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Best Manager and Best Player - to prove Napster wrong.....

In my quite short time as a Southend fan, for me the choices are the predictable but doubtlessly impressive Steve Tilson as manager and Freddy Eastwood as player.
 
Dave Webb for me as manager. Tilly has worked wonders but I feel had Webb not done it once it might not have been as easy for Tilly. Tilly in fairness has probably achieved more but hard to class him as best manager ever as he is still here.

Personally Freddy was a country mile ahead of ANYONE I have seen play for the Blues. Collymore was a close second but Freddy is my all time fav for his total ability to win games that we should never have won.
 
Tilly v Webby is a really difficult one. Webby had us challenging to be premier league founders and laid the foundation for six(?) seasons in the second tier. Tilly also did the consecutive promotions but has failed (so far!) to get us challenging in the second tier, let alone established.

It was a different era then, though. Not taking anything away from what Webby's side achieved in the early 90s but the second tier wasn't awash with cash like it is today. In 91/92 we competed in that league with the likes of Cambridge, Bristol Rovers, Port Vale, Swindon, Brighton, Grimsby, Tranmere, Millwall and Oxford. Even the bigger clubs in that league weren't the miles away from us financially that they would be now.

In 06/07 we were up against big clubs with big stadiums earning them big gate receipts. Add that to the parachute payments that several clubs were earning and we were fighting a losing battle from day one. Us, Luton & Colchester had much smaller budgets than anyone else at the level and whilst Col U did well to keep their heads above water they showed the next season that there's only so much time that a small club can spend swimming against the tide in the modern game.

As for the topic in hand, I'll go for Steve Tilson and Mike Marsh.
 
Seeing as I started supporting the Club around 2000/2001 its a pretty easy decision for me.

Best manager is Tilson without a shadow of doubt. Back-to-back promotions, 2 cup finals, QF of the League Cup, knocking Man Utd out of the cup, reaching the play-offs last season. Its hard to imagine many managers having a career like that, let alone doing it in such a short space of time at a Club like Southend.

Also, he, like Fergie, has re-built the team on many occassions on small budgets and brought it some young exciting talent like Freddy, Guttridge, JCR, Bailey etc and some more experienced pros like Goater, Freedman, Prior, Sodje, Prior etc. Personally I think this summer has been his biggest test, losing the likes of Gower, Flavs, Bailey big players for us last season, and his doing a great job again so far this season.

Best player for me is easy. Freddy Eastwood, in terms of ability to change a game, win a game, score out of nowhere etc. The boy was fantastic. Anyone who has the season reviews of our League Two promotion and the League One promotion, watch it again tonight and come on hear tomorrow, you'll all be in agreement with me. He was a cut above anything else at the Club. Honourable mentions must go to Gower and Maher as well.
 
It was a different era then, though. Not taking anything away from what Webby's side achieved in the early 90s but the second tier wasn't awash with cash like it is today. In 91/92 we competed in that league with the likes of Cambridge, Bristol Rovers, Port Vale, Swindon, Brighton, Grimsby, Tranmere, Millwall and Oxford. Even the bigger clubs in that league weren't the miles away from us financially that they would be now.

In 06/07 we were up against big clubs with big stadiums earning them big gate receipts. Add that to the parachute payments that several clubs were earning and we were fighting a losing battle from day one. Us, Luton & Colchester had much smaller budgets than anyone else at the level and whilst Col U did well to keep their heads above water they showed the next season that there's only so much time that a small club can spend swimming against the tide in the modern game.

As for the topic in hand, I'll go for Steve Tilson and Mike Marsh.

It was a different era, but I'd counter it with two points.

First, under Webby we memorably beat the likes of Derby and Blackburn who were splashing the cash and operating on budgets we could only dream of. Our record transfer fee was £175,000, Derby were paying £2m+ for Craig Short, Marco Gabbiadini, Tommy Johnson, as were Blackburn. Our win at the old Baseball Ground is rated by many who were there as our greatest ever performance.

Second, the team under Webb was better than the team under Tilson.
Sansome versus Flahavan is no contest, Flavs wouldn't even get in the reserve team ahead of a young Roycie. Austin over Jupp/Francis every time. Powell over Wilson/Hammell is the biggest mismatch since the 10-1 v Aldershot. Scully over Barrett, although I'd take Prior 2005/06 over Prior 1990/91 (or Cornwall). Maher had better technique but I'd be hard-pushed to take him ahead of Butler's work-rate. Martin v Guttridge is a tricky one because they were complete contrasts, so I'll call that one a draw. Ansah over JCR/Benno/Lead Bradbury. Tilson v Gower is one of the hardest to call. I might just go Gower's extra class, but Tilly was one of my all-time favourites. I'd take Freddy over Brettie but Benji over the Goat.

I'm not going to argue too vehemently against Tilly, because he's done an incredible job and we're only talking about Webby shading it. What I should have said though is Tilly's teams play far better football.
 
I agree with the first point. Obviously there were good teams with good players in the old Second Division in 91/92, but I do think that the overall average standard was far higher in 06/07. Not least because of the knock-on effect of the number of foreigners playing in the Premier League which has driven a lot of English talent down a division.

I actually agree with the second point too. Webb's team was better than Tilson's but I don't think that that is a negative against Tilly's management. If anything it just further emphasises what a good job our current manager has done here. Webb managed to get in a lot of players who would end up carving good career's for themselves in the top division. Tilly took very limited players (spear-headed by the genuine talent of Freddy Eastwood and Mark Gower) and managed to get them playing way above their level.
 
Tilson best manager by a mile, yes Webb was a great manager but he did walk out on the club 3 times and his 3rd spell with the club wasn't much of a success. Plus he had a terrible record in the Cups unlike Tilson's.

As for the players Collymore and Eastwood are way ahead of all the other players in terms of talent but for best player I'm going for Ron Pountney. A true legend of the club who played for 10 years for Southend and gave his all in every game unlike certain other players durin his time at Southend. Ron Pountney must be the most popular player to have ever played for Southend.
 
I'm another one who was weaned in the Dave Smith era, but, with reference to the point made earlier, the finances of the game have rocketed. That for me makes Tilly's schievements even more monumental, so for me he's the best manager.

Naturally strikers are going figure highly in any best player poll, as they generally feature in the "best bits". However for me Chris Powell gets my vote, for his consistent performances and the time spent at the club, when he could have moved far earlier.
 
Thistle-arse Fergie would be best manager if they had just won and worst manager if they had just lost.......

I was in Manchester the day after they lost the Champions League Semi-Final in 2007, and I've never heard such fickle BS - 'Fergie can't sign a decent midfield player' was one pearl of wisdom (Paul Ince, Roy Keane, Owen Hargreaves - all crap).

Didnt take a genius to figure out that they were great players really,all were established,top class midfielders when whiskey nose barged in and signed them.
 
Tilly v Webby is a really difficult one.
I think I'm going to give it Webby, on the basis that the 1990-91/91-92 team was so young and so many of them went onto play top flight football. Royce, Austin, Powell, Edinburgh, Prior, Butler, Ling and Angell all went onto grace the top flight, whilst Tilly's best signings (Eastwood, Bailey, Guttridge) have only gone onto play championship football.

it's a lot tougher for lower league players to get into the top flight these days i reckon. And to be fair, bailey,kightly,eastwood,hooper(who knows) could yet still make it to that plateau. Tilson for me-mind you,2 of those i mentioned were hardly prised away from us. :)
 
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