Spare a thought for Crystal Palace

[Saint Charlie]

They are just about to be lumbered with George Burley. As if administration wasn't a bad enough blow...

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

They are just about to be lumbered with George Burley. As if administration wasn't a bad enough blow...

 

My work mate just told me this, quite happy. I set him straight. He's now sulking.

[sandwichsaint]

Threshers in South Norwood are already arranging for longer opening hours, every cloud and all that.

[Pancake]

**** me, only the 3rd ****ing thread on this.

[Window Cleaner]

They are just about to be lumbered with George Burley. As if administration wasn't a bad enough blow...

 

he might do Ok actually, he's better when there's no money to waste on *****wit players with big reputations and serious attitude problems.

[John Boy Saint]

Threshers in South Norwood are already arranging for longer opening hours, every cloud and all that.

 

See what happened when he went north of the border................................ Threshers went bust!!

 

Lets see how many of his old mates he can get to play for him there, Rasiak must be due a move.

[Thorpe-le-Saint]

You watch him take them up!

[Arizona]

See what happened when he went north of the border................................ Threshers went bust!!

 

Lets see how many of his old mates he can get to play for him there, Rasiak must be due a move.

 

Doubt they can afford Rasiak. Jermaine Wright on the other hand...

[St.Patrik]

And if Skacel will sign for them this summer - or next if they are as quick as Saints....

[OldNick]

I wish him luck.No doubt some of our fans will be going on their fan sites to try and turn the knife and start unfound rumours about his nightlife

[Iowsaintsfan]

Any amount says he doesn't! 1 promotion in 40 years (of course it's an accurate stat) isn't good.

 

By far the worst and most infuriating manager we've had in my time. Including Harry, and Wotte, and Jan and others. I've never hated a manager more. Wasted soooo much money when we'd taken a huge risk spending it, left us with huge debts, big wages and no resale value for half the squad, while letting good players leave cheap or free.

 

Not to mention the ridiciulous tactics, constant changing, players out of position, lack of spirit or passion and being ****ed up half the time.

 

I saw him ****ed in waterstone's. When I'm drunk, I like chips, not a book.

 

 

Maybe he likes chips when hes sober?

[OldNick]

Any amount says he doesn't! 1 promotion in 40 years (of course it's an accurate stat) isn't good.

 

By far the worst and most infuriating manager we've had in my time. Including Harry, and Wotte, and Jan and others. I've never hated a manager more. Wasted soooo much money when we'd taken a huge risk spending it, left us with huge debts, big wages and no resale value for half the squad, while letting good players leave cheap or free.

 

Not to mention the ridiciulous tactics, constant changing, players out of position, lack of spirit or passion and being ****ed up half the time.

 

I saw him ****ed in waterstone's. When I'm drunk, I like chips, not a book.

He got us very close to PL return, not helped by the politics going on. As for tactics, dont all managers use odd tactics?

[Turkish]

He wasn't that bad!!! When he left we were midtable, by the end of the season we only stayed up with a win on the last day and the season and Pearson was branded a hero by some for that, season before one kick away from a play off final. Give any manager money and he'll spend it, he only identified the players the chairman agrees the contracts, Ewells bonuses FFS!!! WIth the boardroom battles going on at the time i think any manager would struggle in those circumstances.

[stevegrant]

He wasn't that bad!!! When he left we were midtable, by the end of the season we only stayed up with a win on the last day and the season and Pearson was branded a hero by some for that, season before one kick away from a play off final. Give any manager money and he'll spend it, he only identified the players the chairman agrees the contracts, Ewells bonuses FFS!!! WIth the boardroom battles going on at the time i think any manager would struggle in those circumstances.

This.

 

Burley was decent enough overall, IMO.

[Arizona]

He got us very close to PL return, not helped by the politics going on. As for tactics, dont all managers use odd tactics?

