1992/3 - Was that a better squad than 1991/2?

[Guest ka58]

_{1992/93 squad was definately stronger of the two. Also under Francis we played abit more direct and used Brighty to bring the ball down and bring the others into play and this was effective, more pace in that side also. The 1990/91 team tended to build from the back will the ball rolled out to the full backs.}

_{Think we finished 7th in '93 which considering the poor start we had in the league up til christmas was miraculous. If we had had a normal start we would have been pushing for the title again. Happy days!}

I agree. Bear in mind we played the kids / reserves for the remainder of the season after we got to fa cup final.

[sten]

pauli williams...unsung hero

[Ash-Williams]

and the total ruin of it all was David fecking basteward pleat!!

i have smashed up so many radios when i hear his voice pop up in regards to football, the man is an idiot

Edited September 8, 2012 by oli1980

[DJMortimer]

Ah, the David Pleat ruined it all myth again?

Yeah, it was terrible when we finished 7th in the Premier League and were signing the likes of Carbone, Di Canio, Degryse and Stefanovic wasn't it?

Granted, his final season started off extremely badly but the idea that he was somehow responsible for our subsequent struggles are deeply flawed at best. As far as I'm concerned, he is unfairly tarnished for being the one in charge when most of the 1990s legends career's were winding down and they were in need of replacing. I'm aware that many players neither liked nor got on with him, and he can be legitimately criticised for that, but the architect of our demise? B@llocks. That started in earnest with the lethal combination of Richards and Wilson.

Edited September 8, 2012 by DJMortimer

[owls maniac]

Ah, the David Pleat ruined it all myth again?

Yeah, it was terrible when we finished 7th in the Premier League and were signing the likes of Carbone, Di Canio, Degryse and Stefanovic wasn't it?

Granted, his final season started off extremely badly but the idea that he was somehow responsible for our subsequent struggles are deeply flawed at best. As far as I'm concerned, he is unfairly tarnished for being the one in charge when most of the 1990s legends career's were winding down and they were in need of replacing. I'm aware that many players neither liked nor got on with him, and he can be legitimately criticised for that, but the architect of our demise? B@llocks. That started in earnest with the lethal combination of Richards and Wilson.

This.

You have to remember that at the time Pleat was a very successful manager. For me the appointment of Wilson was a clear sign that we had lost our ambition.

[Ash-Williams]

yeh that must be it, treated the best players we had like crud. got rid of them all at least two years too soon.

but hey you must be right and all those players must be wrong about him. You name three half decent players he bought, who still wernt a patch on the players we had before.

we got hammerd by man utd pleats answer to that? sell Hirsty.

the man thought Andy Booth was a premier leauge striker.

and he wasnt a succssful premier leauge manager, he was a cerb crawling half wit.

neg all you want he got lucky in his first season, he soon got found out he should never ever have been anywhere near our club in the first place. how much of that charterhouse money did he spunk on average to poor replacements to the best team we have ever had in the past fifty years?

where did most of the debt we were stuck with come from? charterhouse?

Edited September 8, 2012 by oli1980

[Guest owl_be_back]

Woods over Turner? Really?

I know Woods was England keeper but he was flippingshybo

So was turner

[sten]

I've got the same collection of knackered radios as Oli1980 and agree with him totally. So, if we let him down, presumably he went on to great things with some other club?

[Ian]

The total combined talent of that squad is about the same as the Terry Yorath days....purely because for all the genius of waddle et all, the negative impact of David Johnson cannot be overstated.....it was like having a wardrobe up front....no movement, no touch, no ability.....he made Kim Olsen look like Messi

[DJMortimer]

yeh that must be it, treated the best players we had like crud. got rid of them all at least two years too soon.

but hey you must be right and all those players must be wrong about him.

I suspect most of these points were made in reply to the post below mine, but anyway, I've already acknowledged that Pleat deserved criticism for the way he treated some of our legends. What they thought of him is well known and may well be perfectly legitimate. But it is par for the course that a new manager's ego demands he cleans house as soon as possible, right or wrong. That said, your claim that they still had two years left in them is highly speculative at best. What glories did Waddle, Pearson, Sheridan, Wilson, Bright and Hirst go on to once they left us? The sad fact is that many of them were on the downturn, but some people need a scapegoat rather than recognise that.

You name three half decent players he bought, who still wernt a patch on the players we had before.

So Di Canio and Carbone weren't better than Watson, Jemson, Whittingham, Blinker and Bright ? And at that stage of his career, they were also a big upgrade on Hirst. And I say that as someone who thought he was awesome in his prime.

we got hammerd by man utd pleats answer to that? sell Hirsty.

the man thought Andy Booth was a premier leauge striker.

As I recall, Pleat didn't last more than 24 hours after that hammering at Old Trafford. So Hirst's departure was nothing like what you claim. And at that time of his career, getting a couple of million for him was a no brainer.

and he wasnt a succssful premier leauge manager, he was a cerb crawling half wit.

