WHO REALLY IS THE BEST GRIMSBY TOWN MANAGER EVER

Quoted from theicenian

Well folks I'll just pick two not on the list, reason simple they took Town into the 1st div (premiership to you young uns) and two FA cup semi-finals non have done it since, non have come even close. Charlie Spencer and Frank Womack.

In my life time, Lawrie Mac for sheer enthusiasm and inspiration.

AB (mk 1 & 2) for football

Chilton for 55/56

And George Adams Macdonald Kerr for just being George.

That's a very good shout. What would probably stop him is his relatively short stay.

Has to be A.B. for me. Mark I was sensational after a difficult start. Mark II he spent money wisely when previous managers who were dealing with a relegated team lost the plot seeing us relegated again.

Buckley for me, this club IMO will never again equal two Wembley successful visits in one season I also rated and still do George for his club exploits, the others had most of their success with larger crowds and bigger budgets at  Liverpool and the Saints. Our exploits up the league with Mac was against poorer opposition than those of Buckley and Kerr

Ab all day long

Theres about 3000 of them every Saturday afternoon.  We all know where it's going wrong, we all know what substitutions need making, we all know how to counter the opposition, and we all know what players we need to bring in in the following transfer window.  




coz there was this one time on Champ Manager ...

AB by a landslide for me.

Not only took us up but kept us there, punching miles above our weight playing superb football.

And those two Wembley trips......

Don't know about the managers before the sixties though.

You've only got to look at the long term stats to realise how good AB was

3 promotions, no relegations, 3 trips to Wembley, numerous cup giant kills, extended time in the second tier of the Football League and the man had a prooven track record of playing flowing attractive football and grabbing bargain buys who turned out to be quality. I can count on one hand the amount of 'duffers' AB signed

I still think where we would have been if we stuck with AB. I just think he needed a better scouting system to work with and we would have been alot steadier then we are now

I think AB will win most peoples votes but Shankley has to be the manager that was THE best overall in terms of achievements etc...

Brian Laws had the potential to be one of the best, he took AB's team forward and got us into a great position, one incident with a player who thought he was billy big bollox ruined it all and the rest as they say is history...

I agree about Buckley but would add this little sequence that led us from oblivion in Div 4 to the top of the old Div 2 in the 1980s.

John Newman
George Kerr
Dave Booth

The nucleus of the team was the local lads - Ford, Drinkell, Moore .... etc. but it led to some of the most exciting football and some of the best players we have had post-war in a short space of time. Joe Waters, Trevor Wymark, Kevin Kilmore, Paul Wilkinson, Andy Peake, Paul Emson, Chris Nicholl, Nigel Batch, Stuart Gray and so on.

They were all good managers in different ways but they shared an ability to construct a footballing team and get the best from players. Pity it all came to a full stop with that clown from Everton.


Oh, don't forget a much underrated manager from earlier days - Jimmy McGuigan. The team of Tees, Green, Hill, Foster, Cockerill, Jobling, Wright, Ross ...

Buckley by a mile.The George Kerr and Dave booth teams played good football and had some tremendous results but Buckley did it for years and years and the amount of players he turned into even better players even has recently as Martin Paterson speaks volumes for what he was all about.

George Kerr for me because I enjoyed it most as a town fan.