Is Mark McGhee Brighton's greatest ever manager ?

[On the Left Wing]

I see yet another mention of the late Peter Taylor. If you are thinking of the time he shared with Cloughie at the helm of Derby County and Notts Forest then I can see the connection. At Brighton he promised a lot but delivered bugger all.

I agree with you, how can we forget Steve Gritt? He would certainly get everybody's vote of the greatest miracle worker at the Albion. He is certainly up there amongst the very best.

I disgaree .... he discovered and nurtured Peter Ward and more importantly he built up an academy system of sorts) and bought and brought on many many players. IMHO Peter Taylor turned us from a 3rd/4th Division team from the previous 70 years into a strong and almost flamboyant team that made good in the old 2nd division and then into the top flight (albeit under Mullery).

My top 5 would be:
Taylor
Mullery
Adams
McGhee
Gritt

 

[TSB]

went for adams because he helped us the most,FULL STOP.
11 more games this season though and safety this year may change my mind for mcghee.

 

[oapdodge]

Thinking long and hard about this. Over the years I've always put Adams above Mullery. Now I think McGhee has gone beyond the 2 of them and has supassed their achievments. McGhee could prove to be THE manager.

 

[withdeanwombat]

BILLY LANE

 

[timbha]

Taylor (1) and Mullery had money to spend so it's hard to compare.

Gritt worked miracles in the first half of '97, but had nothing to lose. When the pressure was off at the beginning of 97/98 he couldn't get the same fighting spirit from the team (G'ham with 2,000 fans wasn't quite the same as a packed Goldstone).

Adams did a great job turning the club around, made some great signings and some not so good ones, and left us in a far better state than we were before he joined.

I liked Taylor (2) and thought he did everything we could have hoped for, likewise Coppell, but he took us down and is ex Palace.

Mc Ghee could top the lot. He's had no money, made £250k on Currie, sold Cullip and yet the team/results improved. Tactically he's up there with the best BUT the better we do under him the more likely we are to lose him. Remember he said he would honour his two year contract, that ends this summer.

 

[Waterhall Wizard]

I disgaree .... he discovered and nurtured Peter Ward and more importantly he built up an academy system of sorts) and bought and brought on many many players. IMHO Peter Taylor turned us from a 3rd/4th Division team from the previous 70 years into a strong and almost flamboyant team that made good in the old 2nd division and then into the top flight (albeit under Mullery).

My top 5 would be:
Taylor
Mullery
Adams
McGhee
Gritt

You are so wrong when you say Taylor discovered Wardy.

Ken Gutteridge managed our Wizz at Burton Albion. He resigned over a disagreement he had with Burton's committee. They had cocked up a deal he had arranged with a top division club who wanted to sign Wardy.

Taylor appointed Ken coach at Brighton. He joined our Albion on the understanding that Taylor looked at Wardy with a view to signing him. Having watched him three times Taylor didn't fancy Wizz and told Gutteridge that he wasn't going to sign him. Ken said that if Wardy wasn't signed he was leaving his new post. He was told to go and sign Wardy himself, so he did. He waited outside the Rolls Royce factory gates for Wardy to finish his shift, went home with him and signed him for Brighton. The next day Liverpool made an offer to Burton for Wardy, but he was already our player. (Thanks to Ken Gutteridge, despite the hindrance of the late Peter Taylor)

Wardy's debut at Hereford was again at the insistence of Gutteridge. Pressed by Ken to play Wardy he was asked if Wizz was better than our top scorer at that time, Fred Binney. He was told that if Wardy played Taylor would have to drop Binney. Gutteridge insisted that Wardy was good enough and so Taylor relented and gave in.

I'm sorry, but to say that Peter Taylor discovered Peter Ward and nurtured him is a joke.

You say that he turned us from 3rd/4th Division team from the previous seventy years. Again you fall down on your history. We were taken out of the old Third Division South by manager Billy Lane in season 1957/58 when we enjoyed four seasons in the Second Division. We were promoted to the old Second Division again in season 1971/72 with Pat Saward at the helm.

