Worst Ever Managers

[Michael Starr 519]

For me: Gunn, Hamilton and Megson.

Hughton managed us at the highest level so it's a tad unfair to put him in there with the others.

[BroadstairsR 2,168]

46 minutes ago, Michael Starr said:

For me: Gunn, Hamilton and Megson.

Hughton managed us at the highest level so it's a tad unfair to put him in there with the others.

He got Brighton promoted from the Championship, playing some decent football. I remember them beating ITFC at the Loo with some excellent attacking play, having followed the game on screen (probably stream.) They were good. He then kept them in the PL for two seasons, although being sacked at the end of the second. Once voted PL manager of the month during this time.

He probably laid the foundations for the Seagull's current success.

He was a keen tactician and brought out a series of videos which were well regarded. 

He was a proper manager and respected as an individual, who I never minded and should not be included amongst the "worst." However, I don't recall having to sit through any of those notoriously dull displays at CR.

Past his peak when he left Brighton.

Edited February 24 by BroadstairsR

[Bradwell canary 109]

Hamilton for me every time.

BUT in Delias words “ he was such a nice man”

Did any other owners ever say that about successful managers?

Recall someone on the board once said Paul Lambert was the most demanding man he had ever met………I rest my case.

 

 

[TheBaldOne66 682]

Has to be Roeder, Gunn and Hamilton. Didn’t think much of Rioch ether tbh. 

[Highland Canary 76]

Gunn and then Roeder. In Roeder’s case it was not easy to warm to him so I may be being harsh. Notwithstanding the debacle at Luton away last season - when we weren’t happy - we were still in and around the playoffs under Smith. Like Hughton he’s nowhere near as poor as other names on this thread. Smith’s main problem was that he wasn’t Farke.
Indeed, I’m sure those that were calling for Farke’s head have had plenty of time to reflect on that opinion. Neither Megson nor Grant were great but others have been worse. Not all all convinced by Wagner but we’ve had worse than him. We’ll finish 8th. All those parachute payments wasted.

[Capt. Pants 4,234]

Roeder, Hamilton and Smith. 

We may have had worse managers but they are the 3 I've disliked the most.

[Barbe bleu 826]

46 minutes ago, Highland Canary said:

Gunn and then Roeder.

I dont really understand the hate on Gunn. Sure, the club hit its modern nadir on his watch but after the absolute calamities of Roeder and Grant even Lazarus would have lacked the experience necessary to ressurect that squad.

If one sign of a good manager is handing over something in a better state than the one you inherited I'd say that mark was hit, even though though we were a division and millions of pounds lower than before.

[Ken Hairy 3,772]

Dean Smith, Bryan Gunn, Brian Hamilton. 

Hughton played the most depressing football (level with Smith), but he did keep us up so I can't include him.

Roeder as much as I couldn't stand him probably came here at the worst time ever to be a Norwich manager.

Other notable comments for Megson and Grant, the latter redeeming himself for have the dignity to admit he wasn't up to it.

[alex_ncfc 662]

Gunn by a mile.

It was actually embarrassing seeing him on the touchline as our manager. Who could take us seriously? He was never, ever a manager. 

Had 4 months to save us but got us relegated in embarrassing fashion without even putting up a fight and to the third tier, started the next season by getting hammered 7-1 at home and then had the cheek to say, after we won the title, that we'd have won the league had he stayed. Funny how he never tried managing anywhere else...

When you think about it, Gunn, Adams, Grant - we've had some shocking managerial appointments made out of pure sentiment.

Edited February 24 by alex_ncfc

[essex canary 496]

Hamilton by a country mile.

[Corbs1 89]

Smith, Megson, Roader, Gunn, 

[A K Narey 84]

Roeder, Hamilton and Dean Smith for me.

Chris Hughton us not in the bottom 5.