 

He inherited a squad containing Bale, Surman, Jones, Baird, Lundekvam, Oakley, Prutton, Pahars, Fuller and Higgy. He was then given £7m to spend and we just about scraped into the last playoff spot beating relegated Saaafend on the last day. Very poor return IMO.

 

He took over a midtable underachieving team, spent £10m on players and left with us midtable, underachieving... and with massive debts.

[PokingFun]

He inherited a squad containing Bale, Surman, Jones, Baird, Lundekvam, Oakley, Prutton, Pahars, Fuller and Higgy. He was then given £7m to spend and we just about scraped into the last playoff spot beating relegated Saaafend on the last day. Very poor return IMO.

 

He took over a midtable underachieving team, spent £10m on players and left with us midtable, underachieving... and with massive debts.

 

He had to sell Bale, Jones, Baird, Lundekvam was spent, Oakley was always injured, Prutton (?), Pahars was always injured, Fuller (did OK), Higgy didn't want to stay and also Theo left. Sorry but the £7m spent was funded solely by having to flog overpaid wasters or our best young talent quite frankly and he brought in far more than he spent so to say this is ridiculous. Its as simple as this ..... Saints fans like every other team's fans had expectations to go immediately back up which really doesn't happen that much unless it's a team with stable finances that don't have to flog the premiership standard players.

 

Why can't our "fans" move on from this complete nonsense. GB did as well as any other "reasonable" manager would have done. To argue the money angle again is simply wrong. We sold Bale (£10m at the time?), Theo (£12m at the time), Jones (£6m) - Stern John got 20 goals for us incidentally so that was a **** signing too!

 

Anyway, I have to go now to do something constructive like make myself a cup of tea .....

[Arizona]

He had to sell Bale, Jones, Baird, Lundekvam was spent, Oakley was always injured, Prutton (?), Pahars was always injured, Fuller (did OK), Higgy didn't want to stay and also Theo left. Sorry but the £7m spent was funded solely by having to flog overpaid wasters or our best young talent quite frankly and he brought in far more than he spent so to say this is ridiculous. Its as simple as this ..... Saints fans like every other team's fans had expectations to go immediately back up which really doesn't happen that much unless it's a team with stable finances that don't have to flog the premiership standard players.

 

Why can't our "fans" move on from this complete nonsense. GB did as well as any other "reasonable" manager would have done. To argue the money angle again is simply wrong. We sold Bale (£10m at the time?), Theo (£12m at the time), Jones (£6m) - Stern John got 20 goals for us incidentally so that was a **** signing too!

 

Anyway, I have to go now to do something constructive like make myself a cup of tea .....

 

Have you considered why Wolves, WBA, Derby, Stoke and the other teams we were competing with never sold players for £10m? It's because they kept them and they're still there now. Chris Iwelumo is infact world class, but love Wolverhampton so much he turned down Barcelona. Nah, just kidding. The reality is that none of our rivals had tallents that came closed to rivaling Theo, Bale or Jones. They were a bonus which nobody else had. Sunderland won the CCC that season. The first thing they did when they went up was buy Kenny.

 

We had high expectations, but with that team we should have been comfortably in the hunt for automatic promotion and winning the League. Burley massively underperformed.

[St Marco]

He wasn't that bad!!! When he left we were midtable, by the end of the season we only stayed up with a win on the last day and the season and Pearson was branded a hero by some for that, season before one kick away from a play off final. Give any manager money and he'll spend it, he only identified the players the chairman agrees the contracts, Ewells bonuses FFS!!! WIth the boardroom battles going on at the time i think any manager would struggle in those circumstances.

 

Pearson came in with no money, no pre-season, a massive injury crisis especially in defence, a team which were well on the slide before he took over. I am not going to criticise Burley as that is in the past. But Pearson did make a difference. In his 13 games in charge he got 16 points. That is not a great number. It is only great when you compare it to the previous 13. It was a big increase of points.

For the money Burley spent and the players we had you would expected more. If Pardew spent £12m i am sure majority of you would expect auto promotion.

