Nigel Adkins

[CAH61]

Following the unfortunate sacking of Nigel from Charlton, I read a comment that said "No doubt a nice guy but not a particularly good manager TBH. He just had a great squad to work with at Saints" and also that "he just met expectations" and "In all honesty though we should have won both League One and the Championship rather than finish 2nd both times."

I replied with..

"Highest win % of any post war Saints manager, back to back promotions is why his legacy is secure and will always be "our Nige".
I couldn't give a crap about his record at other clubs. We maybe were the big fish in League One but the Championship? I don't think so as it was essentially the same squad minus AOC.
We rode the wave of momentum and spirit that Nigel and his staff helped to engender and all of the fans were riding it too, it was just one of those magical times at football club where the chemistry was just right.
The big achievement and the one we should be most grateful for is getting promoted to the PL ahead of schedule. The Championship is a brutal league with many ex PL clubs in it and if we hadn't made it that season then there is no telling how long it might've taken to get out of it and how much it may have cost in trying."

Which camp are you in?, did Nigel just get lucky and actually underachieve at Saints or was he instrumental in forging the atmosphere and conditions in which an admittedly talented squad could thrive?

Edited 21 October, 2021 by CAH61

[niceandfriendly]

He created a great atmosphere around the whole club, got us playing excellent and exciting attacking football and got us through the Championship at the first time of asking. He did have a decent squad, that's true.

Big Nige fan. Would welcome him back at the club in some capacity. Ambassador, youth coach, motivational speaker!

[Hodgey]

You can certainly argue we should have won l1 with the richly assembled squad we had, but to go straight through the championship was a great achievement. Also we were outside the drop zone and improving when he was sacked. In reality he was ahead of his time in terms of motivation and tactics with us - but everyone else caught up hence his lack of success.

[HarvSFC]

People who talk about how we should have won League One, forget Adkins didn't start the season with us and that Brighton had a six point lead when he was appointed, shortened to three at the end of the season after winning 16 of our last 20 matches and winning us 88 points from 41 games over the whole season. He couldn't do much more, other than perform a miracle.

The Championship, nobody expected us to win going into it. It's only now in hindsight and looking at the squad we had that you can think that we had a chance. But, Reading went on a crazy run, beating us to the title by a point after we were top for most of the season.

But, no complaints here. Nobody now remembers Reading won the Championship title in 2011-12, or Brighton winning League One in 2010-11. We celebrated promotion in two consecutive seasons, seeing us win most weeks for two years, we got the pitch invasions, the celebrations and we're still in the Premier League. The only thing we missed out on that the other fans got is some silverware.

[rallyboy]

He was great for us and we were great for him.

It looks like he's been unable to make it happen again, hopefully he'll find some success elsewhere.

All the best Nige, keep smiling and make the most of your day.

[Dman]

1 minute ago, rallyboy said:

He was great for us and we were great for him.

It looks like he's been unable to make it happen again, hopefully he'll find some success elsewhere.

All the best Nige, keep smiling and make the most of your day.

Probably because he’s not had 3/4 top premier league players, in a League One side again.

Adkins will rightly hold a place in every saints fans heart and he’s a genuinely decent bloke, but he’s a very average manager. Not winning either league, with our squad, on our way up was a failure. 

[sambosa75]

Absolutely love the bloke.  Reality is he had fantastic backing to get us out of League 1 but you can't take away the achievement of getting us out of the Championship at the first time of asking.  Have no doubt he would have kept us up in his first season in the Prem too.

Met him on a couple of occasions and he's been nothing but the perfect gentleman too.

[John B]

Pardew got in some really good players never understood why he was sacked

[Lighthouse]

Sometimes it’s just the right man, for the right job, at the right time. Clearly we recruited very well, bringing in the right man, who did everything we could reasonably have asked of him.