 

[Corbs1 89]

Think Adams had the team playing ok, short tenure so hard to judge, if Snodgrass had taken that chance at the Bridge in the dying moments…. Like Russell Martin a proper football man, nothing to do with sentiment 

[Robornio 107]

Roeder was horrible. Person, manager and fit. If anything exemplified Doomcaster as a Chief Exec, it was this appointment.

Hughton was a vacuum. He sucked any joy out the game and you feared going behind in any away game… as it tended to end up with us 3, 4 or 5+ down. A total waste of a talented team and way of playing, which he managed to inevitably destroy and get us relegated.

The non-managers… Grant, Hamilton, Adams, Gunn. None of them were cut out for management and were bizarre decisions by the owners (to add to the list).

Smith. Although half-decent at Villa, it was a panic appointment by a desperate Sporting Director. Somehow he was our “number 1 target” even before he was sacked. The lie was almost as bad as the fit with our club. Dire.

[NewNestCarrow 191]

9 hours ago, Yobocop said:

And yet we weren’t in the relegation zone when he was sacked 

So what?  He had been in charge for 33 games (87% of the season) and achieved less than a point per game.

And in his last two games City lost to sides below us in the table, allowing both of them to leapfrog us. 

It was 'his' relegation, without a doubt.

 

 

[NewNestCarrow 191]

And the correct answer is Megson, post-O'Neill.

Took a promotion-heading side [in second place, 1.6ppg]  and turned them to strugglers [1ppg in his 24 Lge matches].

 

[Yobocop 1,099]

1 hour ago, NewNestCarrow said:

So what?  He had been in charge for 33 games (87% of the season) and achieved less than a point per game.

And in his last two games City lost to sides below us in the table, allowing both of them to leapfrog us. 

It was 'his' relegation, without a doubt.

 

 

I refuse to labour this point so you’re going to have to get it on the first go 

no one had a crystal ball as far as I’m aware, hughton could’ve kept us up or he may have take us down. Fact was he was sacked before that happened therefore he didn’t relegate us 

not sure if I can make it any clearer than that 

[Yobocop 1,099]

11 hours ago, non-scoring strikers said:

17th with Liverpool, Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal and Fulham left to play.

I know it’s a straw man argument at this point but the performances and results preceding this suggested that we would’ve still been relegated had we stuck with him.

See above 

[Yobocop 1,099]

11 hours ago, chicken said:

I think for me... it was his wholesale destruction of our striking department... Holt, Martin, Morrison out... Elmander, Wolfy and Hooper in.

Holt was massively better than Elmander and Martin was younger and better than Hooper. 

At the time there wasn’t much difference between Holt or Elmander (Elmander regular for Sweden, how many caps did Holt win?) 

No doubt Holt was good for us but he was starting to wane, Martin had (has?) an attitude problem, Hooper was much the better player 

all about opinions hey? 

[alex_ncfc 662]

3 hours ago, Corbs1 said:

Think Adams had the team playing ok, short tenure so hard to judge, if Snodgrass had taken that chance at the Bridge in the dying moments…. Like Russell Martin a proper football man, nothing to do with sentiment 

It was totally a sentimental decision, we apparently "scoured Europe" for new managers and the best one just happened to be the guy who played for us and was the commentator on the radio?

[NewNestCarrow 191]

36 minutes ago, Yobocop said:

I refuse to labour this point so you’re going to have to get it on the first go 

no one had a crystal ball as far as I’m aware, hughton could’ve kept us up or he may have take us down. Fact was he was sacked before that happened therefore he didn’t relegate us 

not sure if I can make it any clearer than that 

Well, if you say so....😕

[Yobocop 1,099]

9 minutes ago, NewNestCarrow said:

Well, if you say so....😕

Not saying I disagree with you by the way just we will never find out 

[chicken 2,625]

42 minutes ago, Yobocop said:

At the time there wasn’t much difference between Holt or Elmander (Elmander regular for Sweden, how many caps did Holt win?) 

