Nineteen Canteen

LOL! I understand irony and this one is particularly delicious.

Evil Monkey and Scudamore for some reason have the dubious honour of making me genuinely laugh out loud the most often at some inspired comments. Trousers you are very close to overtaking their mantle. Of course there are many posters who make me laugh and Wes treating my posts as a piece of homework to be marked and Tame's 'stockholm syndrome' stalking and mimicry (he'll be made up I've noticed his thread) are just many examples of posters who give me more of a disturbed chuckle and for all the wrong reasons. I guess my only concern is that one the trio of top notch american sit-com writers masquerading as Monkey, Trousers and Scudamore turns out to be Mike Osman. IMO it would be a bit like finding out MLT really did take le tiss.

Thanks for letting us know. In the meantime thanks everyone for a great response and as always a good debate builds your knowledge base and great to see all the other great managers offered up as top 20 candidates. There are some very well informed and balanced posters on this forum whom I always enjoy reading then there are the reactionaries who in their usual blinkered fashion could not read the comment in the OP that asked them to put their obvious love for McMenemy to one side for a moment and view the question objectively. Thanks to those who did. If Vectis is correct and that the Guinness book of facts was published in 1980then maybe at that time McMenemy would have made the list but to suggest in his marketing he is one of the top 20 managers in the past era as an indisputable fact today is wrong IMO. My other question I don't think was answered that Lawrie is potentially doing ok on the after dinner circuit and in that realm it is probably a modest fee but as a pension top up perhaps not too bad and it does beg the question why your hero doesn't want to buy a ticket to watch his beloved club anymore. I don't understand it, does anyone else? BTW, Gaffer , I have a life, not much of a life granted but a life nonetheless and one that I don't try to be somthing I am not. Thanks for your contribution or shall we start a thread on the top 20 post war comedians that have performed in England?

Don't think Liverpool were that flush when Shankley took them over. Weren't they in league 2 at the time?

Apologies for my mistake on Rafa. So we shall replace him with Potts, manager of Burnley's League 1 champions in the 1960's or how about Stokoe? First names Wes? I'll give you a clue the first one is called Harry. BTW I don't dispute McMenemy was our greatest manager but I think he or his agent is using poetic licence IMO to sell him as one of the top 20 managers in the post war English Game and that's ignoring 25 years from 1945 to 1960. Does anyone have this Guinness Book of Soccer facts and the edition it was quoted in?

Don't have the time for reasons but they should be obvious to most football fans and this is just off the top of my head. You'll like the first one.... Redknapp Robson Bobby Nivholson Greenwood Ferguson Wenger Mourinho Graham Atkinson Clough Shankley Paisley Moyes Kendall Revie Armfield Dalglish Benetiz Hodgson Benetiz Busby Don't ask me to count their trophies but all are some of the most durable, successful and sought after managers of their era and I would have appointed any of them over McMenemy at the height of their success be it now or then. BTW Wes despite your misguided belief that I keep myself busy with your banal responses, I usually laugh them off at your refusal to accept I may have a point. There is your list, you work out the reasons and make sure you select that red font you are so fond off. It's an opinion Wes not a piece of homework.

And your answer to the question whilst recognising the achievements in football by other managers since 1945?

Top 20 of the most successful managers in post war English Football? I don't agree with that as a football fan let alone a Saints fan and if that makes me a nutter then pass the Snickers.

Well that is the headline statement if you would like to book Lawrie as your after dinner speaker for the evening at a reasonable £3k - £5k. Not bad work if you can get it and IMO it does make you wonder why he can't pay for his seat at SMS this season. http://www.gordonpoole.com/?ArtistID=1006 It's amazing the Guinness Book of Soccer facts rank's him among the top 20 most successful football managers in post war English football. Now I am no historian but since my first football memories from the early 1970's I think I can come up with a list of 20 more successful managers and if you read is football mangement CV it's not the most inspiring unless you are a Saints fan. Now I appreciate I will take a good kicking over this but putting their Saints sentiments to one side does anybody agree that Lawrie is one of the most successful UK manager's and that he is ranked in the top 20 Guinness book of Soccer facts as one of the most successful managers in post war English football. I accept that may have been the case if the edition of the book being quoted is 1985 but in 2009? Seems inaccurate IMO. Made me smile that he still had to get a dig in at our past chairman for leaving his position as Director of Football and yet didn't give any reason for leaving Northern Ireland or why he decided to have a break from football after a short period in charge of Sunderland. Oh, and not to mention the small matter of a nice windfall from share ownership. Perhaps, if McMenemy had stayed manager at Saints he may have merited his claim to fame and gone on to win more trophies and even improve on that 2nd place but that was very much the top of his manageral slide and it's difficult to agree with the Guinness book of facts. Does anyone agree or do they believe that based on achievements and trophies Lawrie deserves this accolade?

