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How many “successful” managers have we had? 16:33 - Nov 14 with 474 viewsJoiedevivre

There’s a bit on Sky about Manchester United: Busby and Ferguson account for 18 of United’s 20 league titles, with Mangnall (don’t know him either) being the third to have won a title. Comparatively Liverpool’s 20 titles are shared between 10 managers.

The question and headline was why has Manchester United only had 2 “successful” managers in their 148 years.

Through reading this - and knowing how much everyone loves a list - I was wondering how many successful managers people believe Saints to have had in our soon to be 141 years.
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How many “successful” managers have we had? on 18:47 - Nov 14 with 0 viewsdirk_doone

In those terms, none. We haven't won any titles.

Er Arnfield won 5 Southern League titles.
Lawrie McMenemy came as close as we've ever been in the Football League era by finishing runners-up in 1984.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
[Post edited 14 Nov 19:12]

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How many “successful” managers have we had? on 18:58 - Nov 14 with 0 viewsPatfromPoole

Adkins

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How many “successful” managers have we had? on 19:05 - Nov 14 with 0 viewsdirk_doone

How many “successful” managers have we had? on 18:58 - Nov 14 by PatfromPoole

Adkins


He didn't win any trophies at all, let alone titles.

The original post says that only managers who won titles were considered successful. McMenemy won our only major trophy, but even he didn't win any league titles.

"There’s a bit on Sky about Manchester United: Busby and Ferguson account for 18 of United’s 20 league titles, with Mangnall (don’t know him either) being the third to have won a title. Comparatively Liverpool’s 20 titles are shared between 10 managers.

The question and headline was why has Manchester United only had 2 “successful” managers in their 148 years."
[Post edited 14 Nov 19:06]

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How many “successful” managers have we had? on 19:14 - Nov 14 with 0 viewsshotters

Hard to compare considering the expectations of Saints and Man U

In my lifetime
McMenemy- undoubted success and arguably our greatest manager

Nicholl- success, big shoes to fill, we got to two major cup semi finals, he kept us up in every season and in 1989/90 season played some of the most exciting football ive seen from a Saints team

Branfoot- in todays terms he would probably be considered a success as he kept us up, but for those of us who witnessed the football played under him and his unwarranted arrogance, it was a pretty grim time so -failure

Ball- success, inherited the mess left behind by Branfoot and kept us up, then got us to 10th the next season and got the best out of MLT

Merrington- success, a hard one to call but he kept us up on very limited funds and we beat the pikeys 3-0 in the cup

Souness- failure, some great results, 6-3 at home to Man U closely followed by some terrible ones, we lost 7-1 away to Everton a couple of weeks later. I've read in a couple of places that he'd pretty much given up by about January and it was actually Terry Cooper who was calling the shots for the rest of the season

Jones- success, just about, very good first season, stayed up by the skin of our teeth in the second and he hadn't been "relieved of his duties" then he should have been sacked, anyone who saw the pathetic performance away at Newcastle (we were 3-0 down inside the first 10 minutes) could see we were going down in his 3rd season

Hoddle- success, kept us up and were in really good form when he left for Spurs the next season

Gray- failure, not much more to be said really

Strachan- success, not the most exciting football at times but I loved GS's time as Saints manager

Sturrock- failure, totally out of his depth

Wigley- failure, see above

Redknapp- failure, less said about the c**t, the better

Burley- failure, given the money he had to spend and the players at his disposal we really should have gone up in his second season

Pearson- success, daft to let him go

Poortvlet- failure, totally out of his depth and a really poor, inexperienced squad to work with

Wotte- failure, we were pretty much doomed when he took over

Pardew- success, changed the culture at the club, made some excellent signings and we won something at Wembley

Adkins- success, two promotions, enough said

Pochettino- success, did very well in his second season

Koeman- success, probably our last great manager imo

Puel- success, I didn't think so at the time as I was spoilt by the time under Koeman, but we got to a major final and finished 8th, time has been kinder to him in my eyes at least

Pellegrino- failure, totally out of his depth

Hughes- failure, we stayed up mainly due to Swansea capitulating and were awful before he got sacked

Hassenhuttl- success, great football at times, seemed to lose his way towards the end and wasn't helped with the recruitment we needed

Jones- failure, a complete mess and he's a thoroughly odious man

Selles- failure, completely out of his depth

I'll add the others later

Fail we may, sail we must

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How many “successful” managers have we had? on 20:22 - Nov 14 with 0 viewsJoiedevivre

How many “successful” managers have we had? on 19:14 - Nov 14 by shotters

Hard to compare considering the expectations of Saints and Man U

In my lifetime
McMenemy- undoubted success and arguably our greatest manager

Nicholl- success, big shoes to fill, we got to two major cup semi finals, he kept us up in every season and in 1989/90 season played some of the most exciting football ive seen from a Saints team

Branfoot- in todays terms he would probably be considered a success as he kept us up, but for those of us who witnessed the football played under him and his unwarranted arrogance, it was a pretty grim time so -failure

Ball- success, inherited the mess left behind by Branfoot and kept us up, then got us to 10th the next season and got the best out of MLT

Merrington- success, a hard one to call but he kept us up on very limited funds and we beat the pikeys 3-0 in the cup