I have no time for people who demand that he should have won League 1 and the Championship. George Burley showed that you can’t just throw money at a squad and expect results and Nigel beat two much better financed teams in West Ham and Leicester. If you want to talk about the money spent then fine, we should have beat Reading and finished third behind those two.

[Billy the Kidd]

1 hour ago, CAH61 said:

Following the unfortunate sacking of Nigel from Charlton, I read a comment that said "No doubt a nice guy but not a particularly good manager TBH. He just had a great squad to work with at Saints" and also that "he just met expectations" and "In all honesty though we should have won both League One and the Championship rather than finish 2nd both times."

I replied with..

"Highest win % of any post war Saints manager, back to back promotions is why his legacy is secure and will always be "our Nige".
I couldn't give a crap about his record at other clubs. We maybe were the big fish in League One but the Championship? I don't think so as it was essentially the same squad minus AOC.
We rode the wave of momentum and spirit that Nigel and his staff helped to engender and all of the fans were riding it too, it was just one of those magical times at football club where the chemistry was just right.
The big achievement and the one we should be most grateful for is getting promoted to the PL ahead of schedule. The Championship is a brutal league with many ex PL clubs in it and if we hadn't made it that season then there is no telling how long it might've taken to get out of it and how much it may have cost in trying."

Which camp are you in?, did Nigel just get lucky and actually underachieve at Saints or was he instrumental in forging the atmosphere and conditions in which an admittedly talented squad could thrive?

Hello mate, good to see you over here 👍

[Billy the Kidd]

Yep, I think problems start with expecting to win things, or expecting things go a certain way.

Like Lighthouse said, he did what we needed at the right time. Id love him back at Saints in some capacity. Then again, id still like Rickie Lambert on the bench 😞

[LuckyNumber7]

He's a legend, responsible for my most enjoyable years as a Saints fan. Yes he had some good players but that is no guarantee of success. They were also young at the time and still developing (Lambert aside).

I'm surprised it's not worked out for him since leaving Saints but it in no way tarnishes his achievements with us. Would love to see him back at the club in some capacity.

[saint lard]

1 hour ago, Dman said:

Probably because he’s not had 3/4 top premier league players, in a League One side again.

Adkins will rightly hold a place in every saints fans heart and he’s a genuinely decent bloke, but he’s a very average manager. Not winning either league, with our squad, on our way up was a failure. 

Absolutely this. 

[The Left Back]

1 hour ago, Dman said:

Probably because he’s not had 3/4 top premier league players, in a League One side again

Who were the 3 or 4 top premier league players we had in that side?

[Saint Mikey]

He did a great job for us and I really enjoyed the football we played in those promotion seasons. He did have players that were far better than the league we were in (clear to see that now) and we also spent heavily on transfers and wages for League 1.

However, he got the manager's position for us off the back of very good job at Scunthorpe - taking them to the Championship twice and then keeping them up in one of those seasons. The resources he would have had in that job were far smaller than anything he's taken on since leaving us, so it is a bit of a mystery that he hasn't managed any semblance of success. Each job he's taken has yielded pretty poor results.

Edited 21 October, 2021 by Saint Mikey

[CAH61]

52 minutes ago, Billy the Kidd said:

Hello mate, good to see you over here 👍

Ah Billy, I wondered where you went!, gone a bit dead over there and the politics thread is just boring...😴

[suewhistle]

40 minutes ago, LuckyNumber7 said:

He's a legend, responsible for my most enjoyable years as a Saints fan. Yes he had some good players but that is no guarantee of success. They were also young at the time and still developing (Lambert aside).

I'd say he developed Lambert tremendously. He'd never played at the top before (ISTR) and I suspect never took things as seriously as he should, but once he did with us was when he progressed and never looked out of place in the top division (or the national side!).

[Lord Duckhunter]

It’s the most ridiculous debate that takes place on here, because there really isn’t any debate to be had. He did a bloody good job and I couldn’t really give a shiny shite whether he’s flopped since, that’s not relevant to what he did for us.
 

