A title even the man himself no longer wants, in a good way.
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Elong
The fire rises
Yeah he was world class in that game, fantastic talent that was hot and cold for us.
blue_aussie05
Player Valuation: £8m
Indeed. I really liked Royle as a manager. However, we were awful from midway in that 96/97 season. We'd been knocked out of both domestic cup competitions by lower league teams. York in the league cup was bad enough, but I vividly remember going out at home to Bradford in the FA Cup too in a limp fashion.
He'd turned us from a very good team into one that finished 2 points above the relegation zone. Don't know how it happened, but it couldn't have carried on. I think he'd lost the plot
davidloach
Player Valuation: £10m
Puts everything into perspective
His chairman lost the plot!
mythbuster
Player Valuation: £35m
Sorry mate, but I disagree massively with this post. The debacle of Royle leaving set us back years, imo. We went into a downward spiral that we never recovered from until Moyes come along.
blue_aussie05
Player Valuation: £8m
I agree with the downward spiral, but it actually looked like that began halfway through Royle's last season.
Have you seen the results after Christmas 1996?
Have you seen the results after Christmas 1996?
mythbuster
Player Valuation: £35m
Yes, I don't need to look on the interweb to remember it. I remember it perfectly well.
We lost Parkinson and Hinchcliffe to injury, and Kanchelskis lost the plot. We were just left with a poor team. Joe would have turned it around if he never left. We needed players, and badly. We needed players so badly, that it could be argued that the likes of Carl Tiler, Thomas Myrhe, Mitch Ward etc helped us to stay up in the following season.
blue_aussie05
Player Valuation: £8m
Injuries must have played a part, as did Kanchelskis badly losing his mojo, but I still maintain that Royle didn't know how to turn it round, hence us going into freefall.
And Parkinson only got injured 3 matches before Royle left, so we were already in an advanced stage of freefall by then.
Maybe Flo arriving (if Royle was allowed to buy him) may have kick started our season again, as Campbell did a couple of seasons later?
And Parkinson only got injured 3 matches before Royle left, so we were already in an advanced stage of freefall by then.
Maybe Flo arriving (if Royle was allowed to buy him) may have kick started our season again, as Campbell did a couple of seasons later?
mythbuster
Player Valuation: £35m
Crap team mate. Take out Baines, Lennon/Mirallas and MCcarthy from the current set-up and imagine we had no alternatives.... Add to that that Duncan was injured a lot, and big nev was on his last legs (god bless him) and we had Dave watson taking about 90 minutes to complete a turn......
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BoysInBlue
Player Valuation: £50m
Not really, only Kanchelskis was sold whilst Royle was manager (Jan 1997, £8m to Fiorentina) and Royle himself said Kanchelskis (who had been poor that season) wanted to go.
Royle's problem was we suffered several cup upsets to lower league teams, and he got involved in a petty feud with Echo journos (McNulty & Prentice), in the days when the Echo wasn't in the clubs pocket and did have a go at the club if things weren't going right. The local media were on his back a lot in 96/97 and it really got to Joe. Also Peter Johnson running EFC in the same way he ran Tranmere (as in, not as a top flight team & making some distinctly amateurish decisions) didn't help as well.
blue_aussie05
Player Valuation: £8m
But this was essentially the same team that did well the season before, and won the cup the season before that.
BoysInBlue
Player Valuation: £50m
True, which lends credence to Joe losing his way a bit. Johnson as chairman didn't really help him or support him.
As much as people slate Kenwright, I often wonder what would have happened if Royle would have had Kenwright as his chairman and not Johnson, back in 1997.
If Kenwright had been there to support Royle in March 1997, maybe we'd have stabilised the club and avoided the next 5 very poor seasons.
mythbuster
Player Valuation: £35m
Except it wasn't. Who was our replacement for Hinchcliffe? Who was our replacement for Kanchelskis? Who was our replacement for Parkinson? Who was replacing the aging Watson and Southall?
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