winchester_royalbrendywendywinchester_royal Average manager who got lucky with the 05/06 team, and was then thoroughly found out once that team started to break up.
Royals legend, but nothing special.
i respect your right to hold contrary opinions but
oxf*rd off.
you dont get lucky for a 46 game season IMO
and then follow it up by being lucky again for the 40 game season in the top flight next year.
you may say it was the players
but i say that coppells policy of giving them the responsibility for their performances brought that out of them
2 words.......Roy Keane.
Look, I'm not doubting Coppell's achievements during his time here, but in his final two years he was very poor. Not replacing Sidwell was the first mistake, then continuing to play a Oster/Harper/Gunnar/Hunt midfield when it was clearly not anywhere near good enough for the Prem, failing to invest in the squad during Jan 08, failing to arrest the failings of our attack in the second half of that season, once again failing to invest significantly in the squad last season, his never ending loyalty to his favourites, etc...
Not to mention some of the awful management that took place before 05/06, such as his obsession with players such as Newman, Hughes, and Brooker. The signings of Ferdinand, Keown, Goater and Murray. We seem to forget that before the 106 season started a large number of RFC fans were very disillusioneed with SC, and the fact that he struck gold with that team, and that there were hardly wny injuries to his key players, was IMO very lucky.
As I said before, the man will and should always be an RFC legend, but that doesn't make him a great manager, and nor does it mean he'd be a saviour now.
roy keane got 106 points, only lost one home game, and one away game, etc etc etc after spending oxf*rd all now did he?
roy keane gained an 8th place prem finish after spending feck all now did he?
roy keane ended up with a massive transfer surplus and operated within sound financial principles at any of his many clubs now did he?
you talk like we are man u or something, with the resoruces to persue any transfer policy we decide upon
harper, brynn and hunt looked good enough when we were beating liverpool, and in 12th place at xmas etc
and ferdinand/keown/goater and murray were the best we could do within the agreed upon transfer policy/wage structures at the club were signings of class, quality and real winning mentality that could have seen us go up- they ended up being very poor, but then coppell could never see the future- justplan for it the best he could.
the coppell policy that gave players responsibility for their performances resulted in the record braking years
it also resulted in our relegation, but its their fault they had their heads turned and failed to reproduce
and its the fault of us supporting a small club that we couldnt afford to buy our way out of any possible trouble we were in
and we tried to replace sidwell- our first choice targets generally went elsewhere cos they were good players, and we ended up with worse ones.