Peter Taylor joined us in season 1973/74 and stayed for under three seasons (two of those in sole charge). We finished 19th, 19th and 4th during his time here. Hardly best manager ever.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Here is what I posted the last time this thread happened, oh about a month ago, still stand by it;

I would say Coppell. Adams, yes he got us out of the third, however for the first season at Withdean, he essentially had a blank canvass to work with. He released something like 15 players, was given a decent budget for that division and brought in his lads from his Fulham and Brentford days, who he knew would get us out of this division and they did.

Taylor will always be tarnished by the fact that he walked away and that other than Lewis it was not his team or coaching staff. However somebody had to manage the side and after the Stoke away game, he stopped pissing around with the selections and we played a settled 4-4-2 line up, did not lose another game that season and pipped those intimidating boys from Berkshire for the title.

Coppell, well he inherited shite. A weaker side than the one Taylor left, due to Morgan's retiring, Lewis not signing and Steele zooming off in a moody car to Oxford. The side had lost 10 on the spin, no confidence, but somehow he nearly kept them up. He actuallly brought in players better than what was here already and had some of the best contacts of any of the numerous managers I have seen at the Albion. Every signing had a habit of fitting into his system and some of the football was good as well. Yes we did get relegated and that will always be against his name, but to get us from rock bottom to having a chance on the last day of staying up was some achievement. Last season he lost his best 2 players in Zamora and Brooker, but found a goal scoring replacement in Knight. Was not helped that he lost both of his senior players to knee injuries, but without playing well except at Rushden away, we were 3 points clear at the top with a game in hand when he left. I do believe that if he had stayed we would have pissed that division as it was poor and we had a style of playing that got us results. People criticise him for leaving, but he turned Reading down once, but the Albion made little effort to keep him, suspicion was we wanted (or needed) the compensation money being offered. His leaving and the fact that he was ex Palace means people did not give him the credit is deserves.

The current manager. Well I think we are surprising ourselves this season. However for most of last season we were poor and he did inherit a side in an automatic promotion spot, but he led us to 4th. However he got us up via the play off's and has led us to a reasonable chance of staying up. Credit goes to him for blooding some of the youngsters, something that never Coppell or Adams really did. However at times some of his selections can be baffling and his tendancy to play certain people out of poistion infuriating. But we are getting results and in our current set up that is all that counts.

But for me it is Coppell, who I would say is the best manager we have had since Catlin.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Coppell certainly did a great job. People have short memories in that they forget how poor we were at times last season (and this) under McGhee and also how far behind and crap we were when Coppell took over.

If only he wasnt a scummer.

 

[Basil Fawlty]

Micky Adams is a god, MM has done miracles for us this season. I will have to say Micky Adams was our greatest manager.

 

[Storer68]

Mullery was a great manager but had more money to spend than any other manager in Albion's history. If McGhee had the budget of a top 6 club in this division he would get us promoted to the Premiership.

True, but you did say Greatest EVER............................

and who isn't to say that Mullery did not earn that money by prodicing the most exciting times in the clubsb history (apols to all the youngsters on here).

Mind you if McGhee had the budget of a BOTTOM 6 club in this division he would get us promoted into the Premiership (IMHO)

 

[Signalman]

I would certainly consider Chris Cattlin to be one of the best.

Alan Mullery was adept at finding midfield-defenders e.g. Lawrenson.

 

[Lokki 7]

Mind you if McGhee had the budget of a BOTTOM 6 club in this division he would get us promoted into the Premiership (IMHO)

Don't mean to be a party pooper (I vote McGhee by the way), but didn't McGhee have that budget you describe whilst at Millwall and fail to reach the Prem?

 

[On the Left Wing]

You say that he turned us from 3rd/4th Division team from the previous seventy years. Again you fall down on your history. We were taken out of the old Third Division South by manager Billy Lane in season 1957/58 when we enjoyed four seasons in the Second Division. We were promoted to the old Second Division again in season 1971/72 with Pat Saward at the helm.

Peter Taylor joined us in season 1973/74 and stayed for under three seasons (two of those in sole charge). We finished 19th, 19th and 4th during his time here. Hardly best manager ever.

I think we will have to disagree on this one WW.

I began watching the Albion under Archie MacAuley and followed closely under successive regimes until I moved away from Sussex at the end of the 1970s.

