Alan Buckley

Quoted from Mariner Marty

To the earlier poster who said he took us to Wembley 14 years ago, are you forgetting when he took us to Wembley in his 3rd stint. Only 4 years ago. He is GOD like many others have said.

Yes i had.
Thank you for bringing that misery back to me.
Sh/t day, sh/t stadium, sh/t result and most of all sh/t team selection from a manager so obsessed with his 4-4-2 allowed his ego to select a formation for the national stage to see his passing football despite the fact just a few games earlier being mullered for 45 mins against the same opposition trying the same thing and then outplaying them for the second 45 mins when he threw out the Buckley Rule book and went three up.  
Also allowing the runts MK Dons to win something in the process!!

Quoted from moosey_club

Did Buckley not waste an entire playing budget on sub standard players then that needed replacing with the only exception off the top of my head being Robbie Stockdale? A fair few of whom had to be paid off as well if i recall?

Did that not leave the next, the next and the next managers having to play catch up on reduced budgets?

When he got sacked we had a tiny squad and we were well under budget i believe, Newell spent like fuckk!

Quoted from moosey_club

Did Buckley not waste an entire playing budget on sub standard players then that needed replacing with the only exception off the top of my head being Robbie Stockdale? A fair few of whom had to be paid off as well if i recall?

Did that not leave the next, the next and the next managers having to play catch up on reduced budgets?

I'm not convinced by that. Graham Rodger started that trend. Buckley brought in some dubious players but also brought in Martin Paterson and introduced Ryan Bennett. My overall view of Buckley Mk III was that he managed the club prudently and was prepared to develop the younger players like Bennett, North, Heggarty, Bore and Taylor. My only criticism would be that he should have spent more of Fenty's cash. The Wembley final must have brought in more money than any game previously. I honestly think that Buckley would have moved us in the right direction if Fenty hadn't made a rash decision.
I do, of course respect your opinion though, as none of us know for sure what would have transpired.

Alan Buckley is te best manager in the history of this club. We would be in League 1 at least if Fenty hadn't stupidly sacked him at the behest of a small and moronic minority. When you compare his teams to the trash served up by the curren managers you realise how lucky we were to have him. Hope it proves a short trip from the commentary box to the dug outs.

Quoted from moosey_club

FFS!

Can we get over the obsession with AB!!

Yes he gave us some great football...22 yrs ago, yes he gave us Wembley 14 yrs ago...but do we need his input and opinion considering he sent us well on the way to were we are now?

There has recently appeared to have been a bit of a corner turning where the fans have started to get off the players and managers backs, the much discussed air of negativity around the club that the current and previous managers have listed as issues is beginning to rise and we seem to be looking forward not backwards.

This will ruin match commentaries for me as his voice alone just totally winds me up never mind the anticipated harking back to how wonderful the football was when he was here everytime we try a long ball. Yes AB I.O.U for some great memories but you have used  them up on what you left us with on your last tour of duty at BP where you showed you were well out of touch with the modern game. Jamie Clarke a right back FFS !!
I wonder if there is a blocking device for voices??

What  utter rot  MC,  you are entitled to your opinion of course but to have the opinions of an expert like AB can only get most on board IMO,  and in no way would it influence the present management views whats so ever, a scoop for Hull Radio IMO

Chris Hargeaves - Sour Grapes.

Tony Ford - well maybe sour grapes too.

Alan Buckley was awesome as a player, awesome as a coach and awesome as a manager.

Grimsby Town would have been a poor cut of itself had he have not brought us achievement that he did. No other single individual has ever brought us any more success than he did.

I watched Buckley play the game too week in and week out as a small child living in Walsall. What a player he was. Diminutive in size yet mercurial in goal scoring. You will not find a single individual footballer to ever grace the lower leagues that has a better football record than Alan Buckley as a player. At Walsall he partnered giants like George Andrews and Bernie Wright and he would weave in and out to feed off their knock downs from crosses from the likes of Miah Dennehey, Nick Athey and Brian Caswell.

I watched grown men cry at Fellows Park the day it was announced that he was off to Birmingham City when Trevor Francis left The Blues. And he certainly didn't disgrace himself at the higher level. Just ask Manchester United who he tore to pieces in 1978 with two goals in 5 minutes for The Blues. Blues won 5-1 that day Buckley was man of the match in a Birmingham team that was bottom of the league. He was limited to 28 appearances that season many of which was from the bench, yet he still managed to notch 8 goals.

The following summer he returned to Walsall to the delight of the supporters. He later became manager at The Saddlers and I marveled when he led us on the Milk Cup run (The League Cup) in which we beat the Arsenal at Highbury (Terry Neill their manager was sacked the next day). Walsall reached the the semi final of the Cup and went to Anfield to face the Mighty Liverpool in which we came away with a massive 2-2 draw. The Liverpool team included greats such as Hansen, Lee, Souness, Johnstone, Rushy, god the list goes on and on.

I chuckled years later when I came to live in Lincolnshire. Chuckled because masses of Grimsby supporters were critical of the appointment of Alan Buckley who in their eyes was a none-league manager from Kettering. They had no appreciation of his pedigree, his achievements at Walsall, and his approach to play football as it should be played - The Beautiful Game.