He wasn’t here for the full league 1 season, and when he joined every single person would have taken being in the premiership 2 seasons later. The fact he did it with style, great football  and with personal dignity and class, only adds to that IMO. 
 

 

 

Edited 21 October, 2021 by Lord Duckhunter

[It's There]

Like many on here, I would love Nigel to be apart of the club moving forward. Almost all managers eventually fail, and Nigel has struggled at one or two basket cases for clubs since- and maybe he's not had the luck he had with us. I'd rather him than many managers, that's for sure. Forever thankful of his positivity as well as his management of the club!

[Turkish]

12 minutes ago, suewhistle said:

I'd say he developed Lambert tremendously. He'd never played at the top before (ISTR) and I suspect never took things as seriously as he should, but once he did with us was when he progressed and never looked out of place in the top division (or the national side!).

I think you’ll find it was Pardew. Shortly after Lambert joined he called him into his office and asked him to lift him t-shirt up, saying he was a disgrace. Lambert then went on a fitness and diet plan which propelled him to the level he got too. Of course Adkins can take some credit for pushing him on Further but it was Pardew who got him in shape and taking it seriously. 

[Billy the Kidd]

18 minutes ago, CAH61 said:

Ah Billy, I wondered where you went!, gone a bit dead over there and the politics thread is just boring...😴

Yep, I think i said me piece on that one, dont get involved with that on here.

I did message last couple of days there, but not really for me anymore - I found the whole place is really very quiet these days!

[Lord Duckhunter]

12 minutes ago, It's There said:

Like many on here, I would love Nigel to be apart of the club moving forward. 

Football’s moved on, the club’s moved on, the only involvement I want him to have is shaking people’s hands and telling a few stories in the hospitality areas. He’d be a fucking disaster on the football side of things.  

[Turkish]

3 hours ago, The Left Back said:

Who were the 3 or 4 top premier league players we had in that side?

Lallana, Fonte, Schniderlin, Lambert, Alex Oxlaide Chamberlin went onto become very good premier league players and internationals. Puncheon went onto become a decent premier league player. Plus Jaidi, Richardson, Butterfield, Harding, Connolly, Davis, Chaplow were all proven championship players some with premier league experience. That’s an amazing squad for league one.

Edited 21 October, 2021 by Turkish

[Piran]

3 hours ago, Hodgey said:

You can certainly argue we should have won l1 with the richly assembled squad we had, but to go straight through the championship was a great achievement. Also we were outside the drop zone and improving when he was sacked. In reality he was ahead of his time in terms of motivation and tactics with us - but everyone else caught up hence his lack of success.

One of the things I admired about Adkins was his comment somewhere between arriving in the PL and his  replacement by Pochettino. It WAS a pretty brutal start to the season, and things were improving when he left, but he was honest enough to admit that he hadn't realised just what an upgrade the Prem was, and his surprise at the quality of the opponents' finishing whenever the defence wasn't quite at 100%. It takes a man to admit when he was wrong.

[CB Fry]

None of the thick cunts who say we should have won the Championship would have said that on August 1st of that season. None of them. League One he took over several games in, and again no one would have said he would win the league no problem.

100% bullshit hindsight. Absolute bullshit.

[Travelling Saint]

Went out for a beer last night with one of the Charlton players and we spoke about Adkins.

He said Adkins had little input on the training ground and left it up to the coaches mainly. He did say what a nice guy he is and how positive he is.

I said I will always hold him in high Regard as he got us back to the premier League.

[Lighthouse]

9 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

None of the thick cunts who say we should have won the Championship would have said that on August 1st of that season. None of them. League One he took over several games in, and again no one would have said he would win the league no problem.

100% bullshit hindsight. Absolute bullshit.

Correct. It makes me wonder how thick Man City’s owners are, wasting all that money on Pep Guardiola. Don’t they realise with all their resources they should just win the league anyway, regardless of who’s in charge.

