Ladbrokes Championship Manager of the Season

[Believe The Hype]

Much the the player of the year. No one has really stood out and had a fantastic season in their respective roles. All a bit meh.

[Ira Gaines]

I think that every manager had their poor spells. Jack Ross' poor spell was a bit forced though, so he's probably the one who should have gotten it.

[tonup9]

Got to be our man Houstie, back to back 2nd place. We are in dreamland.

You are a dick

[Coventry Saint]

2 hours ago, Randy Giles said:

I think that every manager had their poor spells. Jack Ross' poor spell was a bit forced though, so he's probably the one who should have gotten it.

S'fine: He's getting it next year.

[Bambino7]

Undoubtably the correct decision. He's doing a great job.  Well done Duff Jimmy  

[sergie's no1 fan]

When you take Jack Ross's results with Alloa into consideration too before he joined Saints you can make a case for him, even taking the poor run between October and January into consideration.

Duffy is the correct decision though. Morton were home and hosed and secured a play off spot when the poor run started. They just ran out of legs, add in the League Cup semi and it's a stunning season for the Ton.

Can make a case for Aitken too, should have even given the poor Scottish Cup result.

[vikingTON]

S'fine: He's getting it next year.

No, because he'll jump ship to Hearts once the laptop manager gets binned in October. Hard lines.

[Coventry Saint]

How are you getting on with relegating us, @virginton? You said you were relegating us. At Cappielow in April. How did that go?

 

[Overthehedge1]

Yogi, close this thread, cheers pal

[Bluegrass Bairn]

Every team had a good and bad spell over the course of the season, and Morton certainly had a great spell, but their total collapse from pretenders to being found out should have ruled Duffy out. In terms of impact on his team's results - and style of play, which should count for quite a lot after all - Jack Ross would've been a more worthy winner IMO.   

 

[Believe The Hype]

2 hours ago, sergie's no1 fan said:

Duffy is the correct decision though. Morton were home and hosed and secured a play off spot when the poor run started. They just ran out of legs, add in the League Cup semi and it's a stunning season for the Ton.
 

ahh the true calling of the diddy, when the above constitutes a stunning season which includes an 11 game streak without a win to finish on. Extremely cute.

[sergie's no1 fan]

ahh the true calling of the diddy, when the above constitutes a stunning season which includes an 11 game streak without a win to finish on. Extremely cute.

Stunning season considering most had them battling relegation at the start of it, including their own fans. They punched well above their weight, don't think anyone can argue with that?

Also made it to their first proper semi final in decades. I'd say that was pretty stunning yes.

They ran out of legs, no shame in that.

[Shadwell Dog]

17 minutes ago, sergie's no1 fan said:

 

Stunning season considering most had them battling relegation at the start of it, including their own fans. They punched well above their weight, don't think anyone can argue with that?

Also made it to their first proper semi final in decades. I'd say that was pretty stunning yes.

They ran out of legs, no shame in that.
 

 

Apart from St Mirren who were murder for 2 thirds of the season was there really any other team that you'd be really surprised at Morton finishing above?

[thelocalcat]

15 hours ago, tonup9 said:

You are a dick

Bit out of the blue, no?

[Dunning1874]

Describing our season as stunning is way over the top; it was a season that had the potential to be great and in March it looked like it would be, but it was ultimately no more or less than decent.

The League Cup run was great, but the league campaign was merely average. We were in excellent form from October to March and had we maintained that over the course of the whole season it was title winning form, but we were absolutely abysmal for a full four months of the season. We ended the season closer to 5th than 3rd and the same distance from 10th to 1st: we were only four points ahead of Dunfermline and no one's going to be describing their season as anything more than bang average.

Duffy does of course deserve a lot of credit for the excellent cup run and for that form in the second and third quarters of the season, but he ultimately didn't achieve anything unrealistic or miraculous. Jack Ross taking St. Mirren out of the bottom two from where they were at the end of January, however, was absolutely unrealistic and miraculous: from form that suggested they'd be finishing on less than 25 points over the season to taking 25 points from the last 13 games. He should have won it.

That anyone views this as a surprising or particularly impressive season for Morton says more about ridiculously low expectations after years of colossal underachievement than it does about how good a season it really was.

[Skyline Drifter]

1 hour ago, Dunning1874 said:

Describing our season as stunning is way over the top; it was a season that had the potential to be great and in March it looked like it would be, but it was ultimately no more or less than decent.

The League Cup run was great, but the league campaign was merely average. We were in excellent form from October to March and had we maintained that over the course of the whole season it was title winning form, but we were absolutely abysmal for a full four months of the season. We ended the season closer to 5th than 3rd and the same distance from 10th to 1st: we were only four points ahead of Dunfermline and no one's going to be describing their season as anything more than bang average.

Duffy does of course deserve a lot of credit for the excellent cup run and for that form in the second and third quarters of the season, but he ultimately didn't achieve anything unrealistic or miraculous. Jack Ross taking St. Mirren out of the bottom two from where they were at the end of January, however, was absolutely unrealistic and miraculous: from form that suggested they'd be finishing on less than 25 points over the season to taking 25 points from the last 13 games. He should have won it.

