What are your feelings of gordan strachans time as manager here (1 Viewer)

COVKIDSNEVERQUIT · Oct 22, 2025

Cally Fedora said:
He put a good team together but by the same yardstick had far more cash given to him than anyone who had gone before. He got it badly wrong switching Dublin to CH.

That's not how I remember it, Dublin couldn't score in a brothel before he played at Center half and then when he did go back and play at Center half he couldn't stop scoring and a brothel.

Legia Sky Blue · Oct 22, 2025

Strachan did a decent job mostly, but his last year with us was a disaster when he made a lot of poor decisions. He was also very dismissive of criticism from fans, having the attitude that your opinion wasn't worthy unless you'd played the game. Turning on your own fans was a dumb thing to do, even if some of those fans didn't know their arse from their elbow, and it obviously didn't help keep fans onside when things started to go pear shaped.

ThievingScally · Oct 23, 2025

Strachan took us from an established Premier League club to our first relegation, 19th in the 2nd tier and £60million in debt.

Yes - We had some brilliant times but we paid a heavy price. Very stubborn during the relegation season and in Championship. Some really odd signings (Bellamy, Lee Hughes, Keith O'Niell) and ultimately over-stayed his welcome.

Doesnt seem like a bad bloke - but my guess is that he has a long list of excuses why none of it was his fault.

TSx

rob9872 · Oct 23, 2025

ThievingScally said:
Strachan took us from an established Premier League club to our first relegation, 19th in the 2nd tier and £60million in debt.

Yes - We had some brilliant times but we paid a heavy price. Very stubborn during the relegation season and in Championship. Some really odd signings (Bellamy, Lee Hughes, Keith O'Niell) and ultimately over-stayed his welcome.

Doesnt seem like a bad bloke - but my guess is that he has a long list of excuses why none of it was his fault.

TSx

I'd look at the chairman rather than Strachan for most of that.

Speedie's Head · Oct 23, 2025

Ballamy was crocked when he came no doubt about it - we were surely lied to about the extent of that injury. Hughes was ok enough, top scorer.

rob9872 · Oct 23, 2025

Speedie's Head said:
Ballamy was crocked when he came no doubt about it - we were surely lied to about the extent of that injury. Hughes was ok enough, top scorer.

Hughes had 15 - that included 6 penalties, a hattrick against Crewe who were woefiul and 2 goals on the opening day against Stockport who finished on 13 points. I'm not discounting any of those goals, but only another 5 besides the ones mentioned across the season. He was also signed for £5m and went back to WBA for £2.5m so lost money and then he murdered before cowardly driving away.

Bellamy was just a c**t.

Shannerz · Oct 23, 2025

Bellamy was coming back off a very serious injury and so even if fully fit, was very rusty, and also stepping up a level. He also was the wrong type of player, as he wasn't a natural finisher (he found his niche at Newcastle, I think).

He was a poor signing, but it wasn't down to his failings, regardless of anyone's feelings of him as a person.

Hughes was a good signing on paper, but we didn't play to his strengths, and he wasn't gifted enough to adapt to our style.

Speedie's Head · Oct 23, 2025

Shannerz said:
He was a poor signing, but it wasn't down to his failings, regardless of anyone's feelings of him as a person.

Having the cheek to bad mouth the club after such a poor season is why he's disliked so much

Speedie's Head · Oct 23, 2025

rob9872 said:
Hughes had 15 - that included 6 penalties, a hattrick against Crewe who were woefiul and 2 goals on the opening day against Stockport who finished on 13 points. I'm not discounting any of those goals, but only another 5 besides the ones mentioned across the season. He was also signed for £5m and went back to WBA for £2.5m so lost money and then he murdered before cowardly driving away.

Bellamy was just a c**t.

People make just the same arguments about Simmo re easier games etc. I certainly count penalties I've seen enough missed over the years!

Shannerz · Oct 23, 2025

Speedie's Head said:
Having the cheek to bad mouth the club after such a poor season is why he's disliked so much

I know.

I didn't like him, either. Though now I have no opinion on him particularly. He was very young; he's probably quite a different person now.

