Was Pep our worst ever manager?

[Lundinsponytail]

I’d largely forgotten about Patto and the ‘Honest Lads’ era. So glad this thread could bring it all screaming back to me

Harsh to include Waddock on the list though. He was poor - but he had to work with a completely spent group of players, was only brought in as a firefighter because Lewis’ position had become untenable, and was pretty much left to keep the lights on as the mostly absent chairman formulated his escape plan...

Whereas Pep......

Was told that he was coming in to boss a great project, only to find within a few weeks that the next owner was already in the building. And the chairman formulating his exit plan was staying during the week with his inherited deputy.

 

[Lundinsponytail]

You must be joking - we have had a number of bosses worse than Pep.

For starters David - ‘It’s not my team’ Kemp, Brian Talbot - sure he was ‘honest’ but I’ve seen more brains in a tin of paint - and Mark Wright - who seemingly presided during a reign of terror.

Some supporters have no perception of our history and have attention spans of gnats. ?

Got to agree with Tim (for once) here. And I would add that it would have been tricky for anyone to take over a side that had just lost - or was about to lose - its most potent threat (Johnson) and midfield kingpin and dressing room leader (Lundstram) for fees that were then not reinvested, apparently because the same inflated market that brought in 3 million plus for those guys also applied to cheaper players. Not many clubs at our level could see 4 million come in and zero reinvested without subsequently feeling the pinch on the pitch.
I strongly suspect that Pep got the job by convincing Darryl that he was the man who could assemble a top 7 side all from free transfers. Thus enabling DE to have cake and eat it.
But....... But.. ..... from the moment I saw the Blackpool away game I knew that we had an incompetent manager on our hands. And, when I heard his post match interview that day, I realised that he was also dangerously delusional. From that game on, we have averaged 1 point per game.
That this happened at around the time when his ideas and strategy should have been bedding down (in a positive way) just shows how poor he was. To coax relegation form from a top 10 budget, notwithstanding the issues with Eales, must place him somewhere in the pantheon of OUFC crapness. But, at the same time, leaving with the club in mid-table is not in the same category as what Patto managed, Talbot or Rix. League 1 (unlike the Conference and League 2) is always going to be competitive for a club of our type, so you would need to do a Kemp to compare to the aforementioned disaster areas.

 

[iambungle]

Shotton?

Proved that bullies finally get sussed out. Great player, poor manager.

 

[windmill]

GVK. Mehmeti, Pekalski, Xemi, Williamson, Obika. I rest my case.

 

[bigdel]

Not sure he was the worse, but his buys were dire . Can someone explain Xemi , Barcelona B must be s**t.

 

[battman]

Not sure he was the worse, but his buys were dire . Can someone explain Xemi , Barcelona B must be s**t.

I think everyone gets enamoured by the 'Barcelona' tag. Last season Barca B were playing in the Segunda Division B, effectively the Spanish third division. And Spain isn't known for the strength of its lower leagues.

 

[unification]

I think everyone gets enamoured by the 'Barcelona' tag. Last season Barca B were playing in the Segunda Division B, effectively the Spanish third division. And Spain isn't known for the strength of its lower leagues.

Pretty much the sum of it.

It’s also a question of culture too. On the continent, play is built around technical expertise but in England you need to marry that with physical robustness. Quite simply, Xemi lacked the athletic side required to cope with English football entirely.

 

[headingtonoldboy]

GVK. Mehmeti, Pekalski, Xemi, Williamson, Obika. I rest my case.

I must take issue with you regarding Pekalski. He hasn't played a first team game yet so how can anyone pass judgement either way.

 

[FalmouthOx]

He was dire. The first few games we played largely were Mapps team playing in Mapps formation and we were still high on momentum. Any chimp could have managed at that time. Losing Lunny and Marv was huge though and we then got hit by injuries so with very little time he brought in his own men who have largely been a disaster. The wage bill must be horrendous. He isnt a motivator, repeated the same mantra every week, made ridiculous selections (dropped Payne for example). He lost the fans and the players and left us in a mess. Probably much more to it and maye didnt get the support and budget promised but we went from exciting to dire within his reign and the season is a write off /survival battle when we were looking at play offs early doors. I firmly believe we should have appointed earlier though. We have a lot of good players who may need convincing to stay. KR will have to sell his dream and its difficult for them to sign another 2-3 yr contract if next year is a disaster. Think Robinson will have to completely rebuild and dont see Nelson, Rothwell or Lego here next year. Pep crashed the bus. Eales and Tiger waited before calling the ambulance. Birmingham will run ok for a few games and then bottom out and get hammered every week. Some people just cannot manage. Wonder if he signs his crocks for them when we release them?

