Worst Brighton Manager of all time.

[seagullsovergrimsby]

A 3 way tie between Sami Hyppia , Jeff Wood and Martin Hinshelwood

 

[Robinjakarta]

George Curtis by a country mile.

 

[Black Rod]

Adams second time around

So terrible it was funny. That is when you know things are bad

 

[Mackenzie]

Selling Barnes, Ulloa, Buckley and Bridcutt and losing Upson, Ward and Kuszczak would have made it difficult for any new manager taking over. Hyypia was frustrating though in so much that the players didn't seem to be improving despite given ample time to gel, Jones then Hughton took over and with basically the same squad (Kayal accepted) and we start winning.

Hyypia was poor.

 

[Notters]

Martin Hinshelwood lost 10 games in a row.

Hyypia's problem was that we drew too many. That's why of all the teams near the bottom of the Championship, we have a 'good' goal difference.

Whilst this is true, it wasn't a case of drawing games but looking like we could've one them, IMHO, unlike when we drew games under previous managers. Under Hyypia, we drew games without looking like having any hope of winning them.

 

[Biscuit Barrel]

Wood for me. Just looked out of his depth and was not a leader.

 

[Gwylan]

Jeff Wood seems to be escaping with remarkably little criticism here.

I agree. I thought he was certainly worse than Hinshelwood - Wood took us off from a play-off contender to relegation candidate in a matter of months.

I'd still say Cook was the worst but would have Wood as second

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Jimmy Case but in fairness was working with his hands tied together.

and his feet,plus a lead belt.

 

[GT49er]

George Curtis, Tommy Cook and Jimmy Melia were pretty hopeless too. Don Welsh wasn't an unqualified success either (we had to be re-elected to the league under him in 1948), but amazingly he left us to take over the Liverpool job, I believe.

 

[beorhthelm]

The question was who was the worst manager. Micky Adams is NOT two people, chaps.

do you have evidence for this assertion? the manager that won the 3rd and built the squad that won the 2nd div, getting in the likes of Zamora, and the manager that dissolved a promising team and brought in Hawkins cant be the same person.

 

[pornomagboy]

Hinchlewood

 

[BrianWade4]

Martin Hinshelwood lost 10 games in a row.

Hyypia's problem was that we drew too many. That's why of all the teams near the bottom of the Championship, we have a 'good' goal difference.

That would have been my answer. Or Wood

Gillingham days eh? How far we've come....

 

[Fred Oliver - Legend]

Hughton.

 

[Hyperion]

Hughton.

Have you taken LSD?

 

[albion1972]

Hyypia

 

[Guy Fawkes]

With Hinsh he was hampered by Zamora's early season injury and lack of replacement, and of the 10 games he lost 6 were by the odd goal and the rest by two goals. I don't know the extent to which the weak squad was down to him, but overnight Coppell brought in Rodger, Ingimarsson, Blackwell and there were useful cameos from Rougier Sidwell, plus the Kitson comedy sideshow.

As for Sami, he had all the things Hinsh didn't have - the crowd, the players, the training facilities and we were still in the relegation places. So, yes, Sami IS the worst.

He had a lot of our fans showing a lot of dissent towards the club, with criticism and suspicion over the loss of Garcia and the slow recruitment of players after a lot of our old squad left (sold / released) - There was heavy criticism of the new players, some before they had even kicked a ball for us.

It was quite a hostile and negative situation he found himself in, and when we didn't get off to a good start, fans turned on Hyypia, (some even before he had even been in charge of a game - no wins in so many games at his previous club = not good enough for us, etc....) piling more pressure onto him.

So is it any wonder heads dropped? - players play for the manager so when the manager is facing heavy criticism and being undermined, (would they try as hard for him if they think he will possibly be out a few games later?)
Or the players facing unfair criticism? - they are also supposed to play for the fans, but what happens if (some of the) fans are making it clear that they think they arn't good enough and should be replaced asap with new signings, etc...

Fan frustration affected the team early on, and also meant they were less likely to give Hyypia the time and patience he may have needed to turn it around whilst still supporting him as well as the team, especially when i thought we had been playing fairly well early on but not getting the results we deserved.

