Greatest NUFC Manager (of your lifetime)

[Moose]

3 hours ago, Skeletor said:

THE HERO: Kevin Keegan

THE LEGEND: Sir Bobby Robson

THE SAVIOUR: Rafa Benitez

THE GOAT: Eddie Howe

 

THE NICE GUYS: Chris Hughton, Glenn Roeder

 

NON-OFFENSIVE LOSER: Kenny Dalglish

 

SHOULD BE ARRESTED FOR FOOTBALL CRIMES: Graeme Souness, Alan Pardew, Ruud Gullit, Steve McClaren, Sam Allardici

 

PLEASE DIE SOON: Steve Bruce

 

 

 

This is the correct answer.

[gdm]

3 hours ago, Skeletor said:

THE HERO: Kevin Keegan

THE LEGEND: Sir Bobby Robson

THE SAVIOUR: Rafa Benitez

THE GOAT: Eddie Howe

 

THE NICE GUYS: Chris Hughton, Glenn Roeder

 

NON-OFFENSIVE LOSER: Kenny Dalglish

 

SHOULD BE ARRESTED FOR FOOTBALL CRIMES: Graeme Souness, Alan Pardew, Ruud Gullit, Steve McClaren, Sam Allardici

 

PLEASE DIE SOON: Steve Bruce

 

 

Keegan was the ultimate saviour. Saved the club as a player and a manager and he saved the club from a far worse predicament than Rafa 

 

 

Edited January 8 by gdm

[Jonas]

Keegan.

We all know Sir Bobby, Eddie and Rafa were better tactically. On the other hand could they have achieved what KK did, each might maintain a 12point lead but would they get one.

That said the sad thing still is that they each inherited a poor situation and couldn't tag on to good work of a pervious regime - and we so nearly managed it with KK to Sir Bobby.

Feels sort of like Eddie and Sir Bobby saved the team from relegation and transformed it but Keegan saved the club from relegation and transformed it. Gave us a different history and feel than we'd have had without him.

 

[Vedder]

17 hours ago, Lucky said:

#1 King Kev, there’d be none of this without him.

 

#2 SBR - classy.. impossible not to respect him. Sorted out a mess and gave us some fantastic years.

 

#3 Eddie - has probably had things at his disposal the first 2 could only have dreamt of but he saved us from almost certain relegation and given us air to breathe so we could go on to do the things we’ve done since. Right up there in the conversation.

 

#4 Rafa - he just got it. Knew what we needed and repeatedly kept polishing turds. Sad the way it ended. Someone I’d have loved to have seen backed properly.

 

Honourable mentions Roeder & Hughton.

Agree with this 100%. Weird to most, but I don’t see trophies as the be all and end all of football. It’s about the emotion and memories teams create. I think given my age and what had come before, nothing will ever compare to Keegan for me. I think Sir Bobby’s time here is also underrated, restored a lot of pride, helped Shearer reinvent himself and gave us some incredible times. 
 

I love Eddie too (find it incredible some were questioning his position recently, whilst others have him as their best

manager of their life times). He’s been incredible and the cup win was fantastic. But that alone doesn’t take him above the top two for me. I think he’ll be up there by the time he leaves though. 

[Danh1]

Keegan and Howe the best. Cannot separate them, the trophy last season doesn’t happen without either of those men. 
 

Robson. Top man and done a great job here. Was the manager as I was old enough to start going to games and actually know what’s going on. 
 

Benitez. Made me realise that we aren’t a vehicle to promote a tacky sports brand, but actually a football club. Brought hope, brought Staveley to the party. 
 

Hughton. What a job he done, steadied the ship at its rockiest time. Unfairly sacked.

 

Roeder. Picked up after that dour Scottish cunt Souness.

 

Haven't got the energy to write about any of the others. 

[Kaizero]

In my lifetime it'll be Kevin Keegan, given the fact he has the highest PPG of all our managers since I was born in 1989. 

[Collage]

43 minutes ago, Kaizero said:

In my lifetime it'll be Kevin Keegan, given the fact he has the highest PPG of all our managers since I was born in 1989. 

An answer from the heart 

[Collage]

Probably

 

1. Keegan

2. Sir Bobby

3. Eddie

4. Rafa

5. Hughton

6. Roeder

7. Gullit

8. Dalglish

9. McClaren

10. Fat Sam

11. Souness

12. Pardew & Brucey

[Wolfcastle]

8 hours ago, kingxlnc said:

Disagree that Kenny Dalglish was non-offensive

Broke up KK team. Scored 36 goals all season. Signed old timers like Rush and Barnes. Signed Des Hamilton and Andreas Andersson. Got rid of Ferdinand and Ginola. 
Majorly overrated. 