Well, I never claimed he was. He just doesn't deserve the misplaced vitriol he gets.

neg all you want he got lucky in his first season, he soon got found out he should never ever have been anywhere near our club in the first place. how much of that charterhouse money did he spunk on average to poor replacements to the best team we have ever had in the past fifty years?

where did most of the debt we were stuck with come from? charterhouse?

Demonstrating your poor assessment of the facts, his first season saw us struggle in similar fashion to how Francis left us. THe year after he guided a mediocre squad to 7th place. But of course, that was just 'lucky' ! As I already accepted, his third term started disastrously and his sacking was no great surprise.

Like any manager, he made some good buys and he made some poor ones. He was responsible for our record ever sale in Darko Kovacevic for a start. A minimum of £6m was squandered on Di Canio and Carbone long after he was gone and thanks to the incompetence and prejudice of his sucessor and the chairman. Another £2m went because they also failed to ensure that Stefanovic appeared in enough games to qualify for a work permit. Perhaps you could give some examples of the big losses we made as a result of his lousy dealings because I can't think of many.

You appear to be a victim of binary thinking. That because I don't want to consider Pleat one of the biggest bums we ever employed that I think he was some sort of genius. I never made such a claim, mainly because I'm somewhere in the middle on him as a manager. As a character, I think rather less of him. But that's more of a side issue.

[Carl Shutt is God]

Great days. What a team that was.

[eDDie]

Trevor Francis was far more responsible for our decline that David Pleat was. Pleat realistically HAD to totally gut the squad on his arrival, because Francis hadn't found anything like capable replacements for Waddle, Sheridan, Palmer or Bright. By the time Pleat took over, Wednesday had squandered the opportunity to build as a top team, and instead were a second-rate option for top players.

[Orlando_Trustful]

Pleat's a complete fookwit. End of.

[Dick_Turpin]

Woods won away fan's player of the season didn't he?

I remember a game at Tottenham when he was incredible. The best goalkeeping in one match I'd seen by a Wednesday keeper.

[York_Owl]

Chris Woods was far from shybo, balls up at wembley can't define a footballers career.....was a very good keeper both at Wednesday and Rangers IMO

Trevor Francis Is by far one of the most succesful modern day managers we have had, people again are so quick to single out people, have scapegoats, nothing to do with our decline, that was the gang above TF.....Pleat was pathetic though that I do agree with.

The success TF had was on the back of Big Ron's team plus a few additions. We had already won a trophy under Atkinson and that team should have won more trophies with the right manager, TF was not that man. Granted we came very close in 93 and you could argue that had we not had injuries to key players (Pearson, Shirtliff and Anderson) we would have won at least one of those finals.

But I don't think Francis brought in the right players. In 91 we needed a CB (he signed Warhurst who had some excellent games there but also made a number of mistakes which cost us games, he was class when he went up front tho), a left midfielder, Francis did not sign a winger until the following season (Waddle and it turned out he preferred to play on the right so we were still short on the left. Worthington was basically a left back doing a (good) job in midfield, a keeper unless Turner could have been persuaded to stay on another year, he signed Woods but was he the the right man? We paid £1.2 million for him which was a lot of money when you consider Man U paid 550,000 for Schmeical at the same time and a forward, he signed Jemson for £800,000, failed to sign Cantona and eventually signed Bright the following season.

[parkfieldowl14]

I think 91/92

It was the team that convinced Waddle to come

but to finish 3rd and almost (on paper) win it was a massive achievement

if it had not been for the 6 points dropped against the snortbeasts and then we may well have ended up winning the Championship in 1992 and not Weeds.

[York_Owl]

if it had not been for the 6 points dropped against the snortbeasts and then we may well have ended up winning the Championship in 1992 and not Weeds.

we finished 7 points behind Leeds so would have needed another couple of points from somewhere. We also lost 1-6 at home to Leeds (albeit with most of the squad suffering from flu) and 1-7 away at Arsenal. We also got beat by teams like Notts County, Oldham and Norwich

[parkfieldowl14]

we finished 7 points behind Leeds so would have needed another couple of points from somewhere. We also lost 1-6 at home to Leeds (albeit with most of the squad suffering from flu) and 1-7 away at Arsenal. We also got beat by teams like Notts County, Oldham and Norwich

still,if we'd not dropped the points to those teams you've just mentioned then "SWFCwould have been champions of England 1992"and not Weeds.

[York_Owl]

still,if we'd not dropped the points to those teams you've just mentioned then "SWFCwould have been champions of England 1992"and not Weeds.

true but bottom line was that we were not quite good enough. Might have been a different story if Atkinson had stayed on as manager and/or we had made better signings. I reckon we needed a top quality centre half, left midfielder, and centre forward.

Francis signed Warhurst (750,000) at CB but he was too inconsistent there (brilliant when switched up front mind), no left midfielder, Jemson (800,000) up front, Chris Woods (1.2 million) and Chris Bart-Williams (CM)

[Guest IronicOwl]

ahhhh the 92-93 season, the year i fully developed my hatred of Arsenal.

...shame they got turned into a half decent footballing team really.