23, well 24 if you count this one. That is how many bad managerial spells I’ve written about and ripped apart. In truth nowadays it feels as though the majority of managers are nothing more than a short term fix as a club looks for any kind of boost to get up the table (see Pardew, A for further reading) and its a bit sad really. Long gone are the days of the long term project, if you have not improved the team tangibly in about six months you are out on your arse and looking for the next managerial vacancy, which usually pops up exceedingly quickly.
So like all good managerial reigns it is time to bring this column to an end. Yes it wasn’t quite a Sir Alex Ferguson style tenure but we learnt a lot on the way. For instance who had the shortest managerial spell of all time (Leroy Rosenior I hear you cry) or who is the worst Newcastle manager of all time (a mixture of John Carver and Joe Kinnear if I’m honest) and much, much more. However we might as well go out with a bang so lets examine who truly had the worst managerial spell of all the ones featured in this column. Who is the worst of the worst, the lowest of the low?
Well it was a tough choice. Could it be someone who flopped so badly at a big club like David Moyes? Perhaps an incredibly short lived manager like Frank De Boer? Maybe one of the many Leeds managers featured in last week’s column or everybody’s favourite Paulo Di Canio. No I’ve actually had to go back to the very first Bad Management to find the lowest of the low. This man is truly the worst manager I’ve ever looked at and I’m afraid to say name is Brad Bobley. Or was it Bob Bradley? I’ve double checked its definitely Bob Bradley.
We’ve had nasty managers (again Joe Kinnear), we’ve had unfortunate managers and we’ve had poor managers but never in the history of the Premier League has someone looked so out of depth as Bobby Bradley did at Swansea. Its easy to mock Bradley for creepy black turtle necks or saying things like ‘pk’ but that’s not the real issue. Results were nothing short of atrocious and to highlight this Middlesbrough (my team, who would go on to get relegated after scoring about 6 goals all season) beat Swansea 3-0 at the Riverside. He only lasted a few months but it will be a long time before anyone forgets the tragically bad spell that Bob Bradley had at Swansea City.
Right then that’s it for Bad Management but if by some miracle you do actually enjoy my work, don’t worry I’ll be back poking fun at football very soon.