Who's been our worst manager...

[King Kev]

For me personally...Howard Kendall

He won us more points per game than any other post war manager has done (apart from Mancini of course).

[carl_feedthegoat]

ALAN BALL.

A FUCKING SQUEAKY VOICED FUCKWIT THAT FUCKED US ROYALY.

P.S DONT CARE IF HE,S DEAD.

[JB]

For me personally...Howard Kendall

He won us more points per game than any other post war manager has done (apart from Mancini of course).

Thanks KK, beat me to it. Kendall turned our season around in 89/90, bought well, and got the team defending. IMHO we probably would have won something had he stayed around.

Worst manager: Frank Clark closely followed by Ball.

The Royle and Keegan years, for me, were the most enjoyable following City up until the takeover. The feeling I had was that it was inevitable that we were going to make it back to the top somehow. Dickov's goal at Wembley, Andy Morrison, Super Kev, The Goat, back-to-back promotion at Blackburn - the strength and character in adversity that the whole club showed under Bernstein can't be topped, even by the position we now find ourselves in, because nothing we face now is as scary as the oblivion we faced in 98.

[Goataldo]

Can't believe Monkey's Heed got a mention, didnt we finish fifth two seasons running under him?

Gotta be between Ballsup and Coppout.

[Im_Spartacus]

I am not afraid to admit that I stopped going to games in the 2nd half of the season towards the end of the pearce reign, I was always able to find something else to do on a match day, and nearly got into the habit of not going. So as the one which nearly drove me to quit for good I probably have to say he just edges Ball for me, even though as a person I have 100% respect for him.

[Ted Hughes]

Frank Clark by a country mile. Other useless cretins before & after him were on a shoestring & had to sell but he was actually given a decent transfer budget & bought a selection of players with no pace & very little ability to add to a bunch of players mostly with no pace. There was a plethora of proven strikers at that level available at reasonable price so he blew his wad on Lee fucking Bradbury. He then cleansed the team of any semblance of attacking width we had left & fucked off.

[KinkyKinkladze]

I'm surprised Frank Clark's getting a mention. He was pretty shite aye, but considering the bollocks he had to take over (Ball, Coppell, Hartford, Neill), I thought he did alright, especially with that unexpected push for a play-off place towards the end of his first year's stint. Granted, it went downhill afterwards, but he at least provided us with some hope and a short-term change in fortune considering the clusterfuck we'd experienced before him.

That said, Ball or Phil Neill for me. Fucking clowns, the pair of them. Coppell doesn't count simply due to the circumstances. And I'd love it if the rumour about him was true (sacked due to being caught in the showers, fiddling with Alfons Groenendijk).

[Ted Hughes]

I'm surprised Frank Clark's getting a mention. He was pretty shite aye, but considering the bollocks he had to take over (Ball, Coppell, Hartford, Neill), I thought he did alright, especially with that unexpected push for a play-off place towards the end of his first year's stint. Granted, it went downhill afterwards, but he at least provided us with some hope and a short-term change in fortune considering the clusterfuck we'd experienced before him.

That said, Ball or Phil Neill for me. Fucking clowns, the pair of them. Coppell doesn't count simply due to the circumstances. And I'd love it if the rumour about him was true (sacked due to being caught in the showers, fiddling with Alfons Groenendijk).

The other blokes had to sell players or were taking over in the middle of a shitstorm is why I'm mentioning Clark. He was in a much better position imo because he had a fresh start rather than having to do a patch up job & a very decent transfer budget for that league. If a decent manager with an eye for a player had taken over at that point we'd've pushed on straight away rather than the disaster that followed. Also I used to watch them train in those days & he was barely even there half the time.

[Colin the King]

It's Ball for me without question. We had some mint players that season and should have been mid-table at worst. I'm sure incompetence upstairs won't have helped but that doesn't detract from the fact that we were comical under him.

