I know that John Bond will most likely always be the most hated manager, but the football wasn't so terrible as I recall

So who's ideas had the team playing the worst?

Martin Buchan?

The one that came to my mind was Chris Waddle.

Seemed tactically inept, Signed really bad players and didn't play good ones, and had, by his own admission IIRC, didn't have the temperament to handle the pressure or position. All in all a pretty bad combination for a manager.

Dyche..?

Without hesitation I give you John Benson and Tommy Cavanagh

If its Burnley then its 'Chrissie Waddle' the Sausage factory sweeper upper...

If its anywhere then I reckon Mark Lawrenson ....

I remember him criticising Waddle on TV and Waddles comeback was about Lawrensons 'Glittering manegerial career' comedy gold

If you’re going for any club, Gary Neville and Alan Shearer must both have one of the worst records??

Waddle.

Can anyone get hold of that radio recording when he lost the plot saying if you want me to go I'll go? One of my early memories that as a kid.

ClaretTony wrote:Without hesitation I give you John Benson and Tommy Cavanagh

Must admit during the Benson and Cavanagh years I gave up watching......go on, part timer I know

Waddle
Buchan never really got started

Neither did Waddle, Benson or Cavanagh

Can't be Waddle he kept us up.

Benson with a good squad took us down

Been watching since 1990 and, strictly for Burnley, I have to say Brian Laws. Not to say he wasn’t at least an average manager elsewhere. To this day though, the appointment baffles me.

At least we stayed up under Waddle and he brought in Andy Payton. Nevertheless, he was also awful.

Some of the football under Bond was fantastic.

Worst football for me was under Waddle, particularly the first half of the season. Funnily enough, when he realised that Glen Little was fit to lace the gaffer's boots, the football improved.

The football under Benson was also ****. How he got relegated with that squad in 1984/85 is a mystery.

Burnley Cavanagh
General Frank De Boer

In my lifetime, it's definitely Laws. A bizarre appointment which yielded predictable results.

bfcjg wrote:Burnley Cavanagh
General Frank De Boer

Is that who the war is named after?

can't understand why John bond gets so much stick ..given a budget ..spent it


tin hat ready

We were dross under Waddle, even when he’d spent a decent amount of money, until he brought Andy Payton and Glen Little in.

We were also awful a fair number of times under Cotterill, but I can excuse him that given the huge constraints he was under.

ClaretTony wrote:Without hesitation I give you John Benson and Tommy Cavanagh

Tony and I disagree on a number of topics. However, on this one, without hesitation, I am in full agreement with him.

Aclaret wrote:Must admit during the Benson and Cavanagh years I gave up watching......go on, part timer I know

There's a difference between 'gave up watching' and stopping going on't t'Turf.

A lot of us who still went on at that time, 'gave up watching'.

Woodleyclaret wrote:Waddle
Buchan never really got started

Buchan would have been diagnosed as in the middle of a breakdown by the time he quit, if it happened today. One of the craziest periods in our or any clubs history. I believe he was running around the pitch and looking like he might pick himself only hours before he resigned.... and the office fridge was always well stocked to boot.

Although he was never technically our manager, a dishonourable mention must go to that kind of ineptitude, Glen Roeder was "helped" Chris Waddle so much.

elwaclaret wrote:Buchan would have been diagnosed as in the middle of a breakdown by the time he quit, if it happened today. One of the craziest periods in our or any clubs history. I believe he was running around the pitch and looking like he might pick himself only hours before he resigned.... and the office fridge was always well stocked to boot.

Buchan just couldn't deal with the job but his appointment was very strange. Teasdale told Tommy Hutchison the job was his and then announced Buchan without even bothering to tell Hutchison. Buchan then offered the assistant's job to Hutchison and he told him where he could shove it. Hutchison then went to Swansea at the age of 37 and played another 178 league games for them.

Tommy Hutch is looking a bit older these days

Re Buchan: I had a friend at the time who taught in a local primary school. She told me Buchan and his wife had been in on a particular Monday to put their kids names down to start asap and it was agreed they'd start the following week, but five days later Mrs B phoned to say they wouldn't be coming. Buchan didn't actually quit for another two weeks.