The PLC excuse that always comes up spares him unduly and it doesn't follow - his (mostly atrocious) spend was competitive with anyone's to have us drop like a stone. The only player he was forced to sell was Ferdinand, he couldn't wait to get shot of Ginola and Tino.

 

Way the question is phrased and my interpretation of "Greatest" - definitely Keegan.  

 

 

Edited January 8 by Wolfcastle

[Ben]

2 minutes ago, Collage said:

Probably

 

1. Keegan

2. Sir Bobby

3. Eddie

4. Rafa

5. Hughton

6. Roeder

7. Gullit

8. Dalglish

9. McClaren

10. Fat Sam

11. Souness

12. Pardew & Brucey

 

Jim Smith needs to be above Gullit and Willie Mcfaul above him, not to mention Jack Charlton 

[Wolfcastle]

Keegan / Sir Bobby / Eddie

Rafa

Smith / Hughton /  Roeder

Pardew

Gullit (at least it didn't get worse and the football improved)

Dalglish / Allardyce / Kinnear

McClaren (terrible manager, but at least a manager) / Ossie (nice guy, lovely football but was taking us into Div3 without doubt)

Souness / Bruce (no business ever being employed as football managers)

 

*Not in my life but since I started going

 

 

Edited January 8 by Wolfcastle

[Collage]

Just now, Ben said:

 

Jim Smith needs to be above Gullit and Willie Mcfaul above him, not to mention Jack Charlton 

I have no experience or recollection of those geezers as NUFC managers...started supporting the club during the Keegan era

[Checko]

Joe Kinnear. 'Yohan Kebab' and 'Charles Insomnia' is legendary stuff.

[NSG]

Keegan

Howe

Bobby

Rafa

Hughton/Roeder

The rest

[Craig]

#1 Keegan

#2 Howe

#3 Sir Bobby

 

Howe moves to top spot when he gets us involved in a title challenge.

 

[Kid Icarus]

SBR above Howe is insane like. 

[Ben]

15 minutes ago, Collage said:

I have no experience or recollection of those geezers as NUFC managers...started supporting the club during the Keegan era

 

If your not going to be born in the 70s can you even say you support us properly?

[Collage]

10 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

SBR above Howe is insane like. 

"Insane", really? I thought about it, could have Howe above SBR, either way really.

 

 

Edited January 8 by Collage

[Colos Short and Curlies]

34 minutes ago, Wolfcastle said:

The PLC excuse that always comes up spares him unduly and it doesn't follow - his (mostly atrocious) spend was competitive with anyone's to have us drop like a stone.

Went from 2nd and the best football in the country to the cusp of the relegation zone in just over a year - Barnsley would have been level on points with us had they beaten us over Easter (we had cto cheat to beat them). He's down there with the worst of them for job done but wasn't unlikable somehow.

 

Way the question is phrased and my interpretation of "Greatest" - definitely Keegan.  

 

 

 

 

The only slight get out Kenny has is that he lost Shearer and Les in the same weekend. That's 40-50 goals gone and a need to play JDT in a totally unsuitable role.

 

The signings etc to deal with that were terrible, no getting away from that but it was a shitty card to be dealt and imo puts him as the best of the worst

[Wolfcastle]

3 minutes ago, Colos Short and Curlies said:

 

The only slight get out Kenny has is that he lost Shearer and Les in the same weekend. That's 40-50 goals gone and a need to play JDT in a totally unsuitable role.

 

The signings etc to deal with that were terrible, no getting away from that but it was a shitty card to be dealt and imo puts him as the best of the worst

I can go along with that.

Were worse if anything when Shearer came back though.

[Gottlob]

Your age and relationship to the game at various points in your life will obviously have a huge impact here. I was just about to turn six when Keegan arrived at Newcastle, saw my first ever game during a pre-season friendly that summer and then started attending St James' regularly with my father and grandfather during our promotion season.

 

He and the players were heroes to me then in a way they cannot and probably should not be now. While I admire and am hugely fond of Howe and some of the players that feeling is compromised by my sense of the world and their place in it, by the hierarchical and money-dominated nature of today's sport, by our ownership and so much more.

 

For me Keegan had not only by far the biggest impact in terms of reviving the fortunes of the club but also produced our best sides and gave us our most exciting players. We might not have always been the free-scoring side that 'The Entertainers' monicker suggests but I also feel that Keegan gave us our most fluid and cohesive elevens: under Robson there was a wonderful balance to our front six with the pace and directness of Bellamy, Robert and Dyer complementing Shearer, Speed and Solano's experience and guile, but I thought our defenders were pretty woeful, while at times under Howe we have struggled in terms of fluidity and control on the ball.

