Ian Branfoot

[saintquin]

He came into the office this lunchtime.

I felt very two faced being very polite to him but, he was a customer.

Talking to him about Saints (and LeTiss) he did come across as a very honest and decent person.

[John Boy Saint]

He came into the office this lunchtime.

I felt very two faced being very polite to him but, he was a customer.

Talking to him about Saints (and LeTiss) he did come across as a very honest and decent person.

When he was at Reading I worked for the Reading Evening Post - as a paper we use to do loads with the Royals; Reading FC sold Papers locally (I worked in circulation - sales) so met him loads of times always a pleasant bloke. The full on vitriol towards him I struggled with, but jeez his football was not nice on the eye, which was a surprise as Reading went on a storming 13 game un-beaten run at the start of one. We use to get free tickets so Elm Park just round the corner from the office it was a little footie fix, especially as you had to work past 1pm on a Saturday. But we all know, even back then, the top division is different gravy to the 4th & 3rd division

[so22saint]

When he was at Reading I worked for the Reading Evening Post - as a paper we use to do loads with the Royals; Reading FC sold Papers locally (I worked in circulation - sales) so met him loads of times always a pleasant bloke. The full on vitriol towards him I struggled with, but jeez his football was not nice on the eye, which was a surprise as Reading went on a storming 13 game un-beaten run at the start of one. We use to get free tickets so Elm Park just round the corner from the office it was a little footie fix, especially as you had to work past 1pm on a Saturday. But we all know, even back then, the top division is different gravy to the 4th & 3rd division

 

the football was dog****, but I seem to remember being surprised to read that the first season we stayed up under him the only team to score more points than us in the 2nd half of the season was Leeds United who won the Championship.

 

Who would have thought Paul Moody and Ian Dowie had it in them...

[St Chalet]

Awful football, by all accounts the David Brent of football management. Reports of the vitriol towards him became urban legend (see Beautiful South fanzine taken out of context)

 

That said, I'd have had him over Pellegrino in a heartbeat - easily the worst manager I've known.

[TotalSaintsPod]

Weirdly Glenn Cockerill has just been on TSP tonight, and mentioned a couple of times that, whilst fans wouldn't necessarily appreciate it, Branfoot was a decent man (albeit his handling of the Jimmy Case and Le Tissier situations wasn't great)

[Bad Wolf]

Sh1te players and managers usually are nice tbf. Mate bumped into Pellegrino at Tesco once, said he was a real gentleman and happy to stop and have a chat. He ended up feeling quite guilty about some of the things he'd said about him apparently.

[Dalek2003]

He kept us up and that was what mattered.

 

Created a no nonsense tough style of football that did the job.

 

Good manager.

[LGTL]

His treatment of Tiss is where the discussion starts and ends for me.

[John Boy Saint]

the football was dog****, but I seem to remember being surprised to read that the first season we stayed up under him the only team to score more points than us in the 2nd half of the season was Leeds United who won the Championship.

 

Who would have thought Paul Moody and Ian Dowie had it in them...

 

He must also be the only manager ever to be roundly booed by his own fans when his name was read out over the PA at a Wembley Cup Final.

[Hatch]

He was an idiot.

[Raging Bull]

He kept us up and that was what mattered.

 

Created a no nonsense tough style of football that did the job.

 

Good manager.

 

Way past your best and trying too hard princess. Take a day off.

[miserableoldgit]

He must also be the only manager ever to be roundly booed by his own fans when his name was read out over the PA at a Wembley Cup Final.

Indeed. I remember it well!

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Danbert]

He kept us up and that was what mattered.

 

Created a no nonsense tough style of football that did the job.

 

Good manager.

 

Now I really do believe you're a troll. Branfoot benched the most talented player I've ever seen pull on a Saints shirt, he was not a good manager.

[warsash saint]

Paul Moody leading the line ... enough said!!

[OttawaSaint]

Way past your best and trying too hard princess. Take a decade off.

 

Fixed that for you...

[ALWAYS_SFC]

He kept us up and that was what mattered.

 

Created a no nonsense tough style of football that did the job.

 

Good manager.

 

Way past your best and trying too hard princess. Take a day off.

 

He is a troll, try to ignore him

[Ewell]

He kept us up and that was what mattered.

 

Created a no nonsense tough style of football that did the job.

 

Good manager.

 

Now if anyone already wasn't sure that you had an agenda to fish for bites, then I think that's game set and match.

[Dalek2003]

Branfoot had a difficult job. The main thing was to keep the club from being relegated.

 

He had limited funds and SFC was a club in steep decline.

 

 

One way of staying up was playing no frills direct football. To be fair he was brought to the club because he had a reputation of delivering using these methods.

 

 

Of course, it wasn't pretty to watch but it delivered.

 

Was he a good manager? Maybe that's a tad to far, but he did what was needed.

