Steve Coppell or Brian McDermott?

[dantheloyalroyal]

McDermott played a part in both promotions.

HTH.

[leon]

McDermott played a part in both promotions.

HTH.

no not really.

[Woodcote Royal]

Buy a brain and try again

[Woodcote Royal]

Having been forced to sell Long and Mills, we went onto lose 4 games on the trot before finding our feet. How far behind 106 would Brian's side have finished if he hadn't been forced to off load the striker he brought to the club for next to nothing?

Would Coppell have had to sell Siggy (not that he showed much interest in him other than getting the kid out on loan before he made Harper look second best )

For some, life up Steve's rectum will be a comfort zone for many years to come but, rest assured, McD is about to do a Pardew by establishing himself as a top flight manager in a way that Coppell's fatally flawed approach always prevented.........................brilliant at building great teams from the unknown/under rated but completely sh*t at knowing when it's time to break them up and move on.

[Mr Angry]

At the moment, SSC shades it, but lets re-visit this in 2 or 3 Years after Brian has the Double and a Champions League trophy!

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

Coppell took us to another level for the club to build on.

[paultheroyal]

This is an idiot thread! hpotectical nonsense! We won the league in 2006 with a fantstic manager and we have done the same in 2012. there is no discusion except for saddoes. Nuf sed!

Get used to it. We are now entering silly season in threads with such like:

Don't you wish you were back in the championship
Bloody sky / tv dictating
McDermott out if we are winless after 3 games?
Etc

[paultheroyal]

But in answer to the thread title - draw

[Franchise FC]

Coppell took us to another level for the club to build on.

And we have absolutey no idea whether Brian is about to do the same.

Both will be legends

[Fox Talbot]

The only fair basis for judgement is their performances up to winning the Championship as Brian hasn't had a go at the PL yet.

Brian wins hands down.

He inherited a mess; Steve inherited a Pardew side that looked good for promotion. Brian took slightly less time / games to win the League than Steve. Steve was able to invest in the team; Brian was basically selling rather than investing. Brian reached 2 FACup QFs and PO Final as well.

(Steve was also in charge when we failed to go up in 2008/09 from a position of real strength at Christmas.)

Steve did us proud; Brian so far has been amazing.

[Royalwaster]

I think SC's reputation is slightly tarnished by what happened after 2006/07 ... BMc's reputation has not yet been subjected to that kind of pressure (although losing the final last year and Long/Mills is similar in a way). I agree with others that it's wrong to compare ... at the moment. At the moment, I'd say only SC deserves a statue (alongside JM) outside the ground.

[Seal]

Surely an unfair question until Brian has been to the Prem.

People seem to have short memories. 106 points. 8th in the Prem. That is an astonishing two seasons.

I love Brian and what he has done, but this is all a bit early.

[facaldaqui]

I agree that it's too early to make a full comparison and that people have short memories (it was the same when people started unnecessarily using McCarthy as a stick to beat Federici with--they were both excellent). What is happening now feels better because the present moment always beats the past for excitement (it's why some people have aired the ridiculous notion that Messi is better than Pele). The fact is that Coppell led Reading to eighth place in the Premiership; Brian can only surpass him either by surpassing that or by keeping us in the Prem more than two seasons. In many ways we don't really know Brian's true potential as a manager yet--will he take to the Prem like a duck to water or will his methods stop working at that level? Who knows?

The situation is also complicated by the fact that the Coppell and McDermott regimes are a sort of continuum; Coppell owed a lot to McDermott's input, and McDermott has carried on a lot of Coppell's ways. If we throw in Pardew, we can see a pattern emerging over time; this gives me hope that even if Brian leaves (he said the other day that he feels he can "work anywhere"), we may identify another manager who understands the Reading way and can sustain the succcess.

[Forbury Lion]

Who do u think done the best job

This season, definitely Brian.

I believe Brian would have got alot closer, if not beaten the 106 points if he hadn't been forced to rebuild at the start of the season and take a gamble on the likes of Mansett due to lack of funds to sign a player of quality.

Les Ferdinand < Jason Roberts = Brian wins.

Forget who will be regarded as the best manager in the history of the club, Brian is the best man for the job now and that's what counts.

[Extended-Phenotype]

You gotta love Coppell. Some great signings, great records, promotion, fabulous to watch football and 8th place finish in the Prem. But as a person I found him a bit cold, and as a man manager I became increasingly frustrated by his loyalty towards players who were out of form. He always seemed a cheese away from a shoplifting breakdown and his reluctance to change things I always felt was a factor in the failures which followed the success.

McDermott hasn’t broken any records yet, and the football is hardly the free-flowing spectacle of Coppell, but as someone else said – the desire and workrate of the team is something I’ve not seen similar in any other side. This only comes from exceptional man-management, and as a supporter it draws you in and makes you love the team even more. I don’t think we should play down McD’s tactical nous either; unlike Coppell, he’s not afraid of making changes before and during games, and those dropped have always, without fail, come back stronger (Harte, Cummings, Karacan, Hunt, Le Fondre, Pearce etc). Some of his substitutions and tactical changes have been outstanding.

Maybe I’m getting carried away by the moment, but McDermott is the manager for me. A likable, intelligent, eloquent, down to earth chap who has made teams out of nothing, sent us on great cup runs, league runs, play-offs and now promotion as league champions. And let’s not forget, as chief scout and reserve team manager, he may have also had a hand in Coppell’s success too!

Cheers Brian, the future is bright.

[pea]

I completely believe it will be SBM in the future but he's not finished his job yet. SSC achieved more but had Pardew to lay the foundations for him whilst SBM had Rodgers to dig the hole for him to climb out of from day 1.

[facaldaqui]

We've had some great managers recently, who've done a lot for the club. But I'd like to raise a point about what the club has done for these managers. We gave Pardew and McD their chance; we revived Coppell's career. Coppell had had major managerial success before, but by the time we appointed him he was no more than an effective lower-league operator. In our environment he could win the championship and succeed in the prem. I'm convinced that, for all Brian's ability, the environment at the club--which he has helped develop but also, I'm sure, learned from--has given him the conditions to thrive. Not sure what went wrong with Rodgers--maybe he kicked too hard against the budgetary system--but I get the impression he's learned from what happened at Reading and has now become more flexible to the realities of a small club at Swansea. If I'm right that the way the club is run at all levels is a major factor in our success, then I do not fear the loss of Brian as much as some people: get someone else out of the boot room and continue (avoid charisma managers like the plague).

[Chillitsphil]

Steve Coppell. We weren't a big fish in the Championship when he took us up, nor was the academy producing the same quality as it is now.

McDermott has done a fabulous job mind and can justly claim to have contributed to Coppell's achievement as well.

We've been pretty lucky - especially considering the one dud we've had over the last few years was Brendan Rogers... whose eye for a player (Gylfi, Mills etc) has hardly served us badly.