 

I wish him the best at Palace but for a manager to have been managing for 19 years have 1 promotion, 4 sackings from his 6 jobs (2 mutual) i don't think that is an all too impressive record. Just like with Scotland i don't think he will do much there. He is not a man manager, having no money to buy players will test him. It will be interesting to see how he get's on like that.

[The Fat Controller]

Idiakez, Jermaine Wright, & Rasiak off to Palace then... who knows he may even tempt Skacel?? LOL

[Turkish]

Pearson came in with no money, no pre-season, a massive injury crisis especially in defence, a team which were well on the slide before he took over. I am not going to criticise Burley as that is in the past. But Pearson did make a difference. In his 13 games in charge he got 16 points. That is not a great number. It is only great when you compare it to the previous 13. It was a big increase of points.

For the money Burley spent and the players we had you would expected more. If Pardew spent £12m i am sure majority of you would expect auto promotion.

 

I wish him the best at Palace but for a manager to have been managing for 19 years have 1 promotion, 4 sackings from his 6 jobs (2 mutual) i don't think that is an all too impressive record. Just like with Scotland i don't think he will do much there. He is not a man manager, having no money to buy players will test him. It will be interesting to see how he get's on like that.

 

I'm not saying Pearson didn't do a good job, i remember well his first game against Plymouth, lost 0-2, could and should have been 0-6, we were woeful. But overall Burley didn't do as bad a job as everyone makes out, he didn't spend the money, he told the board the players he wanted and then the board transact the deal, its not his fault we we got in debt every manager worth their salt will always want to improve the team and spend money made available. The players we had that season Surman, John, Safri, Skacel, etc should never have been in a relegation battle and under Burley they weren't, they were midtable.

 

Add to Burleys record taking a relatively small provincial club like Ipswich to a fifth place premier league finish and Europe, 4 (?) play offs, an average scottish PL team to top of the table when he left, no he hasn't won anything, but not may do.

Edited 17 June, 2010 by Turkish

[ChrisPY]

I'm not saying Pearson didn't do a good job, i remember well his first game against Plymouth, lost 0-2, could and should have been 0-6, we were woeful. But overall Burley didn't do as bad a job as everyone makes out, he didn't spend the money, he told the board the players he wanted and then the board transact the deal, its not his fault we we got in debt every manager worth their salt will always want to improve the team and spend money made available. The players we had that season Surman, John, Safri, Skacel, etc should never have been in a relegation battle and under Burley they weren't, they were midtable.

 

Add to Burleys record taking a relatively small provincial club like Ipswich to a fifth place premier league finish and Europe, 4 (?) play offs, an average scottish PL team to top of the table when he left, no he hasn't won anything, but not may do.

 

He wasn't in charge for that match. He'd been appointed earlier that day and was watching from the stands.

[lambertsrightleg]

He wasn't in charge for that match. He'd been appointed earlier that day and was watching from the stands.

 

we were woeful that night. much like we were woeful when we lost away to bristol rovers on the saturday, or qpr at home the saturday before. however, the game after at s****horpe when pearson was in charge we were notably better.

[Turkish]

He wasn't in charge for that match. He'd been appointed earlier that day and was watching from the stands.

 

OKay, thanks for the pedantacism (is that a real word) he didn't pick the team that night, i know, even if he did you could hardly blame him for the shambolic performance given he had only been there a day, which is one of the worst i can remember. However it was still his first game as manager. The point is we were awful and Pearson improved us.

[Turkish]

oh god, people have forgotten :-(

 

'very close to PL return'?! ****ing hell. scraping into the playoffs then losing having been given more money than anyone in the league, higher wage caps and and better squad to begin with? no success in my book. we never looked like going up and never came close to deserving to. we banked on going up that season, and the best he could do was 6th. we basically risked the club on promotion. what kind of sick **** goes all in on george burley?

 

that didn't sound right.