As for Pearce, the football wasn't great by any means but I'm surprised that people see him as the worst City manager ever. I was at every game bar one or two while he was in charge and never once considered leaving before the final whistle, I read the other week about someone leaving a game at half time- can't agree with that at all I'm afraid. When I look back to Pearce at City I think we had a really rubbish squad (admittedly his signings weren't the best overall- Mpenza and Hart were astute though) and that to keep us in the Premier League was a job well done- sorry but I'd rather hoof it to Samaras and finish 17th than try to play like Brazil and end up in the Championship (see- West Brom).

[s1ty m]

wow, really not sure how this can be a debate.

alan ball walks away with it. it genuinely is absolutely no contest.

[john@staustell]

I dont know how anyone can dispute Alan Ball, football genius, in this contest.

I thought it was amazing how, after 9 months of playing together as a team, some of them longer, they always looked like they'd just met in a pub the night before. That takes some doing. Genius!

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

wow, really not sure how this can be a debate.

alan ball walks away with it. it genuinely is absolutely no contest.

That's pretty much it. Watching us hold that ball near corner flag for draw when we actually needed a win on final day is THE most painfull City memory I have and there's few to choose from. The whole season was one giant fuck up. To this day I can't understand how we went down with that squad and probably never will. I'm not crying man but I was weeping like a baby after that game as I KNEW we weren't coming back in a while.

Pearce was shit booring manager but no one can compare to sheer managerial inability Ball showed.

[Scatman]

Can Coppell really be counted? He was here, what, 5 days or something. Why did he leave so quick?

[john@staustell]

wow, really not sure how this can be a debate.

alan ball walks away with it. it genuinely is absolutely no contest.

That's pretty much it. Watching us hold that ball near corner flag for draw when we actually needed a win on final day is THE most painfull City memory I have and there's few to choose from. The whole season was one giant fuck up. To this day I can't understand how we went down with that squad and probably never will. I'm not crying man but I was weeping like a baby after that game as I KNEW we weren't coming back in a while.

Pearce was shit booring manager but no one can compare to sheer managerial inability Ball showed.

Unfirtunately me and my eldest had season tickets at the time and used to drive 320 miles up and 320 back, all weathers for that shite.

That moment has a rival -
Derby game at Maine Road, 2-2
Summerbee ambling along with the ball into midfield,
Clough comes near to collect,
Summerbee runs into him,
Ball breaks loose to Giggs, moving forward with those 2 idiots now out of position,
Curle closes Giggs down
Points mockingly at the outside top corner, saying 'go on, try it'
Giggs wellies it right into the top corner, wins the match
Hearts broken again

Remember?

[AlpsMaster]

It's depressing just thinking about it as there are so many candidates, most of them from the era just before Joe Royle.

It's got to be Alan Ball though.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

wow, really not sure how this can be a debate.

alan ball walks away with it. it genuinely is absolutely no contest.

That's pretty much it. Watching us hold that ball near corner flag for draw when we actually needed a win on final day is THE most painfull City memory I have and there's few to choose from. The whole season was one giant fuck up. To this day I can't understand how we went down with that squad and probably never will. I'm not crying man but I was weeping like a baby after that game as I KNEW we weren't coming back in a while.

Pearce was shit booring manager but no one can compare to sheer managerial inability Ball showed.

Unfirtunately me and my eldest had season tickets at the time and used to drive 320 miles up and 320 back, all weathers for that shite.

That moment has a rival -
Derby game at Maine Road, 2-2
Summerbee ambling along with the ball into midfield,
Clough comes near to collect,
Summerbee runs into him,
Ball breaks loose to Giggs, moving forward with those 2 idiots now out of position,
Curle closes Giggs down
Points mockingly at the outside top corner, saying 'go on, try it'
Giggs wellies it right into the top corner, wins the match
Hearts broken again

Remember?

Do I remember? I was going to through some old video tapes last summer and found that game and ended up watching it! Lads were showing right attitude in that game and all but we were all over the park with lack of ANY game plan or tactics. In fact, I would go as far as question whether Ball actually had any tactics.