[Foxy]

When he was at Reading I worked for the Reading Evening Post - as a paper we use to do loads with the Royals; Reading FC sold Papers locally (I worked in circulation - sales) so met him loads of times always a pleasant bloke. The full on vitriol towards him I struggled with, but jeez his football was not nice on the eye, which was a surprise as Reading went on a storming 13 game un-beaten run at the start of one. We use to get free tickets so Elm Park just round the corner from the office it was a little footie fix, especially as you had to work past 1pm on a Saturday. But we all know, even back then, the top division is different gravy to the 4th & 3rd division

 

I went to a school just outside Reading and at about 14 was set an English assignment to get an interview about a book I was reading. I was reading something about football apprenticeships at the time and, thinking it was a low effort way of getting through the task as they’d never reply, A friend and I wrote a letter to Ian Branfoot, then manager at Reading.

 

To our surprise we got a reply within a couple of days, inviting us up to Elm Park to meet him, some of the apprentices and some of the development staff. We were there all afternoon, spent time not only with the development people but an hour chatting in his office and then got taken to meet several of the players. He was a lovely guy and couldn’t do enough to make sure we had a good time and got all we needed for the assignment. He rounded it off by asking us to send him a copy of the piece of work we submitted (boo) and saying he’d come down to the school with some players sometime soon - which he did.

 

So, although his was a dreadful era of saints footy, I have to say that, as others do above, he really was a nice guy.

[Dellman]

Branfoot might be a nice guy, Harry Redknapp comes over as a nice guy, the media love him---doesn't make him a good manager any more than the nightmare of Branfoot era, I see Harry's Brum now have -9 points, how did Pompey escape points deduction?

[IronCitySaint]

Met him twice and, as others have said here, he was a really nice person face to face. He personally replied to my letter complaining about his football style and invited me to watch training. First time was at the Dell for a closed training session and was invited back the following day to the training ground. After training he invited me to his office for a chat that was about half an hour long. I was unconvinced what he said about his long ball style of football and, in particular, about dropping Le Tiss, but he did have a plan and was very interesting to talk to. After driving home I switched on the radio and found out he had been sacked! Almost felt sorry for him!

[Dark Munster]

So we're (nearly) all agreed then. He's a lovely guy and a ****ing awful manager.

[OttawaSaint]

So we're (nearly) all agreed then. He's a lovely guy and a ****ing awful manager.

 

Yep.

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

Branfoot had a difficult job. The main thing was to keep the club from being relegated.

 

He had limited funds and SFC was a club in steep decline.

 

 

One way of staying up was playing no frills direct football. To be fair he was brought to the club because he had a reputation of delivering using these methods.

 

 

Of course, it wasn't pretty to watch but it delivered.

 

Was he a good manager? Maybe that's a tad to far, but he did what was needed.

 

I am not sure it did deliver Dalek. We struggled. His only good signing was Super Ken.

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

Awful football, by all accounts the David Brent of football management. Reports of the vitriol towards him became urban legend (see Beautiful South fanzine taken out of context)

 

That said, I'd have had him over Pellegrino in a heartbeat - easily the worst manager I've known.

 

I think there was even a plot to kidnap him and take him to Marwell Zoo. In fairness I heard that the team spirit was fantastic under him

[saintquin]

Weirdly Glenn Cockerill has just been on TSP tonight, and mentioned a couple of times that, whilst fans wouldn't necessarily appreciate it, Branfoot was a decent man (albeit his handling of the Jimmy Case and Le Tissier situations wasn't great)

Funny he told me Cockerill went to his office and told the players were fed up of doing all the hard work while that lazy fat ba5tard did f all!

 

 

Branfoot might be a nice guy, Harry Redknapp comes over as a nice guy, the media love him---doesn't make him a good manager any more than the nightmare of Branfoot era, I see Harry's Brum now have -9 points, how did Pompey escape points deduction?

Without saying it he gave me an agreeable look when I told him I couldn't stand the man!

[OldNick]

Branfoot had a difficult job. The main thing was to keep the club from being relegated.

 

He had limited funds and SFC was a club in steep decline.

 

 

One way of staying up was playing no frills direct football. To be fair he was brought to the club because he had a reputation of delivering using these methods.

 

 

Of course, it wasn't pretty to watch but it delivered.

 

Was he a good manager? Maybe that's a tad to far, but he did what was needed.

I dont think we were in deep decline when he joined. Chris Nicholls teams played superb football, Nicholls problem was he was not McMenemy and even then if you didnt seem a jolly joking chappy in interviews on TV a section of fans wrote him off. If Nicholl had been manager after Branfoot he would have been a hero, sadly LM success was a poisoned chalice for those tht followed

[ecuk268]

I dont think we were in deep decline when he joined. Chris Nicholls teams played superb football, Nicholls problem was he was not McMenemy and even then if you didnt seem a jolly joking chappy in interviews on TV a section of fans wrote him off. If Nicholl had been manager after Branfoot he would have been a hero, sadly LM success was a poisoned chalice for those tht followed

 

Strangely enough, when Chris Nicholl was sacked there was a feeling among the fans that he would be replaced by Redknapp, who was making a name for himself at Bournemouth. He was to be assisted by Jimmy Case as player/coach.

