Greatest Manager Of All Time

[Cjay]

We had The Greatest Player thread.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34712&hilit=greatest+of+all+time

So, whose the greatest manager of all time?

Being a Leeds forum undoubtedly Don Revie will feature prominently, unfairly overlooked in the majority of these discussions.

Then there will be the usual suspects, going back many decades, Bob Paisley, Helenio Herrera, Herbert Chapman, Matt Busby.

Bit more recently, Rinus Michels, Arrigo Sacchi, Brian Clough, Alex Ferguson, Marcelo Lippi, Giovanni Trapattoni, Valeriy Lobanovskiy, Johan Cruyff.

And then right up to present day, Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti etc.

Personally, i can only comment on managers i have seen, so that does mean i cant nominate Don Revie, for all i respect the stories and his achievements, i cant call him the Greatest because i never saw his side.

Putting a neutral hat on Alex Ferguson achieved success longer then anyone else, and he is one of the greats, he has to be, dont have to like him but have to respect what he achieved. Jose Mourinho's Chelsea side was fantastic and he is a proven success and winning the Champions League with Porto was an exceptional achievement.

But, part of being the greatest for me means i have to enjoy watching there sides, Jose in recent years has put me to sleep, and i dont think any leeds fan can truly enjoy watching Manchester United, so thats them out.

So, on an enjoyment level, and combining the fact i loved there star player, Barcelona of the 2008-2013 time frame were the best club side i have ever seen. And they were successful, the way they played has been imitated by plenty of sides since, and none have yet managed to perfect it the same way.

Pep Guardiola has achieved success at every club, and in only 9 years as a manager he has won over 20 competitions, far ahead of anyone else in a similar time frame. He has created 2 of the most exciting club sides of the last 20 years (probably longer but i can only go back that far). And his style, influenced by Johan Cruyff has become the blueprint for "total football" and the style most sides want to use.

So thats me, Pep Guardiola is The Greatest of All time for me.

Who do other people think?

Also, sorry this is so long

[Norm]

Except for the reasons you couldn't vote for Don Revie, Ditto for me.

[BobHirst]

Got to be Ferguson for me. His teams won for years and years and I believe he even won some of the time with sides that perhaps played way above their ability. Yes he had money to spend but I don't believe that even he had Pep type money to spend.

[Ratscoot]

The Don for me, if he hadn’t stuffed up the England job, he would be classed as one of the greatest but then how many have followed him at England and done much better?

[weasel]

Unfortunately for me Don simply isn't up there due to the lack of silverware that we achieved with so many runners up medals. We never dominated to the same extent that Liverpool and then Man Utd did. For me it has to be Ferguson as he sometimes seemed to drag the team across the line and made them consistent winners- yes he had the money to spend but he still had to spend it wisely and also found the balance between signings and home-grown players.

[whiteswan]

Ferguson wouldn't have achieved a quarter of what he did if silly Wilko hadn't 'given' him cantona. Still very aggrieved about that!

[weasel]

Ferguson wouldn't have achieved a quarter of what he did if silly Wilko hadn't 'given' him cantona. Still very aggrieved about that!

This though gives Ferguson even more credit as he was the only manager to get the best out of Cantona who had fallouts with various managers and players throughout his career. Wilko wasn't alone as all managers, bar Ferguson, ended up discarding him despite his talent. Ferguson was most famous for the supposed 'hair dryer' treatment but he was the only manager to find out how to manage Cantona and also seemed to be a good judge of when it was better to get rid of a player despite their talent if he felt it upset the balance of the team.

I would point out that there was a lot of mediocre opposition during MU's successful years but they still had to keep winning constantly and you just have to look at how poorly most teams do in the season after they win the league title to really give his teams the credit they deserved and him the credit for continuing to make them hungry for success.

[The Subhuman]

Has to be Ferguson by a country mile surely? Rebuilt that team on multiple occasions and always produced results. I'm agreeing with Weasel for a change

[liggy]

Jackie marks....ends

[Gandalf]

Much as I would like to nominate the Don, we did fall at the final hurdle on several occasions, so I will go with Bob Paisley. He never finished out of the top two in the League in his eight seasons, winning it six times. He also won 3 European Cups, and a UEFA Cup. Ferguson has a brilliant record too, but had a much longer tenure to Paisley, who reluctantly came to management late in life.

[1964white]

Impossible to say

So many great managers I've witnessed in the 54 years I've been watching football

[1964white]

Much as I would like to nominate the Don, we did fall at the final hurdle on several occasions, so I will go with Bob Paisley. He never finished out of the top two in the League in his eight seasons, winning it six times. He also won 3 European Cups, and a UEFA Cup. Ferguson has a brilliant record too, but had a much longer tenure to Paisley, who reluctantly came to management late in life.

To be fair to the great Don poor refereeing decisions probably cost Leeds at least four trophies

[billie1]

I googled this and it was Ferguson every time . And his achievements at Aberdeen ending the Old Firm domination ( at the time ) cannot be overlooked .