Sky_Blue_Dreamer · Oct 23, 2025

Shannerz said:
The football was often expansive and entertaining, but there's always the feeling that we generally underachieved.

We had some players of genuine quality, and, in Dublin an Huckerby, one of the best strike partnerships in the league. But we never finished above 11th. Yes, we were up against some behemoths of the game, but that still feels like an opportunity lost.

I always feel with a bit more nouse, and more attention paid to getting in quality at the back (Paul Williams? Fuck off), we could have been a consistent upper midtable team for his tenure.

We did play some great football at times, though, and Strachan was always good value. ("A quick word, Gordon?" "Velocity".)

This largely says how I feel.

Overall look back on his time with us quite fondly. Great as a player and we had some brilliant attacking teams with him as manager. I thought his interviews could be entertaining at times, at others left me wondering if he'd watched the same game. Suffered from regularly having good players sold and having to rebuild.

Some of his decisions do grate. For example we had some unbelievable attacking players over his tenure and at times good strikers who couldn't even make the pitch, like Aloisi and even Moldovan. And yet for years we saw Williams and Shaw paired up at the back. We should have spent far more on improving that defence instead of on attackers and I genuinely think we could have been in the running to get into Europe and potentially won a cup. When McAllister was here his tactic seemed to be make every single attack go through him so teams learnt to just mark McAllister and we were largely toothless. Plus his insistence on playing Telfer. I've no problem with Telfer being a valuable squad member, but no way should he have been starting as often as he did.

And the less said about the final Prem season and start of the following one the better really.

Major Tom · Oct 24, 2025

I remember him coming on as player coach and looking the fittest player on the pitch

robbiekeane · Oct 25, 2025

Brighton Sky Blue said:
Don’t think anyone will displace Dublin as my favourite player of all time.

Absolutely top bloke as well. Bumped into him in leamington and he had all the time in the world for me and no problem taking a photo etc.

Brighton Sky Blue · Oct 25, 2025

robbiekeane said:
Absolutely top bloke as well. Bumped into him in leamington and he had all the time in the world for me and no problem taking a photo etc.

Aye his son went to Warwick I think

usskyblue · Oct 25, 2025

torchomatic said:
Shit. Relegated us.

He’d lost the plot way before he got sacked. The football was so dire in the end, it was on a par with Butcher.

skyblue025 · Oct 25, 2025

I thought he did a pretty decent job overall but was let down by the chairman in his last 18 months by not offering McAllister a new contract until it was too late then selling Robbie Keane a few days before the season started. Everything we did went through those 2 and we lost all our goals.

Terry Gibson's perm · Oct 25, 2025

Started well but needed to sack king of the cones Pendry and bring in a decent number two towards the end it would have bought him more time and Pendry was a clown and Strachan was stubborn,I t was horribly toxic at the end though and he wasn’t getting us back up. He also had a real blind spot with a certain player.

Covkid1968# · Oct 25, 2025

Alright… but a poor man’s Phil Neal.

TomRad85 · Oct 25, 2025

rob9872 said:
Hughes had 15 - that included 6 penalties, a hattrick against Crewe who were woefiul and 2 goals on the opening day against Stockport who finished on 13 points. I'm not discounting any of those goals, but only another 5 besides the ones mentioned across the season. He was also signed for £5m and went back to WBA for £2.5m so lost money and then he murdered before cowardly driving away.

Bellamy was just a c**t.

I don't disagree he was poor for the price and ultimately a complete c**t but he didn't score 2 on opening day vs Stockport. Carsley got 1 of them I'm pretty sure.

Viktor17 · Oct 25, 2025

Overall 7/10 - did good job but tailed off. (What a player still also! Spurs away may 96 3.1 - ran the show!)

started well, stayed up then the brilliant 97/98 season - again though we never kicked on.

fast forward to 2000 when in reality to not win away all season was massive failing with that team.

Really poor transfer decisions and stubbornness kicked in - resulting in relegation and then sacking.

rob9872 · Oct 25, 2025

TomRad85 said:
I don't disagree he was poor for the price and ultimately a complete c**t but he didn't score 2 on opening day vs Stockport. Carsley got 1 of them I'm pretty sure.

