Was Alan Ball as bad as people remember?

[Blue Hefner]

Amongst other things, this ‘manager’ thought Ike Immel was a better goal keeper than Tony Coton. For the benefit of those who never had the pleasure of seeing Immel play, I can confirm that he certainly was not a better keeper - he looked 50, never left his line and very rarely saved a shot.

Think Bravo in his first season, then think of Bravo drunk, then think of Bravo drunk and asleep. Then think of a drunk, asleep Bravo in a wheelchair with no arms or legs and you are getting close - a total and utter liability

 

[peoffrey]

Pep got away with Bravo because he was Pep. Imagine if Pellegrini had done the same thing.

 

[Grassland Blue]

The real question is was Alan Ball giving Paul Walsh And cash for Gerry Creaney the worst deal in history

No.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

Kendall had certainly stabilised us and made us hard to beat albeit with some unpopular transfers, was a shame he chose to go the way he did as he seemed to have a plan and couldve brought success, but we'll never know now...

Kendall was a top, top manager. But for the ban, he would have taken Everton close to the European Cup Final at least. When he signed Harper, Quinn and Heath, we had a new dynamic. Harper could play anywhere in defence and midfield - played sweeper and tightened us up at the back. Quinn looked a lot better for us than he was at Arsenal, and Heath and Ward gave us a certain edge.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

My memories are vague but wasn’t Clark excellent at Forest before? It’d seem a logical appointment on paper.

The Royle Rollercoaster must have been a ride. Relegated, promoted, promoted, relegated.

Clark was on an upward trajectory as a manager when he joined us. We were a graveyard to so many coaches who joined us with promises of money to spend that didn't materialise.

 

[Kazzydeyna]

Reading this thread has brought back so many memories that should be bad ones, but given where we are currently I now have the luxury of looking back with almost fondness on those times.
My god we've been on a journey the last 30 years .

 

[OB1]

Pep got away with Bravo because he was Pep. Imagine if Pellegrini had done the same thing.

Not sure what it has to do with Alan Ball and that era but Pep didn't get away with anything. Bravo has shown that he is a decent keeper who had a bad run, for various reasons, but his distribution, which is so important to a Pep team, was and is excellent.

In Pep's first season, he had a team in transition and what a transformation he produced.

 

[Blue Theatre]

Alan Ball !

He was literally the only manager City have hired whom I (and almost every other City fan) knew would be a disaster from Day One.

He'd proven himself a simply terrible manager at Portsmouth (relegated), Stoke (sacked on way to worst ever finish) & Blackpool (sacked on way to relegation).

Came to City, ripped the squad and team spirit apart, and (surprise, surprise) we were also relegated.

Only got the job as he was an old school chum of Frannie Lee's ... and he disliked any player who was taller than him, which didn't leave many options.

Even post-relegation he wasn't sacked ... *he* chose to leave *us* ... and Lee tried to persuade him to stay !

What a club we were back in those dark dark days.

Quite simply our worst manager ever.

 

[Tbilisi]

The second coming of Malcolm and appointing this bloke were probably the 2 things that ensured we went from runners up in 77 to the 3rd division.

Ball was plausible but his record along with some of the stories you hear about him since make you wonder wtf was Lee thinking

 

[cleavers]

We ran a really slick operation back then..

You need a better spellchecker ;-)