 

[GT49er]

Brian Clough wasn't that great for us.

Forgotten about him. Absolute shocker down here - whole team reduced to trembling wrecks within weeks. Never seen a team look so afraid to go out on the pitch before. Only good things he brought were a bit of publicity, and Peter Taylor, who wasn't bad (but not quite good enough to get us promoted).

 

[GT49er]

Fan frustration affected the team early on, and also meant they were less likely to give Hyypia the time and patience he may have needed to turn it around whilst still supporting him as well as the team, especially when i thought we had been playing fairly well early on but not getting the results we deserved.

Hyypia wasn't dealt the best of hands, due to a poor summer - but don't necessarily blame fans' frustration for the poor results. I don't know if you were at Birmingham in August, but it was shocking. Like the third division, only worse. And to be honest, Swindon passed us off the park, but we got lucky with the help of an Ince wonder goal (which he's unlikely to replicate for a fair few years!), two penalties, two red cards and extra time. Alarm bells were ringing - and I was one of the fans who was excited by Hyypia's arrival at our club.

 

[Acker79]

With a MASSIVE injury crisis.
Very unfair to bring Martin into the equation.

Hyypia was missing to injury:

Bruno (7/27 games, + one to a suspension)
Greer (5)
Hughes (2)
Dale Stephens (all)
Colunga (5 + 1suspended)
Crofts (13+3susp)
Baldock (13 +2 cup tied)
Agustien (22)
CMS (6)
Stockdale (4)
Calde (3susp)
Lualua (4 +1susp)
March (22)

McCourt, Gardener, Teixeira, Holla, J Bennett, Joined the squad late missing several games each

E Bennett, Bent, Al Habsi didn't come in until November-ish time, and Al Habsi then had to go away on international duty. Since Hyypia left, Stephens has returned, we've signed Kayal, two players who have received a lot of credit for our recent upturn in form.

O'Grady, CMS, Chicksen, Fenelon, Maksimenko, also went on loan.

If we're not going to include Hinshelwood because he had a lot of injuries, we shouldn't include Hyypia.



I don't know if it's because it's so recent that the failure stings a bit more than it will do at a later date, or if it's the rise of social media and discussion via that media that exacerbates things, but I honestly don't think his reign was as bad, or at least as much down to him, as the current trend seems to think.

Look at the list of players unavailable (there were also a couple of odd one match absences due to parent clubs, or suspension, that also limited his options.

He was given a weaker squad, we sold several top players, and failed to replace them with good enough players. Hyypia wasn't supported with decent enough player recruitment. There were plenty of games we dominated, and lost due to a player error or a sucker punch, the sort of loss we inflicted on Derby where our play deserved a win but didn't get one, the sort of results that are down to the players' execution, rather than team/tactic selection. There's a reason we parted company with David Burke.

Having said that, if we go simply on results, Hyypia is certainly under consideration, among the 10 worst.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Hyypia wasn't dealt the best of hands, due to a poor summer - but don't necessarily blame fans' frustration for the poor results. I don't know if you were at Birmingham in August, but it was shocking. Like the third division, only worse. And to be honest, Swindon passed us off the park, but we got lucky with the help of an Ince wonder goal (which he's unlikely to replicate for a fair few years!), two penalties, two red cards and extra time. Alarm bells were ringing - and I was one of the fans who was excited by Hyypia's arrival at our club.

I'm not blaming the fans, just countering the point raised which seemed to be saying that Hyypia had everything going for him to succeed.

A lot of teams with unhappy fans / turmoil off the pitch struggle and are often in a relegation battle or worse (Cardiff, Blackburn, etc...) and the way it sounded earlier in the season, there was a real unpleasent atmosphere at the club reminiscent of the bad old days of protest and campaigns to oust the board / owners and it seemed some were trying to raise support for a repeat campaign, making out that things at the club were far worse than they actually were (and prompted comments that shouldn't have been needed from people like Bloom to try to appease them and these comments are still used as a negative against him and the club from time to time (judge the squad at the end of the tranfser window comments for example because of the slowness of recruitment which may or may not have been down to us)