AB/PH comparisons

When Alan Buckley was sacked in 2000 he was 49. Hurst is 48.
Town had a miracle season 2 years before in 1998. Our miracle season was 2 seasons ago in 2021/22.
Alan Buckley originally came from non-league, as did Hurst - for their first spells.
Alan Buckley was in his second spell when he was sacked, so is Hurst. Both went off to "bigger" clubs and came back having failed.
Both got promotions early in their second spells.
Both managers were generally well-liked with a vocal faction that disliked them.

Of course, sacking Buckley was followed by a spiral downwards into instability, which has arguably only been turned around by Hurst.

Some fairly material differences, too. Buckley was sacked after two games (one of which we drew away at Portsmouth), by a new board who wanted their own man in. He was clearly intentionally stifled in the transfer market, too, having only been able to bring in Paul Raven and Mike Jeffrey. Shortly afterwards of course we were spunking money left, right and centre on Lennie’s foreign legion.

The prevailing circumstances for Hurst this summer were about as stable and as favourable as a lower league manager could reasonably ask for. A positive relationship with good owners, the almost unanimous backing of the fans, a relatively settled squad to build upon and a budget buoyed by last season’s cup run (which he of course deserves massive credit for).

Hurst had a lot going for him in the window just gone. If it transpires that he’s made a hash of it, and there’s still time for things to turn around yet, then he’ll only really have himself to blame. Buckley on the other hand could, and I’m sure did, rightly feel unlucky to have lost his job when he did.

The fundamental difference is Buckley substantially overachieved with Town consistently at a much higher level , in regards league position.

As much as I like Hurst he hasn't although he has given us great moments .

Quoted from Poojah

Some fairly material differences, too. Buckley was sacked after two games (one of which we drew away at Portsmouth), by a new board who wanted their own man in. He was clearly intentionally stifled in the transfer market, too, having only been able to bring in Paul Raven and Mike Jeffrey. Shortly afterwards of course we were spunking money left, right and centre on Lennie’s foreign legion.

The prevailing circumstances for Hurst this summer were about as stable and as favourable as a lower league manager could reasonably ask for. A positive relationship with good owners, the almost unanimous backing of the fans, a relatively settled squad to build upon and a budget buoyed by last season’s cup run (which he of course deserves massive credit for).

Hurst had a lot going for him in the window just gone. If it transpires that he’s made a hash of it, and there’s still time for things to turn around yet, then he’ll only really have himself to blame. Buckley on the other hand could, and I’m sure did, rightly feel unlucky to have lost his job when he did.

Any manager should have been fired for signing Mike Jeffrey.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

Any manager should have been fired for signing Mike Jeffrey.

Bungle!

AB with his own hard work managed Town hundreds of times in the Championship and twice got us promoted to that League. Sadly Hurst is never likely to do that 😕

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

Any manager should have been fired for signing Mike Jeffrey.

I’m certainly not going to defend Jeffrey’s performances in a Town shirt - he didn’t even look like a footballer. What’s bizarre though, and gets totally forgotten, is that prior to joining us he had close to a 1 in 3 record in the Dutch top flight. Here he is helping his team to a 3-1 win against a PSV team that featured the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Mark van Bommel and Luc Nilis (perhaps best remembered for wrapping his tibia around Richard Wright).



Fúck knows what he got up to during that year in Scotland before he joined us.

Quoted from Poojah

I’m certainly not going to defend Jeffrey’s performances in a Town shirt - he didn’t even look like a footballer. What’s bizarre though, and gets totally forgotten, is that prior to joining us he had close to a 1 in 3 record in the Dutch top flight. Here he is helping his team to a 3-1 win against a PSV team that featured the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Mark van Bommel and Luc Nilis (perhaps best remembered for wrapping his tibia around Richard Wright).



Fúck knows what he got up to during that year in Scotland before he joined us.

You hit the nail on the head with 'he didn't even look like a footballer'. He just didn't.

I recall him being signed with quite a bit of fanfare and he was absolutely sh*te. He looked lost on the pitch.

Talking 35 years since AB got going here in his first spell, the game has changed beyond belief in that time.

As amazing as that achievement was in his first spell and as ridiculously good as that football was, there's not a chance in hell anyone would be able to achieve that now.

Garry Birtles signed for us in 1989.  9 years after winning back-to-back European Cups with Forest, for a side that finished 9th in the fourth tier the previous season.  The modern equivalent of that is us (having finished a point off 9th last season) signing Karim Benzema this summer.

Gary Childs had played nearly 200 games at a higher level, including a Milk Cup final.  Tony Rees 150 games and a single full Welsh cap.  Steve Sherwood over 300 games at much higher levels, including an FA Cup Final.  Don't get me wrong, Buckley worked his magic in finding rough diamonds like Andy Tilson and John Cockerill, plus utilising what he already had in the building (Shaun Cunnington, Kev Jobling...) and those coming through the ranks (Macca, Mark Lever), but you can't build a team now like you did then.  Buckley found this in his third spell and he found he couldn't adapt.  

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

You hit the nail on the head with 'he didn't even look like a footballer'. He just didn't.

I recall him being signed with quite a bit of fanfare and he was absolutely sh*te. He looked lost on the pitch.

I thought he had an ACL injury at Fortuna Sittard but, based on his appearance history there, he clearly didn’t.

Jeffrey ran like an ill-advised, public school initiation ceremony, involving a bog brush, had gone hideously wrong.

Lost his place to McCoist at Kilmarnock. Right-footed. Like a 1.4 Vauxhall Astra.