Managerial Shortlist Game

[Vicar Jeremiah]

Cox

[Vice President]

Evans or Flitcroft.

Steve Evans had us on course for promotion until he walked away. (He is not a nice person and he can't be trusted, but he would probably be the most likely to get promotion quickly).
David Flitcroft after a bad start got us going again, but he faltered at the end. I still think that he would be a good 'long-term' manager and would get us promoted eventually. Sacking him was a big mistake.
Adam Murray & John Dempster are not up to the job and they both have the same problem. They are too timid/negative in their tactics. They have not shown the belief, confidence and leadership qualities that are required to lead a successful promotion team. And that has also been shown in their results.
Paul Cox did a great job getting us promoted from the Conference. However, I am not sure that he could take us to the next level. But he is better than Murray/Dempster.

[BH_Stag]

Evans or Flitcroft.

Steve Evans had us on course for promotion until he walked away. (He is not a nice person and he can't be trusted, but he would probably be the most likely to get promotion quickly).
David Flitcroft after a bad start got us going again, but he faltered at the end. I still think that he would be a good 'long-term' manager and would get us promoted eventually. Sacking him was a big mistake.
Adam Murray & John Dempster are not up to the job and they both have the same problem. They are too timid/negative in their tactics. They have not shown the belief, confidence and leadership qualities that are required to lead a successful promotion team. And that has also been shown in their results.
Paul Cox did a great job getting us promoted from the Conference. However, I am not sure that he could take us to the next level. But he is better than Murray/Dempster.

Totally agree on every manager.

[tillydog123]

Lost the plot on all of our managers past and present.
If I had to choose ...would got for Evans def the right direction till he walked.

[gazza1988]

People saying Cox could not move up seem to forget he didn't have the budget of DF and Fatty but still achieved 11th.

Cox would have fared much better had he been able to either keep Green or replace him adequately. Palmer, although a solid choice now, wasn't back then. I believe we had Sir Calvin Andrew and Ben Hutchinson as well.

[stagsfan6493]

People saying Cox could not move up seem to forget he didn't have the budget of DF and Fatty but still achieved 11th.

Cox would have fared much better had he been able to either keep Green or replace him adequately. Palmer, although a solid choice now, wasn't back then. I believe we had Sir Calvin Andrew and Ben Hutchinson as well.

Paul Cox with the Evans budget would have got us promoted into League 1 in my view.

His style of 'football' has achieved promotions throughout the leagues and finishing 11th was pretty good considering.

[garlic]

I`ll nominate leroy, he would get any team going.

[spanishstag]

Without a doubt flitcroft ,got us playing nice stuff ,and i honestly think he bought into us ,it ended poorly but its werent his fault

[Jamie]

Evans for me... We looked at our best during his purple patch, he motivated the fans, knows everyone and is hated by all which can have its benefits... We didn't quite hit the same heights under DF and he bottled the run in twice. Cox showed he can't manage league teams with his one dimensional hoofing, Muz and Demps are both far to negative to succeed at a club with ambitions.

In an ideal world, i wouldn't have any. Never go back!!!

[bobbystagsfan]

Murray. His players are still here and stand out. He was also open to new ideas and was flexible. He didn't have the funds to be too adventurous and was determined not to take us back to the pit hence his style was unfairly hampered.

Fatty Arbuckle improved nothing and cost us a fortune.

Cox couldn't move up.

Flitcroft failed twice and got stuck in one system.

Dempster simply isn't up to it.

Murray also nearly relegated us. Radford had to rectify that by getting Evans in and changed our fortunes around. Murray also a rookie like Dempster just wasn't a good fit as Mansfield manager. Maybe he's learnt since, would I like to chance it? Absolutely not. His football was garbage. Loved him as a player, but not manager.

[my name is jonas]

Paul Cox or Adam Murray

[geoffhill]

Always remember Cox stating that Ollie Palmer was a better footballer than Jaimie Vardy at the same age.Cox Got us out of the conference playing hoofball.Not pretty but effective.Evans I feel sure would have got us promoted.Flitcroft had two chances but failed resulting in the sack.Murray did not have their budget but played negative football.The manager can only do so much.The players have to take the blame for the failings of the collapse last season.We don't seem to have many leaders in the team I have always supported the manager until I saw the line up at Moss Rose with Tomlinson in midfield and Mellis on the bench.All the fans were angry at his selection.

[arsene wengers coat]

If I had to re-employ any of them, probably Flitcroft.

My heart weighs heavily after AM, so disappointed how he ended. Thought he'd have had more about him, be a bit more blood and guts.

[wink68]

The one it should sill be DF. Finished 4th last season. Higher league finish than any of the others. No team this year are better than last seasons top 3. He would have this squad top 3 now.

[Dan]

Without a doubt flitcroft ,got us playing nice stuff ,and i honestly think he bought into us ,it ended poorly but its werent his fault

[gazza1988]

Evans for me... We looked at our best during his purple patch, he motivated the fans, knows everyone and is hated by all which can have its benefits... We didn't quite hit the same heights under DF and he bottled the run in twice. Cox showed he can't manage league teams with his one dimensional hoofing, Muz and Demps are both far to negative to succeed at a club with ambitions.