Re Waddle: I think Waddle looked at our position in the football pyramid and thought, this is fairly simple. They've a bit of cash to spend (compared to most others in the division) and their name carries a bit of clout. So sign on a few seasoned, journeymen type, old school pros to bulk out the team and it should be easy enough to "old head" your way up, and possibly out of, this division. And all done without really leaving the comfort of your own luxurious living room hundreds of miles away much of the time and by delegating most of the "hands on" stuff to an able assistant. He very quickly discovered that it really was far, far harder than that and also that his "able" assistant was actually way more useless than even he was!! In effect Waddle played at management and we were the victims and were lucky to survive it.....just!

Dark Cloud wrote:Re Buchan: I had a friend at the time who taught in a local primary school. She told me Buchan and his wife had been in on a particular Monday to put their kids names down to start asap and it was agreed they'd start the following week, but five days later Mrs B phoned to say they wouldn't be coming. Buchan didn't actually quit for another two weeks.

Re Waddle: I think Waddle looked at our position in the football pyramid and thought, this is fairly simple. They've a bit of cash to spend (compared to most others in the division) and their name carries a bit of clout. So sign on a few seasoned, journeymen type, old school pros to bulk out the team and it should be easy enough to "old head" your way up, and possibly out of, this division. And all done without really leaving the comfort of your own luxurious living room hundreds of miles away much of the time and by delegating most of the "hands on" stuff to an able assistant. He very quickly discovered that it really was far, far harder than that and also that his "able" assistant was actually way more useless than even he was!! In effect Waddle played at management and we were the victims and were lucky to survive it.....just!

Waddle admits he completely underestimated the job. It is no co- incidence he never took another managers job.

I know this won’t go down well, but some of the dross served up under Brian Miller was bloody awful...

I think Benson edges it for me tho... (see what I did there, eh? Eh?)

If you look at that Waddle season as a whole it's remarkable we survived. Was it 6 games without a goal and 11 without a win from the start? From the new year onwards we were in automatic promotion/play-off form - especially at home which included putting 7 past York.

He massively underestimated the task and made some poor recruitment choices but at least somehow managed to turn things around and signed Andy Payton. Having survived that first season I was quite hopeful about where he would take things but his resignation (if that's what it was) probably worked out best for all concerned.

Can't argue with CT's choices, Benson and Kavanagh by a country mile compared with the rest.

Buchan.

ClaretTony wrote:Buchan just couldn't deal with the job but his appointment was very strange. Teasdale told Tommy Hutchison the job was his and then announced Buchan without even bothering to tell Hutchison. Buchan then offered the assistant's job to Hutchison and he told him where he could shove it. Hutchison then went to Swansea at the age of 37 and played another 178 league games for them.

Tommy Hutch is looking a bit older these days

Living up in Guisborough at the time we were expecting Hutch and Reeves to get it, when we were rung up by Bobby Driver (think it was a Sunday) only to tell us it was Buchan. Gutted.
We got to know Bobby from the Centre spot and a couple of times in the 80s he would stay convalesce in Saltburn by the sea and we would go and visit

ClaretTony wrote:Buchan just couldn't deal with the job but his appointment was very strange. Teasdale told Tommy Hutchison the job was his and then announced Buchan without even bothering to tell Hutchison. Buchan then offered the assistant's job to Hutchison and he told him where he could shove it. Hutchison then went to Swansea at the age of 37 and played another 178 league games for them.

Tommy Hutch is looking a bit older these days

Not that much!

bobinho wrote:I know this won’t go down well, but some of the dross served up under Brian Miller was bloody awful...

I think Benson edges it for me tho... (see what I did there, eh? Eh?)

I'm assuming you mean second time round for Miller, and it was no surprise given the players he had at his disposal. Benson, however, managed to take a side into the fourth division that included the likes of Vince Overson, Micky Phelan, Tommy Hutchison, Wayne Biggins, Brian Flynn (who he ridiculously ditched) and Kevin Hird.

Herts Clarets wrote:Not that much!

