Examples of managers doing better

[DA Baracus]

We keep hearing from the wanky media sycophants that no one could do a better job than Strachan as they'd have to use the same players Strachan has failed with. There seems to be a view that Strachan is getting the most out of players and that no one coming in could get more. This view is once more from the wanky media sycophants and ex players and managers.

However, there are fucking loads of times a managers has come in and turned a squad around. Whilst these managers may have made one or two signings, a new Scotland manager could make changes to the squad based on the many players previously highlighted on this board who haven't been called up. Also new managers often have an effect on players who were previously under-performing and get the best out of them. 

So, to prove that the idea that no one could do better than Strachan is the utterly laughable pish we all know it is, what are some examples of managers doing better than the man they succeeded? Try to keep it to examples where the new guy didn't make a whole load of signings and only made minimal changes to the team. 

I'll kick off with a few;

- Bert Paton. Took over from Jocky Scott at East End. That's all that needs to be said.

- Jim McIntyre took over a Pars team from Stephen Kenny that was hilariously heading for relegation from the then First Divison, getting heavy pumpings from the likes of Hamilton, Livingston and Stirling Albion. We ended up pretty comfortably mid table.

- Walter Smith turned round a humiliating shambling mess left by Bertie Vogts. We went from hideous results like drawing with the Faroes and being pumped at Hampden by Hungary to beating Ukraine and France. He started slowly with a couple of duff results, but he got us playing to our strengths and made us a good team.

 

 

 

[Peppino Impastato]

Forget not doing better,  I genuinely struggle to believe any manager could do worse than Strachan is with the players at his disposal.   We could almost name an entire squad from the premiership,  we're really not that bad at all,  yet he has us out after 4 games having drawn 0-0 at home to Lithuania andpumped 3-0 Iin Slovakia,  how could you do worse than that?   What does worse than that even look like?   We're ranked below Benin ffs. 

[Jan Vojáček]

Ian Murray took us over in 2012 when we had 5 points on Christmas day. He made a bunch of guys who looked miles out of their depth suddenly look like Championship players, had us playing with real confidence and flair and we stayed up comfortably. 

[54_and_counting]

1 hour ago, Peppino Impastato said:

Forget not doing better,  I genuinely struggle to believe any manager could do worse than Strachan is with the players at his disposal.   We could almost name an entire squad from the premiership,  we're really not that bad at all,  yet he has us out after 4 games having drawn 0-0 at home to Lithuania andpumped 3-0 Iin Slovakia,  how could you do worse than that?   What does worse than that even look like?   We're ranked below Benin ffs. 

id say worse is drawing 1-1 at home with Lithuania and relying on a late late late equaliser to save some part of the embarrassment

[54_and_counting]

alex mcleish at rangers springs to mind, took over halfway through the 2001-02 season, won the cup double, and if memory serves me right only brought in kevin muscat as his own signing the following summer and took dick advocaats squad to a domestic treble

[Officer Barbrady]

Roby di Matteo? Hear me out......

 

Since 2012, he has hit every fucking tree on the way down. But for six months, he engineered a stuttering, lackadaisical shower of fancy-dans, to the extent they robbed their way to a European Cup. For all the geniuses hired, the biggest clown of the lot was the one who delivered the ultimate prize. To my mind, this current mob need a rocket up their arse, just like that, not steady hands slowly phasing the crap players out. That's why we're in this whole mess. 

[54_and_counting]

1 hour ago, Officer Barbrady said:

Roby di Matteo? Hear me out......

 

Since 2012, he has hit every fucking tree on the way down. But for six months, he engineered a stuttering, lackadaisical shower of fancy-dans, to the extent they robbed their way to a European Cup. For all the geniuses hired, the biggest clown of the lot was the one who delivered the ultimate prize. To my mind, this current mob need a rocket up their arse, just like that, not steady hands slowly phasing the crap players out. That's why we're in this whole mess. 

good shout, that semi final in the nou camp was unreal, always remember this picture doing the rounds after it

peter cech in the window is funny as f**k

[kenny131]

Micheal O'Neil,  Chris Coleman is all that needs said on this topic.

[itzdrk]

Ian McCall, has taken the same core group from surviving relegation to League Two to mid table Championship.  

