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Trevor Francis opens up on being sacked by Wednesday


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Read this article today and it really stood out that, like with the current squad, it got to the point where we had to start again and rebuild. No surprise we ended up getting relegated.

 

Also, after seeing the Sunderland documentary - you can see the same thing there. They just papered over the cracks signing players and sacked loads of managers in the Prem. No plan for the team or the business. 

 

We have to learn from this and start selling players at the right time, and having replacement options planned in advance that fit the squad. Forestieri is a prime example, plays well, we get a good offer (apparently) then he has a hissy fit, gets a new contract and now could leave for nowt.

 

 

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@Owlstalks comments on this are ridiculous, I'll probably forever look back on the Atkinson mk1/Francis era as the best I'll see take that away and there's not a lot left, we were a very unfashionable club until the surprise appointment of Atkinson and too think we could have attracted the big managerial names at the time is naive beyond belief, Francis's signing of Waddle gave me the satisfaction of watching a player for a full season in an Owls shirt that was worth the price of admission every week alone, the future signings could have been down to Richards bad chairmanship as about the manager.

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1 hour ago, jamiejohn said:

We always got the line ‘ it’s big Ron’s team ‘ when Francis’s team did well , don’t people realise big Ron as good a manager as he was took big Ron’s team down . Nilsson, Pearson , king, worthington, Palmer, Sheridan and hirst went from relegated under Ron to qualifying for Europe under TF that says to me he knew what he was doing. He also bought some of the best players this club has ever had who added to what big ron and wilko had done before gave us some of the best times and football we’ve ever seen . I also believe as the game changed Francis’s connections that helped bring the likes of waddle, Walker and Petrescu to the club would have been invaluable. I will always be grateful to trev for the times and memories he gave us and thought when he left it was a case of ‘ be careful what you wish for ‘ and sadly looks like I was right , as someone said earlier we’ve had few better and many many more worse 

You have to set that relegation into context. There’s a recent thread on the 87-88 squad under Wilkinson in which you can see the players that we were bringing in were either on the cheap or free and not up to standard (West, Galvin, Owen, Greg Fee etc.).

Due to this lack of investment the team started to decline and led to Wilkinson resigning. 
 

We then had a disastrous spell under Eustace before Big Ron came in during the 88-89 season and somehow kept us up. No mean feat. 
 

Yes, we went down the following season but you could see that team needed a major rebuild. It started to happen once we signed Nilsson, Sheridan and King mid way thru that 89-90 season along with Palmer, Shirtliff and Dalian Atkinson who he had signed earlier. That’s over half a team.
 

We were starting to look like a very good side but a bad run at the end of the season coupled with a really poor start to the season and we were down. But anyone who was watching at the time could see we now had a very good side.

 

This was proven the following season with promotion but also the cup win. Our only trophy since 1935. We beat a number of first division sides on the way and deservedly so. And then Alex Ferguson’s Man Utd in the final who was putting together one of the best sides in the country but we were the better team on the day.

 

This promotion winning, cup winning side was the team that Francis inherited not a relegated side.

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3 hours ago, York_Owl said:

You have to set that relegation into context. There’s a recent thread on the 87-88 squad under Wilkinson in which you can see the players that we were bringing in were either on the cheap or free and not up to standard (West, Galvin, Owen, Greg Fee etc.).

Due to this lack of investment the team started to decline and led to Wilkinson resigning. 
 

We then had a disastrous spell under Eustace before Big Ron came in during the 88-89 season and somehow kept us up. No mean feat. 
 

Yes, we went down the following season but you could see that team needed a major rebuild. It started to happen once we signed Nilsson, Sheridan and King mid way thru that 89-90 season along with Palmer, Shirtliff and Dalian Atkinson who he had signed earlier. That’s over half a team.
 

We were starting to look like a very good side but a bad run at the end of the season coupled with a really poor start to the season and we were down. But anyone who was watching at the time could see we now had a very good side.

 

This was proven the following season with promotion but also the cup win. Our only trophy since 1935. We beat a number of first division sides on the way and deservedly so. And then Alex Ferguson’s Man Utd in the final who was putting together one of the best sides in the country but we were the better team on the day.

 

This promotion winning, cup winning side was the team that Francis inherited not a relegated side.

That side did not include Warhurst, Waddle, Walker, Bart-Williams, Bright all of which were added by Francis and enabled us to compete in the top flight for the next three seasons.

 

Francis was far from being a disaster but like nearly all managers after a few years had gone stale and done all he could do. The time was right for him to go, but to blame him for everything that went wrong over the next few years (leading to our relegation a whole five years later when maybe only two or three of his squad were still at the club) is total and utter nonsense.

 

Neil clearly is pursuing a vendetta based on a personal problem with him.

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I don't think we would have done better in the league if Big Ron had stayed than 3rd, 7th, 7th, 13th - if you look at his entire career he is so inconsistent. That team in 89/90 should never have gone down, and even in 90/91 we only came 3rd - with a team that was light years ahead of Oldham and West Ham, but it was only the league restructuring (3 automatic promotions that year) that spared us the play-offs.

