Who is your all-time favourite BHA manager and why?

[W.C.]

For what he did for my club: Steve Gritt

For creating the best pub team I've ever seen: Mickey Adams

For the best footballing side to wear the stripes: Gus Poyet. I wasn't interested in his press conferences, it was just the football for me.

Been reading this thread agreeing with a lot of things a lot of different people have said, but finding it really hard to sum up my own thoughts on the matter. In the end the last post I get to probably gets as close to what I think as possible.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Hughton has become my favorite, already, for a combination of his all round ability, class and character.

From the past, Lloyd gave me my favorite ever promotion, so I'll put him at #2.

And I just really liked Slade and his incredible Great Escape run, culminating in the great Stockport pitch invasion. #3.

 

[KingKev]

Mullery or Gritt - tough call.
Honourable mentions to Adams Mk1, Poyet, Taylor Mk 1, Slade, Wendy and Catlin. Don't forget what a good job Coppel did as well and Barry Lloyd did some great work against the odds.
We've had a few good'uns haven't we?

 

[nelson73]

My favourite manager is probably Hughton, I like the understated way he goes about things and the excellent style of (dinosaur!!!) football and results that he is producing. I wasn't old enough to appreciate Mullery but the stories are legendary and you sense the fire in him still when he speaks in interviews about the club.

Strangely though, my favourite season following the club was Barry Lloyd's 87/88 team. It was my first year as a season ticket holder and as a 14 year old doing those away trips with a group of mates will live with me forever. We were basically the Inbetweeners doing football. Lots of memories....and a great team too!

loved that team.garry nelson and kevin bremner

 

[Phat Baz 68]

It was damp wasn't it?

It wasn't that day it was sweltering, I was though !!!

 

[Phat Baz 68]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2ydQM5SHhM

All about the Albion before the FA Cup Final 1983

 

[grummitts gloves]

Has to be Mullers for me. Manager in my first season in 1976. What a team! I used to watch them from the half way line in the West Stand and at that tender age just thought it was natural that we would win every game we played. On second thoughts, I blame Mullers for suckering me into being a Brighton fan and also enduring years of misery after he'd gone!

 

[Hotchilidog]

Of the managers whose tenure I have witnessed I am tempted to go.

1. Adams MK1. You could tell the club had moved on from being happy to still be here to actually wanting to win, and WIN they did.
2. Poyet. Whilst I have a more negative view of him now, that L1 Championship winning campaign was something to behold, we absolutely stormed it and ran the opposition into submission. Shame it all ended badly but I will remember that season very fondly.
3. Hughton. If we go up this will change to number one. This has been an astonishing season so far, able to deploy flair, panache, grit and determination in equal measure.
4. McGhee. Did a vastly underrated job getting a poor side promoted and then miraculously keeping us up as the battle for Falmer sucked the club dry and we had to sell, sell.
5. Slade. How can you not look back fondly on this most charismatic of cameos. A real gent and glad he's still working at a high level.
6. Oscar Garcia. I enjoyed the Spanish year, over achieving with a thin squad and gave us THAT goal at Forest.
7. Coppell. The big if only, brought in quality players, made us look like a team again after inheriting an on-field car crash.
7. Peter Taylor. Gave us a grittily won championship and was able to put one over on Pardew, and who cannot like that!

 

[Brian Fantana]

I'm very torn on my choice at the moment, but IF CH delivers promotion this year then it will be very hard to argue against him being top of the list.

In short, re-visit this poll in May!

 

[papajaff]

Mullery all day long. Great times and a great bloke. Then Peter Taylor Mk1 and then the superb Chris Cattlin.

Micky Adams can **** right off. Miserable ****.

 

[Del Fenner]

Mullery by a country mile. We loved to hate the bloke, no-one else will have Selhurst singing about him 35 years on.

 

[smeg]

Yeah this is mine

1. Chris Houghton if the dream happens?
2. Micky Adams
3. Jimmy Melia for getting us to Wembley, even Europe had Smithy scored

 

[Munkfish]

My first season as a young boy was around 95/96 So havent really experianced too many 'Great' Managers. So for me my personal Favourite are:

Adams MK 1: Gave me something to support as a teenager, the core of the team he built was in the main a huge part of the withdean era. Bringing Zamora to the club was a masterstroke and to get us out of Div 2 was a huge at the time, I guess it was the begining of the new Brighton and the one which we loved today. Also all the support he gave the club once he left cannot be forgot.

Gus Poyet: He took us into a new stadium playing the best football I have seen a Brighton team play, turned average players into quality ones and gave us some great times, we went from being little old Brighton under Gus to a team people feared and found a new respect for. Who else would have the cheek to bring in VICENTE. It ended on a sour note, but the good times were great and he only has himself to blame for not going down as a club legend with his child like behaviour. I am sure he will always know he ****ed up when he left us.

