Please put these promotion contending managers in a top 5 order or marks out of 10 as to how you rate them, not their team. ie you might rate west ham as a team but not Allardyce as a manager. i am sure we will have an unbiased number 1 - interesting to see if anyone rates another manager above adkins. any comments also useful. a top 5 from these, listed in order of current team position Adkins Allardyce Mowbray Clough Freedman Jewell Ferguson Holloway Poyet Grayson Pearson Mackay Eriksson Houghton for me 1. Adkins -all round abilities, not just at saints but how he done at scunny on limited budget big big gap 2. Grayson - done well at blackpool and pretty well at leeds. 3. Pearson - decent coach 4. Poyet - transformed brighton, prev good coaching record 5. Mowbray i have found it very hard to like any of these other managers.
1. Adkins - Obviously 2. Jewell - Taking wigan up was an awesome job 3. Houghton - Did very well at newcastle 4. Freedman - Done very well at palace so far this season, under the radar 5. Allardyce - did very well with bolton and blackburn
Surprised you didn't have Brian McDermott in there. As for my top 5 I am still thinking. Nigel is at number 1 though.
My top few in the league: 1. Adkins - Been almost faultless since he's arrived. 2. Mowbary - Good manager who reads the game well. Good Football too. Will be more of a test than West Ham at St Mary's in a week and half. 3. Pearson - Fantastic coach and done well at Hull to stabilise them and slice the wage budget. 4. Houghton - Harsh to get rid so early on at Newcastle and they've done well so far considering Europe, they'll be in the play-offs come May. 5. Poyet - Can't stand him but can't ignore the strides Brighton have made. Makes too many hasty decisions at times, hence why I think Adkins is strides ahead. 6. McDermott - Extremely good coach and has got a great team spirit at Reading. Doing all he can with the squad/budget he's been given. He'll be Reading manager a long time. 7. Grayson - Leeds through and through and similar to McDermott - limited in pushing his side onto the next level of being a top two team. 8. Ferguson - Another one who's an arrogant so and so who lives off his dads reputation but has a very exciting squad at 'Boro. Will be linked with Premier League job soon enough. 9. Allardyce - Hugely down in my estimations after last night's so called 'Football'. 10. Freedman - Yet to prove himself long-term but has stamped his authority on the Palace team and some impressive results means they're lying above expectations right now.
If it is on improvement it will be Adkins or Poyet; if it is on overachievement it is McDermott and Freedman. Allardyce has the know how and will get West Ham up.
1. Adkins 2. Poyet - No-one can deny that he's done a top job at Brighton 3. Freedman - Kept Palace up last season, and has subsequently turned them into promotion challengers this season 4. Jewell - Derby aside, he has a very good track record at this level. Wouldn't be surprised if Ipswich follow in the footsteps of Bradford and Wigan 5. McDermott - Has done a good job at Reading and seems slightly similar to Adkins. Was unluckly not to take Reading up last season.
Holloway is great at getting the most out of his players but he is stubborn and sticks to his way of playing, which is entertaining even is it is rather reckless, but for a team that were nowhere a few years ago he has done a good job, he did too at Plymouth look how they have slid since his demise there. As for Sven, what can you say more jobs than any manager I know and has had more pay-offs than all the Championship managers put together, look at his time in charge of Mexico. No wonder he is the richest manager in the world.
You could say the same of Nigel. He is stubborn and ignores interviewers points when they question him on playing out from the back, especially from Davis and also when questioned at the weekend on conceding early goals away from home, and he blatantly ignored the question and pretended not to understand. I know we win more, but just being stubborn isn't always a bad quality, and Adkins is very stubborn IMO. But he's getting the job done, so cannot grumble.
Love it when he always denies reading any papers when interviewer brings up a point made in the media. It's a ploy that avoids him having to comment on gossip.
