I never criticised him for those things. However it is those very things that created a monster. They excused in many people's minds a frankly shocking job. He did those things and he had an eccentric personality - to many people (you especially) that was enough to ignore defeat after defeat after defeat. To ignore a shocking set of players, many of whom clearly didn't give a ****. He elevated the club to the Prem, but he then also oversaw one of the starkest declines in the club's history - not all his fault - but relegation WOULD have happened whether he stayed or not, and administration very nearly did. He has to take some blame for that. He had funds available to him (funds we couldn't afford remember) and still couldn't construct a team good enough to finish above Wolves. It wasn't just a case of some poor signings, they were ****ing atrocious in the main. Add to that the ego and denial...it's a losing recipe. Most people could see it, apologists couldn't. I was delighted when AP called time, though it should have been sooner.
I sort of understand where people are coming from, but to call our second highest finish darker days of our history is stretching it by most standards. As for the money element, we went into the Prem with what must have been one of the smallest ever budgets and came out with less debt than many other clubs manage without the media driven difficulties of enticing people here to Gods own acres. The problem is the Prem, greedy players, the media and general football structure.
The thing that REALLY annoys me about these "After The Fact Know It Alls" coming out with all this BS is that it taints something that should remain something we remember with pride. These people haven't got a clue about what goes on behind the scenes, and yet they feel themselves qualified to pass judgement on people who are or have been many times more successful than they could ever hope to be in their pathetic little lives. I think, as a club, we were completly unprepared for the Premiership, there were many things that went on that shouldn't have. Phil Brown had his faults, but it just seems to me the focus of everyone's malcontent is always on him and it just aint true or fair to do that. I think Brownie was a decent guy that worked a miracle with us. He was the one who was then saddled with the almost impossible task of keeping us where he had got there despite all the player issues, the money issues, the leadership issues aboove him, the media issues etc etc. Eventually, I think the pressure got the better of him. But he was in a situation I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I will always respect and thank the guy for what he did for me after so many years of failure. I'm certain he has been damaged by what came after, something that he may well never recover from, but I wish him all the best for whatever he does in the future.
I have a belief there are 4 types of manager:- type 1 - the manager who does well when he has money to spend but when he moves to a club where there no money for transfers he is useless - eg Phil Brown Type 2 - the manager who does well with no budget then when he gets his chance at a club with a big budget he is useless Type 3 - the manager who is useless at every club he manages no matter what the finances type 4 - the manager who does well with no money and with a huge budget - eg Sir Fergie. To then as one poster has tried to claim that because he won manager of the month he was a great manager - to that poster, look at who has over the last few years won such an award (you'll be surprised at who is in that list). and then to claim that Hull will never recover from Brown's sacking - is lala land, we have a good young manager who the fans and players love, who the board supports and who has at the moment has us in 5th place (if it is Dowie alone who got us relegated- no matter how bad our position before he was appointed, then let's use the same criteria for Barmby)
To call Brown a poor manager for his time at Hull City is absolutely stupid. He was our most successful manager in our history, he kept us up, took us up, kept us up, yes he lost his mind from around December time in our first seasonin the PL which is why he should of being sacked and rightly so. However he took us to the Premier League which no other manager has ever done in our history.
I am in your camp on this one, I think he tried his best, but was probable out of his depth at EPL level. In the first season I think the start we got off to was unexpected, and PB once we had the amount of points in the bank, actually decided to change tactics and play safe. It went badly wrong, and we started losing games, but finally we got saved by the skin of our teeth. Financially the club was badly run, which I put firmly in the owners court. As Richard Branson said in his book, if you have a rogue trader in your organisation, don't blame them, blame the people that did not have measures in place to elevate this happening. You can blame PD, but the owner is ultimately responsible in my book. PB however was too close to PD, and I think to a large degree this also led to his down fall.
Staying up in our first prem season was probably the worst thing that could have happened, looking back on it now!
maybe. but at least the club is much better placed now for when we return and we have owners and management who can handle the PL next time. onwards and upwards now with barmbys armby.
Absolutely, surely we have learnt our lesson! we were so lucky to have The Allams in the right place at the right time
yes indeed. With Adam P. and Nicky Barmby running things it will be far easier to attract quality players at better rates of pay. Obviously we would need additions to the squad for the PL, but i would love to see our current first choice XI play in the PL.
AP has been in the Premiership twice and has been relegated twice. On both occasions he unfairly sacked the people who got them there and replaced them with ****ter managers. There's absolutely no reason to suggest he can handle the PL, and every reason to suggest he can't.
Look at where those managers are now, both proven to be out of their depth in the prem in the long term. A good championship manager doesn't make a good premiership manager. Before you post a picture of us joint top i'm aware we got off to a great start, but managing a happy team full of momentum and adrenaline from a promotion isn't a true test of a manager IMO. It's when things go wrong that truly test a manager's ability. Both Davies and Brown failed at that when in the Prem (though i admit there's debate whether Brown would have kept us up if given the chance). Pearson has proven he has every ability in running a club in a sustainable manner, Duffen has proven that he takes big risks that sometimes pay off but he's also quite happy to put a club's future in real threat (indisputable). Go ask any fan of any club which type of person they'd like running their club, the vast majority would pick someone like Pearson over someone like Duffen.
I don't dispute that, and i don't regret the adventure that was the premiership. But without Pearson and the Allams i feel we'd be all talking about how being in the Premiership and having Duffen caused us to either lose or football club or see us go into administration and more than likely get relegated to the lower leagues, undoing all the work Pearson and Taylor put in all that time ago. Even when Pearson first came back administration was likely, thank God for the Allams!!
how do you know ? Thats what everyone said about Dawson & Ashbee the last time and they proved people wrong. as for Gulacsi & Mclean, its far to easy to dismiss before they have been given a chance.