[ayrmad]

Mark McGeown and Brian Reid when they took temporary charge of Ayr after we binned Robert Connor. 0 wins 3 draws 4 losses 4 for 12 against in our 7 games before Connor went, 3 wins 0 draws 0 losses 10 for 4 against after they took temp charge, we gave the job to Neil fucking Watt.

[Gordopolis]

My boss at work was caught urinating in the company kettle and was sacked.
His replacement did not do this and was thus an improvement.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

1 hour ago, itzdrk said:

Ian McCall, has taken the same core group from surviving relegation to League Two to mid table Championship.  

He was decent with Thistle - it was certainly the right time for him to go when he did leave us but he laid a pretty solid foundation from which we've ended up spending several seasons in the top flight and had some solid signings too.

The Two Nige's: Nigel Adkins leaving Southampton and them ending up far better off for it since with generally very good managerial appointments, and Nigel Pearson leaving leicester and them ending up far, far, far better off for it under Ranieri come to mind from down south.

edit: Barry Smith at Dundee comes to mind - iirc he replaced Chisholm and Dodds with Dundee in admin, who had achieved little return for big money investment, and managed a tremendous run of form to stay up. Think the following season they finished 2nd and, upon the death of Rangers (RIP) got auto-promotion to the top flight!

[ayrmad]

40 minutes ago, Gordopolis said:

My boss at work was caught urinating in the company kettle and was sacked.
His replacement did not do this and was thus an improvement.

What a load of pish.

[ayrmad]

Love him or loathe him, Mr Warnock has transformed more than one team in short order.

[TheScarf]

Warnock was the one I was thinking of. He comes across as a total zoomer, but he always seems to be able to turn teams around.  He seems to have the knack of making players believe in themselves and making the teams he manages extremely hard to beat.

[forameus]

The problem is that no-one knows.  You can say "no-one could do worse", but they very well could.  Similarly it's pointless saying that "no-one could do any better", because they just as likely could.  

We just won't know until someone gets put in.  Strachan was what seemed to be a very positive appointment in the minds of most when he came in.  Michael O'Neill is mentioned a lot, but he had an absolute nightmare opening to his reign, and that would have probably got him as much hate as Strachan has now.  Good managers don't always make good international managers.  Hell, good international managers may not make a good Scotland manager.  

Would at least be nice if the SFA put a bit of effort into the next appointment though, rather than just filtering on "Scottish" and getting the most beige option available.

[NewBlue]

When Jim Mcinally took over at Peterhead we had been relegated the season before and were bottom of the old 3rd division having won only one game, he took over in October and we finished 5th that season. To be fair though we probably were in a position that couldn't have got any worse.

[DA Baracus]

2 hours ago, forameus said:

The problem is that no-one knows.  You can say "no-one could do worse", but they very well could.  Similarly it's pointless saying that "no-one could do any better", because they just as likely could.  

We just won't know until someone gets put in.  Strachan was what seemed to be a very positive appointment in the minds of most when he came in.  Michael O'Neill is mentioned a lot, but he had an absolute nightmare opening to his reign, and that would have probably got him as much hate as Strachan has now.  Good managers don't always make good international managers.  Hell, good international managers may not make a good Scotland manager.  

Would at least be nice if the SFA put a bit of effort into the next appointment though, rather than just filtering on "Scottish" and getting the most beige option available.

True, but to just accept that Strachan is 'getting the best' and not even trying someone else is dreadful nonsense from the SFA that will see us get worse.

[forameus]

9 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

True, but to just accept that Strachan is 'getting the best' and not even trying someone else is dreadful nonsense from the SFA that will see us get worse.

I don't disagree.   But have the SFA said things along those lines or is it reading between them?  That seems to be the line from pundits,  

I like to think they're actually putting some thought into the next manager, and just biding their time.  Qualification is most likely gone, and unless we lose against Lithuania and/or Malta, we'll probably end the campaign just a different shade of shite than we are now.  I'm probably alone in it, but if the right manager isn't out there, I'd rather they didn't just plump for the one that was available.  A caretaker would be an option in that case of course.  But the "right" option is something that doesn't really become apparent right away of course, and it's already a pretty alien concept to the SFA as it is.

[DA Baracus]

The SFA said that Strachan talked to them and convinced them that he is the best man for the job.