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Are you a fan of Big Ron Atkinson?


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I started supporting the Owls in 1993 so Big Ron during his second spell is my favourite Owls manager up till now. The decision to let him go, without having someone special lined up to replace him, was up there as one of the main reasons for our decline afterwards. Clearly we thought we could attract someone like Houiller, Troussier, Walter Smith or Martin o’Neil and ended up with Danny Wilson. The rest as they say, has mostly been a pile of kack.

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9 hours ago, Kagoshimaowl said:

Quite obvious really...went to his boyhood club. 

 

IIRC his reason for going at the time in 1991 was Villa was nearer his home in South Birmingham and the daily commute to Sheffield was grinding him down.

Always wanted to ask him about this when he came back in 1997 and Sheffield was still no nearer.

 

But it's all water under the bridge and his first spell was a really exciting time to support Wednesday. It's hard not to like the bloke.

 

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1 hour ago, Southie_Owl said:

I started supporting the Owls in 1993 so Big Ron during his second spell is my favourite Owls manager up till now. The decision to let him go, without having someone special lined up to replace him, was up there as one of the main reasons for our decline afterwards. Clearly we thought we could attract someone like Houiller, Troussier, Walter Smith or Martin o’Neil and ended up with Danny Wilson. The rest as they say, has mostly been a pile of kack.

Could well say that was our biggest mistake, wanted Walter Smith myself...Danny Wilson cheap option

 

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1 hour ago, Dooogs said:

 

Wasn't that Johnny Harkes or were they both pork swordsmen?

There were loads of rumours flying around that players from both Sheffield clubs putting themselves about, wasn't sure about Harkes, was there not some story about Bills and one of the reasons he went back to Sweden. 

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13 hours ago, The Horse said:

The Villa thing is water under the bridge to me.

I can't hold a grudge against the man who, for me, is the yardstick of performance and style for any Wednesday team since.

His personality and the way he had his team playing was a perfect fit for our identity as a club and fanbase.

Style, a bit of flash, bonkers humour but hard workers and ultimately winners.

All of our managers since have had to live up to that and no-one's yet to come anywhere near close.

Carlos gave us a slight hint of what we'd missed when management, players and fans come together and the atmosphere of the barmy army days returned somewhat.

But Carlos self destructed and abandoned the football that got the crowd going.

Nope, we're STILL waiting for someone to fill Big Ron's shoes. Our last great manager.

30 years ago.

FFS, Wednesday.. sort it out.

Totally agree with all of this but at the same time, the ghost of Big Ron has made it more difficult for every one of his successors. He raised our expecations so much, and there's nothing wrong with that as we should aspire to be the best with the best manager but unfortunately, there are very few managers that have the full package that Ron had and for a club like ours they don't come along very often. Whoever attracted him here in the first place destves massive credit because it's not the type of appointment we usually mske. 

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5 hours ago, Nut said:

Totally agree with all of this but at the same time, the ghost of Big Ron has made it more difficult for every one of his successors. He raised our expecations so much, and there's nothing wrong with that as we should aspire to be the best with the best manager but unfortunately, there are very few managers that have the full package that Ron had and for a club like ours they don't come along very often. Whoever attracted him here in the first place destves massive credit because it's not the type of appointment we usually mske. 

Think the timing was perfect in the sense he’d been sacked at Man Utd and then flopped at Atletico Madrid, so we picked him up when he was on a low ebb. 
 

You do have to ask whether as a first division manager his best days were behind him by 1989. He got us relegated in his first full season with a very strong side, and other than two decent seasons at Villa, the rest of his career was spent fire fighting for relegation threatened clubs (successfully in ours and Coventry’s case, unsuccessfully for Forest). 
 

But there’s no doubt in 1990 he was a class above for the second division, and the way he got the team playing was a joy to behold.

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8 hours ago, soldierboyblue said:

Still the best manager by a country mile in my 40 years watching us, Wilkinson comes close but the style of football are like chalk and cheese. I always wonder what might have been had he not gone to villa 

Odious, double crosser - never wanted him back and glad he destroyed his post football career. 

 

https://www.wsc.co.uk/the-archive/104-Race/1710-ron-and-ron-again

 

 

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