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my concern is that all the goodwill mickey had is going down the toilet



Uncle Spielberg

Well-known member
Jul 6, 2003
43,036
Lancing
I would have him back tomorrow like a shot.
 


Uncle Spielberg

Well-known member
Jul 6, 2003
43,036
Lancing
Infact I think it is becoming very clear that Peter Taylor is the best manager we have had during the Withdean years.
 




Uncle Spielberg

Well-known member
Jul 6, 2003
43,036
Lancing
Coppell - NAH
McGhee - close second to Taylor
 






Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
56,591
Back in Sussex
It's a good debate and I'll add my input...

1. Adams joined a club in disarray. Yes, yes he did. But his management career was largely going nowhere. Al Fayed turfed him out of Fulham in favour of a big name (Keegan) but, in fairness, Adams had done well there. After that he spent 2 weeks at Swansea before jumping ship to Brentford. He did rubbish there and Noades brought himself in as Manager-chairman or something.

So in summary: Yes, Adams did join a club in disarray. Which was handy, as it matched his managerial career at the time quite nicely.

2. Adams built a decent team. No real argument here - the league table told no lies. However, as I've said many times before, I believe Adams had a massive slice of luck. He had some cash burning a hole in his pocket and wanted a forward, someone who would propel his team out of English football's basement division. He found his man - tall, dark and dashingly handsome.

Unfortunately for Adams, Noades still seemed to have a grudge against him and outbid the Albion for Lorenzo Pinamonte. With almost nowhere left to turn, Adams bought Bobby Zamora - about 12th choice at striker-rich Bristol Rovers.

A solid team with raw Premiership-calibre talent up front was the winning combination and Zamora's goals fired Adams' team to the title.

Summary: Adams' first choice, Pinamonte, disappeared off the football map. His backup Zamora continues to ply his trade at Premiership level. Good luck? Yes, I think so.

3. Adams left the Albion all but up. Adams knew the restrictions of his team and was as surprised as anyone to find them challenging at the right end of table early on in the season. He left believing he was leaving a team at his peak. He proved to be wrong as Peter Taylor came in and strung together an incredible sequence of results to see the Albion win the title ahead of Reading. Most of that Reading team went on to win subsequent promotion to the Premiership.

Did Adams lay the foundations? It would be churlish to suggest anything else, but those foundations, fortuitously, included Zamora (see above).

Summary: Peter Taylor managed the team for around 75% of that season - what he did was not just "a steering job".

4. Adams returned to the Albion to lead them onto Falmer. I'm sure that's what he wanted (and wants) to do. But let's not forget that, since leaving the Albion, his managerial career had progressed to the point he was assistant reserve team manager (or something similar) at Colchester. As with his first stint at the Albion, his managerial career was in absolute tatters and he was lucky that Dick Knight thinks so fondly about the-son-he-wished-he'd-had to give him another go.

Summary: Adams would have taken a job almost anywhere, the chance to return to a place where he is viewed as a prodigal son was, unsurprisingly, too tempting to resist.
 


SICKASAGULL

New member
Aug 26, 2007
871
You cant criticize Adams for leaving us, no more than Taylor,Coppell,Horton etc they all realized that with little money to spend on players their reputations would suffer,it just proved they were ambitious and knew they were at a club that had very limited means.
Coppell in particular showed us what he could achieve if given the required finances, its a great pity he was not given the opportunity here.
 




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