 

But its not Burleys fault he was given money to spend! Blame the board for that, ANY manager, will want to improve the team, buy what they think are better players. You can criticise who he bought but you cant blame him for spending the money that the board authorised him to spend. Like it or not we were very close to a PL return, knocked out on penalties to the team that went on and went up with Leon Best scoring the most spectacularly ridiculous own goal you'll ever see.

[Petersfield Saint]

We had high expectations, but with that team we should have been comfortably in the hunt for automatic promotion and winning the League. Burley massively underperformed.

 

This

[OldNick]

Pearson came in with no money, no pre-season, a massive injury crisis especially in defence, a team which were well on the slide before he took over. I am not going to criticise Burley as that is in the past. But Pearson did make a difference. In his 13 games in charge he got 16 points. That is not a great number. It is only great when you compare it to the previous 13. It was a big increase of points.

For the money Burley spent and the players we had you would expected more. If Pardew spent £12m i am sure majority of you would expect auto promotion.

 

I wish him the best at Palace but for a manager to have been managing for 19 years have 1 promotion, 4 sackings from his 6 jobs (2 mutual) i don't think that is an all too impressive record. Just like with Scotland i don't think he will do much there. He is not a man manager, having no money to buy players will test him. It will be interesting to see how he get's on like that.

 

People are we forgetting that there was D&G between the 2 managers.

Each pre season the heart was ripped out of the team. If we lost Lambert Fonte and Morgan now , how do you think AP would be able to cope for the new season? Jones left on the eve of the new season and luckily (most on here didnt rate the player at the time) GB got SJ in who scored 20+ goals. i think you will find GB also made a profit on his purchases, Andrew Davies, turning a forgotten defender into a PL player, and risking plaing a 17 year old kid who also did the same.

He may not be our best manager ever but he wasnt as bad as some make out.

[stevegrant]

oh god, people have forgotten :-(

 

'very close to PL return'?! ****ing hell. scraping into the playoffs then losing having been given more money than anyone in the league, higher wage caps and and better squad to begin with? no success in my book. we never looked like going up and never came close to deserving to. we banked on going up that season, and the best he could do was 6th. we basically risked the club on promotion. what kind of sick **** goes all in on george burley?

 

that didn't sound right.

Some cracking rewriting of history to suit your Burley hatred there.

 

Transfer outlay in 2006/7:

Sunderland £7.7m

Birmingham £7.5m

----------------------

Derby £5.3m

West Brom £800k

Wolves £1.5m

Saints £5m

----------------------

[Lets B Avenue]

I think the booze has addled his memory. He's just told the press conference that he "introduced players at the age of 17 to the 1st team" and included Theo in his list.

 

Surely shome mishstake there, George? Hic.

[Arizona]

Some cracking rewriting of history to suit your Burley hatred there.

 

Transfer outlay in 2006/7:

Sunderland £7.7m

Birmingham £7.5m

----------------------

Derby £5.3m

West Brom £800k

Wolves £1.5m

Saints £5m

----------------------

 

I thought the figures were:

 

Pele - £1m

Skacel - £1.6m

Davis - £1.2m

Rasiak - £2m

BWP - £750k

Idiakez - £500k

Viafara - £750k

 

I make that £7.8m, plus any signing on fees for Wrgiht, Licka and Makin.

[OldNick]

I think the booze has addled his memory. He's just told the press conference that he "introduced players at the age of 17 to the 1st team" and included Theo in his list.

 

Surely shome mishstake there, George? Hic.

Had Theo left when GB arrived? I can't remember, must be the booze

[John B]

In club football

 

Burley has a win ratio of 43.53

 

Pardew has a win ratio of 43.79

[Toomer]

Would they spare a thought for us NO! so why would we want to spare a thought for them, there is only one club I have a thought for, COME ON THE SASH!

[stevegrant]

I thought the figures were:

 

Pele - £1m

Skacel - £1.6m

Davis - £1.2m

Rasiak - £2m

BWP - £750k

Idiakez - £500k

Viafara - £750k

 

I make that £7.8m, plus any signing on fees for Wrgiht, Licka and Makin.

