

In my 60 years It has to be Taylor. He spoke a good game and probably was a decent Coach. But he couldn't judge a player if he fell over one.

I waited and hoped we'd spend decent money on the Squad each summer and it never really happened. Then we game him something like 20 million to spend and he wasted it.

That was bad enough but it ultimately led to our demise as we struggled to restore our finances. 

Thankfully that's all history now as we ride the good times and long may it continue.

[Corky]

I still, 11 years on, don't understand the Sousa appointment. He'd been at QPR and Swansea and hadn't done anything special, he was a bigger name than Pearson but hardly a superstar (if they wanted a truly big name manager, why not go for Sven at that time?) and his style of play was far removed from Pearson's. 

 

Fortunately we were in an era where we got rid early if it didn't work.

[surrifox]

3 hours ago, Foxaholic ME said:

Bloomfields contract was up he wasnt  hounded out. McLintoch definately  the worst . Taylors   only full season we finished  12th  and led the table early in the season. McLintoch would be rated even worse but for being a superb player for the city. However financially Taylor the worst  as his buys were criminal  although you could say giving all your mates a job is worse

There were people outside the ground organising petitions to get JB sacked ( to my shame looking back I signed it)

 

im not sure the petition was against renewing his contract but ...

[surrifox]

PT took over a very decent financial situation from the frugal MON. 

 

IIRC MON had declined to make signings  using the Heskey money as he knew he’d be off to Celtic and didn’t think it fair to hobble the incoming manager with “his” players. PT had that all and more at his disposal and managed it terribly ( albeit he was unlucky with Matt Jones’ injury after spending £3.5 mill on him ) 

[surrifox]

3 hours ago, enmac said:

Peter Taylor was manager of 10 club teams post City. Only once he last longer than 1 season. He must have interviewed well. 

He probably had Junior Lewis at most of those too 

[Wolfox]

Why didn’t you just start a Peter Taylor was our worst ever manager thread…?

 

A statement rather than a discussion point…. As there is simply no debate to be had here….
 

I understand this defeats the idea of a discussion forum but we do need to be reminded occasionally as to how bad he actually was…

[5waller5]

10 hours ago, Lets Be having You said:

Don't you remember Frank mclintock I went to every home game and most of the away games it was absolutely awful.

Just before my time, fortunately!

[Langston]

On 31/08/2021 at 22:07, BenTheFox said:

Maybe I'm deluded but I do believe that if he managed to keep us up he would have turned it around and we would have been much better the following season. I now have the benefit of hindsight to be able to say I'm glad that it didn't happen as going down to League One was good for us in the long run. 

 

No chance we're better the season after under Holloway, for me. He did really well at Plymouth and his appointment made a lot of sense but he got a nosebleed not being an underdog. Blackpool was admittedly a very good fit for him but he's been out of his depth at every club since. He conspired to get a very bloody good Palace side up despite a 9 game winless run at the arse end of the season - mainly thanks to the work of Freedman before him who'd had them challenging the top - and the fact that nobody below could win a game in the latter half of 12/13, including us. 

 

He was a flash in the pan - an Aidy Boothroyd, an Iain Dowie, a Phil Brown. 

 

Started Harry Worley in midfield in arguably one of the most important games in the club's history. Signed two Hungarians on the basis he'd had some joy with Halmosi and Buzsaky. Ipswich away, Hull away, 10 man Watford away. Hungover at Loftus Road on New Year's Day watching us get tanned. **** me it was bleak.

 

I can't believe how easily he gets off the hook for that season just because Mandaric was a tit, the squad wasn't all that great (still good enough to stay up) and we hit the jackpot with Nige after who managed to stem the damage so his legacy wasn't as long-lasting as a Taylor.

 

Holloway is an absolute chancer. 

Edited 1 September 2021 by Langston
Spelling

[Rain King]

8 hours ago, Gamble92 said:

I thought we beat Ipswich when Izzet skied that pen. They're the only couple of seasons i get mixed up because I try and block it all out.

Drew 1-1 with Ipswich. Late goal from Sturridge.

 

Always wish we'd kept Sturridge, was a lot more dangerous than Akinbiyi and Benjamin!

[BoyJones]

Maybe the thread title should be “Worst Ever Manager in last 25 years” as clearly football didn’t exist before then. 

[foxile5]

The football under Pleat was terrible but he didn't cost us. It depends on the criteria.