Best 1. Bond - took City back to the top flight at the first attempt and established us as a top flight team playing wonderful football, put us on the map 2. Stringer - I could have put him at the top I mean he nearly won us the double FFS, however Bondy just shades it. 3. Walker - Remarkable first tenure but as has been said previously he inherited Stringer's side. 4. Saunders - Took a bunch of mediocre players and through sheer hard work and fitness won the (then) Division 1 title. 5. Lambert - Worked wonders and I can fully understand why younger posters rate him higher. 6. Brown - A (then) Division 1 title and gave us our only 'major' trophy but was always in Bondy's shadow 7. Worthington - Championship title but couldn't cut it in the Prem. Dreadful tactics in a Play-Off final puts him lower on my list Sorry but IMHO the others don't warrant a mention in a 'best' list Worst: 1. Roeder - Yes he kept us up, but instigated our eventual downfall. Despicable man who even sacked the long-serving kit man !! 2. Hamilton - A 'plant' from the Binners if you ask me, turned City into a 'holiday camp' 3. Rioch - Installed as part of Delia's 'dream team' with Hamilton, nuff said 4. Grant - A good coach but completely out of his depth with regard to full on management 5. Megson - What surprises me is that so many clubs employed him as manager, dire. 6. Deehan - Shame it didn't work out for John, every man and his dog thought that he was the guiding influence in the Walker years, how wrong we were 7. Hughton - Flattered to deceive in his first season as our final league placing didn't tell the whole story. However he was found out this year, the complete opposite of my all time No.1, his anti-football eventually was his downfall.
Ahh but the team he inherited had just finished 18th. He took it to 3rd, despite losing some significant players (Fleck/Sherwood). He bought astutely in Mark Robins and Gary Megson, and started playing Ruel Fox who was previously a fringe player. I'm not sure how regularly Jeremy Goss had played under Dave Stringer either. Perhaps we shouldn't forget that Chris Sutton was one of several players that came through a youth system of which MW was manager - you could say that DS inherited MW's players. All 5 of these players played in MWs first match when we beat Arsenal at Highbury. All in all, I think it is an over simplification to imply that Walker just continued with an already successful team.
That is a fair point Dave, thank you for pointing it out, I stand corrected! Mind, I still think Dave stringer should have been higher than he was in the post, but perhaps not above Mike Walker (first time)
Interesting that you left Bryan Gunn out of the 'worst' list. I know it was not all down to him, it was only for a short spell, and he did buy a couple of 'gems', but on the whole had no idea with events on the pitch. Ken Brown - I feel you might be being a little harsh on him, as I always felt he made it 'his' team, once JB departed. The top 3 managers I agree with, just not certain about the order so give them all equal 1st, to keep life simple To answer the OP - where would I put Chris Hughton? Somewhere at the back of my mind, and hopefully leave it there.
1. Stringer 2. Walker (1st time) 3.Lambert Stringer brought us to the table, Walker fed us some continental flair, and Lambert gave us a rocket to ride on. Hughton there with Worthy for me, as pointed out above "nice" bloke, not Norwich though. Stringer, Walker and Lambert all had some nuts and talked us up. Made me proud to listen to them and also to watch the team who played for them and the supporters.
