Back in the end of January, Ian Collins asked whether I was doing any work on the relative performances of Reading managers. I had something on the back-burner at the time as it were, and with our "remarkable" run of late thought it a good time to see, at least statistically, just who has been our best and worst manager since the war!

This sort of thing will always stir up heated debate, so to reach a conclusion I set myself a few ground rules, so bear these in mind before flaming!!

  1. Only post war managers are reviewed. I’ve left off Joe Edelston, as his reign straddled the war.
  2. League matches only are considered, and no allowance is made for the different divisions that each manager found himself in!
  3. No allowance has been made for promotions, relegations etc, we’re just concerned here with percentages of games won drawn and lost. This also takes care of 2 v. 3 pts for a win!
  4. I’ve not compared caretaker managers etc. in the main list, although the footnote does precise the relevant records.

Now for the controversy! I’ve shown below three groups of data, which show the total percentages of wins, draws and defeats achieved by each manager which are then split into homes and aways. As you can see, there are a few surprises!

Whenever I think of Jack Mansell’s teams, I always seem to remember them as flamboyant, skilful teams, with a style and panache all their own! In actual fact, the records indicate that they were pretty crap! Apart from the wonderful 18 match unbeaten run in 69-70, and the goals against Barrow, Barnsley and Southport, no Reading team has let in so many goals, with the exception of perhaps those managed by Terry the Taxi. (I’m sorry, but this is going to be a bit of a recurring theme - but don’t worry, as ever I will not leave you without hope!!). Apart from Terry Bullivant’s lack of defensive know-how, he is also responsible for the highest percentage of defeats and the lowest percentage of victories ever produced by a post-war manager, putting to shame such "luminaries" as Ians Porterfield & Branfoot, not to mention the Quinn/Gooding "dream ticket" combo! Just one more "brickbat" for Bully - The Cabbie is the first Reading manager in history to field teams averaging less than 5 goals scored in every 4 games played. He pisses on that record, by barely being able to muster a single goal per game. Ian Porterfield’s reign was one of unremitting averageness, as shown by his record, whilst surprisingly only Jack’s Mansell and Smith managed fewer victories than wins, a record now matched by - yep, Terry!!!. (Looks like I’ve got to revise my memory of Jack Mansell - his record is pretty dire, but it was never dull watching his team!)

Enough of the dross I hear you cry, what of the bouquets? Sadly for many of us, we have to pay tribute to a certain large-girthed Scottish gentleman at this point. No-one, post-war, has ever fielded Reading teams that didn’t lose at least 30% of all games they played - except Mark McGhee! He beats all-comers by nearly 5%. His defensive selections, perhaps not surprisingly, conceded just over a goal a game, a figure that can only really be matched by Charlie Hurley, a renowned defender himself, so again no surprises there. Perhaps more surprisingly is McGhee’s ratio of wins. In today’s ultra defensive environment, nearly 44% of games played by a McGhee team resulted in a win, a figure bettered only by the great Ted Drake way back in the late 40’s/early 50’s. Is it no surprise that these two gentlemen are the only post-war managers who left the club of their own free will, to go on to bigger and better things? (I’ll leave it to you to decide whether Chelsea and Leicester warrant that accolade!).

 

Just look at Terry Bullivant’s record, and compare it with Ted Drake’s and Mark McGhee’s!! (but do not despair!!). Below, I’ve provided a breakdown of each managers home and away form, and we can see the chasm between Drake/McGhee’s and Bullivant’s performances get ever wider! Ted Drake manages as shade under 70% of wins at EP, a remarkable record that no other manager comes even close to matching. Harry Johnston and Roy Bentley just break the 60% barrier, whilst Terry? Yes, you’ve guessed it - he’s nearly 10% adrift at the bottom! Just to rub it in, every other manager managed to have more home wins than defeats, and Terry’s teams are the worst goalscorers at EP!! (STOP PRESS - The Port Vale debacle now means he also has the worst goals conceded per game average too, but these are not shown in the charts or tables).

The story is much the same on the road, with the Taxi’s teams scoring by far the least goals per game away from EP, and only being denied the bottom spot on goals conceded by Jack Mansell’s sides. (I really must change my opinion of Jack Mansell!). One surprise is the relatively poor performances of Maurice Evans’ teams away from home.

So just who is the best Reading manager since the war? I’ve taken their records over all league games, and ranked them by percentage performance. The best is a toss-up between Ted Drake and Mark McGhee, with Drake’s sequence of 1st, 1st, 2nd & 4th just beating McGhee’s 1st, 1st, 2nd & 6th, so I guess Ted Drake just shades it!! But how do you legislate for McGhee’s Championship win? See what I mean about this being a hard thing to decide!!

Sadly, there is no such problem determining who our worst custodian has been - yep, you’ve guessed it - step forward Terry Bullivant! This may sound like a one main tirade against young Terry, but I’m afraid the history books don’t lie. He’s spent more money than any other Reading manager in history, (see a later article), and yet has presided over the worst performing team we have seen since the war. What can I say, except that he has also taken us to the fifth round of both major cup competitions in his first season, a feat never before achieved by any Reading manager! Paradox or what!

But do not despair - regular readers of this bit of HNA will realise that whenever I am the harbinger of doom, I usually come up with a silver lining somewhere!! Luckily Terry is not exception. See part 2 of this fascinating series where we will review the first 46 league games of each manager. Be prepared for some surprises, and perhaps a little straw for the drowning to clutch onto!! (Don’t forget the mantra - We mustn’t go down, We mustn’t go down, We mustn’t ……….)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buzz : "This is no time to panic"

Woody : "This is a PERFECT time to panic!