Souness- failure, some great results, 6-3 at home to Man U closely followed by some terrible ones, we lost 7-1 away to Everton a couple of weeks later. I've read in a couple of places that he'd pretty much given up by about January and it was actually Terry Cooper who was calling the shots for the rest of the season

Jones- success, just about, very good first season, stayed up by the skin of our teeth in the second and he hadn't been "relieved of his duties" then he should have been sacked, anyone who saw the pathetic performance away at Newcastle (we were 3-0 down inside the first 10 minutes) could see we were going down in his 3rd season

Hoddle- success, kept us up and were in really good form when he left for Spurs the next season

Gray- failure, not much more to be said really

Strachan- success, not the most exciting football at times but I loved GS's time as Saints manager

Sturrock- failure, totally out of his depth

Wigley- failure, see above

Redknapp- failure, less said about the c**t, the better

Burley- failure, given the money he had to spend and the players at his disposal we really should have gone up in his second season

Pearson- success, daft to let him go

Poortvlet- failure, totally out of his depth and a really poor, inexperienced squad to work with

Wotte- failure, we were pretty much doomed when he took over

Pardew- success, changed the culture at the club, made some excellent signings and we won something at Wembley

Adkins- success, two promotions, enough said

Pochettino- success, did very well in his second season

Koeman- success, probably our last great manager imo

Puel- success, I didn't think so at the time as I was spoilt by the time under Koeman, but we got to a major final and finished 8th, time has been kinder to him in my eyes at least

Pellegrino- failure, totally out of his depth

Hughes- failure, we stayed up mainly due to Swansea capitulating and were awful before he got sacked

Hassenhuttl- success, great football at times, seemed to lose his way towards the end and wasn't helped with the recruitment we needed

Jones- failure, a complete mess and he's a thoroughly odious man

Selles- failure, completely out of his depth

I'll add the others later


A 51.85% success rate there. I guess for questions like this “success” should be defined. Many of these are due to our standing and having stayed in the top division for so long: what constitutes the joy of staying up under Hughes, say, having finished 8th with a cup final and beating Inter only the season before?

If the barriers are made stricter, we have considerably fewer. Probably the two Dirk mentioned. Add Bates.

But that would leave off a good number who brought our club joy.
[Post edited 14 Nov 20:24]
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How many “successful” managers have we had? on 21:34 - Nov 14 with 0 viewsSouthamptonfan

How many “successful” managers have we had? on 20:22 - Nov 14 by Joiedevivre

A 51.85% success rate there. I guess for questions like this “success” should be defined. Many of these are due to our standing and having stayed in the top division for so long: what constitutes the joy of staying up under Hughes, say, having finished 8th with a cup final and beating Inter only the season before?

If the barriers are made stricter, we have considerably fewer. Probably the two Dirk mentioned. Add Bates.

But that would leave off a good number who brought our club joy.
[Post edited 14 Nov 20:24]


Yeah, our idea of "success" is completely different to Man U. We tend to to think about managers we like, who had a good relationship with the fans I think.

Looking back, Puel got a hard time from the fans, including from myself at times, wrongly perhaps in hindsight. He came across as uncharasmatic, defensive manager, boring in comparison to the electric attacking football we had under a charasmatic Koeman, the manager we had immediately before. But Puel was "successful".

Apart from Mcmenemy, Koeman goes down as my favourite manager, possibly because we had some of the greatest players in the world at that time. Ehat a tike that was. However, arguably Puel was more successful as we got to a major final and finished 8th. Beating Liverpool in the cup semi up there, has to go down as one of my all time great moments. Shane Long, who wasn't particularly "successful" gave us that incredible moment and I will think highly of him for that. I do wonder what might have been had Puel stayed.

Strachan is also a particular favourite of mine as is Adkins, both "successful". I also liked Alan Ball, a great man and likewise Merrington who kept us up.on the final day, but that was success for us.

Back to the current day, I really like Tonda a lot, and hope.he is "successful" and gets us up.
[Post edited 14 Nov 21:37]

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How many “successful” managers have we had? on 00:34 - Nov 15 with 0 viewsshotters

How many “successful” managers have we had? on 20:22 - Nov 14 by Joiedevivre

A 51.85% success rate there. I guess for questions like this “success” should be defined. Many of these are due to our standing and having stayed in the top division for so long: what constitutes the joy of staying up under Hughes, say, having finished 8th with a cup final and beating Inter only the season before?

If the barriers are made stricter, we have considerably fewer. Probably the two Dirk mentioned. Add Bates.

But that would leave off a good number who brought our club joy.
[Post edited 14 Nov 20:24]


Back from the pub now
To continue my War And Peaceesq post about SFC managers in my lifetime

Martin- failure, despite getting promotion through the play offs, with the squad he had we finished 4th in a 2 horse race and any credit he earned getting us promoted was wiped out with the utter embarrassment in the premier league

Juric- failure, but we were already doomed

Still- failure, a personality vacuum and not what was required, should have been sacked before was, probably after the pathetic performance at home to Portsmouth and certainly after the farce away at Blackburn

In summary, and that's what I probably should have done at the start, sorry to anyone who's waded through my previous post as that's 10 minutes of your life you'll never get back

Bates, McMenemy, Adkins and Koeman would be managers I would say have had genuine success, some of the others whilst looking back, keeping us up would now be considered a success, at the time was seen as failure.
Nowadays any decent manager is gone before they can achieve anything of real note, that's just they way football is now

Fail we may, sail we must

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