Top 5 - Managers

[Renegade]

1. Paterson

2. Robertson

3. Butcher

4. Christie

5. Brewster

[TopSix]

1. Butcher

2. Paterson

3. Christie

4. Robbo

5. Baltacha

[starchief]

1. Paterson: what he did was amazing!

2. Christie: got us to our highest league position - should have stayed on

3. Butcher: up first time of asking

4. Robbo: could have done so much more but chose to leave

5. Brewster: made the mistake of coming back to early but only got the DU gig after some impressive ICT performances

[AJS]

What Starchief said.

[Libero]

1. Paterson

2. Butcher

3. Robbo

4. Christie

5. Brewster

[PaderbornCaley]

Paterson

Butcher

Robertson

Christie

Baltacha

[Renegade]

Can't see how some people can put Baltacha over Brewster. Sure Brewster had his faults, but what did Baltacha really bring the club? At least Brewster signed Rooney, Dargo and Esson.

Edited October 12, 2011 by Renegade

[TopSix]

I was being flippant placing Baltacha in front of Brewster. You're absolutely right Renegade. Brewster could pick out talent. By all accounts, everyone who I know who is involved in football speak highly of Brewster. I just found his handling of the media terrible - especially post-match interviews when we lost.

[Scotty]

#1 = Paterson: not statistically the best (thats Robbo) but think this choice is a no-brainer for me.

#2 = Robbo / Butcher: these guys are equal 2nd for me as I am happy with the job both did / are doing. Both got us to SPL

#4 = Christie / Brewster V1.0: Charlie got us to a good position, won 5 in a row to end his first SPL season. Brewster first time around was doing ok.

---------

didnt make the cut

Brewster V2.0 - was he really that bad, or did we just think that because he left us in the lurch first time !

Baltacha - allegedly fined defenders for going over half way line !!!

[marks]

Baltacha - allegedly fined defenders for going over half way line !!!

Did he though? or is that just another story which has grown wings? More a case of fining someone for getting caught out of position?

[12th Man]

Its good to see that we actually have so few managers to choose from.

Hearts have probably had 20 managers during the period of our last 6.

Would make an interesting game of top trumps if you rated managers for

Tactical awareness

Fitness training

Scouting abilities

Profile (are they well known)

Managerial success

I think we would have to add a few more managers from other clubs or the game would finish in about 20 seconds

Regarding the above titles how would you rate our last 5 managers and why.

Edited October 14, 2011 by 12th Man

[Scotty]

Baltacha - allegedly fined defenders for going over half way line !!!

Did he though? or is that just another story which has grown wings?

Quite possibly a story that grew wings ... but the comment was made to me during his time at the club, by one of the players who had supposedly been on the end of a fine so I didnt get it third hand. Bear in mind, we were a part-time 3rd division team at the time so remuneration was minimal and any 'fine' would also be low, and to be fair to the manager, if true, and I do concede my version is only one side of the story, it was perhaps one of his ways of trying to enforce some discipline and teach some tactical awareness to players on the park. Cant deny his own class as a player, too many international caps to argue that ...

Its good to see that we actually have so few managers to choose from. Hearts have probably had 20 managers during the period of our last 6. Would make an interesting game of top trumps if you rated managers for

Tactical awareness

Fitness training

Scouting abilities

Profile (are they well known)

Managerial success

I think we would have to add a few more managers from other clubs or the game would finish in about 20 seconds

Regarding the above titles how would you rate our last 5 managers and why.

Interesting categories ....