You're right he did, I just checked on Google! weird that I've been convinced he got both for years and I was at the game

Although probably not the worst, some of the England games i went to years ago, I had to check the score the next day as I wasn't certain. I suspect alcohol may have been consumed.

clint van damme · Oct 25, 2025

rob9872 said:
You're right he did, I just checked on Google! weird that I've been convinced he got both for years and I was at the game

Same. I'd have put money on it that he got both.
Another weird thing thinking back to that day, I have no recollection as to how I got there or got home.

TomRad85 · Oct 25, 2025

rob9872 said:
You're right he did, I just checked on Google! weird that I've been convinced he got both for years and I was at the game

Although probably not the worst, some of the England games i went to years ago, I had to check the score the next day as I wasn't certain. I suspect alcohol may have been consumed.

I have a strangely good memory of games a couple of years before and a couple of years after Prem relegation. It's a very specific specialist subject.

M&B Stand · Oct 25, 2025

Some great days under Strachan, the wins at Leicester, Villa and anfield were unreal, ultimately his last few months were toxic, he said he hung on out of shear bloody mindedness and had the backing of Richardson until the end.

selling aloisi for 600k and replacing him with Hughes for 5 million was just one lowlight of them last few months.

Diogenes · Oct 25, 2025

Real mixed feelings about Strachan. Fond memories because it's when I starting going to watch games but tarnished by the relegation. At the time and for long after he was vilified but in hindsight most of the damage was done by the people above him. Realistically speaking the club was a basket case and was on borrowed time because of how it was run.

That said, huge feelings of missed opportunity. We had lots of talent and the 99/00 season would have seen us in Europe if we didnt bottle it away from home. But again, imagine if we did get in Europe we would have done a Leeds and ended up in an even bigger financial mess.

This is why our current position feels like a real chance to right all those wrongs of 25+ years ago. And feels sweeter with one of the biggest names of that period in football leading us.

letsallsingtogether · Oct 25, 2025

Loved those times.
The whole thing walking up to HR on a saturday at 3.00 always seemed sunny, watching the Morrocan Magican, loved that bloke.

Telfer85 · Oct 25, 2025

Although I think he’d run his course at the end of his tenure I do think he constantly had key players sold from under him. Constantly having to rebuild your team eventually your luck is gonna run out. That last season in the prem our faith in roussel unfortunately never paid off as he was never as good without Keane. I maintain if Hartson was bought in earlier him and Bellamy keep us up. But over the years we played some great football at times under him and the best I’ve seen until these last few seasons.

Would have been interesting see if he could have turned it round as that squad when we first went down was good enough to go back up imo. I remember beating Crewe 6-1 I think away from home and thought we were going stroll back up. Even Delorge was looking a class above then two weeks later he was sold. Carsely going as well in feb madness. We were also unlucky with two big injuries to Joachim and O’Neill who arguably would have been key players.

bulko · Oct 25, 2025

Great player for us when he came on but manager I can’t forget he took us down and then i think he watched a Southampton game while the current manager was still in place only to take his job soon after.

sky blue stew · Oct 25, 2025

he was a crap manager got us relegated will never forgive him

ovduk78 · Oct 26, 2025

I met Strachan once at a London supporters dinner in 96/97 season & had a 5 minute chat with him, I have to say I wasn't impressed. He asked how many games I'd seen & I had only missed the opening day loss against Forest as I was away watching Czech motogp which I told him & he kept asking if we went to Prague which we did on our way to Brno hut didn't spend a lot of time in. I was critical at our set up at both defending & attacking corners (some things never change) & we were all back when defending & I suggested leaving a player or 2 on the half way line & he was not only critical of the way we defended corners but actually called out Ndlovu for not defending as he was told which I thought was very unprofessional.

skysblue · Oct 28, 2025

Great team shit manager with Strachan

The Reverend Skyblue · Oct 29, 2025

TomRad85 said:
This team, minus Telfer

View attachment 46733

Suker, what a player he was. By a country mile not as good at Henry, but still great to watch

What are your feelings of gordan strachans time as manager here (1 Viewer)

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