You are probably right - he was a bloody old looking 35 year old when we signed him. Incredibly though he played all 92 league games in his two seasons at Burnley and I'm not certain he was ever substituted. Went on to play exactly 1,000 club games in his career too.

Burnley would have to be Waddle in my lifetime.

Other clubs has to see Leeds in with a shout David Hockett or something like that brought in from like the 8th tier or something or Barsteward's very own Henning Berg.

Wokingclaret wrote:Living up in Guisborough at the time we were expecting Hutch and Reeves to get it, when we were rung up by Bobby Driver (think it was a Sunday) only to tell us it was Buchan. Gutted.
We got to know Bobby from the Centre spot and a couple of times in the 80s he would stay convalesce in Saltburn by the sea and we would go and visit

Shame about Reeves. He could have made a real difference in those dark days had he stayed fit.

In terms of inept managers outside Burnley the appointment of Joe Kinnear at Newcastle was very odd. He was completely out of his depth and out of touch with the game by that point.

Has to be Waddle. Can you imagine Dyche picking his team by just naming the best 11 players at the club, regardless of position, and just saying it'll all work itself out?

It's a fallacy that Bond's name appears in these threads, especially for football reasons.

Toss up between Laws/Waddle,Laws was certainly the worst ever appointment of a manager the club has ever made,totally out of his depth,having said that I'll go for Waddle totally clueless.

Fretters wrote:Has to be Waddle. Can you imagine Dyche picking his team by just naming the best 11 players at the club, regardless of position, and just saying it'll all work itself out?

No, and I can't imagine Waddle doing it either.

groove wrote:It's a fallacy that Bond's name appears in these threads, especially for football reasons.

It's fashionable to criticise him but the simple fact is we played some terrific football that season and I still believe he'd have taken us up but for the Reeves injury.

Waddle. Hopeless; clueless; out of his depth.

Surprisingly, the record of Brian Laws stacks up pretty well when you look how he managed in the Championship comparison to many other managers who have been relegated with teams from the Prem.

I now regret starting this thread as the memory of John Bensons permanently attached blue tracksuit bottoms has come flooding back

ClaretTony wrote:No, and I can't imagine Waddle doing it either.

Then Paul Weller must be telling lies on his recent interview via the club website.

ClaretTony wrote:Buchan just couldn't deal with the job but his appointment was very strange. Teasdale told Tommy Hutchison the job was his and then announced Buchan without even bothering to tell Hutchison. Buchan then offered the assistant's job to Hutchison and he told him where he could shove it. Hutchison then went to Swansea at the age of 37 and played another 178 league games for them.

Tommy Hutch is looking a bit older these days

After that he played for Merthyr for a bit. Absolute nutcase, in a entertaining sort of way. I went to an away game on the team coach when he was there. Oddly, I can remember him on the coach, but can't remember a lot about him on the pitch.

John Carver at Newcastle - and Ardiles for that matter.
Caldwell (not ours, the other one) at Chesterfield.
More recently, that American guy at Swansea. How did he turn a solid-ish side into that heap of dross so quickly?
Gary Neville was a good shout (above), but Alan Shearer had about 6 games to turn a side that played like Bury into one that played like Man. City, so he was never likely to succeed.

Surprised no-one's mentioned Steve Cotterill yet,that 19 game winless spell tested the loyalty of the most diehard fans,you wondered where the next shot was coming from,let alone the next goal.

Murger wrote:In my lifetime, it's definitely Laws. A bizarre appointment which yielded predictable results.

Ridiculous. There's no way he's worse than Waddle. Unless you're in your late teens/early twenties in which case he's not from your lifetime.

ClaretTony wrote:Buchan just couldn't deal with the job but his appointment was very strange. Teasdale told Tommy Hutchison the job was his and then announced Buchan without even bothering to tell Hutchison. Buchan then offered the assistant's job to Hutchison and he told him where he could shove it. Hutchison then went to Swansea at the age of 37 and played another 178 league games for them.

Tommy Hutch is looking a bit older these days

He looks pretty good! And he would have been a better manager than Buchan. We may not have ever gone down to the 4th division.

Worst manager: Cavanagh.