Pele was sold for a profit, and the sale figure was less than £1m according to West Brom. The purchase figure was never published.

Skacel figure is correct

Davis was £1m (published figure - soccerbase only lists published figures)

Rasiak deal was done in 05/06

BWP was undisclosed, but the figure is probably about right

Idiakez was £250k (published figure)

Viafara figure is about right

 

I've not included any signing-on fees for free transfers, otherwise you'd have to add a load on to all the other teams' outlay as well, unless you want to have a guess at how much they were spending on wages as well - Sunderland (Connolly, John, Edwards, etc) and Birmingham's (Phillips, McSheffrey) spending in that regard would put ours comfortably in the shade.

[Lets B Avenue]

Had Theo left when GB arrived? I can't remember, must be the booze

 

He left a fortnight after, but was "introduced" by Satchell Face and not by Lunchtime O'Booze.

[Arizona]

Pele was sold for a profit, and the sale figure was less than £1m according to West Brom. The purchase figure was never published.

Skacel figure is correct

Davis was £1m (published figure - soccerbase only lists published figures)

Rasiak deal was done in 05/06

BWP was undisclosed, but the figure is probably about right

Idiakez was £250k (published figure)

Viafara figure is about right

 

I've not included any signing-on fees for free transfers, otherwise you'd have to add a load on to all the other teams' outlay as well, unless you want to have a guess at how much they were spending on wages as well - Sunderland (Connolly, John, Edwards, etc) and Birmingham's (Phillips, McSheffrey) spending in that regard would put ours comfortably in the shade.

 

Rasiak's deal was a loan initially IIRC, with a guaranteed sale in the summer. So technically the money changed hands in the summer. Either way, Burley wasted money and underperformed IMO.

[Thedelldays]

burley was poor withg a few good spells...

 

for the squad he had and the money he had..it was poor..

 

the year we got to the playoffs..not once did we look like we deserved to go up...

[conaero]

Everyone deserves a second chance, but a fourth or a fifth one, get really.

 

Then again, he has nothing to loose, you never know, he might get lucky.

[LostBoys]

George Burley vs Paul Hart - does not sound like a good choice to me - relegation or liquidation first?

[hypochondriac]

burley was poor withg a few good spells...

 

for the squad he had and the money he had..it was poor..

 

the year we got to the playoffs..not once did we look like we deserved to go up...

 

True, and not once did I believe we would either.

[Dark Munster]

Burley may have been a good manager, if he wasn't a drunken sod (allegedly). At the end of the day, he was crap, but he was not in the same league as Saggy Chops was for us (in crapness).

[Dark Munster]

Quick quiz: if you had to choose one of these, who would it be (and "no-one" is not a valid answer):

 

Burley

Branfoot

Poortvliet

Wigley

Gray

Saggy Chops

 

I would have to go for Burley (reluctantly).

 

God, we've had some crap managers, (and that list doesn't include Dudd & Gormless, Wotte, Merrington and Sourpuss).

Edited 17 June, 2010 by Dark Munster

[Saint Fan CaM]

Quick quiz: if you had to choose one of these, who would it be (and "no-one" is not a valid answer):

 

Burley

Branfoot

Poortvliet

Wigley

Gray

Saggy Chops

 

I would have to go for Burley (reluctantly).

 

God, we've had some crap managers, (and that list doesn't include Dudd & Gormless, Wotte, Merrington and Sourpuss).

 

If I HAD to choose between those duffers, I think I would go for the bottle. Trouble is Burley would beat me to it.

[VectisSaint]

In club football

 

Burley has a win ratio of 43.53

 

Pardew has a win ratio of 43.79

Check out Burley's win ratio with and without Glyn Snodin, then you will see how good Burley really was.

[oxfordshire_saint]

One man who definitely won't be going there now is Marcus Tudgay, not unless his missus has a big say in where he goes....

