The Steve Coppell appreciation and thank you thread

[Still Hate Futcher!]

Blah Blah Blah

I agree he did some exceptional work here, and elsewhere, and that he's a very good manager.

That doesn't absolve him from his part in the position we're in now. That goes for Madejski and Hammond too, although I would say Coppell should take the largest portion of responsibility as he himself admitted it was his decision, and mistake, not to strengthen when he had the chance.

As for working similar wonders at Palace, you also have to remember that he made exactly the same mistakes too and showed too much loyalty to players not capable of achieving the results the club needed.

Yep, Coppell's failure to strengthen was largely to blame for our recent decline. But for all my reservations at the thought of him returning I still struggle to think of a better option should Rodgers get the boot.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Yep, Coppell's failure to strengthen was largely to blame for our recent decline. But for all my reservations at the thought of him returning I still struggle to think of a better option should Rodgers get the boot.

But we did strengthen, each window we bought in new players. How those decisions were made we don't really know, who brought the likes of Cisse to the attention of the club, and Fae.

FWIW I think SC was doing ok on signings before the venture into players from abroad with no English experience.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Yep, Coppell's failure to strengthen was largely to blame for our recent decline. But for all my reservations at the thought of him returning I still struggle to think of a better option should Rodgers get the boot.

But we did strengthen, each window we bought in new players. How those decisions were made we don't really know, who brought the likes of Cisse to the attention of the club, and Fae.

FWIW I think SC was doing ok on signings before the venture into players from abroad with no English experience.

What you mean being forced into the "cheap option" for some reason....

[Hoop Blah]

I suppose he also fluked taking Palace up and guiding them to 3rd. He did he also fluke his 2nd spell at Palace, where he kept them in Division 1 when they were in a worse state than us with relegation? And then his next spell where he guided them back to the Premiership? Then his spell at Brentford where he won promotion from Div 3 to Div 2 and the next season was only beaten on the final day by us. And what about his spell at Brighton - 12 points adrift at the bottom or so when he took over. Only went down on the final day and were top when we took him the next season.

Was this all fluke?

No, not all a fluke. If you actually read what I've posted you'll see I said he's a very good manager, especially when things are going well.

the 106 points season was a fluke though. Any side that has a run like that has fluked it to a certain degree. I think he stumbled on the mix of that side but then he managed it superbly well to get the most out of it. Thathe couldn't turn things around and had no idea why things weren't working when we were in a bad spell goes to show how success is quite often a product of luck and momentum not just good management.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

I think Dirks points are more to do with the relegation and the effects it had on the club.

Saw an interesting quote from Pulis talking about having to be in the Prem for 3 seasons to feel the benefits long term.

We're in the position we're in now because we got relegated.

We got relegated because Coppell refused to sign players. It pretty common knowledge now about the likes of O'Neill, Sean Davies, Gary Cahil. We played the entire season without a right winger ffs. We should never have gone down and we're paying the cost of it.

Nothing should ever be taken away from Coppell and what he achieved. Lets not pretend he was just unlucky though.

2 years on I still can't believe we went down.

[rhroyal]

I think Dirks points are more to do with the relegation and the effects it had on the club.

Saw an interesting quote from Pulis talking about having to be in the Prem for 3 seasons to feel the benefits long term.

We're in the position we're in now because we got relegated.

We got relegated because Coppell refused to sign players. It pretty common knowledge now about the likes of O'Neill, Sean Davies, Gary Cahil. We played the entire season without a right winger ffs. We should never have gone down and we're paying the cost of it.

Nothing should ever be taken away from Coppell and what he achieved. Lets not pretend he was just unlucky though.

2 years on I still can't believe we went down.

+1. It should never have happened and a return to the position we were in looks a lifetime away now.

[loyalroyal4life]

He is off to Brighton apparently

[westendgirl]

Blah Blah Blah

I agree he did some exceptional work here, and elsewhere, and that he's a very good manager.

That doesn't absolve him from his part in the position we're in now. That goes for Madejski and Hammond too, although I would say Coppell should take the largest portion of responsibility as he himself admitted it was his decision, and mistake, not to strengthen when he had the chance.

As for working similar wonders at Palace, you also have to remember that he made exactly the same mistakes too and showed too much loyalty to players not capable of achieving the results the club needed.

I am not sure who to blame for the position we are in. If you are going to include Madejski, Hammond and Coppell maybe you should blame the players (after all the blame for the non-football management is about money and they are the drain of money) maybe you should blame all football now that is so money orientated and maybe you should blame the supporters who keep calling for more and more money to be spent. It is a complex interaction and to blame only part is blinkered. It is the financials that are to blame for where we are now and you can view them from many different aspects.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

I think we should have said no to massive pay rises, we should have said yes to Keane offering £5m for hunt in the first season.

We should look as to why we suddenly needed so many more support staff on promotion to The Premier League, 1st season we went from 39 Management to 52, then 57, players went from 28 to 35 then 42.

That is a large increase all around, for less games, I assume a lot of those have now moved on.

Does anyone have any idea what the extra staff were employed for?

[Wimb]

I think Dirks points are more to do with the relegation and the effects it had on the club.

Saw an interesting quote from Pulis talking about having to be in the Prem for 3 seasons to feel the benefits long term.

We're in the position we're in now because we got relegated.

We got relegated because Coppell refused to sign players. It pretty common knowledge now about the likes of O'Neill, Sean Davies, Gary Cahil. We played the entire season without a right winger ffs. We should never have gone down and we're paying the cost of it.

Nothing should ever be taken away from Coppell and what he achieved. Lets not pretend he was just unlucky though.

2 years on I still can't believe we went down.

+1. It should never have happened and a return to the position we were in looks a lifetime away now.

The only consolation I feel is that it only took 6 seasons to go from worrying about relegation to the 4th tier under TB to winning the 2nd tier. Stoke, Hull, Wigan, Burnley have all shown how quickly things can turn around, it's all just a case of patience and managing expectations

[winchester_royal]

I think Dirks points are more to do with the relegation and the effects it had on the club.

Saw an interesting quote from Pulis talking about having to be in the Prem for 3 seasons to feel the benefits long term.

We're in the position we're in now because we got relegated.

We got relegated because Coppell refused to sign players. It pretty common knowledge now about the likes of O'Neill, Sean Davies, Gary Cahil. We played the entire season without a right winger ffs. We should never have gone down and we're paying the cost of it.

Nothing should ever be taken away from Coppell and what he achieved. Lets not pretend he was just unlucky though.

2 years on I still can't believe we went down.

Excellent points well made. The fact that towards the end we had Oster and Kebe as our only 2 recognised, injury-free wingers shows just how poor our squad was.

[Wimb]

I think Dirks points are more to do with the relegation and the effects it had on the club.

Saw an interesting quote from Pulis talking about having to be in the Prem for 3 seasons to feel the benefits long term.

We're in the position we're in now because we got relegated.

We got relegated because Coppell refused to sign players. It pretty common knowledge now about the likes of O'Neill, Sean Davies, Gary Cahil. We played the entire season without a right winger ffs. We should never have gone down and we're paying the cost of it.

Nothing should ever be taken away from Coppell and what he achieved. Lets not pretend he was just unlucky though.

2 years on I still can't believe we went down.

Excellent points well made. The fact that towards the end we had Oster and Kebe as our only 2 recognised, injury-free wingers shows just how poor our squad was.

Wil 2007/2008 season review become the new Wembley 1995 video, neither I can bear to watch