[Turkish]

17 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

None of the thick cunts who say we should have won the Championship would have said that on August 1st of that season. None of them. League One he took over several games in, and again no one would have said he would win the league no problem.

100% bullshit hindsight. Absolute bullshit.

Most people at the time in were saying midtable, there were lots of question marks over if Lambert could step up, we were short at centre back after missing out of a few including Gorkass who went to Reading, eventually brought in Holiveld which was greeted with derision by many then also Billy Sharp deal falling through we certainly didn’t start the season with everyone saying we should win the title at a canter. For me it was after we beat Birmingham 4-1 that I started to think we were capable of going up again. Personally I was very disappointed we didn’t win the league but there more because we played so well and led for so long coupled with the fact we never win fuck all so felt like a chance of winning something finally blown. Not that takes anything away from the achievement of getting promoted which was excellent especially as we were also great to watch unlike Reading and West Ham

[Winnersaint]

4 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Most people at the time in were saying midtable, there were lots of question marks over if Lambert could step up, we were short at centre back after missing out of a few including Gorkass who went to Reading, eventually brought in Holiveld which was greeted with derision by many then also Billy Sharp deal falling through we certainly didn’t start the season with everyone saying we should win the title at a canter. For me it was after we beat Birmingham 4-1 that I started to think we were capable of going up again. Personally I was very disappointed we didn’t win the league but there more because we played so well and led for so long coupled with the fact we never win fuck all so felt like a chance of winning something finally blown. Not that takes anything away from the achievement of getting promoted which was excellent especially as we were also great to watch unlike Reading and West Ham

I remember watching the Leeds televised  first game of the season on holiday and thought, shit we look good!

[Turkish]

Just now, Winnersaint said:

I remember watching the Leeds televised  first game of the season on holiday and thought, shit we look good!

Yeah the lads I was going with at the time all agreed it’d be a good test for us as at the time I think Leeds were a side we thought would be in and around the play offs. We murdered them that day. Funnily enough a couple of games into the season a Burnley supporting mate of mine said he thought we’d go up too which I disagreed. First half of that season we played some brilliant stuff, regularly scoring 3 or 4 and playing teams off the pitch. The most annoying thing was I was working in reading at the time and suddenly by March there were apparently dozens of reading fans in the office that I’d not heard a peep out of the rest of the time I worked there all giving it large. They soon disappeared the following season. 

[S-Clarke]

Anyone who uses the words Adkins and failed in the same sentence has some sort of agenda against him. Maybe he wasn't the big name they wanted at the time, but you know what...so what? He did more than was expected in a short space of time.

As has been proven many a time in these lower leagues, a good squad doesn't always equal success. Many clubs have spent fortunes on players but have struggled to get over the line, but Adkins developed a team and took players like Morgan, Cork, Lallana, Fonte etc onto new levels when he was here. It was a great mix of players and one of the best 'teams' we've ever had, but to not give the manager credit for moulding that is a bit ridiculous.

No one expected promotion from the Championship, no one. We were hoping for a top 10 finish, maybe a flirt with the playoffs. I don't think we dropped out of the top 2 all season, what an effort.

Personally I couldn't give a flaming shit that we didn't win the league in either years, the 'win' was the fact that we ended up in the premier league in Adkins first two seasons - we started in the bottom 6 of L1. 

He deserves so much respect, he helped orchestrate one of the most enjoyable times I've ever had as a saints fan and I'll always be truly grateful for that.

Edited 21 October, 2021 by S-Clarke

[The Left Back]

4 hours ago, Turkish said:

Lallana, Fonte, Schniderlin, Lambert, Alex Oxlaide Chamberlin went onto become very good premier league players and internationals. Puncheon went onto become a decent premier league player. Plus Jaidi, Richardson, Butterfield, Harding, Connolly, Davis, Chaplow were all proven championship players some with premier league experience. That’s an amazing squad for league one.