[DT]

time to dust off my brilliant suggestion that his name was in fact George Barley. Laughing my tits off at that, I am.

[PokingFun]

Have you considered why Wolves, WBA, Derby, Stoke and the other teams we were competing with never sold players for £10m? It's because they kept them and they're still there now. Chris Iwelumo is infact world class, but love Wolverhampton so much he turned down Barcelona. Nah, just kidding. The reality is that none of our rivals had tallents that came closed to rivaling Theo, Bale or Jones. They were a bonus which nobody else had. Sunderland won the CCC that season. The first thing they did when they went up was buy Kenny.

 

We had high expectations, but with that team we should have been comfortably in the hunt for automatic promotion and winning the League. Burley massively underperformed.

 

But the fact is we got rid of all players of PL quality at the time, presumably because we could not afford them (?) .... GB replaced them with new players who cost £7m between the whole lot and got to the playoffs which was a decent achievement in a competitive league. Then when we didn't go up he had to sell players again to keep the club going (including SJ coming in for KJ who got 20+ goals). I still say GB did a reasonable job given what he had to contend with during his tenure.

 

The drivel about Pearson keeping us up is annoying because regardless of Pearson being in charge, GB had us in a better position when he left than where he finished. FWIW I think Pearson is doing OK at Leicester but he only got them to the CCC playoffs so does that make him an underachiever as well (?)

[S-Clarke]

FWIW I think Pearson is doing OK at Leicester but he only got them to the CCC playoffs so does that make him an underachiever as well (?)

 

he's doing better than just ok! it's a magnificent achievement what he's done there. He over performed with the squad in the CCC this season, but to get so close to the prem. after just being promoted to the champ is fantastic.

 

next season will be different though, real expectation behind them. I'm sure he'll cope though, he's worked wonders there.

[St Marco]

People are we forgetting that there was D&G between the 2 managers.

Each pre season the heart was ripped out of the team. If we lost Lambert Fonte and Morgan now , how do you think AP would be able to cope for the new season? Jones left on the eve of the new season and luckily (most on here didnt rate the player at the time) GB got SJ in who scored 20+ goals. i think you will find GB also made a profit on his purchases, Andrew Davies, turning a forgotten defender into a PL player, and risking plaing a 17 year old kid who also did the same.

He may not be our best manager ever but he wasnt as bad as some make out.

 

I think you make a really good point nick. If we had lost Lambert and say Morgan we would of been up against it for sure. But the difference is while those players left he was given a lot of money to replace them. He was the person to choose the players and you have to say they were a mix bag. Some good but most truely awful. If you look at the season just gone i think one thing is clear to see, Pardew has made good choices with his signings. I will hold my hand up and say most of them i had never even heard of i.e Waigo,Antonio,Puncheon,Hammond,Harding etc. but they all done very well.

 

Football is so different from his time at Ipswich. Money has destroyed the game, the gulf in class between the teams is no longer what it was. The big 4 has turned into like the big 7. Nobody will repeat what he did by taking a club up and finishing 4th in the PL. But since then he has done ok, not great. I remember when we appointed him someone said "He is a guy who will take you to the races but your never win it", i think that is a spot on summary of Burley. When the big decisions needed to be made he normally got them wrong and that normally results in either losing a playoff/cup game.

[BlagdonSaint]

he's doing better than just ok! it's a magnificent achievement what he's done there. He over performed with the squad in the CCC this season, but to get so close to the prem. after just being promoted to the champ is fantastic.

 

next season will be different though, real expectation behind them. I'm sure he'll cope though, he's worked wonders there.

 

Completely agree !! - had Pearson been allowed to stay on & manage, we would not have been relegated under him.

[sadoldgit]

burley was poor withg a few good spells...

 

for the squad he had and the money he had..it was poor..

 

the year we got to the playoffs..not once did we look like we deserved to go up...

 

Not even when we went to Wolves and scored 6 away from home? We were as good as any team in the top 6.