I'm not a fan of Rafa either, I made my feelings very clear when he first left us and I made it very clear that I think Bruce should be given time. As a Newcastle fan I have never switched off faster than when Rafa was in charge of this football club, his tactics were dire, his comments towards the players were dishonorable and untrue and his political manipulation of the fanbase was disgraceful. I am more than happy he has left and will never manage us again. I have plenty of family who are liverpool supporters, I remember when they sacked him, he deserved it and it was right he never got offered a better job in England, or even a worse one, until Chelsea needed a temp man. He was useless. If he was still managing us this season I would likely never be on this forum and would likely find it very difficult to watch our games, he sucked the life out for me. In the terms of complete and utter ineptitude it has to be McClaren. Carver ain't a real manager, he was just a coach in over his head, McClaren was utterly useless, he took a side that should have been a top ten contender and turned them into almost bottom of the league. I only recall one win under McClaren, the surprise 7-1 against Norwich. I honestly feel like that was our only win of the season under him even though I know it wasn't. It was McClaren that made us believe Rafa's two mediocre seasons were astonishing. The team was always premier league quality, just like it obviously is now.
[QUOTE="Southerner, post: 13318774, member: 1047670"]Injury to Miggy would not be a bad thing, but ASM would be tragic. Especially as he is getting a bit fitter.[/QUOTE] couldn't disagree more mate he does so much for us
Sorry, to be more concise: McClaren is the worst manager I've ever seen in a job. But I think Rafa is a ****.
I might be tempted to switch to McLaren actually I forgot about that turnip with his red dobbers and Filofax
I kinda feel cheap and lazy picking only recent managers, I think when you go back Dalglish is a good shout, Gullit is always a popular contender, Souness always gets a lot of votes. The stand out of most of our worst managers is an ineptitude in signing players, Dalglish was giving jobs to his friends, and had absolutely no shame in doing so. While Souness is absolutely famous for being a terrible talent scout. But, despite those facts, it is still McClaren who signed a lot of players (decent ones too) and saw us relegated. No heart attack, no walk out, no players revolt, no signing mercenaries. Just pure and beautiful complete tactical retardation.
Both Dalgleish and Souness were handed one of the strongest and most exciting first team squads in the country.....and both dismantled the teams and played infinitely more dull football (especially Dalgleish). That backward step was unforgivable at a time when we could and should have secured our status as a regular Champions League contender. The club blew that opportunity - twice! However the worst period for me was 1977-78 when Gordon Lee introduced political theory to the players, kicked out 2 or 3 of our best/most loved players replacing them with automatons and then walked out on us when a rich Everton came-a-calling. The politicised players (Nulty, Gowling, Craig, etc. then demanded coach Richard Dinnis become manager. It was a disaster: the club was immediately relegated and those same players list interest. It then heralded the greyest period in our history - only halted when KK joined...
Worst must be Souness for wrecking a good side. Close second McClaren, who was given plenty cash in our austerity years
Several candidates: Allardyce - arrived after making Bolton a top 6 side, and we thought we'd got a great manager, turned out to be utter ****e. Spent a large amount on dogshit (Rozenhal, Cacapa, Viduka, Smith), and subjected us the most wrist-slashing dull football ever inflicted on mankind. Souness - turned a team regularly getting into the champions league into relegation certainties, replaced players like Robert, Jenas and Bellamy with the likes of Amdy Faye and Boumsong. McClaren - we knew was gonna be ****e, and lo and behold he was. Stubbornly stuck with playing dross like Coloccini and Sissoko no matter how uninterested they were. The match vs Southampton, with Steven Taylor's pirouette for the first goal, was the worst I've ever seen us play. Kinnear - started reasonably then quickly became atrocious, swearing to press, calling refs names, falling out with players.....but the thing that is worst is his steadfast belief that "I would have definitely kept them up", despite the fact we were in free fall by the time he left. I never really rated Souness before he came to us, so ****e as he was, I wouldn't say he's the absolute worst. I'll go for Allardyce, because we expected things after what he did at Bolton and he not only didn't live up to that, he was a million times once than anyone could have predicted. And cos he's a fatty who takes bungs.
It's been said plenty of times honestly. I think pouchy is the biggest known Rafa critique. Honestly it's nothing controversial, if it was Allerdyce we'd be slating him to hell, but the football under Rafa was only slightly improved. I actually thought Newcastle would be relegated this season if Rafa remained.
Surprised no one mention Gordon Lee twat left us mid season to manage Everton after selling Supermac which left us with Richard Dinnis
Dalglish - brought in players that were past their prime...and his son. It always had the feeling he was asked to trim the wage bill, but we lost flair and excitment and replaced it with lethargy. Souness - once again dismantled a squad with young exciting talent and replaced them with utter dross. Babayaro, Boumsong and Faye are just 3 that still mystify me, not saying brown envelopes were involved but something wasn't right. McLaren - signings were actually good, he just couldn't make them work together. Sissoko and Wijnaldum have gone onto feature in CL finals, so not bad pedigree. I think De Jong was key into how he wanted us to play, but his injury record was just bizarre when he was with us. Perhaps talent scout is his future not first team coach. Allardyce and Gullit were just never the right people for the club. But the worst has to be a toss up between Kinnear and Carver - just simply shocking that they were ever considered never mind appointed. We really do have a history of crap to contend with and we wonder why we were in the positions we've been in over the past 15-20 seasons.