 

[windmill]

I must take issue with you regarding Pekalski. He hasn't played a first team game yet so how can anyone pass judgement either way.

OK. Delete Pekalski, under sufferance, add Tiendalli. Hows that?

 

[Witneyoldfella]

That’s a fair swap I’d say...

 

[Shaun Rice]

Just to add to the list of terrible players brought in by Pep IBR was signed by Pep.

 

[yellowbow]

To be fair I think Obika was identified as a target while Mapp was still manager

 

[Millman]

Despite the fact the clearly DE was hell bent on selling the club while taking back as much money he has invested as he could, I still think we had a really decent budget this year. The hint for this is the fact that we wouldn't activate Ricardinho's contract extension on current terms. Also although we lost Lundstram and Johnson (we had a selling policy do it was always likely one would go) we still had the basis of a decent team left over from MApp. Ok so the money was not reinvested but there obviously was better replacements out there to what we ended up with.

The sad fact was Pep was an awful manager and should be right up there with (Kemp, Talbot, Rix, Wright, etc). He may have faced challenges but he did inherrit the core of a decent team, had a good budget, and did not have to work for Kassam. The sad fact is he blew the budget on awful players, then managed to demotivate the existing talent at the club. He left behind an utter mess.

 

[yellowbow]

Despite the fact the clearly DE was hell bent on selling the club while taking back as much money he has invested as he could, I still think we had a really decent budget this year. The hint for this is the fact that we wouldn't activate Ricardinho's contract extension on current terms. Also although we lost Lundstram and Johnson (we had a selling policy do it was always likely one would go) we still had the basis of a decent team left over from MApp. Ok so the money was not reinvested but there obviously was better replacements out there to what we ended up with.

The sad fact was Pep was an awful manager and should be right up there with (Kemp, Talbot, Rix, Wright, etc). He may have faced challenges but he did inherrit the core of a decent team, had a good budget, and did not have to work for Kassam. The sad fact is he blew the budget on awful players, then managed to demotivate the existing talent at the club. He left behind an utter mess.

It was a strange chapter in our history from the moment he was officially unveiled, several days after his appointment, without a single board member present. Fortunately it’s all behind us now.

 

[Leysboy]

f*****g useless manager. Well out of his depth, and along with Rix and Kemp, Talbot all As bad as eachother.

 

[Mellowyellow]

Kemp and Patterson were the worst by a country mile!

 

[mooro]

This may be sacrilege, but I think the second Jim Smith era was pretty shocking - brought in a bunch of nobodies, put them straight into the team, destroyed any togetherness the squad had (or were building under Patto's brief temp spell), and generated the 2nd lowest points tally of any team from the bottom half between the time he took over and the end of the season, and overseeing our drop from I think it was 14th or 16th when he took over, to 23rd. Had that been anyone else then.....

 

[Millman]

This may be sacrilege, but I think the second Jim Smith era was pretty shocking - brought in a bunch of nobodies, put them straight into the team, destroyed any togetherness the squad had (or were building under Patto's brief temp spell), and generated the 2nd lowest points tally of any team from the bottom half between the time he took over and the end of the season, and overseeing our drop from I think it was 14th or 16th when he took over, to 23rd. Had that been anyone else then.....

That's interesting when Jim took over we had seen better results under Patterson whether that would have lasted who knows (Patterson himself proved a failure later on). The fact is that the whole club was a complete shambles by this point. Kassam had all but wrecked us, then that season cashed in on some good players (Davies) and appointed Talbot who was clueless and was unable to sign a decent striker (Sabin anyone). The squad before and after the takeover was mostly poor or worse. Jim tried to change things around too fast and i think underestimated just how pants we were, a more steady approach like Patterson employed was probably better. The only good thing Jim did at this time was sign Ntoya who showed us what a real striker looked like.

Yes we were relegated but we were also a basket case waiting to happen. It is one thing for a manager to take over a wreck and fail to quickly fix it, but something much worse for a manager to take something half decent a totally wreck it (Rix or indeed Pep). Overall I think Jim's second spell wasn't great and certainly got off to a poor start but not the worst we have had.

 

[tatabanya]

Smith took over, failed to keep us up, and then set what I think was a conference record for matches unbeaten before the wheels truly fell-off and we dropped off top spot and lost to Exeter in the play-offs.

Given the unbeaten run, and that we finished in the top 4 the next season, I don't think that stint warrants mention in this conversation.