Tactical awareness: Thats a hard one. Overall I would have to say Paterson. How many games did we fight back from being down, how many games did we win away, how many games did we go through without a 0-0 draw, how many games did we win that we were "not supposed to". The mantra was to score more goals than the opposition and he did so while trying to play entertaining football on the deck which was virtually unheard of in the lower divisions. After that, to be honest I really dont know the rest of the order and you could make very good points for each manager as they all had something at some time for ICT. For me, Robbo / Butcher perhaps come next as both won us the 1st division and both had to use their tactics in the SPL (albeit briefly for Robbo at ICT [and Hearts]). I would have to put Charlie ahead of Brewster because in the season he took over he won all 5 games after the split without conceding a goal, something that had never been done before, and then Brewster after that. Brew may have had better tactics than I credit him for but like others have mentioned his interviews just didnt portray that and being the only manager to have been sacked by ICT his legacy is perhaps more tarnished than it really should be. Baltacha perhaps unfairly brings up the rear here, but maybe that had more to do with players and the fact we were a part-time 3rd division team. You can only work with what you have, and although we remember some good players from those first years, perhaps it is unfair to comapre a "year 1" team in SFL3 to fully professional players 17 years later in the SPL ?

Fitness training: Brewster undoubtedly had us the fittest we have ever been, no question about that whatsoever. Again, not so sure about the order of the rest so to me, lets call them even !

Scouting abilities: Paterson wins this category for me. On a shoestring budget he found players willing to play for ICT either to revive careers or as raw youngsters and of course, one of those raw youngsters, Rossco, is still playing for us in the SPL 15 years later. We had the likes of Robson who Paterson nurtured, sent on loan and is now an international, we had others like Barry Wilson, Iain Stewart, Charlie Christie, Dennis Wyness, Bobby Mann etc who all went on to become club legends !!! I think Butcher has the potential to come closest to Pele in this category as he has brought a lot of youth to the team either from within such as Nick Ross & Graeme Shinnie, or he has sought them out in lower leagues such as Hayes, Cox. Most of them are exciting players with bags of potential so for that reason I would say he has a good eye. Look down a list of your favourite ICT players and the rest of the managers will also feature. Each one of them has had both success and failure in the signing stakes .. and for every Adam Rooney, Don Cowie, or Paul Cherry, there is also the shadow of an Andy Barrowman, Dean Mcdonald or Darren Thomson lurking around.

Profile (are they well known): I guess part of this answer depends on whether you mean 'well known' when they arrived, or well known 'now'. I think Butcher is ahead in this category regardless of that question. An international captain for England, Rangers captain, TV commentary jobs, Scotland assistant all before coming to ICT, not to mention the iconic bloodied headband photo. everyone knows him. Robbo would come next for me based on his Hearts and Scotland career. He is maybe not a global brand like Butcher, but certainly higher profile within Scotland. Baltacha would be next courtesy of his multitude of caps for USSR/Ukraine and then it would be Brewster, Paterson & Christie in that order based on their 'fame' when arriving at ICT. If its based on current profile then Paterson would move up a notch given his success at ICT, his profile after the Feb8th game, his move to Aberdeen, and unfortunately how that job finally turned out

Managerial success: I have to defer to the order I gave a few posts up and say 1. Paterson 2= Butcher/Robbo, 4= Christie/Brewster, 6. Baltacha. Paterson may not statistically be the best, but by sheer volume of games, and how many of them were memorable or important in our history he gets my vote. With Robbo, he had a great season when we won the SFL1 and went up to the SPL but we may never know how he would have fared there and with Butcher, its still a work in progress but the signs are encouraging enough for me to put him ahead of Christie, who did well but didnt stay long enough to see what the long term would have brought, as well as Brewster V1.0 who I thought did well before buggering off to Tannadice. Brewster 2.0 (the wanderer returns) was a failure for me, and Baltacha did nothing of note in his single season that I can remember.

[dead_ball_specialist]

1) Paterson

2) Butcher

3) Robertson

4) Brewster

Charlie inherited a good team and walked out when he had us bottom of the table below Gretna with zero points. Can't put him on the list.

Baltacha, too long ago to remember. Did ok considering it was our first season in senior football, gubbed County to stop them going up. Probably better than Christie imo but nothing special.

Edited October 16, 2011 by dead_ball_specialist

[ICTPaisley]

Paterson

Robertson

Butcher

Christie

Brewster

[Pele_Is_God]

Robbo above Butcher? really?