Pools Best Manager - EVER! | Vital Football

Pools Best Manager - EVER!

Old Poolie

Vital Squad Member
As we await the "white smoke " to herald a new encumbant of the Manager's Office at Victoria Park, I was wondering who, and why, the contributers to the Board regarded as the best manager in their memory?

My first managerial memory is of Gus McLean so I have plenty to choose from. However, my Best Manager would be Chris Turner (in his first spell), basically because he brought a modicum of success, developed at team ethos and instigated a level of professionalism never before seen at Pools.
 
I agree with those two and add Neale Cooper.
It's easier to say the worst manager who, for me, is Martin Scott.

Ps Oh, I see OP has also specified a 'why'. Well, NC combined skill with the sort of personality that unites a team. And.... I just liked him.
 
Age is a state of mind, not necessarily a reflection of years lived!

Though born in the same year as Jeff Stelling, he's obviously far younger than I.

So far between us we've identified 3 managers who we consider "good" (though 2 of those were less successful in a second spell), just imagine how many managers Pools have had in the period from Coughie's appointment to now! Says something about getting it right when picking a man for the job.
 
Last edited:
Age is a state of mind, not necessarily a reflection of years lived!

Like dear old Terry Wogan's TOGS. And I should have said younger than me not older but I get confused you know.

In my original I failed to say why Cloughie was the best. We were asked to name the best manager in our memories rather than just at Pools but when Clough came to Pools you have to remember the state of the club at that time. We were run on a very frayed shoestring to say the least. We had very seldom got above the bottom dozen or so in the fourth division and it was only down the the Old Pals Network of re-election that we hadn't ceased to exist years before. Later managers had the benefit of reasonable cash to spend.

You also have to temper Cloughie's greatness by mentioning Peter Taylor but the pair of them were geniuses in taking a disparate group of less than mediocre players and forming them into a team that, collectively, was way more than the sum of the parts. They did it at Pools and went on to do it at other clubs.

Were it all went wrong in Clough's later career was when he tried to apply the same principles to players that were of a very high standard and knew it.