 

Keegan was also our most charismatic manager. Perhaps his sense of righteousness was kind of overweening or he was sometimes too quick to take offence, but his passion and openness and ability to wear his heart on his sleeve is still a model for me though Howe in a more complicated period always speaks well and is really pitch-perfect with the press.

 

I still regard 1995-96 as our pinnacle in all my years of watching the club. Robson was wonderful overall but I personally soured on him during his last year or so when I felt like he started playing favourites and kind of dismantled a really promising squad. For me Robson and Howe would be pretty much level in terms of a ranking but Howe has plenty more to give and obviously the League Cup win already provides a strong reason for giving him the edge.

 

Perhaps controversially I don't think Benitez was a top manager by the time he arrived at the club and I thought he did a good rather than great job even considering the difficult circumstances. For me he has always been overly conservative and questionable in the transfer market and while he gave us back a level of respect, I think in terms of getting the most out of the squad you could even argue that Bruce fared better in the 2018-19 season when we ended up in a similar position despite having nothing up front. For that reason I ultimately think of Benitez like I think of Hughton: dignified managers who did well but were always going to struggle to amount to much.

 

The rest were substandard to diabolical, with the latter sometimes more fun. Time has softened my view on Dalglish and Gullit but I still loathe Allardyce and Bruce.

[Kaizero]

44 minutes ago, Collage said:

An answer from the heart 

 

My mind's just not structured to deal with a question like this where there's a fact-based answer in any other way than answering the fact-based answer  

 

If I was to solely base my answer on the emotional impact provided by an NUFC manager in my lifetime, it's hard to look past Howe being in charge of the team that won the first piece of silverware I've witnessed NUFC winning in my lifetime  If basing it on "good memories of the time a manager was in charge of NUFC", it'll be hard for me to not answer SBR as his time in charge is also the time in my life when I'd become "old enough" to really pay attention to NUFC on a week-by-week basis compared to the earlier "being a kid" phase in my life as an NUFC supporter (where it was more "I support NUFC, NUFC are the best!" rather than "Given the players at the manager's disposal, I believe it'd serve us better if player X was i the first XI rather than player Y" and so on), thus essentially serving as  the baseline for all emotional impact NUFC would have on my life in all the years to follow – both negatively and positively. 

 

A "combined" answer taking all three scenarios for coming up with an answer would likely see me answer Howe, as he's second in PPG of NUFC managers in my lifetime + won actual, genuine, silverware in the process – as well as him having overseen our return from the Ashley years and our subsequent evolution from "PL filler club" into a team wanting to win stuff. At the same time, it just feels wrong to answer Howe for me until his time here has come to a close, as I don't know how I'll feel about his complete time in charge of the club and so on  

[Kid Icarus]

31 minutes ago, Collage said:

"Insane", really? I thought about it, could have Howe above SBR, either way really.

 

 

 

Insane is hyperbole just to make a point tbf, but I do think there's no contest between what they achieved in the contexts they each had.

 

SBR came in when the club had just been rebuilt into one of the biggest in Europe, had big spending power over most of the league, had just been in the CL, and the competition at the very top was Man United and Arsenal, with Liverpool and at a push Leeds the only teams knocking on the door. We finished 11th, 11th, 4th, 3rd, 5th and got into the CL twice, but won no silverware.

 

Howe came in after 14 years of Ashley, with most of the league miles ahead of us in every aspect, 6 teams with miles more spending power and pull and capable of winning the league, and all of the clubs knocking on the door now knocking at the door of top 4 rather than the title and there have been loads of them: Villa, Leicester, Wolves, West Ham, Brighton, Everton, Southampton etc. The league overall is miles more competitive now than SBR's era. We've finished 12th, 4th, 7th, 5th, got into the CL twice in and won our first silverware in 55 years.

 

 

Edited January 8 by Kid Icarus

[Wandy]

The difference between Howe and Keegan is that Howe is managing NUFC but Keegan literally built NUFC. Only people who were following the club pre-1992 will understand that. An all-new NUFC unofficially came into existence in 1992.

 

And as for Eddie, well he is going to have to win another trophy or three before he gets on KK's level of status I'm afraid. 

[gazza ladra]

5 hours ago, gdm said:

Keegan was the ultimate saviour. Saved the club as a player and a manager and he saved the club from a far worse predicament than Rafa 

 

 

 

OK, I didn't follow the club during Keegan's first stint as manager.

 

I think Rafa "saved" the club for me in the sense that he gave me hope when there was no reason left to care. 

 

It's a bit like that Ben Arfa Hope banner. I absolutely love Rafa and Ben Arfa in away that goes beyond their actual achievements. Like I think I still love Rafa and Ben Arfa more than Howe and Bruno, which makes absolutely no sense.

 

That said, I'm sure Keegan must tower above everyone else. But I wasn't around to experience it.