I am aware of the history and was there when we were promoted under Saward. The point I was trying to make (albeit badly) that until Clough/Taylor's arrival we were never amounting to much as a yo-yo team between the 3rd and 4th divisions (okay 3rd Div South until the early 60s) albeit some brief sojourns in the old 2nd Division. But we were very much a small team on the South coast compared to the likes of Pompey and Southampton. Then under Clough and Taylor and then Taylor, we started bringing in and bringing on some real stars ( I stand corrected on Peter Ward - I had always been led to believe that Taylor discovered him at Burton Albion) and I believe that is when the real transformation of B&HA into a flambouyant "big" team which could compete in Div 2 and eventually get promoted to Div 1 occured. Mullery inherited a tremendous legacy from Taylor.
IMHO

 

[Storer68]

34 league games. Taylor was tactically superb and he will be bringing his rampant Hull team after 2 successive promotions to Withdean next year and some people still say he is no good

All those very very very nervy 1-0s might havehad something to do with it.

However, he put a fekin big silver pot in the cabinet at the end of the seaon which is good enough for me.....................

 

[mr turd]

The 2nd biggest budget in the 3rd Division (behind Cardiff) is not f*** all. f*** all is what McGhee has worked with when you consider the budgets of the rest of the Championship

O yeah sorry i forgot about the 150k for pitcher and zamora yeah big money Look where we was for christ sake,adams is the daddy end of.

 

[patcham seagulls]

can anyone remember the details of chris catlins departure, i'm sure he sued the club for wrongfull dismissal and won.

 

[Waterhall Wizard]

People criticise him for leaving, but he turned Reading down once, but the Albion made little effort to keep him, suspicion was we wanted (or needed) the compensation money being offered. His leaving and the fact that he was ex Palace means people did not give him the credit is deserves.

But for me it is Coppell, who I would say is the best manager we have had since Catlin.

You've hit the nail on the head when you say that we needed the compensation money we were offered for Coppell.

I have heard a message from Coppell left, on the voice mail of somebody working at the Albion, on the day he decided to accept Reading's offer. He was very sad and very much downbeat. He implied that he was left with no option. He also implied that the compensation had already been worked out between the two chairmen before he had even been interviwed, just as if he were a player being transferred.

Having said that, it just shows how near to oblivion this club has been on one or two occasions. DK has had to walk a thin line of what is in the Albion's best interest and the huge financial restraints placed upon him. I for one think that he has done a remarkably good job.

 

[London Irish]

I think there is little to choose between McGhee and Coppell as managerial talents but McGhee wins easily as a Brighton manager by showing more loyalty to us and by delivering concrete rewards at the business end of seasons, something that McGhee has/will do twice to Coppell's zero. Adams third, he did eventually come good after having a lot of Brighton fans on his back demanding his resignation

I reckon McGhee will get one over on Adams for the second time this season by beating or drawing with Coventry, putting them in the bottom 3 with the Gills now recovering strongly. I'm not sure if McGhee could consistently get the better of Coppell though in a battle of tactical wits.

Also, can't say I'm that impressed with this emphasis that people are giving to awarding managers the credit for the success of their successors, in the case of either Adams or Taylor I. Does this mean us McGhee fans can award him the credit of getting a team to a cup final and into the UEFA cup? Not sure about that, really.

 

[Screaming J]

1. Mullery. He took us up 2 divisions in 3 years and kept us in what was then Div 1. OK he had a legacy from Taylor to build on; but he didn't squander it.
2. Adams. OK so he got his mates from Fulham & Brentford to turn us round. But it worked didn't it?
3. McGhee - I think: for displaying more commitment than Taylor (and Coppell althoug I note the anecdotes on this thread). Certainly if he keeps us up.

What do people think about

a. Pat Saward: Always liked him and his team always played attacking footie.
b. Mike Bailey: Did take us to our highest ever position in the football league....but with some pretty boring football.
c. Chris Cattlin. Seems to have a cult following but I always thought he didn't do enough with the players he had. Also remember that 'inspired' tactical change against Saints in the 6th round of the cup in 86. He brought back Mick Ferguson (who was crap) at centre forward and we lost 2-0.

 

[Dave the OAP]

If only he wasnt a scummer.

Well well, you learn something new every day. I didn't know Coppell came from Southampton!

Thanks for imparting that knowledge Richie