I know they went on to become very good premier league players (and Adkins played a significant part in that) but the point @Dmanmade was that Adkins was successful in part because he was managing 3/4 good premier league players in league 1.  I don't think any of the players we had could be described in that way at the time - perhaps a few were peripheral premier league players or squad members at one time but that's not the same.  

[egg]

15 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Anyone who uses the words Adkins and failed in the same sentence has some sort of agenda against him. Maybe he wasn't the big name they wanted at the time, but you know what...so what? He did more than was expected in a short space of time.

As has been proven many a time in these lower leagues, a good squad doesn't always equal success. Many clubs have spent fortunes on players but have struggled to get over the line, but Adkins developed a team and took players like Morgan, Cork, Lallana, Fonte etc onto new levels when he was here. It was a great mix of players and one of the best 'teams' we've ever had, but to not give the manager credit for moulding that is a bit ridiculous.

No one expected promotion from the Championship, no one. We were hoping for a top 10 finish, maybe a flirt with the playoffs. I don't think we dropped out of the top 2 all season, what an effort.

Personally I couldn't give a flaming shit that we didn't win the league in either years, the 'win' was the fact that we ended up in the premier league in Adkins first two seasons - we started in the bottom 6 of L1. 

He deserves so much respect, he helped orchestrate one of the most enjoyable times I've ever had as a saints fan and I'll always be truly grateful for that.

Bang on. Bollox did he fail here, he was a massive success. I loved that rise back from the depths, looking forward to each game, winning, no glory hunters, the realisation that we could get to the Premier league etc. Amazing. 

[whelk]

7 hours ago, Dman said:

Probably because he’s not had 3/4 top premier league players, in a League One side again.

Adkins will rightly hold a place in every saints fans heart and he’s a genuinely decent bloke, but he’s a very average manager. Not winning either league, with our squad, on our way up was a failure. 

Failure? Oh fuck off. Fuck me we have some shit fans

[HarvSFC]

 

[jamesfp1]

Legend, untouchable.

[John B]

10 hours ago, whelk said:

Failure? Oh fuck off. Fuck me we have some shit fans

He did well at SFC but it was a lot easier to gain promotions when money was no object and we had a great squad compared to today where we have an average squad and no money

 

 

[rooney]

Everybody on this Forum were very upset when Nigel went and that says all that we felt for him.

[Turkish]

8 hours ago, HarvSFC said:

 

That was a bit cringey to be honest but given the circumstances you can understand the point he was making. He was a dead man walking the minute the final whistle blew in the home loss against Reading and he knew it. Sad treatment of a guy who did a good job. 

 

[Lighthouse]

1 minute ago, John B said:

when money was no object

Seriously? We signed Jos Hooiveld, not Robinho.

 

When we took the squad Adkins got promoted, added Ramirez, Yoshida, Davis, Jay Rod, Wanyama, Lovren, Boruc, Shaw, Clyne and gave it to the current manager of PSG, it finished 8th. This is not like that time Juventus got relegated to Serie C

[John B]

10 hours ago, The Left Back said:

I know they went on to become very good premier league players (and Adkins played a significant part in that) but the point @Dmanmade was that Adkins was successful in part because he was managing 3/4 good premier league players in league 1.  I don't think any of the players we had could be described in that way at the time - perhaps a few were peripheral premier league players or squad members at one time but that's not the same.  

 

3 minutes ago, rooney said:

Everybody on this Forum were very upset when Nigel went and that says all that we felt for him.

Yes we did feel for him but it was the right decision he was never going to succeed as Manager in the PL

 

All the positivity is based on emotion not reality in my opinion

[Saint-Michael]

18 minutes ago, John B said:

 

Yes we did feel for him but it was the right decision he was never going to succeed as Manager in the PL

 

All the positivity is based on emotion not reality in my opinion

May I ask how you think our current manager compares to Nigel. 

[S-Clarke]

22 minutes ago, John B said:

 

Yes we did feel for him but it was the right decision he was never going to succeed as Manager in the PL

 

All the positivity is based on emotion not reality in my opinion

But because he struggled a bit at PL level doesn't mean that his achievements with us should be nullified in any way.

