As I've said before, I'm sure some fans just like to remember the bad bits about our managers rather than focus on the good bits. We've had it with Mancini, Pellegrini and I'm sure the same ones will be moaning about Pep when he goes. Honestly, some people need to focus on what is important!
Let's face facts, Joe Royle turned up at our club and it was an absolute mess. We'd spend a fortune on a collection of dreadful footballers and Royle sorted that out.
We were powderpuff and no one was scared of coming to Maine Road. We were a laughing stock. He brought in Andy Morrison for £80k and the rest is history, it's really as simple as that. We started to fight back and players like Morrison, Tiatto, Horlock, The Goat, Dickov etc started to win games for us alongside Cooke, Kennedy etc. It's absolutely correct to say that
Joe Royle turned this club around.
Royle dragged the club around and pulled us from Div 1 to the PL in successive seasons. How many other clubs have done that? That shows what a phenomenal achievement it was. He laid the path for KK to come in and thanks to the work Big Joe did, we ended up with Pep. I can't thank him enough.
Royle also did an phenomenal job at Oldham and if they'd been able to keep some of their players in those sides together, I'm sure they'd have ended up in Europe and maybe challenging for the title. Goram, Irwin, Barrett, Warhurst, Jobson, Henry, Holden, Ritchie, Marshall were superb footballers. He also won Everton the FA Cup which was a great achievement at the time as well.
Joe Royle is simply one of our finest managers. He was one of the few managers in the 90s to leave the club in a FAR better position than when he arrived.