5. Gianfranco Zola.
Gianfranco was a surprising choice of the man to replace Alan Curbishley, he probably should’ve never had the chance to get the job. Alan had done well, guided us to the great escape of 2007 and had consolidated us as a mid table Premier League club or better. Though due to some very poor management he was forced out of the door. So in came Zola, he did well in his first year, which grants him a higher place in the list, though in his second he took us from that to a fierce relegation scrap. Which leaves him 5th in the list.
4. Kevin Keen
He was never our official manager but, he was our caretaker manager twice, both times he lost the only game he was in charge for and had he won them he may have had a leg to stand on to give him a chance of getting the job permanently. He was a good servant to the club and was at the club a long time but he will always be known as a poor bibs and cones man.
3. Lou Macari
He was in charge for one season and was the clubs first non-English manager. The former Manchester United striker came to the club, after some relative success of managing Swindon Town and after 39 games at West Ham he was sacked in February. Not a great stint, and a bad enough stint to get him in this list and to be placed as the 3rd worst Manager.
2. Glenn Roeder
The former Newcastle United centre back took over after Harry Redknapp and he like Zola had a very good start to his career as manager, carrying over from the success that Redknapp had at the club. He was given money to spend and he brought in some very good players. He brought in David James, Don Hutchinson and the hugely popular, but bad tempered, cult hero Tomas Repka from Fiorentina. In his second season, the team slumped; bottom on Christmas day and the rest is history. He will be remembered for his health problems which caused Trevor Brooking to become caretaker manager, and personally, I’ll remember him for a loss at home to Rotherham United, where the opposition turned up at the ground 30 minutes before kick off and still beat us.
1. Avram Grant
In my eyes, he is and always will be the worst manager West Ham United ever appointed. Tactically inept, motivation-less and lacked any bottle to be a professional manager. It will always be a mystery to me why he was appointed and if it wasn’t for the good work of Sam Allardyce, that I would still be bitter about his time at the club. He took the club to its worst ever start to a season and I will remember him for a couple of things, which to me sum up his abysmal career at West Ham. The first is the Arsenal and West Ham fans joining in song to sing, ‘you’re getting sacked in an hour’, one of the most embarrassing displays of football I’ve ever seen away to Bolton, and the phrase ‘Millwall Legend’.
Why would you out Zola in that bracket?? Under Zola we played some our best football and got us to 8 in his first season I think it was, he was only bad if you want to call it that was he had no money at all to spend had to sell his best players again think given half a cnhamve by our current owners we wouldn’t be where we are now certainly wouldn’t have gone down with that team grant took us down with come on mate you do make me laugh
Macari wasn’t sacked, he Quit, big big difference, under roeder we achieved our second highest prem position, Zola came in when icelandics went skint, no money to spend sold best players, still kept us up.
Do your homework better
it was off field activities that Lou Quit, and agree with Mywhufc,
Zola had no money to spend,
Roeder Rat is by far the worst we have ever had and should never of been given the job. Kevin Keen how you can put him in there is beyond me. you need to do your homework better
Zola had no money to spend? how about £9m on Savio – Who has now just signed for a division 3 German side. Benny McCarthy – £3m. 2 of the worst signings ever for us combined at £12m!
Zola “kept us up” only because the 3 teams that went down were absolutely awful – Alot worse than us. We may have played good football, but it wasn’t getting us points. Zola was terrible, & he’s just gone to Watford. His first job since us.
do you really think zola chose those players though? i don’t, i think the style of football that zola endorsed was far superior to that of either curbishley or even allardyce now, zola kept us in the premiership, which was quite a success considering the limited resources he had, oh and how can kevin keen be on this list, he managed us just twice.
Not Zola or roeder
def would have roeder and zola there.. zola was tactically innept and he finnished 9th after managing half a season and losing a postion in the league and 17th when he had his own choices and team… roeder was awefull all the time again took someone elses team to 7th. and avram will always be the worst in my eyes
You obviously don’t “remember” very well. The defeat against Rotherham was at Millmoor.
I hate this blog more and more and am really sick of your stupid stories getting such high ratings on newsnow. You seen only to post nonsense – you are the tabloid of west ham fanzines.
Spot on, was thinking exactly the same thing. I
Seeings whu have only had a handful of managers makes it hard to think of the worst five. Do ya homework!
It is rare that I post these days but why isn’t Redknapp in the list of bad managers? Starting with the mystery surrounding Billy Bonds, Redknapp bought and sold too many players. He was tactically inept, he flirted with relegation too often and our goals against was always higher than our goals for. He sold Rio and used trhe money to buy rubbish and increase the wage bill that took years to recover from. He then spent years criticising the board for selling the youngsters! Of course there were some highlights but in my view he single handedly damaged the club more than any one other manager.
We played some fantastic football under Harry. He is way too good to be mentioned in the same breath as the incompetent Roeder and the inept Avram Grant. Avram Grant is undoubtedly the most useless piece of flotsom ever to sit on a bench. However, I would love to see Him manage again . . . at Millwall!
lou macari was rubbish
GLEN ROEDER WAS THE MOST USELESS
HE TOOK OTHER TEAMS DOWN AS WELL
HE WAS CLUELESS