Having grown up with Bucko as my childhood hero, I just couldn't resist coming to Blundell Park to watch his football team. This is how I grew to love Grimsby Town. He brought players through the door like Gary Childs, Richard OKelly and Craig Shakespeare. All proper ball playing footballers that I just new would be awesome. Then he brought in other greats to join them. How the hell did he get Gary Birtles? Fantastic.

Needless to say it wasn't long before he had the Grimsby community salivating with joy at the incredible football this little family football club was serving up. You really need to have witnessed an Alan Buckley training session to appreciate how meticulous his attention to detail was. He would frustrate the hell out of his players in the manner in which he directs them where to pass a ball during a training match. His pedantry was that bad that it was almost as if he was teaching the under 7's how they were going to play the game. He would stop the game and make them all go back to their positions just like kids and start the move again. It was his way or no way and he would do it time and again until it had sunk in and until the team was doing what he wanted. But at 3pm on a Saturday, you knew that what he had done on the training ground was correct and had worked. There was no room for any of the ego's from his team that you would associate with millionaire Premiership starlets today. Buckley was happy to tell them that his own ego was big enough for one club. Christ he used to give Dave Gilbert the run around and look what a genius he made of Dave Gilbert in his time at Blundell Park.

Do not tell me for one minute that the appointment of Alan Buckley at Radio Humberside isn't going to be a success. It will be worth every penny of the license payers fee. It will be revealing and I am certain that many a Grimsby fan will now only start to appreciate the real quality of the man, when they hear is assessment on the radio. It will be like Cloughie commentating on Forest. Shankly on Liverpool or Fergie on United. I cannot wait.

Quoted from Pelham

Alan Buckley is te best manager in the history of this club. We would be in League 1 at least if Fenty hadn't stupidly sacked him at the behest of a small and moronic minority. When you compare his teams to the trash served up by the curren managers you realise how lucky we were to have him. Hope it proves a short trip from the commentary box to the dug outs.

Thats a bit like saying Alf Ramsey is the best England Manager in the history of National Team football, based on the fact that we won the world cup in 66. Buckley has had a go on TV as a pundit once or twice and he was crap, as he probably will be on Radio Hull.

Quoted from paddymariners

I'm not convinced by that. Graham Rodger started that trend. Buckley brought in some dubious players but also brought in Martin Paterson and introduced Ryan Bennett. My overall view of Buckley Mk III was that he managed the club prudently and was prepared to develop the younger players like Bennett, North, Heggarty, Bore and Taylor. My only criticism would be that he should have spent more of Fenty's cash. The Wembley final must have brought in more money than any game previously. I honestly think that Buckley would have moved us in the right direction if Fenty hadn't made a rash decision.
I do, of course respect your opinion though, as none of us know for sure what would have transpired.

Buckley left this squad from what i can gather from old programmes;
Barnes/ Montgomery
Stockdale
Newey
Bennett
Heywood
Hope
Till
Bolland
Butler
LLewellyn
Boshell
Clarke
Hunt
Bird
Normington
Hegarty
Bore
North
Taylor
Jarman

Quoted from moosey_club

Yes i had.
Thank you for bringing that misery back to me.
Sh/t day, sh/t stadium, sh/t result and most of all sh/t team selection from a manager so obsessed with his 4-4-2 allowed his ego to select a formation for the national stage to see his passing football despite the fact just a few games earlier being mullered for 45 mins against the same opposition trying the same thing and then outplaying them for the second 45 mins when he threw out the Buckley Rule book and went three up.  
Also allowing the runts MK Dons to win something in the process!!

He played 352 that day but the point about being mullered 3 weeks earlier remains!

Quoted from moosey_club

FFS!

Can we get over the obsession with AB!!

Yes he gave us some great football...22 yrs ago, yes he gave us Wembley 14 yrs ago...but do we need his input and opinion considering he sent us well on the way to were we are now?

There has recently appeared to have been a bit of a corner turning where the fans have started to get off the players and managers backs, the much discussed air of negativity around the club that the current and previous managers have listed as issues is beginning to rise and we seem to be looking forward not backwards.

This will ruin match commentaries for me as his voice alone just totally winds me up never mind the anticipated harking back to how wonderful the football was when he was here everytime we try a long ball. Yes AB I.O.U for some great memories but you have used  them up on what you left us with on your last tour of duty at BP where you showed you were well out of touch with the modern game. Jamie Clarke a right back FFS !!
I wonder if there is a blocking device for voices??

Well Moosey, I will be a lone voice in support of your opinion.  

Great manager for Grimsby, definitely the best in modern times. Unfortunately couldn't do it at West Brom or indeed anywhere else other than Grimsby, lost touch with the game and struggled in his final session. Whatever people may say, whoever he signed or encouraged, his side was on the slide. Pity that it tarnished a great career at BP. Everything else that might have happened or not happened is just hypothetical.

In fairness, his PR did seem to have mellowed a fair bit in later years and his summaries on the box were pretty good. But in the early days Buckley had a mouth to rival Clough. As for radio, the only accent I can stand less than a midlander is a scouser.

Legend? I always thought people only became legends after they'd been dead a good while. If I was AB I'd be a bit worried about anybody calling me that.