Woy of the Wovers

[Nuttall is lost]

Memories of Roy Hodgson's time in charge.  Started off well and then went tits up.  Any inside scoops on what went wrong?

[simongarnerisgod]

1 hour ago, Nuttall is lost said:

Memories of Roy Hodgson's time in charge.  Started off well and then went tits up.  Any inside scoops on what went wrong?

he spent a lot of jacks money on substandard players and it was`nt long before we started losing games,signing kevin davies for 7.5 million and letting james beattie go to southampton for nothing as part of the deal was`nt the smartest move either

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Signed some real dross with the possible exception of Stephane Henchoz who was a class centr half. He had Zanetti, Djorkaeff, Ince and Aaron Winter in midfield when he was in Italy and they were still crap to watch.

He did best at clubs were he had hardly any money to spend.

[DeeCee]

Aweful👎

[Nuttall is lost]

He was the consolation prize after Sven backed out of his agreement.  I knew of him due to his time as Switzerland manager at USA 94.  The talk at the time was he had brought the continental way to Rovers and changed the diet and training etc..   I remember his first season we were title challengers up until around Christmas I think and then it all went a bit Ray Harford.  Just wonder what happened to go from that to relegation fodder and being sacked.

Who else could we have got in that summer of 1997? 

[Waggy76]

17 minutes ago, Nuttall is lost said:

He was the consolation prize after Sven backed out of his agreement.  I knew of him due to his time as Switzerland manager at USA 94.  The talk at the time was he had brought the continental way to Rovers and changed the diet and training etc..   I remember his first season we were title challengers up until around Christmas I think and then it all went a bit Ray Harford.  Just wonder what happened to go from that to relegation fodder and being sacked.

Who else could we have got in that summer of 1997? 

The first season he still had remnants of the Title winning team....Hendry , Sherwood , Sutton , Gallagher..... Hendry leaving started the rot if I remember right , his replacement was Peacock then Daily....nuff said 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Waggy76

[Nuttall is lost]

Les Ferdinand was sold that summer to Spurs when Rovers were a far better team at the time. Kevin bloody Davies from Chesterfield I think was what we signed instead!  Looking back at the mistakes from 1995 onwards it was a total facepalm of mismanagement from the top down.

[booth]

10 minutes ago, Nuttall is lost said:

Les Ferdinand was sold that summer to Spurs when Rovers were a far better team at the time. Kevin bloody Davies from Chesterfield I think was what we signed instead!  Looking back at the mistakes from 1995 onwards it was a total facepalm of mismanagement from the top down.

Southampton. Then we signed him, the fee went to his head and he played like he didn't want to be here.

[Gordon Gekko]

Still remember the thumping we gave Sheffield Wednesday 7-2 at Ewood in the 97/98 season! probably the best game I’ve ever watched!

Edited November 8, 2022 by Gordon Gekko

[Nuttall is lost]

52 minutes ago, booth said:

Southampton. Then we signed him, the fee went to his head and he played like he didn't want to be here.

You're right.  I literally have no recollection of him playing for Southampton before us.  I thought we bought him after Chesterfield's 1997 FA Cup run in which he made a name for himself..  We actually signed him in 1998 not 1997.

I just remember him being absolutely useless. 

 

[booth]

2 minutes ago, Nuttall is lost said:

You're right.  I literally have no recollection of him playing for Southampton before us.  I thought we bought him after Chesterfield's 1997 FA Cup run in which he made a name for himself..  We actually signed him in 1998 not 1997.

I just remember him being absolutely useless. 

 

He was good for Southampton but only for a short period of time. To spend £7.5m on him was bonkers.

[roverandout]

35 minutes ago, Nuttall is lost said:

You're right.  I literally have no recollection of him playing for Southampton before us.  I thought we bought him after Chesterfield's 1997 FA Cup run in which he made a name for himself..  We actually signed him in 1998 not 1997.

I just remember him being absolutely useless. 

 

He played 1 season at Southampton.  He scored something like 12 goals 

[dingles staying down 4ever]

I was told Woy was hardly there, as he was teaching on Internatinal coaching courses, which left Faz and TP in charge. Apparently the big name players used to rule the castle apparently saying things like "Weve won the premiership you won Div3 how can you coach me?" Others partied like it was 1999 as Prince used to sing. They were just a couple of years early

Most of his signings didn't work. Davies arrived for way too much money, even Woy was horrified at the price but he was again away from the club. Davies also arrived at the club recovering from glandular fever. Perez arrived from France and couldn't settle. Hendry signed a new contract then changed his mind and went to Rangers. Dahlin came with a back injury and never recovered.

