Steve Coppell RESIGNS!

[El Presidente]

in my opinion at least, the best manager this club has ever had, certainly in the 25 years that l've been supporting them.

Interesting viewpoint

18 wins and 17 defeats out of 49 matches as manager.

I like Steve, but to attach 'Greatness' on that level of performance seems a bit generous.

 

[Storer68]

To suggest it was due to him bottling it after a few weeks seems a bit far fetched, what pressure would there have been that would have made it too unbearable after just a week of the season? surely if it was pressure, it would have been much later when results and points mattered a lot more.

He has form for that tho'

Manchester City

Saturday, 9 November 1996
It took Manchester City six weeks to find a new manager and 33 days to lose him. Steve Coppell, who was appointed on 7 October, resigned from his post at Maine Road yesterday, citing health reasons. The club, too, had a sickly pallor at the announcement.

In a statement, the 41-year-old Coppell, who will be succeeded on a caretaker basis by his assistant, Phil Neal, revealed that stress had forced his hand. "I am not ashamed to admit I have suffered for some time from the huge pressure I have imposed on myself," he said. "Since my appointment, this has completely overwhelmed me to such an extent that I can't function in the job in the way I would like to.

"As the situation is affecting my well-being, I have asked Francis Lee [the club's chairman] to relieve me of my obligation to manage the club on medical advice. I am therefore resigning solely for personal reasons."

Coppell, looking drawn and his voice cracking with emotion, said it had been the hardest decision he had ever made. "I am extremely embarrassed by the situation and I would like to apologise first and foremost to Francis Lee and his board, who did everything in their power to help me. Francis has been particularly understanding and I would like to thank him for that."

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Interesting viewpoint

18 wins and 17 defeats out of 49 matches as manager.

I like Steve, but to attach 'Greatness' on that level of performance seems a bit generous.

Dont think l actually used the term 'great' did l?, not in that post anyway lol.

Yes no arguing with the stats, but l think for the time he was with us, the players he had to work with, the size of the budget etc. he worked wonders.

Such a quiet and unassuming man too, not at all typical of the archetypal football manager. Maybe as earlier posts have said, being thrust into the spotlight just wasnt for him.

 

[Easy 10]

Interesting viewpoint

18 wins and 17 defeats out of 49 matches as manager.

I like Steve, but to attach 'Greatness' on that level of performance seems a bit generous.

18 wins out of 49 matches when he took over shortly after we'd lost 12 games on the bounce. That team was ill-equipped for the Championship, and the fact we went into the final day with still a (slim) chance of survival was a decent effort at keeping a doomed team up.

If he'd have taken over from Hinshelwood a month earlier, he'd have kept us up that year. One of Dick Knights few major f***-ups.

 

[Scampi]

This is what it all boils down to. People criticise me on this subject endlessly but this is the equivalent of Sir Alex Ferguson taking over at Man City, leading them to a 5-0 defeat at Old Trafford followed by relegation from the Premier League, then walking out to go to Everton after the City fans had (for some unknown reason) really taken to him.

If that scenario panned out, City fans would be LIVID. I can only presume there are just a few of us who care about the albion's history and traditions, and the rest are just happy to get raped by anyone who wants to manage us.

Yeah it's exactly like that

 

[Easy 10]

On the 15th March 2003, with just 9 games left to play, the Division 1 table looked like this:

21st Brighton P37 Pts35
..................................
22nd Stoke P37 Pts 33
23rd Grimsby P37 Pts 33
24th Sheffield Wednesday P37 Pts 30

In other words, HE FAILED. Get over it guys.

I think that table would have been shortly before a particularly crucial defeat away to Stoke (I was there). The writing was on the wall then. He basically did what he could with the resources he had though, and at times even had us playing some decent stuff. Ultimately though, Mourinho wouldn't have been able to save that team from the drop.

Blaming Coppell for that relegation would be like blaming Lewis Hamilton for qualifing last on the grid, in a Skoda Octavia.

 

[itszamora]

I think that table would have been shortly before a particularly crucial defeat away to Stoke (I was there). The writing was on the wall then. He did what he could with the resources he had. Mourinho wouldn't have been able to save that team from the drop.

Blaming Coppell for that relegation iwould be like blaming Lewis Hamilton for qualifing last on the grid, in a Skoda Octavia.

I have to agree. We were truly dire when he took over, had lost 10 straight and then the first two under him, yet to even be where TCB's table showed us some four months later was an incredible achievement.

Yes, we ultimately went down, but literally two points from any one of the ten straight losses before he took over would have saved us. Put in that context and with our inability to compete financially at that level, I think he did brilliantly.

