What is the worst managerial reign we've had?

Hodgson.
It was despair.

Souness, as @Limiescouse said, at least was passionate about the club. Awful decisions, truly awful but still trying to get it right.

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Hodgson was a lackey for Hicks and Gillet.

Ignoring the dire football and signings, he represented what was rotten in our club.

After Rafa who fought tooth and nail. He was a spineless yes man. Here to pick up a cheque and not rock the boat.

That speaks to the character of the man, which is why he is by far the worst manager.

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Just on the subject on Blackburn, I think the Rovers team he got relegated remains the most valuable squad, adjusted for inflation, to ever go down.

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Rodgers issue wasn’t not asking for more players, it was not using the ones he had. There was a strong feeling that if the player felt too close to a ‘committee’ signing, he wanted to sideline them to justify getting more power.

After a decent start, he absolutely bombed Victor Moses, who went on to have a couple of good seasons at Chelsea. He was incredibly reluctant to play Sakho, preferring to stick with Toure and Agger. He point blank refused to give a chance to Aspas and Alberto, who both looked decent and went on to have really good careers.

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Do agree with this as well. Pretty sure there were links to some DMs in that transfer window too. Bit to late for me to remember exactly who.he probably torpedoed those signings too.

The worst thing about victor Moses was the fact that he was reinvented as a wingback under Conte. Albeit in a 3-5-2 formation. Rodgers didn’t have the tactical nous (for all his boasting) to even recognise the skills.

Instead playing Aly Cissokho as a wingback.

Moses would have been some supplier for St John.

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Would have parted water too

In retrospect one of the remarkable and fortunate things about that era was that Graham et al didn’t walk before they’d had chance to demonstrate what they were capable of. The number of “I told you so” they have from that era is wild and probably the only thing that kept them in place was probably how low the expectations were for how seriously they would be taken

Interesting to note, there have been only these five questionable managers in the last 60+ years.

Manure have had that many alone since Fergie left, and a few more before he arrived :joy:

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I think they’re on 5 different caretakers if we include Ole who was only given a permanent gig after beating PSG in the CL (thank you Rio)

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For those considering Souness I would say that I have some sympathy for him. He had seen from his European spell the increased professionalism that existed there at that time. He tried to bring that into a group of talented pissheads and of course they resisted. Furthermore, the club management put all the responsibility of contract negotiations etc. on his shoulders which just created even more internal friction.

His player choices in the market were clearly poor but the club was an amatuer club in an ever increasing professional environment. I think he was doomed to failure from Day 1. Better wheeling and dealing would probably have helped but should that have been his job?

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I don’t think he was a particularly good manager and that has shown.

Maybe like Houllier they weren’t quite the managers they were before their operations.

As far as iconic memories go, it doesn’t get much better than this;

Never knew how well chiselled Riera’s jawline was.

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It speaks volumes that there is an unacceptable number of faces in those pics who I cannot confidently put a name to. Without funny youtube videos (jovanovic) way too many them just passed through the club without making a mark

Which only makes his pursuit of Ruddock and Dicks more confusing. Had the players he brought in simply not been the right standard you live with that as an attempt to fix something that just didnt work. But he addressed the need to professionalize the place and kill the drinking culture by bringing in 2 of the most unprofessional people who have ever been at the club.

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Hodgson followed bySouness

Poulsen even looks concerned.

You have to remember with Souness as well that he came in from Rangers where he was seen as a winner, returning them to the top in a much more competitive era in Scottish futbah. At the time, pundits etc (remember Jimmy Greaves for example) were saying he was an excellent choice at would have Liverpool back to the top. I think it’s striking that player selection is something very few managers are good at and the coaching/managing skillset is very different. It’s why the original ‘transfer committee’ occured and why FSG have been so right to move away from a manager led recruitment strategy.

Hodgson for me it was a new low. We really weren’t heading in the right direction with Poulsen, Paul Konchesky’s mum, Northampton at Anfield, the ownership. United were winning title after title with SAF… proper PTSD. For what it’s worth, United’s defeat to Grimsby sent me straight back to our Northampton moment, so I couldn’t even enjoy it very well.:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
Imho Rodgers doesn’t deserve a place on this list. As unlikeable as he may be.