Managers who really only hit gold once?

The Barrel

Well-Known Member
Most famous is maybe Ron Saunders: won Villa the league and took them to EC semi finals but resigned over money. Jumped ship to arch rivals Birmingham and got them relegated. Then joined West Brom and....got them relegated.

Avram Grant: 2nd in EPL and CL final with Chelsea but was terrible at West Ham, left Partisan after one season and was sacked by Ghana...

Howard Wilkinson: terrible after his Leeds successes

Lawrie Sanchez: galvanised N Ireland and brought back the fans. Terrible since leaving them.

Any others?
 
Howard Kendall. Incredible success at Everton first time round, compared with none at all thereafter.
 
Most famous is maybe Ron Saunders: won Villa the league and took them to EC semi finals but resigned over money. Jumped ship to arch rivals Birmingham and got them relegated. Then joined West Brom and....got them relegated.

Avram Grant: 2nd in EPL and CL final with Chelsea but was terrible at West Ham, left Partisan after one season and was sacked by Ghana...

Howard Wilkinson: terrible after his Leeds successes

Lawrie Sanchez: galvanised N Ireland and brought back the fans. Terrible since leaving them.

Any others?
Bit harsh on Ron Saunders, wasn't a very well man.

The story behind his departure from Villa is fascinating and a lot more to it (I can't remember it sadly)

Didn't get Birmingham relegated either. They weren't a particularly well run club at the time either.

Edit to sat - he left Villa about something to do with the Kitman and longstanding backroom staff getting fired.
 
It would almost be harder to name managers who had repeated success without big resources. So remove the likes of Guardiola, Mourinho, Capello, Eriksson, etc etc. And of course success is always relative.

Say what you like about him but Colin Wanker has taken plenty teams to their ceiling (although that might just be laws of big numbers, given the jobs he's had). Nearer home Alex Totten had repeated success at his levels after leaving Rangers...
 
Sorry to say it but Wim Jansen. Managed Celtic and was an assistant in just about every other job he had.

Stopped us winning 10 in a row in a season when we gifted it to them.
I would've been around 6 years old when rangers won 9 in a row, so my memories of it aren't the strongest.

What I do wonder for those who were there, as a support, when going for 10 were we as insufferable as they've been the last 2 plus years.
 
It would almost be harder to name managers who had repeated success without big resources. So remove the likes of Guardiola, Mourinho, Capello, Eriksson, etc etc. And of course success is always relative.

Say what you like about him but Colin Wanker has taken plenty teams to their ceiling (although that might just be laws of big numbers, given the jobs he's had). Nearer home Alex Totten had repeated success at his levels after leaving Rangers...

That's a good question. I always thought Jim Jefferies was a good coach and did well at Falkirk, Hearts x 2 and Killie.

I wonder who has the most promotions in Scotland (recently Robbie Neilson has three).
 
I would've been around 6 years old when rangers won 9 in a row, so my memories of it aren't the strongest.

What I do wonder for those who were there, as a support, when going for 10 were we as insufferable as they've been the last 2 plus years.

Social media has a big part of that. So no it wasn't quite as bad, but I mean it was a huge focus of both the club and fans I'll not pretend otherwise.
 
Yeah teffific money if you can get it, he was hopeless.

Was a post on here the other day someone still upset about the english media having the cheek to ask questions of FC and his decisions. Algeria 0-0 i think.

Interviews were great... good, bad, haha, byebye
One of the worst England matches I've seen. I remember John Motson being left speechless by the way England played.
 
Scary how much the English FA paid him.

League titles in Spain and Italy with 3 different clubs, and that includes a CL with one of those clubs. Hardly striking gold once is it? Unless you (not you personally) never knew he existed prior to taking the England job and heard people talk about how he once a CL title one time and have therefore assumed that’s all he ever won.
 
League titles in Spain and Italy with 3 different clubs, and that includes a CL with one of those clubs. Hardly striking gold once is it? Unless you (not you personally) never knew he existed prior to taking the England job and heard people talk about how he once a CL title one time and have therefore assumed that’s all he ever won.
I'm purely commenting on his time at England, I know about his career and I didn't start the thread or put his name in it.
 
I was thinking him. He's one of the most over rated managers about.
Has to be good though because he worked under Mourinho and scribbles loads of notes about how there’s a bald patch of grass on the right wing that be exploited etc etc.

In saying that I felt really sorry for him when he was at Spurs, the English press really hated him and went after him in a manner that was very unbecoming; even remember Gary Lineker saying the way some journalists wrote about him was a disgrace and there seemed to be an agenda there.
 
Don Revie?

Majorly successful at Leeds but not so much with England. Then disappeared off to the Middle East and was never heard from in football again.
 
Jurgen Klinsmann - Good Germany manager, awful Bayern and US manager.
Bayern is the sort of club where its highly possible to fail if you cant manage both a difficult dressing and board room. He was also following a club Legend which is never a good idea.

I thought he did rather well as US manager?

It has been a bit strange to not see him take on another job since then, Hertha debacle aside.

I always rated him as a Coach.
 
Juande Ramos. Won a good deal with Sevilla in the mid 2000s including 2 UEFA Cups.

Since he has been at Spurs, Real, CSKA - and not been at the clubs for very long.
 
Luis Enrique probably comes into the discussion now as well.

He enjoyed a golden couple of seasons at Barca but has achieved nothing before or since at club or international level.

I suppose it could be argued though that international football is a bit of a lottery in terms of being purely knockout football really and other than Barca has only managed Celta Vigo and one season with Roma.
 
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