 

[itszamora]

1) We were FIVE points from safety with 34 matches to play when he took over. If that's doomed then I give up here and now.

2) We finished FOUR points from safety. You could argue the extent of his success here was improving us by one point, compared to those around us.

Edit: We actually finished five points from safety. So scrap that moment of praise for Mr Mediocrity.

You have to put that into context though, and it's also true that we had one of if not the smallest playing budgets in that division and a squad that contained, by the end of the season, maybe only four or five players you could really say were individually good enough for that level (Zamora, Kitson when fit, Rodger, Cullip, Blackwell, Mayo on performances that season).

Bobby Zamora was also emphatically NOT the best striker in the division at that point in his career IMO.

 

[Easy 10]

This is what I don't understand, you're making him sound like some sort of miracle worker just for trying - "even Mourinho wouldn't have been able to save that team". We were OUT of the relegation zone in February and March! It wasn't an impossible dream, we should have been favourites to stay up. But we BOTTLED it in all the big games, in my opinion as a result of the type of man we had at the helm.

And the car comparison is ludicrous. He had the best striker in the division at his disposal and was backed by the board to get the likes of Sidwell and Ingimarsson down here. That's not very Skoda-like in my book.

Mainly THANKS to Coppell we were in with a genuine chance of staying up, after probably the most horrendous start to any season I have ever bared witness to at this club. Ever. In the end, unfortunately for us Stoke hit a bit of form in the run-in and pulled right out of it, while we just never strung enough results together to pull ourselves away.

I appreciate in your black and white world everything and everyone is either utter SHIT or absolutely AMAZING, but in my opinion Coppell is a very good manager, an astute manager who, under better circumstances, could've done very well with the Albion. There is no way our relegation in 2003 can just simply be put down to him.

:edit:
The point about Stoke - after they beat us 1-0 at their place on 5th March, they only lost 2 more games out of 11 for the remainder of that season. That was a burst of form we just couldn't keep up with, and thats mainly what done for us.

 

[Agent_Torpor]

BOTTLE JOB.

Good riddance to the prick. I hope he keeps to his word and never comes back.

With you on this one. Unprofessional. Don't care if he's not up to the boardroom politics - you're a gaffer, you've been one for years. Two matches in and you're done? Come on.

 

[sir albion]

He seems to leave clubs early that ain't in the southeast

 

[Sheebo]

The BBC f***ed me off by calling him the former Palace, Reading and Man City manager - so his 1 month in charge at Man City is more recognisable than the good job he did here?! Wankers.

 

[El Presidente]

Coppell is a very good manager, an astute manager who, under better circumstances, could've done very well with the Albion. There is no way our relegation in 2003 can just simply be put down to him.

I AGREE with the above 100% (and not because we are occasional lovers). I liked the guy, found him fascinating (and not because of his holidays to Thailand), but I am not sure he would be classified as the best Albion manager in the last 25 years.

He did inherit a half decent side, despite the 10 consecutive losses before he arrived, and added to it astutely in the form of Rodger, Blackwell, Ingmarrson, Sidwell, Beasant et al. Add to that Cullip, Zamora, Brooker, Chippy and we had a fair side, a lot better than the one that McGhee managed to keep up two years later.

TCB's 'prick' related comments just show what a one dimensional, spiteful and vindictive person he is, which is a shame but perhaps he just wants to be the Richard Littlejohn of NSC.

 

[Easy 10]

Absolutely, sweetchee...I mean El P.
I certainly wouldn't have Coppell down as the greatest manager we've had - he simply wasn't here long enough for that type of accolade, and couldn't quite pull off the rescue act. But his career track record PROVES that he is a class act, and not a bottler or a prick. I was absolutely GUTTED when we lost him, he could have been one of the greats here.

Every player who works with him seems to hold him in the highest regard as well.

 

[Jim in the West]

The thing about Coppell is that he is absolutely honourable....as soon as he realised the Brizzle Shitty job wasn't for him, he was honest enough to resign. The reason it seems so odd is that very few have his honesty. I really hope he stays in football in some form or another - he is obviously a very good coach, and an absolute gent.

Incidentally, I remember many years ago writing to him with my condolences when he had to retire as a player. It was a bit bizarre (I don't make a habit of writing to footballers!). Anyway, he took the time to write a very nice letter back, which I still have somewhere.

 

[Mr Burns]

Think you missed the point of the post. Would hazard a guess that he meant Poyet is committed and wants to be hear but Coppell has now pretty much said he he has had enough of management and so if he had been appointed when it was talk about he might have quit and left us up shit creek.

At least someones on the ball!