Out of the following who was the best manager Portsmouth ever had. Jack Tinn: oversaw 20 (exclude the war years from that) years of top flight football, took the team to three different FA Cup finals (winning one), took the team to the Wartime Cup Final and laid the foundations for the team to thrive after he stepped down. Bob Jackson: won two top league titles back to back, joint winner of the community shield and finished third in his final season at the club. George Smith: lead Pompey to the third division title and maintained their position safely in the second division on a very tight budget. Became a General Manager at the club after he stepped down from team management. Alan Ball: narrowly missed promotion to the top league in his first two seasons before achieving the feat in 1987. In his second spell at the club he lead a great escape that saw Pompey avoid relegation on the final day of the season and successfully kept the club in the old first division the next season. Jim Smith: reached the FA Cup semi-finals and took Liverpool to penalties in a replay and missed out on promotion to the Premier League the next season on goal difference. Harry Redknapp: in two spells at the club he lead the club to the old first division title, successfully kept it in the Premier League, won the FA Asia Tropy and the FA Cup and was runner-up in the Community Shield. Or any other: Bobby Campbell, Frank Burrows, Eddie Lever, or anyone else you think deserving.
Although they were all great managers, for various reasons (yes even Judas) it has to be Bob Jackson for me. Back to back League Titles and a win ratio only bettered by the very first two managers between 1898 and 1904.
Alan Ball, purely because some of my best times watching Pompey were when he was manager, and I cant possibly vote for TJC.
I voted for Jack Tinn because of his longevity in the job and the fact that he actually progressed the development of young players while maintaining a high position in the league and doing well in the cups. The team that Jackson used to win the back to back league titles was built by Tinn with the only exception of Ike Clarke - who admittedly was an inspired signing. I think the difference between Tinn and "Bow-tie Bob" was that Tinn was an administrator who paid close attention to the development of the club on and off the pitch and who's main focus had always been on the discovery and development of youth while Jackson was a man-manager who spent most of his time making his players happy and trying to foster a spirit of ambition and high levels of motivation in his squad. I dont think Jackson could have been the success he was without Tinn coming before him to lay the foundations.
I expect that the 2 votes for TJC came from scummer WUMs, unless the Pompey fans that voted for him want to post why?????
To be fair, Redknapp does have a good record at Portsmouth but, personally, I think his success has to be weighted against the amount he had to spend. Harry Redknapp has the distinction of being the highest spending manager in Portsmouth history, spending more than three times in one signing what Jim Smith had to spend in his entire spell at the club and yet he does not have a win/loss record that superior to Smith's - nor is Redknapp's ratio that much better than Burrows' or Ball's or Campbell's, all of whom couldn't even dream of having the same amount to spend as Redknapp did. If Smith had half of the amount to spent that Redknapp did he probably would have won the FA Cup and gotten us to the Premier League as well.
I don't usually participate in other boards' polls. Why not just make the poll public, then you will know who has voted where?
I just posted a poll, I have no idea what different types there are. If people have voted for Redknapp just to spoil the results out of spite I will be rather dissapointed. It does seem that way, however, as there is no way in hell that Redknapp should be winning by such a large margine especially when his record is worse that Jackson's and he never won the top league back to back nor did he take the club to four different cup finals and build a base for future success like Tinn - which puts both Tinn and Jackson ahead of him in my books. Perhaps I should have said "Pompey fans only" in the opening post.
I believe Harry Redknapp had a heart operation today. It is a bit of a shock to me - I didn't realise he had one!
