McFarland - worst manager?

[kentcufc]

The late 90s are a haze to be honest. Exiled (self-exile in the hope to escape the teenage boredom of 90s fen life) in Lancaster it was a lot harder to follow the Us from afar in those days. Through the haze I have always blamed McFarland for the slow and then rapid demise of the team performance. Whilst living in Brum it led to a minor argument with him at a Halesowen v Burton Albion game. I wonder now if this was fair? He certainly protested his innocence

[malotru]

You’ve misspelt Steve Thompson.

[habbinboy]

John Ryan? Herve Renard?

[kentcufc]

I missed these years - watching games in sports Cafe Broad St Birmingham via soccer Saturday you never got to feel how bad it was;)

[keepitamber]

For me the demise really started when we were doing well. We were supposed to play Swindon but they used the petrol crisis as an excuse not to play us, I think this was the only game off because of it. That turned the corner for us and downhill until 2014.

[bileysbootlace]

Ken Shellito. Pass the sick bag.

Boxer

[andycufc]

That doesn’t feel fair to me - Roy got us promoted and kept us up twice. We made some crap signings during his tenure, but we also had some really good times.

If the early noughties were the catalyst for our decline, then that’s much more to do with Howard & Harwood, ITV digital, and the managers that followed (Beck, Shaggy, Hervé, Thompson) than Roy McFarland himself.

[cufctheparrot]

I often think that McFarland is overrated as a Cambridge manager and he did get us promoted but some of the football towards the end of his time was as bad as I can remember under any manager, with the exception of Ryan and Shellito, but worse than the end of Bonner and Dunne.

He seemed to take a decent attacking team and mould us into a poor defensive team.

Despite Monk having a significantly worse win ratio than McFarland, the football has still remained reasonably entertaining by comparison to the end of McFarlands time, and it’s amusing seeing all the hyperbole after a defeat and the comments that they have never seen such a bad Cambridge team.

[nickpom]

Nov 2, 2024 9:05:00 GMT andycufc said:

That doesn’t feel fair to me - Roy got us promoted and kept us up twice. We made some crap signings during his tenure, but we also had some really good times.

If the early noughties were the catalyst for our decline, then that’s much more to do with Howard & Harwood, ITV digital, and the managers that followed (Beck, Shaggy, Hervé, Thompson) than Roy McFarland himself.

I was told MacFarland and our chairman fell out big time over the Trevor Benjamin sale, which probably contributed to our decline.

Shaggy was given a horrible hand to play with by the board ( his budget was literally half Beck’s!) whereas Beck was given loads to spend but still produced a poor team; fabulous manager first time around, but a disastrous second term.

Its not really fair to lump Taylor in with Beck in terms of performance…

[andycufc]

Nov 2, 2024 9:11:05 GMT nickpom said:

Nov 2, 2024 9:05:00 GMT andycufc said:

That doesn’t feel fair to me - Roy got us promoted and kept us up twice. We made some crap signings during his tenure, but we also had some really good times.

If the early noughties were the catalyst for our decline, then that’s much more to do with Howard & Harwood, ITV digital, and the managers that followed (Beck, Shaggy, Hervé, Thompson) than Roy McFarland himself.

I was told MacFarland and our chairman fell out big time over the Trevor Benjamin sale, which probably contributed to our decline.

Shaggy was given a horrible hand to play with by the board ( his budget was literally half Beck’s!) whereas Beck was given loads to spend but still produced a poor team; fabulous manager first time around, but a disastrous second term.

Its not really fair to lump Taylor in with Beck in terms of performance…

Yes, that’s fair - lazy wording on my part.

[cufctheparrot]

Nov 2, 2024 9:11:05 GMT nickpom said:

Nov 2, 2024 9:05:00 GMT andycufc said:

That doesn’t feel fair to me - Roy got us promoted and kept us up twice. We made some crap signings during his tenure, but we also had some really good times.

If the early noughties were the catalyst for our decline, then that’s much more to do with Howard & Harwood, ITV digital, and the managers that followed (Beck, Shaggy, Hervé, Thompson) than Roy McFarland himself.

I was told MacFarland and our chairman fell out big time over the Trevor Benjamin sale, which probably contributed to our decline.

Shaggy was given a horrible hand to play with by the board ( his budget was literally half Beck’s!) whereas Beck was given loads to spend but still produced a poor team; fabulous manager first time around, but a disastrous second term.