 

Ironically, when Branfoot sacked Jimmy, he went down to Dean Court to join Harry.

[Dark Munster]

Strangely enough, when Chris Nicholl was sacked there was a feeling among the fans that he would be replaced by Redknapp, who was making a name for himself at Bournemouth. He was to be assisted by Jimmy Case as player/coach.

 

Ironically, when Branfoot sacked Jimmy, he went down to Dean Court to join Harry.

Saints have quite a history of sacking decent managers and replacing them with disasters:

 

Nicholl -> Branfoot

Luggy -> Wigley

Pearson -> Dutch duo

Puel -> The Clown

[Dalek2003]

Saints have quite a history of sacking decent managers and replacing them with disasters:

 

Nicholl -> Branfoot

Luggy -> Wigley

Pearson -> Dutch duo

Puel -> The Clown

 

Luggy was a disaster, hard to imagine why he was appointed.

[John Boy Saint]

Luggy was a disaster, hard to imagine why he was appointed.

Err he was recommended by WGS!........do keep up!

They had known each other for years, he could have been alright were it not for the alleged horsepoo c o cking about by certain players.

[Dark Munster]

Luggy was a disaster, hard to imagine why he was appointed.

Luggy's record at Saints: W 5 D 2 L 6

 

You're confusing him with Wigley (for the umpteenth time).

[Fan The Flames]

I dont think we were in deep decline when he joined. Chris Nicholls teams played superb football, Nicholls problem was he was not McMenemy and even then if you didnt seem a jolly joking chappy in interviews on TV a section of fans wrote him off. If Nicholl had been manager after Branfoot he would have been a hero, sadly LM success was a poisoned chalice for those tht followed

 

You are right we weren't in steep decline, that's just one of Daleks tiresom tropes. There was a feeling we should be doing better under CN and we went for an up and coming manager from the lower divisions after all this worked when we got LM. We just picked the wrong horse.

 

English football was awash with people playing and talking **** football so Branfoot wasn't out of place. We were saved from relegation as the league went back to 22 clubs. He was a **** manager his stats say so.

[beatlesaint]

He was a **** manager his stats say so.

 

Not just the stats, your eyes told you as much if you had the misfortune to watch a lot of it.

I know the only time I have never celebrated Saints scoring a goal was the FA Cup match at home to Port Vale. We equalised and I was so sure it meant he would keep his job that I just sat there with arms folded.

Fortunately he was gone by the following Tuesday.

[Whitey Grandad]

He very nearly deprived us of two of the greatest goals I have ever seen. That home evening match against Newcastle when Le Tiss flicked the ball over their defenders and then ‘stroked’ the ball into goal followed by the other when he trapped a header back on his thigh and then lobbed the ball into goal will stay in my memory of legends forever.

 

Branfoot was on the point of substituting him with Moody and the number 7 board was prepared when he scored the first. On the recording you can seen Branfoot give a wry smile and then turn round and say “Moods, sit down”.

[kwsaint]

I was sat in the West stand centre at the Dell for the Port Vale game. Witnessed the directors being harangued by irate supporters. Lawrie had just come back as Director of Football, and Branfoot was gone by the Tuesday. I was driving round the M25 in pouring rain when I heard.

 

I had also heard that Branfoot was a pleasant guy, just a terrible manager. Gates were plummeting and the football was hoofball. He didnt know what to do with MLT as he didnt really fit in a 4-4-2. He simply didnt listen to anyone else and was convinced that he was right, when all around him disagreed.

 

Wonder who that reminds you of?

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

He very nearly deprived us of two of the greatest goals I have ever seen. That home evening match against Newcastle when Le Tiss flicked the ball over their defenders and then ‘stroked’ the ball into goal followed by the other when he trapped a header back on his thigh and then lobbed the ball into goal will stay in my memory of legends forever.

 

Branfoot was on the point of substituting him with Moody and the number 7 board was prepared when he scored the first. On the recording you can seen Branfoot give a wry smile and then turn round and say “Moods, sit down”.

 

Is that right? Extraordinary. I remember us being completely outplayed and when Cole scored waiting for the onslaught. The first goal I was so stunned by its brilliance into staying seated. Still up there with any Saints game I have ever been to.

 

He always seemed to score good goals against the Geordies and I remember when he retired how good a reception they gave him. Good people, I respected them for that.

Edited 24 March, 2019 by Sergei Gotsmanov

[angelman]

Weirdly Glenn Cockerill has just been on TSP tonight, and mentioned a couple of times that, whilst fans wouldn't necessarily appreciate it, Branfoot was a decent man (albeit his handling of the Jimmy Case and Le Tissier situations wasn't great)

 

Football fans are generally incapable of separating what happens on the pitch with what happens off of it. We generally only saw Branfoot the manager, and not Branfoot the normal bloke.