[ross.mcfc]

Its not even up for debate. Alan Ball inherited a decent side. Rosler, Quinn, Curle, Phelan, Coton, Flitcroft, Beagrie and Walsh.

Our chairmen then buys him the best player we had in that decade and we did not win a game until the 10th game if I remember correctly.

We were an utter shambles and his incompetence led to our embaressing slide down the leagues.

Whilst Coppell and Clarke failed. They inherited a sinking ship that was caused by Ball.

[Socrates]

There's so very many to choose from... I can understand why people say Pearce because of the quality of football but he had limited resources at least he was a leader even if his tactics were shit! You could probably construct a formula to calculate how good a manager was by dividing net player spending by points won but that would leave Hughes as undoubtedly the worst and Pearce the best so that would be a ridiculous result. Ball is obvious, he did have to cope with having players sold from under him though - the loss of Flitcroft in particular - and we are maybe a little unkind to him. On balance I have to go for Coppell because he left us in a right mess, we were managerless for ages and struggled to get someone in. He also resembles an orc, which is reason enough for anyone.

[Scatman]

wow, really not sure how this can be a debate.

alan ball walks away with it. it genuinely is absolutely no contest.

That's pretty much it. Watching us hold that ball near corner flag for draw when we actually needed a win on final day is THE most painfull City memory I have and there's few to choose from. The whole season was one giant fuck up. To this day I can't understand how we went down with that squad and probably never will. I'm not crying man but I was weeping like a baby after that game as I KNEW we weren't coming back in a while.

Pearce was shit booring manager but no one can compare to sheer managerial inability Ball showed.

Unfirtunately me and my eldest had season tickets at the time and used to drive 320 miles up and 320 back, all weathers for that shite.

That moment has a rival -
Derby game at Maine Road, 2-2
Summerbee ambling along with the ball into midfield,
Clough comes near to collect,
Summerbee runs into him,
Ball breaks loose to Giggs, moving forward with those 2 idiots now out of position,
Curle closes Giggs down
Points mockingly at the outside top corner, saying 'go on, try it'
Giggs wellies it right into the top corner, wins the match
Hearts broken again

Remember?

Is that the one where the ground was just silent when it went in, not even the united fans knowing it was a goal for a couple of seconds until giggs ran off celebrating?

[Ted Hughes]

wow, really not sure how this can be a debate.

alan ball walks away with it. it genuinely is absolutely no contest.

That's pretty much it. Watching us hold that ball near corner flag for draw when we actually needed a win on final day is THE most painfull City memory I have and there's few to choose from. The whole season was one giant fuck up. To this day I can't understand how we went down with that squad and probably never will. I'm not crying man but I was weeping like a baby after that game as I KNEW we weren't coming back in a while.

Pearce was shit booring manager but no one can compare to sheer managerial inability Ball showed.

Unfirtunately me and my eldest had season tickets at the time and used to drive 320 miles up and 320 back, all weathers for that shite.

That moment has a rival -
Derby game at Maine Road, 2-2
Summerbee ambling along with the ball into midfield,
Clough comes near to collect,
Summerbee runs into him,
Ball breaks loose to Giggs, moving forward with those 2 idiots now out of position,
Curle closes Giggs down
Points mockingly at the outside top corner, saying 'go on, try it'
Giggs wellies it right into the top corner, wins the match
Hearts broken again

Remember?

Do I remember? I was going to through some old video tapes last summer and found that game and ended up watching it! Lads were showing right attitude in that game and all but we were all over the park with lack of ANY game plan or tactics. In fact, I would go as far as question whether Ball actually had any tactics.

The players didn't like Ball so I'm not sure they responded to his tactics. They played for themselves, not for him. His training sessions were like being at a funeral, no one spoke to each other. You could tell no one liked him & he'd be chirping full of artificial enthusiasm like a shit PE teacher whilst the players went through the motions & ignored him. Surprisingly, contrary to his disciplinarian image, they got away with murder; strolling off the training pitch to take calls, talk to agents etc. Bet Liverpool players are like that now with Benitez.

Still recon Clark was worse though.