That anyone views this as a surprising or particularly impressive season for Morton says more about ridiculously low expectations after years of colossal underachievement than it does about how good a season it really was.

I get all that, and it's all fair comment but I think you are allowing a horrible end to the season after top four was clinched to cloud your judgement a bit. In the end you ended up where you did but as late as April you still the most credible rivals to Hibs and that's quite an achievement added to the cup run. You had what always looked too small a squad for a sustained challenge and in the end that told but you certainly gave it a go. Jack Ross achieved something tremendous at St Mirren but he was massively helped by spending a pile of cash to improve his squad in January and also by the horrible winless runs both Ayr and Raith had. Without those he'd still probably have failed. As it is they recovered to stay up on goal difference.

Like I said earlier, it's easy to find reasons not to vote for pretty much any of them. And I wouldn't have any great issue if Ross or even Aitken had got it, but I think on balance I'd have given it to Duffy.

[vikingTON]

 

Stunning season considering most had them battling relegation at the start of it, including their own fans. They punched well above their weight, don't think anyone can argue with that?

 

Also made it to their first proper semi final in decades. I'd say that was pretty stunning yes.

 

They ran out of legs, no shame in that.

 

 

 

The only period when Morton fans or anyone else expected the team to be involved in a relegation battle was after Duffy made a tit of the summer transfer window and consequently his team wasn't competitive in the opening five games of the season. Once that was resolved by signing Gunning and Murdoch in September, the improved team pushed for the original target from pre-season - a credible challenge to get in the playoffs. Improving from a 5th placed finish in the previous season to 4th by adding nearly ten points is good, solid progress - it's not "stunning" though. The fact that practically all of Morton's points came in the middle part of the season has distorted judgements of the campaign.

 

 

 

[djchapsticks]

7 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Jack Ross achieved something tremendous at St Mirren but he was massively helped by spending a pile of cash to improve his squad in January and also by the horrible winless runs both Ayr and Raith had. Without those he'd still probably have failed. 

10 players in, 10 players out and a net gain in terms of transfer money is certainly not 'spending a pile of cash'. 

Indeed everything was finely balanced until we sold Kyle McAllister two days before the window closed and that allowed him to bring in Stephen McGinn and Harry Davis. 

A massive disservice to summarise that he spent a pile of cash when the reality is he wheeled and dealed on practically a one in one out basis. 

[Skyline Drifter]

48 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

10 players in, 10 players out and a net gain in terms of transfer money is certainly not 'spending a pile of cash'. 

Indeed everything was finely balanced until we sold Kyle McAllister two days before the window closed and that allowed him to bring in Stephen McGinn and Harry Davis. 

A massive disservice to summarise that he spent a pile of cash when the reality is he wheeled and dealed on practically a one in one out basis. 

Well, no, its a self evident fact that he spent a pile of cash on bringing people in. The late sale of Kyle McAllister undoubtedly left you in profit but other than Naismith who had a nominal fee the rest who departed either did so for free or cost you money to bin.

Fact is Jack Ross spent a lot of budget on changing a large chunk of your team. Its not a criticism, he did a remarkable job of it, but its a facility Ayr, Dumbarton and Raith didnt have and for me it slightly tempers the scale of his achievement. Even before the sale of McAllister you were outbidding at least three other Championship sides for Loy. 

Like I say I would have no complaints if Jack Ross got the award but I would have gone for Duffy.

[djchapsticks]

5 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Well, no, its a self evident fact that he spent a pile of cash on bringing people in. The late sale of Kyle McAllister undoubtedly left you in profit but other than Naismith who had a nominal fee the rest who departed either did so for free or cost you money to bin.

Fact is Jack Ross spent a lot of budget on changing a large chunk of your team. Its not a criticism, he did a remarkable job of it, but its a facility Ayr, Dumbarton and Raith didnt have and for me it slightly tempers the scale of his achievement. Even before the sale of McAllister you were outbidding at least three other Championship sides for Loy. 

Like I say I would have no complaints if Jack Ross got the award but I would have gone for Duffy.

Please explain where a lot of money was spent? As far as I'm aware, no one cost us cash to bin. Ending of loan deals, letting guys like Gallacher and Gallagher move on to Hibs and Dumbarton respectively loaning Hutton to Airdrie. 

No one was mutually terminated in January so no one actually cost us money to lose off our wage bill. In fact we had so little wiggle room in terms of budget to work with during the January window,  it was decided that the spare SMiSA £8k in the kitty would go towards helping the playing budget and maybe being able to get an extra player in. 

One player was going out to free a wage up in the budget, that player was promptly replaced. To say we threw cash at the problem definitely doesn't do justice to how little wiggle room Jack Ross had to work with and how well he dealt. Josh Todd, Pal Fjelde and Stelios certainly weren't regarded as 'money' signings. It was generally accepted at the time that freeing up Shankland's wage and the 8k SMiSA money were the funding for Loy. Similar with Hardie and Cammy Smith. 

It was a well balanced operation until the last days of the window when we got that funding to get in two final signings.