But you can't just pretend last season didn't happen. If you just pick and choose seasons to forget then I'd say Martin is one of Saints best ever managers. Got us promoted 1st time of asking with a wembley win and took us 25 unbeaten! But that would be ignoring the fact this season we are in the running to be the worst PL team ever. Martin is clearly out of his depth at this level, but he is by no means the worst manager we have ever had.
The most frustrating part of this is that he wouldn't have been shown to be totally out of his depth if he just tweaked a bit and deviated slightly from "His Philosophy". Just stop pissing about at the back and taking huge risks in the 18 yard box and we are a lower Premier League team, rather than the ****tiest.
People keep saying "Martin gave us the best day at Wembley" as a huge point in his credit column - I'd argue we shouldn't have needed that day at Wembley if he'd done a genuinely good job last year. He's not our worst manager though. NJ gets that.
I agree 100%, but with hindsight what a way to get promoted. I will remember that day more than last time we went up, even though that too was a great day at St Mary's
I don’t think in terms of technical ability he is the worst. But for me he’s the worst. We’ve had poor managers, Pelegrino was an absolute clown, Woote and poorveilt were terrible. But no manager has rigidly stuck to a style of play which will get us relegated. He’s not even trying to stay up, he wants to play his football because he likes it and it is to the clubs detriment. That’s why I think he’s the worst manager we’ve ever had.
Thing is he did well in a worse league. I think jones and even Pellegrino would have done better than Martin last season. For a start jones would have kept tall paul and played more direct. We’d have conceded less goals. I think there’s a solid argument that jones would have got us autos.
I'd change the poll to worst ever Premier league manager. Not fair on the likes of Wotte and Portvleit to be included. I think people are voting on personality. If it was worst ever PL manager in terms of points then it's RM I'm afraid. Take last season out of it.
How about an alternative Poll for the Best Manager we ever had? Too much negativity on this site it's beginning to match the Echo site...
I'm certainly not voting on personality. I've nothing against Pellegrino I just think he's the worst.
You may have a point about Jones but it's all hypothetical and we can only vote on what we know and there's no way that we would've scored 100 goals in a season under Pellegrino.
I quite liked him and felt a bit sorry for him but he should never have been given the job given his limited experience of management, that was all down to Reed trying to be clever about finding the new Poch.
Still nowhere our worst manager ever. He is 100% our worst premier league manager ever though. Can't see how Jones can be above him tbh.
Branfoot for me, to have a player as world class as Le Tissier in his prime and not want to play him shows how bad this guy was. Then factor in the spending of the Shearer money on absolute dross and it's a no brainer!! If you were too young or not born, trust me that he was that good. Jones, Martin and Pellegrino would have picked Le Tissier. Wouldn't have necessarily played to his strengths but they would have picked him, I'm sure of that.
In fairness to Poorvliet he mainly had to work with youngsters in the first team iirc. He didn't have a hope in hell that season hence the relegation and points deduction for the following season. He may have done a lot better with a proper squad but we will never know.
Many of those managers were thrown under the bus by virtue of taking on a job that was offered to them when they just weren't ready - but were never going to turn down (Selles, Poortvliet, Wotte, Bassett/Wise, Wigley)
Jones by a mile. Martin may have been unable to change tactics that clearly weren't working but he did get us promoted. Jones had several weeks to bed in his philosophy with the the players thanks to the World Cup and the "easy" stretch where we weren't facing many of the big clubs and he managed to sink any hope of Premiership survival. I think we'd have been relegated with Ralph too, but we wouldn't have capitulated anywhere near as badly.
