What are your feelings of gordan strachans time as manager here (4 Viewers)

[COVKIDSNEVERQUIT]

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.

 

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[Legia Sky Blue]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.