Leicester spent tons more than we did and they had a name in charge (Sven), they were spending £5m on single players at the time. Did they get promotion with Sven? nope.

So the positivity is based on reality, not emotion. I find it incredible that fans of this club are even having this debate to be honest, surely it's a no-brainer.

Edited 22 October, 2021 by S-Clarke

[whelk]

53 minutes ago, Turkish said:

That was a bit cringey to be honest but given the circumstances you can understand the point he was making. He was a dead man walking the minute the final whistle blew in the home loss against Reading and he knew it. Sad treatment of a guy who did a good job. 

 

 Nothing can come close to cringe level of Ralph crying after a 1-0 league win in January 

[Verbal]

59 minutes ago, John B said:

He did well at SFC but it was a lot easier to gain promotions when money was no object and we had a great squad compared to today where we have an average squad and no money

 

 

If you read other posts on this thread you might learn something.

[whelk]

52 minutes ago, John B said:

 

Yes we did feel for him but it was the right decision he was never going to succeed as Manager in the PL

 

All the positivity is based on emotion not reality in my opinion

Give up pal. If that level of success is just routine and expected then you are going to be truly disappointed til the end of your days 

[Turkish]

15 hours ago, Travelling Saint said:

Went out for a beer last night with one of the Charlton players and we spoke about Adkins.

He said Adkins had little input on the training ground and left it up to the coaches mainly. He did say what a nice guy he is and how positive he is.

I said I will always hold him in high Regard as he got us back to the premier League.

Maybe the fact that they’re out drinking 2 days before a big away game was more to do with their problems than Adkins?

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, whelk said:

 Nothing can come close to cringe level of Ralph crying after a 1-0 league win in January 

True. That was properly embarrassing

[John Boy Saint]

I remember being at a Trade show and a mate with another company and fellow Saints fan - came over for a chat on Pardew departing. Then said (more than I knew at the time) - "apparently they are looking at some chap called Adkins - don't think I've heard of him" - When I said blimey I hadn't thought of him,  that would be great what he's done at Scunthorpe with a shirt buttons budget should do pretty well for us and our resources. Then qualified that with a recollection of playing Scunthorpe in the Championship at SMS with him in charge, first 15-20 minutes they steamed into us playing some really nice football and really should have easily been 2-0 or more up then sat on it. As the players they had ran out of puff, carry that into the players we have, we should see some good stuff.

Sure enough he did make use of the resources he had here, the football that was served up to our eyes was at times too much to fit in. Anyone saying otherwise is talking out of their backside, (they certainly won't be one of those who watched the journey down into league one)  - we were richly entertained consistently. 

Regardless of what has happened to him since - he delivered at Saints, and for that is deserving of the affection most of us have for the bloke. 

[Charlie Wayman]

5 minutes ago, John Boy Saint said:

I remember being at a Trade show and a mate with another company and fellow Saints fan - came over for a chat on Pardew departing. Then said (more than I knew at the time) - "apparently they are looking at some chap called Adkins - don't think I've heard of him" - When I said blimey I hadn't thought of him,  that would be great what he's done at Scunthorpe with a shirt buttons budget should do pretty well for us and our resources. Then qualified that with a recollection of playing Scunthorpe in the Championship at SMS with him in charge, first 15-20 minutes they steamed into us playing some really nice football and really should have easily been 2-0 or more up then sat on it. As the players they had ran out of puff, carry that into the players we have, we should see some good stuff.

Sure enough he did make use of the resources he had here, the football that was served up to our eyes was at times too much to fit in. Anyone saying otherwise is talking out of their backside, (they certainly won't be one of those who watched the journey down into league one)  - we were richly entertained consistently. 

Regardless of what has happened to him since - he delivered at Saints, and for that is deserving of the affection most of us have for the bloke. 

Yes, Yes and Yes again!