Somebody needs to tell Benji that size doesn't matter, its the quality that counts.

Stock up on the Nurofen tomorrow.

Who cares about his physical attributes - from what I have seen he has the making of being an excellent player for us especially at this level and give us some pace and attacking options at least down one side of the pitch. Can't wait for him to be given his chance when he is fully ready. If you sit at the back of the stands everyone looks like Nathan Dyer.

It maybe just me but I don't think we do well travelling up the M6 for away games. In fact the last game I can think of winning in the North West was early last season when we came back from 2-0 down at Preston. This season we have drawn away to Stockport and Carlisle on our M6 travels and both matches coming after promising displays. So unless our driver takes the team via the M1 and across the Pennines I predict a comfortable but boring draw.

I think we would like to sell him but are suffering from a bad case of negative equity.

Well it appears my guess was wrong and some of the Aldershot faithful are very happy with the appointment of Dodd because of his connections with Saints and his premiership playing pedigree. They don't seem to have much idea about the caretaker role and I sense would prefer it if the board made a decision to appoint a manager and move forward with their choice. However, the reason Waddock left was allegedly because since the death of Aldershot's chairman the board have lacked any sort of direction and decision making ability and so it seems he grabbed the opportunity to join Wycombe. Doesn't sound like it will be any easier for JD and things may not all be well than first appears but the fans I received messages from are very supportive of his appointment and feel the level of their football will be ideal for JD to show his worth. I hope he proves himself.

It's a worry. I have a lot of time for JD but hopes will be high at Aldershot at the moment and as you say in hindsight he left Eastleigh far to early IMO (understandable) and hadn't really finished cutting his managerial teeth. I fear he may be punching above his weight again wth this appointment but he has done well to be given the opportunity and clearly for someone eager to get back into football he could not turn it down and wait for an offer from a Conference side or something less pressurised/suitable. It's another result that we will be looking at with interest on Saturday's to come and I sincerely hope he builds on their recent success. Was he already working with them in some capacity as it's unusual for a club to appoint a caretaker from outside the club or in this case is caretaker a metaphor for probation? I have an acquaintance closely involved with Aldershot Supporters Club so it will be interesting to hear their views on this appointment when I have the chance. My guess is that unfortunately it won't be favourable but most managers with a similar profle to JD have the same prejudice to overcome.

Better it went to a real Saints fan, don't you think?

'Free Range' is that where they removed the cages from the barns? Not sure we even know what that means as it's certainly not half a dozen chickens running around in a garden with a little wooden house. Price is king unless you can afford to be 'ethical' and eggs for me is no different. Taste could be a driver and I have tried one supermarket's silverside joint organically reared in the Uk and their much cheaper Argentinian alternative. There is no discernable difference but I don't have the taste buds of a wine or tea taster but do have the bank balance that needs to smell money.

One day Mike you will provide me with an argument instead of your predictably glib and brief reponse. Ironically, it's fans like you who I feel I have most in common with and have no doubt would enjoy your company even if the feelings aren't mutual!

Me too, my guess is not many and for different reasons and for loyal Saints fans, reasons that maybe difficult to understand.

OSM, ok I smiled but reminded that softeners are not required.

That last comment is key and the roll over attitude Phil you seem to advocate isn't going to help rule a line under recent events either and those that have IMO badly let us all down - if you are looking for a common denominator.

Interesting stuff. FWIW I thought it was just another casualty of the Beecham Report.