The football we played at the beginning of his first season was some of the best we;ve seen at Ewood though 

[BRFCS.com]

There's a detailed look back to the 1997/98 season on site here:

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/articles/recalling-199798/238

[Upside Down]

1 hour ago, dingles staying down 4ever said:

I was told Woy was hardly there, as he was teaching on Internatinal coaching courses, which left Faz and TP in charge. Apparently the big name players used to rule the castle apparently saying things like "Weve won the premiership you won Div3 how can you coach me?" Others partied like it was 1999 as Prince used to sing. They were just a couple of years early

Most of his signings didn't work. Davies arrived for way too much money, even Woy was horrified at the price but he was again away from the club. Davies also arrived at the club recovering from glandular fever. Perez arrived from France and couldn't settle. Hendry signed a new contract then changed his mind and went to Rangers. Dahlin came with a back injury and never recovered.

The football we played at the beginning of his first season was some of the best we;ve seen at Ewood though 

Absolutely. It was amazing, I've never seen us totally dominate games the way we did when he first came in. 

I think a lot of the issues were down to the massive ego's that had been grown by some of the title winning players. Ultimately it was the culmination of poor decision making the summer after we won the league. Lots of issues started to rear their heads when a few bad results came in.

Unfortunately a lot of the signings he made were either rubbish or didn't work out for whatever reason. We were also in the worst negotiating position for transfer fees as we were cashed up and desperate. 

I think had he taken charge again after Hughes' departure we could possibly have gone on to win more trophies. 

He's proven to be a phenomenal manager when working to a budget but lacking when he's got money to spend and has to deal with big ego's. 

 

Oh and it's Rrrrrroy or Uhroy. He doesn't pronounce his R's as W's, its either rolled or gutteral.

Edited November 9, 2022 by Upside Down

[Oldgregg86]

8 hours ago, Gordon Gekko said:

Still remember the thumping we gave Sheffield Wednesday 7-2 at Ewood in the 97/98 season! probably the best game I’ve ever watched!

I’d only been to ewood twice at that point and my dad said you can pick a game sheff Wednesday or Leeds. I picked Leeds and we lost 4-3. I was sat in the kitchen with a battered plasterers radio listening to the goals fly in. It was about 5-0 after 20 minutes. That decision has been the basis of my entire life 😂

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

9 hours ago, Gordon Gekko said:

Still remember the thumping we gave Sheffield Wednesday 7-2 at Ewood in the 97/98 season! probably the best game I’ve ever watched!

I just watched the highlights again. Two wingers getting around the sides of teams caused most of the goals. They should show that film to modern day coaches.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

3 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I just watched the highlights again. Two wingers getting around the sides of teams caused most of the goals. They should show that film to modern day coaches.

Two wingers with a tall man in the middle and a small one feeding off them.......it could be the future.

Full backs and wingers working in tandem so they'd cover each other. Not like todays full backs bombing forward with no cover...again it could work.

[DE.]

17 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Signed some real dross with the possible exception of Stephane Henchoz who was a class centr half. He had Zanetti, Djorkaeff, Ince and Aaron Winter in midfield when he was in Italy and they were still crap to watch.

He did best at clubs were he had hardly any money to spend.

Yep, Roy was very much suited to the role of managing an underdog team. At clubs where there was high expectation he almost always underwhelmed - Rovers (at the time), Liverpool, England. People will point to Inter Milan but they were in a difficult period as well whilst he was there.

[Mattyblue]

World Cup ‘98, Derby’s Christian Dailly was having shocker after shocker with Scotland. Me dad used to slag him off relentlessly.

Few weeks later, ‘Dad, guess who Woy has just signed for five and a half million?’

’FFS🤬‘

[smiller14]

I was very young this season, but remember the Wednesday game well. Also bought a 'two horse race' VHS, which showed the season up until Christmas time when Rovers were fighting for the title. Fair to say they didn't release a part 2! We also thumped Leicester (I think) 5-3 that season, remember racing into a 5-0 lead and being delighted that my hero Colin Hendry had scored.

98-99 was more miserable, again my age means any memories are sketchy but remember the 4-3 defeat at home to Chelsea being a heartbreaker (referee was a wanker too) and remember hearing Roy had been sacked on the radio after the Southampton game. 

[oldjamfan1]

I think it was Carlton Palmer who scored right at the end of injury time to make it 2-0 to Southampton. As the ball was hitting the back of the net I said to my lad “Roy will be sacked before he leaves the ground tonight”. Sure enough he was, Jack sacked him on the spot.

It therefore made me laugh years later when he revealed he’d been sacked in the tunnel at Ewood Park not once but twice (the second time was as Liverpool manager after we had beaten them).