In an ideal world, i wouldn't have any. Never go back!!!

How many times do I have to go through this? 4th is higher than 12th. DF was in or around the autos for most of the season. Evans hit a purple patch which propelled him into the play offs. Autos are HIGHER than play offs.

DF had a better purple patch than Evans did, otherwise he wouldn't have finished higher than both when he left and where he finished.

The style under Evans was no different than the style under Cox, just Evans had better players and the ball "stuck" further up the pitch.

[Spiritater]

Cox

[Dan]

Evans for me... We looked at our best during his purple patch, he motivated the fans, knows everyone and is hated by all which can have its benefits... We didn't quite hit the same heights under DF and he bottled the run in twice. Cox showed he can't manage league teams with his one dimensional hoofing, Muz and Demps are both far to negative to succeed at a club with ambitions.

In an ideal world, i wouldn't have any. Never go back!!!

How many times do I have to go through this? 4th is higher than 12th.

Gazza you're getting obsessive now. We know you love Flitcroft & hate Evans and it's clouding your judgment. When Evans left we were not 12th. Evans left us in the same position in the league as Flitcroft did (or it may have been one place different), either way you're wrong.

[Amber Andy]

How on earth anyone would want the Scottish manager back is beyond me. He walked out on us, after concocting a gooseberry and bull story. Not only that he wasted a fortune on expensive players who spent a lot of their time on the treatment table.

[gazza1988]

Evans for me... We looked at our best during his purple patch, he motivated the fans, knows everyone and is hated by all which can have its benefits... We didn't quite hit the same heights under DF and he bottled the run in twice. Cox showed he can't manage league teams with his one dimensional hoofing, Muz and Demps are both far to negative to succeed at a club with ambitions.

In an ideal world, i wouldn't have any. Never go back!!!

How many times do I have to go through this? 4th is higher than 12th.

Gazza you're getting obsessive now. We know you love Flitcroft & hate Evans and it's clouding your judgment. When Evans left we were not 12th. Evans left us in the same position in the league as Flitcroft did (or it may have been one place different), either way you're wrong.

Evans left us in 5th mate. He FINISHED (it's where you finish that counts, righ?) 12th. Flitcroft FINISHED in 4th. See the point.

Even if you want to look at the table at the same stage as Evans left last season we were 3rd, and there on merit, no games in hand on us ur anything (true fact: while we did have a game in hand on 4th and 3rd, 6th had a game I hand on us and 2 games on 4th and 3rd)

It's not a case of loving and hating I just prefer to look at the big picture. Evans did nothing, he signed a buckeload of players and only hit his purple patch once he reintroduced Murray's signings. I'm more sick of people rewriting our history to make out Evans is some kind of footballing God. Flitcroft took over in 5th, clearly he's a different kind of manager to Evans, the team was already bouncing when Evans left and it all went south after that. Flitcroft had 12 games, this is true. However it isn't out of the realms of possibility for a side to drop 3 places. Especially when we (and Swindon) were overtaken by 2 sides who 1 of them went up via the play offs that season and the other were champions the following season. Evans was notorious for large squads. Right wingers he signed: Will Atkinson, Paul Anderson, Alex MacDonald, Alfie Potter, OSJ. That's just off the top of my head. He used Anderson at right back and MacDonald in central midfield to give them game time.

Look the reason we did so poorly was Evans abandoned the players and heads dropped. He spent all season declaring promotion this and promotion that so much that fans think, even to this day, that we were nailed on certs for promotion that season. Before a ball was kicked after he left you could feel it in the stands too. Flitcroft tried to get us to play passing football as well rather than long ball so that didn't help either.

Dan, your job means you spend most times stags are playing photographing County games. Now, I'm not saying this to say you aren't allowed an opinion. I would ask how you can come to the conclusions that Evans is great and Flitcroft is bad if you didn't witness either reign first hand?

[Jamie]

Flitcroft had one good spell. We started slowly drawing too many games. Many were calling for his head this time last year.

Evan's wasnt perfect and yes he walked out but given the choice I'd go with him over the others. Flitcroft blew it twice and the 2nd time was unforgivable.

Really though I wouldn't have any of them.

[bobbystagsfan]

Flitcroft had one good spell. We started slowly drawing too many games. Many were calling for his head this time last year.

Evan's wasnt perfect and yes he walked out but given the choice I'd go with him over the others. Flitcroft blew it twice and the 2nd time was unforgivable.

Really though I wouldn't have any of them.

This time last year we were on that unbeaten run weren't we?

[Spiritater]

in that run we drew far too many games. games we should've won tbh

[Beano]

If I had to put the 5 mentioned in order of who would I have back it would be

1. David Flitcroft
2. Paul Cox
3. Steve Evans
4. Adam Murray
5. John Dempster

If Cox could have adapted a decent league “Style”, and Murray could have been braver, the list would be different, but I don’t see any managerial ability in Dempster at this time.

[JLStag]

Murray for me, given the financial backing that some of his successors had i think he'd have signed some real quality players, bearing in mind the ones he signed when our budget was supposedly a lot less.