Graham Turner - is he underrated by us as a former gaffer?

[Dairve Ayeye]

Graham Turner - on paper now after all these years, it would be easy to overlook the contribution made by Turner to us during our darkest hour. He led us at our very lowest ebb and back to respectability on the pitch, whilst the New Molineux grew around him like a phoenix from the ashes of the crumbling old stadium, serving as a beacon of hope. Those old enough to remember derelict Molineux and the light that Turner helped to kindle will understand, but I do think the Turner days need to be acknowledged as a turning point in our history.

 

[Del Woppio]

I don't think there's a Wolves fan alive that doesn't acknowledge and respect the amazing job he did tbf; that doesn't mean that letting him go wasn't the right decision

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

He was bloody ace in bringing us back up the divisions and I thought he was fantastic, but the end was right. I was at a defeat at Grimsby and it was obvious that it had run its course.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Stayed for at least two years too long, we weren't ever really even challenging for the playoffs in the second tier under him.

Gets lifetime respect for everything from 1986-1990.

THE MANAGERS: #1: GRAHAM TURNER (1986-1994)

First in series looking at the men in charge at Molineux

oscillatingwildly.substack.com

I never went any further with that series, maybe one day though I simply have no time at the moment.

 

[Sniffer]

He did a great job up to about 9th in the second tier but couldn't take us further.

I'll caveat that by saying Brian Little was doing OK when we got rid of him and we were also paying big wages for 4th tier players. On paper whoever was managing us should have had us competing in the old 3rd/4th Divisions however we all know that its what happens on the pitch that matters.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Stayed for at least two years too long, we weren't ever really even challenging for the playoffs in the second tier under him.

Gets lifetime respect for everything from 1986-1990.

THE MANAGERS: #1: GRAHAM TURNER (1986-1994)

First in series looking at the men in charge at Molineux

oscillatingwildly.substack.com

I never went any further with that series, maybe one day though I simply have no time at the moment.

Spot on. I remember when he was thin ice and we scraped a win against a Sunderland team that had been down to 9 men for most of the game. It was his equivalent of Mick’s team getting a late draw with Swansea.

 

[Quirkafleeg]

I remember him flipping the bird at us away at Swindon I think and thats when he lost us all. Not long after he was sacked.

 

[leedswolf]

Stayed for at least two years too long, we weren't ever really even challenging for the playoffs in the second tier under him.

Gets lifetime respect for everything from 1986-1990.

THE MANAGERS: #1: GRAHAM TURNER (1986-1994)

First in series looking at the men in charge at Molineux

oscillatingwildly.substack.com

I never went any further with that series, maybe one day though I simply have no time at the moment.

TBF we were challenging during the season 89/90 after two succesive promotions as champions until we ran out of steam.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

We were in the mix but in many other seasons we'd have been nowhere near:

(This is after we beat Leicester 5-0 at home, and we were on a decent run of WWDLWLWDW, including wins over Blackburn, Leeds and Albion):



63 points from 40 games is properly average.

This with Bully scoring 24 league goals too!

A very good Oldham side with games in hand after their cup exploits (and their cheat pitch at home) were always going to reel us in. Also West Ham started playing like they should have done all along once Bungs Macari left in February.

We then finished the season with a whimper, but in tough games (Hull were shite, Oxford ordinary, but the other four were simply always better than us).

Newcastle (H) L 0-1
Hull (A) L 0-2
Oxford (H) W 2-0
Sunderland (H) L 0-1
Oldham (A) D 1-1
West Ham (A) L 0-4

Sunderland ended up finishing 6th on 74 points. You'd have to squint hard to see us getting 11 points from those 6 games to match that.

 

[Tony Towner]

In hindsight I regret the way Turner was treated for the last 18 months (self included). That said sometimes that's needed for change, a passive Molineux kept Lage and O'Neil in jobs a lot longer than they should have been.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Turner, Taylor and McGhee all copped some frightful stuff. You might argue McGhee deserved it to an extent.

Just doesn't happen now. That said I went on Saturday and didn't see the point in bawling at O'Neil, he's not good enough, he's a symptom, not the root cause. He might be many things but he isn't a wrecking ball like Lage was, he's the only recent* manager that I fucking hated and would be actively vocal about.


*Saunders doesn't count as recent now, it's nearly 12 years since we appointed him

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Also while Turner was/is an unmistakeably good man to whom we all owe a debt, it was ONLY goodwill that had him surviving this. Look at the state of it.



Realistically he had no right to last almost another two and a half years.

 

[Dairve Ayeye]

I don't think there's a Wolves fan alive that doesn't acknowledge and respect the amazing job he did tbf; that doesn't mean that letting him go wasn't the right decision

I remember where I was when he got the boot, I was in the Leopard in Kingswinford and it flashed up on the local news. A sense of relief and sadness.

 

[Dairve Ayeye]

We were in the mix but in many other seasons we'd have been nowhere near:

(This is after we beat Leicester 5-0 at home, and we were on a decent run of WWDLWLWDW, including wins over Blackburn, Leeds and Albion):

View attachment 12381

63 points from 40 games is properly average.

This with Bully scoring 24 league goals too!

A very good Oldham side with games in hand after their cup exploits (and their cheat pitch at home) were always going to reel us in. Also West Ham started playing like they should have done all along once Bungs Macari left in February.

We then finished the season with a whimper, but in tough games (Hull were shite, Oxford ordinary, but the other four were simply always better than us).

Newcastle (H) L 0-1
Hull (A) L 0-2
Oxford (H) W 2-0
Sunderland (H) L 0-1
Oldham (A) D 1-1
West Ham (A) L 0-4

Sunderland ended up finishing 6th on 74 points. You'd have to squint hard to see us getting 11 points from those 6 games to match that.

I was at the West Ham game, I think it was Liam Brady's last game for the Hammers and they were very happy indeed...

 

[Wellen Wolf]

I was at the West Ham game, I think it was Liam Brady's last game for the Hammers and they were very happy indeed...

I was also there. 'Stevie Bull must go to Italy' was the song!

 

[Mild 'n' Scratchins]

For me he was what we needed at the time, even though I thought Little was doing well enough not to be sacked. Stayed on far too long, after injuries to key players like Geoff Thomas fucked up our promotion charge in div 2.

 

[Dairve Ayeye]

Stayed for at least two years too long, we weren't ever really even challenging for the playoffs in the second tier under him.

Gets lifetime respect for everything from 1986-1990.

THE MANAGERS: #1: GRAHAM TURNER (1986-1994)

First in series looking at the men in charge at Molineux

oscillatingwildly.substack.com

I never went any further with that series, maybe one day though I simply have no time at the moment.

Excellent article on GT, says it all...

 

[KiwiWolf61]

One of Dan's best - a superb read and analysis of GT.