Alan Ball as a manager

[Cameron Manning]

Did well with Oldham, won a cup with us.

Old school, but he was pretty decent, far from terrible.

To be fair that FA cup final win and never losing to Liverpool made him seem better than he was.

 

[The binman chronicles]

I always thought Royle was a terrible manager as well myself.

Kind of what I meant, he did ok with Oldham, but bar from the two games with utd nothing else really stands out. But he did better with us given where we were before he joined, won a cup, getting 6th the full season he was here. Then drifted off again into obscurity.

 

[Goat]

Kind of what I meant, he did ok with Oldham, but bar from the two games with utd nothing else really stands out. But he did better with us given where we were before he joined, won a cup, getting 6th the full season he was here. Then drifted off again into obscurity.

He did what we expect from all managers tho, win a trophy and beat the vermin as much as possible, so of course we will remember him fondly.

 

[The binman chronicles]

He did what we expect from all managers tho, win a trophy and beat the vermin as much as possible, so of course we will remember him fondly.

No you can't knock him, although he did leave us in the lurch a bit. I wonder if the pressure just got a bit too much? Sure not being a able to sign players and working under Johnson would have sucked but for a bloke with Everton in his veins I always thought he did leave a bit too easily.

 

[bluelord49]

Alan Ball was the heartbeat of Everton Football Club (and England) for the few years he played for us, it was never his fault that mere humans who played for the teams he managed could not ever reach the heights that he achieved.
That for me... in one... answers his demands

 

[blueblue]

Remember the joke about Alan Ball junior and senior.

The joke went that George Best had done one of his disappearing trip from Utd and had gone over to Europe.
Alan Ball senior and Alan Ball Junior went after him,found him and convinced Best to come back.

The headline in the paper next day.....George Best brought back by the Balls.

You would probably need to be a certain age to get that.

 

[4737carlin]

Great player but Arteta will be a better manager

 

[degsy]

Was thinking before, as the only holy trinity member not to manage Everton, how do you think he’d have done bearing in mind he was a PL manager for a time?

@4737carlin Re. Arteta see below.
Kendall and Harvey had 4 goes at it between them. W1, D1, L2 imo.
There is no magic formula - hopely you get the basics right...and I'm sure there are just as many correct ways to skin a cat as there are incorrect ways...you hope to avoid the more obvious mistakes; sq legs in round holes, trying to shoehorn an 11 into your favoutite formation.

The key to better management is having better players - then you hope to get lucky that they gel.

In the 50s and 60s and later. most of the top managers were pragmatic wing halves, with the odd smattering of battering ram No.9s and defenders
Stein, Busby, Shankly, Docherty, Paisley, Kendall, Catterick, Clough, SAF, Ramsey, Robson, Jack Charlton, Nicholson.

Instinctive / class players, B Charlton, B Moore...and Ball; who was not a very good Captain btw, due to mainly not having patience with people who couldn't or wouldn't do what he did and take it as seriously onfield as he did.
These types seem to find it hard to coach players to do what they did instinctively.

Only the rs and united 'do' dynasties - we don't, never have, we rise phoenix like, we spectacularly, but briefly peak then fade.
Everton That.

Ball as all conquering manager?

Given the W, D, L. ratio above, the odds are, again imo, sadly against it.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

An opinion was asked about Ball as a manager, it was a factual and honest reply, but that is apparently the attention seeking one?

I remember reading an account from the man himself who said it was always difficult for him to understand why some people couldn't do what he asked of them, things he probably do in his sleep. His famous quote was "Some of these players can trap a ball further than I can kick it".

Some players are great, some managers are great, not many of either are great at both.

Nobody mentioned Martinez, but it's funny you bring him up. It shows the unrealistic level of animosity that was present towards him and his contributions, regardless of how you think he faired. We are on to our 3rd manager since he left, each has been given huge transfer kitty's to waste on keeping us performing average and playing dire football in doing so, and you probably still use Martinez free transfer signings as a stick to beat him with.

I have no animosity towards Martinez.He tried his best but guess what, his best just wasn't good enough, and the same applies to all the managers since Joe Royle.I hope that clears things up.

 

[larbert toffee]

He's still made a better and bigger contribution to Everton history, than the spanish snake oil salesman.Loads of great players, didn't do that great at management.So there's no shame there.

Corky why are you trying to kid on that you know about an Everton legend when you're about 12 and never even been to a game as for his management skills, he did ok just made a couple of poor judgements of when to move clubs, you know no shame whatsoever.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Again im not trying to disrespect anyone, winning is the only thing i respect, and Alan Ball was that a winner.As i said he wasn't the only great player, not to succeed at management.

 

[larbert toffee]

Again im not trying to disrespect anyone, winning is the only thing i respect, and Alan Ball was that a winner.As i said he wasn't the only great player, not to succeed at management.

You are disrespecting a Goodison legend and throwing in Martinez at the same time which is way off topic and uncalled for., You have no idea what Ball was like as a manager, you are far too young and only read about him, he did far better than his record may suggest, you know absolutely nothing about football from that era.

 

[zzr45]

You are disrespecting a Goodison legend and throwing in Martinez at the same time which is way off topic and uncalled for., You have no idea what Ball was like as a manager, you are far too young and only read about him, he did far better than his record may suggest, you know absolutely nothing about football from that era.

lol lol lol
Turn it in mate, he was a terrible manager. Was a great player, make no mistake about that, but Ball’s managerial masterpiece was to put a prime Matt Le Tissier back in a team after he’d been dropped by an even worse manager. The rest was hot garbage in a period with hundreds of crap managers.

 

[Yarrgh]

A great player. No doubt a good man. But a poor manager - there's no crime in that, I am sure he gave it his all but it wasn't good enough especially when compared to his stellar playing career.

I've just read @MarcelsGoat et al's comments on Joe Royle's time in charge. Joe was the able to get through to the players in the squad and make them effective. No matter how much I moan and groan over Everton, there's always enough quality to win something and the like of a Joe Royle could get a tune out of this current squad I am sure. I have no idea who the current version of Royle is mind you, and I'd prefer to find a Kendall instead.

 

[BernieH]

A man who couldn't grasp that other footballers couldn't do the things he could do/wanted them to do and so wasn't a very good manager.