Wigan Athletic's top 10 best ever managers in order of win percentage (Ranked) | Vital Football

Wigan Athletic's top 10 best ever managers in order of win percentage (Ranked)

That's not "best" ... simply the ones with the biggest winning %, which dependent on division (and of course, available -and comparable - funds), might be something that was expected, an over achievement or even possibly, an under achievement.
 
Ooooooo to Be a Wiganer said:
Every ones top ten managers will be different. That’s for sure. My top 3 managers would be none league ones.
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Fully agree ... re them different for different people ... it's just the term "best" that can never truly be right or wrong (certainly in the case of a manager, and even players).
 
moonay said:
That's not "best" ... simply the ones with the biggest winning %, which dependent on division (and of course, available -and comparable - funds), might be something that was expected, an over achievement or even possibly, an under achievement.
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I agree that these aren't necessarily the best, but a reminder of the some of the win ratios was an eye opener - especially as I only started going to games 1990 onwards (no experience of the non - league days etc.)

Also a reminder of how much of a mess we made in the Uwe Rosler period.
 
Thought Deehan would have been in there, might need to clean my red spectacles.
 
"Win percentage" means absolutely nothing at all when judging managers. You judge a manager by what they've acheived compared to their expectations.

Funny seeing some managers who were properly dross for us like Benson (at the top no less), Rioch and Hamilton whose 2nd spell pretty much nearly finished us as a club on this list.

If we're talking best managers it's basically Jewell and Martinez for me and then a massive gap.
 
GSM said:
Thought Deehan would have been in there, might need to clean my red spectacles.
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Deehan had 1 season where we were winning all the time. First season was transitional and so was his last one (first season back in Division 2). Mathias took us up a level the season after.
 
AndABusShelter said:
If we're talking best managers it's basically Jewell and Martinez for me and then a massive gap.
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Jewell and Bruce for me then a large gap which will hopefully be closed by Maloney.
Martinez would be with the likes of Rioch, Benson and Hamilton, under the title of Most dull & boring Manager instead of Worst Manager.
I have already stated the worst in post number 7.
 
The days of player managers are well gone but we have had a few top class ones over the years. None league days. Allan Brown then the great Gordon Milne. Ian McNeal.for obvious reasons. Plus one a good lot won’t remember Bryan Tyler. Football league. As to be Paul Jewel followed. By Bruce. Worse by a mile Joyce
 
Mixed feelings on Bruce tbh as our last few months under him were miserable despite having probably our best PL squad and his spending sprees for players on big wages was unsustainable. The way he also left us the first time particularly was disgraceful. Martinez kept us in the league for another 4 years whole drastically reducing the wage bill, playing good football and boosting the academy. Even ignoring the FA Cup.

Even he had a lot of flaws though. We've not been spoiled with great managers in our history at all. If I was to make a "Mount Rushmore" I'd add Mathias and Richardson, and both of them got sacked.

Worst now we are spoiled for choice there. Hamilton's 2nd spell was disastrous and torturous to the point where attendances dropped to 1000 and the club went bankrupt, Coyle did the worst with the best squad, Mackay was a toxic disaster who ensured our relegation just by being there, Sheridan was a total knob and the likes of Toure, Joyce, Swain and Hutchings I wouldn't trust to coach an under-7's game.
 
Win ratio is relevant to the division you are in and the budget you had.

Caldwell, Richardson and Cook all had huge budgets in L1 to effectively buy the league so their win ratio for that season was probably 50%+ like Bensons. But after they all got promoted to the Championship and couldnt outspend everyone else Caldwell and Richardson's win ratio were worse than Joyce and Cooks dropped massively. While Benson failed to get promoted and stepped down so was left with a higher win rate despite being worse than the other 3.

I think win ratio is a good stat but looked at in isolation doesn't actually tell you the full story of anything.
 
AndABusShelter said:
Benson pulled off the greatest bottlejob in football history. Unbeaten for 6 months to finishing 4th. Unforgiveable.
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Think that was only bettered by Huddersfield going 52 games (or thereabouts) unbeaten for 13 months or so, over 2 seasons and not getting close to promotion in either. If I remember correctly, when we lost to Oldham, we'd played something like 26 matches, but drew nearly half of them in the unbeaten run
 
The end of that season under Benson was absolutely woeful, we were nailed on for promotion then fell apart on the home stretch. I'll never forget the final home game against Wrexham when all we needed to do was win to go up and we put in one of the most pathetic performances we've ever seen.

We had Barlow, Liddell, Haworth, DeZeeuw and Carroll all in their prime and a number of others who were very decent for that level at the time when the rest of the division was so weak - we should've won that league with a record number of points.
 
Ooooooo to Be a Wiganer said:
The days of player managers are well gone but we have had a few top class ones over the years. None league days. Allan Brown then the great Gordon Milne. Ian McNeal.for obvious reasons. Plus one a good lot won’t remember Bryan Tyler. Football league. As to be Paul Jewel followed. By Bruce. Worse by a mile Joyce
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Absolutely spot on their pal, I'll add Big Larry as well
 
Yes Larry was a bully, (especially with his height in the box) from corners, won many a header that led to goals.
I did hear that money owed to him he did not take, because we were in financial difficulties.
 
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