No doubt Holt was good for us but he was starting to wane, Martin had (has?) an attitude problem, Hooper was much the better player 

all about opinions hey? 

It is about opinions... however, Grabban was better than Hooper and cost £3m. Martin managed to score more in a season in the championship than Hooper ever did. Hooper's main success was in Scotland, for Celtic. Which again, underlines the gulf. At his best, Hopper was a decent Championship striker... and we barely saw that when he was playing for us.

Elmander was never as good as Holt, yes, Holt was waning, but Elmander cost use more money... if they were equally as good, why bring in a player for a single season, who was having to adapt to a new team, who's scoring record wasn't exactly great? For Morison I can sort of understand, but for Holt when he had been our top scorer and only recently been the 2nd highest scoring Englishman in the top tier... daft.

[The Bunny 309]

Grant, Roeder and Gunn. 

Anyone who thinks Smith has either lost their memory or hasn't been a Norwich fan for long. He wasn't even our worst Premier League manager...

[chicken 2,625]

7 hours ago, Robornio said:

Roeder was horrible. Person, manager and fit. If anything exemplified Doomcaster as a Chief Exec, it was this appointment.

Hughton was a vacuum. He sucked any joy out the game and you feared going behind in any away game… as it tended to end up with us 3, 4 or 5+ down. A total waste of a talented team and way of playing, which he managed to inevitably destroy and get us relegated.

The non-managers… Grant, Hamilton, Adams, Gunn. None of them were cut out for management and were bizarre decisions by the owners (to add to the list).

Smith. Although half-decent at Villa, it was a panic appointment by a desperate Sporting Director. Somehow he was our “number 1 target” even before he was sacked. The lie was almost as bad as the fit with our club. Dire.

You say Hamilton was never management material but we were his 6th, and albeit last managerial role.

I want to say it was a time when perhaps coaching and managing had started to change. As I remember it, the plan was actually to have him eventually step up to the role of sporting director once Worthington had been his understudy for a bit. However, his signings, bar Steen Nedergaard, were all a bit underwhelming to say the least and I think that knocked that idea on the head. Step forward Worthington and he quickly built a well drilled, defensively mean side that got to the play-off finals. 

[taipei_canary 12]

Roeder by a country mile, hated the way he treated the fans, the comment about 'Must have missed your tenure as England manager' was a step too far, then bashing Neil Adams too --  no repect for him at all.

Sad to say Gunny - legend of a player, I was okay with him taking over untli the end of the season because I thought we were going down anyway and it would give the club extra time to source a manager. They appointed him and I know he took it in the belief he could do well but he was not capable. Only good thing out of this was bringing in Agent Lambert.

For #3 I would go for Megson.

[Creedence Clearwater Couto 1,273]

22 hours ago, chicken said:

Not sure how Worthington can be in any top three... or even five...!!

In my lifetime...

Roeder, Grant, Hamilton.

If you want another two for a five, Hughton and then probably Alex Neil... 

Alex Neil in a top 5 - No chance! Fantastic job to turnaround a team of de-motivated underachievers resulting in a Wembley win and knocking out the binners in the process! 

[Creedence Clearwater Couto 1,273]

Roeder probably gets it. But, didn’t he take us on a really good 15 game unbeaten run the season before relegation? A terrible manager doesn’t do that.. but just a really obnoxious person. A bit like an ex sporting director…

 

[Well b back 3,208]

On 24/02/2024 at 08:26, The Real Buh said:

Dean Smith was without a single redeeming feature as a manager and some paraded him around like some sort of messiah it was a very bizarre time for the club.

It should be a reminder to some to assess situations properly without being emotionally compromised, I suspect it won’t be though.

Indeed it should be a reminder, with hindsight your campaign against Farke, brought in Smith.

[Well b back 3,208]

You can use whatever criteria you like, but who are your personal worst three managers in the club's history. Mine FWIW:

 

Using the criteria of the most manager out threads, it’s Farke by a country mile