Paul Mariner as a head coach

[Blackpool pilgrim]

Not manager material from what i witnessed, but he wasnt exactly given the greatest of chances we were practically doomed anyway ...

Not even remotely doomed. With our large injury list on the mend I felt the timing was wrong - either he should have went before the start of the season or not at all, OR at the very least replaced with someone who was experienced....Also note that Ipswich stayed up having kept faith with Roy Keane (who spent 3-4 times the amount sturrock did btw.) Oh and you see that team that was 6th from bottom beginning with R, well they were managed by B.Rodgers (manager of Liverpool) who was sacked just weeks after Sturrock.

Reading 20 5 5 10 -10 20
Coventry 20 4 7 9 -10 19
Sheff W 20 4 6 10 -9 18
Ipswich 20 2 12 6 -10 18
Plymouth 19 4 3 12 -14 15
Peterb'h 20 2 8 10 -10 14

Mariner wasn't awful but he was certainly below average. The positives - he did manage to do what sturrock couldn't - turn around a 2 goal deficit, away to Barnsley when Rory Fallon had one of his better days. However the players he brought in the transfer window were inadequate and very questionable to say the least. While D.Johnson was a very competent defensive midfielder at premier league level, he was not what we needed at a time when creativity was devoid (especially with the money spent.) As for Bradley Cooper... deary me, don't get x-isle started on that one. :greensmile: So overall he didn't do well Mariner which was a shame for such a great player. That's why i'm sure Sturrock in the transfer window which was coming up would have done better as proved with his previous summer signings. Obviously the summer before that was a poor one for the Scot.

Fair enough off the top of my head i thought we were 6 or 7 points adrift it was straight after the Swansea defeat away Sturrock was sacked if im right in saying so, so much has gone on since then and its not even 3 years ago!

 

[TOBOR THE GREAT]

Mariner wasn't awful but he was certainly below average. The positives - he did manage to do what sturrock couldn't - turn around a 2 goal deficit, away to Barnsley when Rory Fallon had one of his better days. However the players he brought in the transfer window were inadequate and very questionable to say the least. While D.Johnson was a very competent defensive midfielder at premier league level, he was not what we needed at a time when creativity was devoid (especially with the money spent.) As for Bradley Cooper... deary me, don't get x-isle started on that one. :greensmile: So overall he didn't do well Mariner which was a shame for such a great player. That's why i'm sure Sturrock in the transfer window which was coming up would have done better as proved with his previous summer signings. Obviously the summer before that was a poor one for the Scot.

Very much what's been going on around here.

He took over from Aron Winter in June, dumped many of the players brought in while the possession-based attacking style of the 4-3-3 was being injected into our club, and replaced them with long-ball hoofers and hopeless-cause chasers (which is what I feel the fanbase have become).

In April we were 45 minutes away from reaching the CONCACAF Champions League Final... it couldn't have gone more wrong.

 

[esmer]

Here he was handed a poisoned chalice and failed as a Manager, although I think he got more points per game than Sturrock did earlier in that season. He was, however, probably our best ever player, we've not had many that go on to play 20+ times for England.

 

[Sporting Lipson]

Looked like a 50 year old Harry Potter but not magic in any way. Sad to see a club legend end like he did.

 

[Deacster]

Dreadful manager, dreadful signings and dreadful tactics. Nothing about him as a manager worked, honestly believe if Luggy had been kept on we would have at least made a better attempt at survival.

 

[Saracen10]

But he did bring in Bhasera ........ just trying to find some positives :greensmile:

 

[Plympton Pong]

Shocking your fans need to get this fool out of your club

PM had no man management skills !! it was the best thing pafc did letting him go, he was a good player but certainly No Manager.
The best thing your team could do would be to get rid of him but like a Bad penny he probably would turn up somewhere else.
No respect for the man at all.

Hang on a minute, I think both of you need to put a sock in it.
He might have lacked on the managerial front, but this is one of the clubs greatest ever players you are talking about.
I don't think he deserves to be called a fool, or given a lack of respect.

 

[TOBOR THE GREAT]

The thought was that since he and Steve Nicol were a good team in New England, where they consistently challenged for the MLS title, he would do alright here.

I can't think now what he and Winter could've ever agreed on.

 

[Steve Evans]

paul mariner was one of my all time favourite players. i almost ended up disliking him when he was here as manager. he was an absolute disaster with no tactical ability or contacts in the game to bring in decent players .he brought in a useless american who was recovering from injury and that was about it. a very painful period in our very recent very painful history. i am not surprised you are bottom of the league

 

[Trapdoor]

Plympton Pong as I have said good player but way way off the mark as Management ! If you care to put a sock in my mouth so be it .

 

[briangreen]

Shocking your fans need to get this fool out of your club

PM had no man management skills !! it was the best thing pafc did letting him go, he was a good player but certainly No Manager.
The best thing your team could do would be to get rid of him but like a Bad penny he probably would turn up somewhere else.
No respect for the man at all.

Hang on a minute, I think both of you need to put a sock in it.
He might have lacked on the managerial front, but this is one of the clubs greatest ever players you are talking about.
I don't think he deserves to be called a fool, or given a lack of respect.

:iagree: That's a bit ott
circumstances were certainly against the guy and frankly I don't think sturrock would have done much better a job and don't even get me on to PM's replacement.
Fletch is looking better every day

 

[Mazza26]

Plympton Pong as I have said good player but way way off the mark as Management ! If you care to put a sock in my mouth so be it .

Yes but you also said that you have lost respect for the man. You can say he was a sh*te manager absolutely, but how can you lose respect for him? That's totally different. I think this is the point with many of our "failed" managers gone by. We can look at the mistakes Williamson made and Sturrock in his second tenure and even Mariner, it doesn't though mean that they are awful people, or fools, or id*ots, or "dour" characters so to speak. So the flip side of the coin could be that Holloway generally did a good job here but some of us lost respect for him when he walked out. He then apologised for this because he knew it was a complete cop-out to leave us when he did. After his apology which seemed sincere I gained some respect back for the guy.
The poster (not the manager) Steve Evans makes a more realistic point - I suppose as a supporter and as we spend quite a bit of money following argyle you could end up nearly disliking the bloke. Of course you could after some of the poor decisions in terms of transfers and tactics, but that's as far as it goes. I'm sure he's trying his best and playing the game fairly. He's not the real Steve Evans after all, now that's an interesting manager to say the least!

 

[Plympton Pong]

Thanks Mazza. Exactly my point.

 

[Cult Of Personality]

Shocking your fans need to get this fool out of your club

PM had no man management skills !! it was the best thing pafc did letting him go, he was a good player but certainly No Manager.
The best thing your team could do would be to get rid of him but like a Bad penny he probably would turn up somewhere else.
No respect for the man at all.

Hang on a minute, I think both of you need to put a sock in it.
He might have lacked on the managerial front, but this is one of the clubs greatest ever players you are talking about.
I don't think he deserves to be called a fool, or given a lack of respect.

Never saw him play so no legend in my eyes

 

[Mazza26]

Come on Cult Of Personality. Now funnily enough here is a player that didn't need a mass media frenzy for supporters to realise he was a very very good player as your username suggests. I didn't see him play but realise what a legend he was. Lets face it we haven't had many of them at this club in our modern day era.

btw - Great song that from LC, maybe have a beer, play it tonight, look up Mariner on youtube in his playing days and come back and tell us what your views are then. Chill.