Its not really fair to lump Taylor in with Beck in terms of performance…

John Taylor, now there’s an interesting manager. After the disastrous return of Beck, Taylor steadied the team for a while and got us playing exciting entertaining football In very difficult conditions. He might not have had a good win ratio but at least the football was entertaining and a 4-3 defeat is more entertaining than a 1-0 defeat. He probably had to go in the end but seeing the turmoil off the pitch during his time as manager and on the pitch after his sacking it’s not too difficult to look back and see how hard it must have been under those circumstances.

Bizarrely, one of the things that annoys me most about Taylor’s time as manager was picking ‘Something inside so strong’ as the clubs song to be played by the band before the Blackpool cup final and not ‘Coconuts’. I think he claimed it would be bad luck to play coconuts before the match, but it is our unique song, and it didn’t exactly work out great by avoiding playing it.

[tristanpeck]

Nov 2, 2024 9:24:48 GMT cufctheparrot said:

Nov 2, 2024 9:11:05 GMT nickpom said:

I was told MacFarland and our chairman fell out big time over the Trevor Benjamin sale, which probably contributed to our decline.

Shaggy was given a horrible hand to play with by the board ( his budget was literally half Beck’s!) whereas Beck was given loads to spend but still produced a poor team; fabulous manager first time around, but a disastrous second term.

Its not really fair to lump Taylor in with Beck in terms of performance…

John Taylor, now there’s an interesting manager. After the disastrous return of Beck, Taylor steadied the team for a while and got us playing exciting entertaining football In very difficult conditions. He might not have had a good win ratio but at least the football was entertaining and a 4-3 defeat is more entertaining than a 1-0 defeat. He probably had to go in the end but seeing the turmoil off the pitch during his time as manager and on the pitch after his sacking it’s not too difficult to look back and see how hard it must have been under those circumstances.

Bizarrely, one of the things that annoys me most about Taylor’s time as manager was picking ‘Something inside so strong’ as the clubs song to be played by the band before the Blackpool cup final and not ‘Coconuts’. I think he claimed it would be bad luck to play coconuts before the match, but it is our unique song, and it didn’t exactly work out great by avoiding playing it.

I think Blackpool played 'Glad all over' by the Dave Clarke 5. Their end was really bouncing whilst our song really killed the vibe. I'm not sure Shaggy knew what the songs were for.

[danielcufc]

Nov 2, 2024 9:11:05 GMT nickpom said:

Nov 2, 2024 9:05:00 GMT andycufc said:

That doesn’t feel fair to me - Roy got us promoted and kept us up twice. We made some crap signings during his tenure, but we also had some really good times.

If the early noughties were the catalyst for our decline, then that’s much more to do with Howard & Harwood, ITV digital, and the managers that followed (Beck, Shaggy, Hervé, Thompson) than Roy McFarland himself.

I was told MacFarland and our chairman fell out big time over the Trevor Benjamin sale, which probably contributed to our decline.

Shaggy was given a horrible hand to play with by the board ( his budget was literally half Beck’s!) whereas Beck was given loads to spend but still produced a poor team; fabulous manager first time around, but a disastrous second term.

Its not really fair to lump Taylor in with Beck in terms of performance…

Roy wrote in his autobiography a few years ago about falling out with Reg Smart & the board over selling big Trev. He felt that if we had kept him for another year he could have got better & more money for him. He was also mucked around by selling his replacement Zema Abbey IIRC.

He was in no way the worst manager we’ve ever had. Ryan, Shelitto, Thompson plus Derry & Atkins in terms of resources vs performance.

[camloyal]

Nov 2, 2024 10:06:56 GMT danielcufc said:

Nov 2, 2024 9:11:05 GMT nickpom said:

I was told MacFarland and our chairman fell out big time over the Trevor Benjamin sale, which probably contributed to our decline.

Shaggy was given a horrible hand to play with by the board ( his budget was literally half Beck’s!) whereas Beck was given loads to spend but still produced a poor team; fabulous manager first time around, but a disastrous second term.

Its not really fair to lump Taylor in with Beck in terms of performance…

Roy wrote in his autobiography a few years ago about falling out with Reg Smart & the board over selling big Trev. He felt that if we had kept him for another year he could have got better & more money for him. He was also mucked around by selling his replacement Zema Abbey IIRC.

He was in no way the worst manager we’ve ever had. Ryan, Shelitto, Thompson plus Derry & Atkins in terms of resources vs performance.

Id suggest the Benjamin deal was the best that the club has ever done. Team Reg on that one.

[Funky Monk]

Coconuts before a match would be bad luck, and I agree that playing it before getting inevitably thumped wouldn't have been correct.

The fact it wasn't Daydream Believer is the real crime.