 

The players would have had more fun if Big Ron had stayed, and maybe he would have won another Cup, as he was such a good cup manager - but you can't really argue with 2 Cup Finals (and another Semi Final the next year) in 4 seasons.

 

Also, Big Ron was a bit of a wheeler-dealer, so while it was sad to see the likes of Palmer, Nilsson, Sheridan, and eventually Hirst, leave, I'm not sure they would have stayed longer under Big Ron.

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18 hours ago, @owlstalk said:


Wednesday made a fatal mistake when giving the managers job to Francis.

He was a Wednesday player, had an awful record in management, and didn't have the experience or skills to manage our club.

If we'd made the right decision at the time we could have been long time successes in the Premier League


Appointing Francis wasn't just a bad business decision, it was fatal for our ability to compete at the highest level.

God knows when we will actually recover from it

Absolute rubbish

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7 hours ago, DJMortimer said:

 

I remember a couple of games when we were losing and he came on from the bench and just dominated proceedings the rest of the way like Waddle would a couple of years later. Every time he got the ball, effortlessly drifting past defenders and setting up chances. And by then he was an old codger. Always felt he should have scored more often for us, but still a big difference maker.

He was different gravy. Had never been a fan until he came here.  Wish we could have seen him in his prime in an Owls shirt.

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1 minute ago, @owlstalk said:


Just posting that doesn’t make you right mate

 

lol

 

Not saying it makes me right but it doesn't stop me thinking what you said was rubbish in my opinion.

Fatal mistake! I can think of worse 'mistakes' than that.

Awfal record in management?  A few months as player manager at QPR.

Move along the timeline later inthe 90's to see when mistakes were made that we have never receovered from.

Right decision in 91? Who was your choice at the time?

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2 minutes ago, Etchesketch said:

Not saying it makes me right but it doesn't stop me thinking what you said was rubbish in my opinion.

Fatal mistake! I can think of worse 'mistakes' than that.

Awfal record in management?  A few months as player manager at QPR.

Move along the timeline later inthe 90's to see when mistakes were made that we have never receovered from.

Right decision in 91? Who was your choice at the time?


 

How did he do at QPR? 
How did he get on with the players there?

 

Name me any time that you have heard ANY player speaking about Francis being a great man manager

 


Owlstalk Shop

 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:


 

How did he do at QPR? 
How did he get on with the players there?

 

Name me any time that you have heard ANY player speaking about Francis being a great man manager

It's more about results than being a great man manager.  No good being a great manager and taking Wednesday down like Big Ron did(Fan of Ron as well incidently but just stating fact), you can't argue with results after 91 with 3rd in the League, couple of Cup Finals and great signings like Bright, Warhurst etc.

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1 minute ago, Etchesketch said:

It's more about results than being a great man manager. 


What (just one example) was Francis' last result as Sheffield Wednesday after he'd been man-managing our squad for a while?

 

Remind me the score..

 


Owlstalk Shop

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, Etchesketch said:

Your point?   What was the last result of Francis you were thinking of by the way?


No point - was just posting it as was curious to see his managerial record :rolleyes:


My memory is playing up about his last game as I always remembered it as the Nottingham Forest home game where Chris Bart Williams fell over the ball and kicked it out for a corner to them in front of the kop

 


Owlstalk Shop

 

 

 

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23 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

Screenshot 2020-05-20 at 07.52.16.jpg

If his reign at Hillsborough had been absolute dross, I’d understand your vitriol towards him. 

The standard of football before and after has never been as good.


The link up play down either flank was unstoppable, and even when our two star strikers were unavailable we still dominated teams. 
 

No fan that was at Blackburn or the cup semi against Utd will forget those days. Days that I never thought possible from starting watching Wednesday in the 70s. 
 

We got to sing  Abide with me at Wembley when the FA cup was a proper tournament. 
 

I tell my son about days like that, when Francis was in charge. Other managers may have done better, but we’ll never know will we.

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Just now, Sergeant Tibbs said:

Other managers may have done better, but we’ll never know will we.


That's true. We won't.

Because we hired the wrong manager, slipped down the league, replaced our good players with dross, everyone fell out, we started getting battered and then he got rightly sacked off.

 

lol

 

 


Owlstalk Shop

 

 

 

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8 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:


No point - was just posting it as was curious to see his managerial record :rolleyes:


My memory is playing up about his last game as I always remembered it as the Nottingham Forest home game where Chris Bart Williams fell over the ball and kicked it out for a corner to them in front of the kop

Them statistics are't correct either.  He didnt manage that many games at QPR and the dates on it coincide when he had already signed for Wednesday as a player.

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3 minutes ago, Sergeant Tibbs said:

If his reign at Hillsborough had been absolute dross, I’d understand your vitriol towards him. 

The standard of football before and after has never been as good.


The link up play down either flank was unstoppable, and even when our two star strikers were unavailable we still dominated teams. 
 

No fan that was at Blackburn or the cup semi against Utd will forget those days. Days that I never thought possible from starting watching Wednesday in the 70s. 
 

We got to sing  Abide with me at Wembley when the FA cup was a proper tournament. 
 

I tell my son about days like that, when Francis was in charge. Other managers may have done better, but we’ll never know will we.

Agree 100%

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