Dean Wilkins: I thought he was a good manager, the perfect manager for the time, we were treading water and had little money available, he managed to get a team of youth players to finish 7th in the league before Dick harshly sacked him, I really enjoyed those times, probably because the players were roughly my age, but I could properly get behind the team and thought there was a closeness and a connection with the club.

Special Mention to Coppell: How he turned round the shower of shite that Hinshlewood had assembled and turned us into a team who almost stayed up I never know. If he managed that it easily would have been one of the biggest achievements of an Albion manager ever. the guy turned Kerry Mayo into a top end championship left wing back FFS.

 

[BigGully]

Personally I cannot see beyond Mullery, I was young, we were brilliant, we were going up .......................

I am staggered that Melia gets a mention, he just happened to be the manager at a historic time, I know a little about the man at that time and he was a chancer.

As has already been mentioned, George Aitken was his assistant but Melia bullied him as Fozzie bullied Melia, the team got them to the final not Melia.

 

[seagully]

Hinshelwood for me.

 

[sir albion]

Poyet for me. We played some unbelievable stuff at times, and he bought some absolute bargains - Greer, Noone, Ulloa, Bridcutt, Barnes etc etc. Yes he was arrogant, but frankly I liked that in him - he brought the Albion to the attention of the National Press. I would say his teams played the best football I've seen at the Albion

What about the many many drab games that out weighed the good games by a country mile...people always seem to forget
Yes we played some great stuff at times although very rarely won those games.
The 3-0 palace game was fabulous as he actually played two wingers for once.

Personally his football bored me most of the time(predictable) and the commentators would also get bored when live and we was pretty shite away from home and super negative.

 

[sir albion]

My first season as a young boy was around 95/96 So havent really experianced too many 'Great' Managers. So for me my personal Favourite are:

Adams MK 1: Gave me something to support as a teenager, the core of the team he built was in the main a huge part of the withdean era. Bringing Zamora to the club was a masterstroke and to get us out of Div 2 was a huge at the time, I guess it was the begining of the new Brighton and the one which we loved today. Also all the support he gave the club once he left cannot be forgot.

Gus Poyet: He took us into a new stadium playing the best football I have seen a Brighton team play, turned average players into quality ones and gave us some great times, we went from being little old Brighton under Gus to a team people feared and found a new respect for. Who else would have the cheek to bring in VICENTE. It ended on a sour note, but the good times were great and he only has himself to blame for not going down as a club legend with his child like behaviour. I am sure he will always know he ****ed up when he left us.

Dean Wilkins: I thought he was a good manager, the perfect manager for the time, we were treading water and had little money available, he managed to get a team of youth players to finish 7th in the league before Dick harshly sacked him, I really enjoyed those times, probably because the players were roughly my age, but I could properly get behind the team and thought there was a closeness and a connection with the club.

Special Mention to Coppell: How he turned round the shower of shite that Hinshlewood had assembled and turned us into a team who almost stayed up I never know. If he managed that it easily would have been one of the biggest achievements of an Albion manager ever. the guy turned Kerry Mayo into a top end championship left wing back FFS.

To be fair....Any manager would have given us much better football as our budget quadruped and we had a new stadium...After 20 years of crap it's no surprise many mention poyet who joined with a massive feel good factor at the club.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

What about the many many drab games that out weighed the good games by a country mile...people always seem to forget
Yes we played some great stuff at times although very rarely won those games.
The 3-0 palace game was fabulous as he actually played two wingers for once.

Personally his football bored me most of the time(predictable) and the commentators would also get bored when live and we was pretty shite away from home and super negative.

I think many many is a tad harsh. Like most managers, there were dull games under Poyet, but loads of fantastic ones. I think people took for granted what we had under him.

The football under Oscar definitely was drab.

 

[fat old seagull]

1. Steve Gritt - saved the club from non league and what a year.
2. Charlie Webb - He made us champions of England and gave us our only trophy
3. Alan Mullery - Its a long story
4. Jimmy Melia - He actually achieved something by getting us to the Cup Final and of course that very funny interview in the helicopter on the way to Wembley.
5. Liam Brady - For his support in the civil war.
6. Barry Lloyd - controversial but look at the facts. Took us from the third division to the brink of the Premier League with no money. I also enjoyed singing "Barry Who?"

Good List and logic. I'd have to agree with virtually all of that.

 

[Munkfish]

To be fair....Any manager would have given us much better football as our budget quadruped and we had a new stadium...After 20 years of crap it's no surprise many mention poyet who joined with a massive feel good factor at the club.

I was talking the final season at Withdean. That season really felt something special.