Most underrated/underappreciated manager we ever had.

Thurston said:
Scraping a tenth place finish isn’t success. Lee Johnson actually won a trophy. Lee Johnson was objectively a more successful Sunderland manager than Bruce.
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'Scraping a tenth place finish'. It happens to be our 3rd highest finish in 70 years. Lee Johnson won the ultimate tin pot trophy.
 


I might be mis-remembering it, but wasn't Bruce pretty highly rated until the end when he'd dismantled the team he'd built and went on a rotten run?

In terms of being underrated I think it could be Lee Johnson, didn't always work, didn't really have faith he'd have taken us up when Neil did, but when you look at how we played under Parkinson and compare it to how we played under Johnson onwards he's put in some good groundwork. He'd be rated more highly if we'd won the Papa Johns with fans in the stands in my opinion. Not suggesting he was a world beater mind, his record after us certainly tells us that.
 
TZMouk said:
I might be mis-remembering it, but wasn't Bruce pretty highly rated until the end when he'd dismantled the team he'd built and went on a rotten run?

In terms of being underrated I think it could be Lee Johnson, didn't always work, didn't really have faith he'd have taken us up when Neil did, but when you look at how we played under Parkinson and compare it to how we played under Johnson onwards he's put in some good groundwork. He'd be rated more highly if we'd won the Papa Johns with fans in the stands in my opinion. Not suggesting he was a world beater mind, his record after us certainly tells us that.
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Wouldn't say Bruce was rated at all, probably more tolerated as we'd get the occasional good result like the 3-0 at Chelsea. The fact was under Bruce, despite having one of the best teams we've ever had we were still in relegation battles (and yes I'm including the 10th place in this). The season we finished 10th, with about 5 games to go we were below Birmingham who also had a game in hand. They went down that year, that's how close it was. And let's face it we did get a bit of luck jumping 4 places after the last game with all the teams just above dropping points.
I know his supporters will say its whats over the 38 games counts Which is true but a decent manager would've got that team going into the last game being a comfortable 7th ish possibly even pushing for 6th & in Europe.

Bruce also liked to blame his failures on the long string of injuries we had. Most of those injuries were picked up in training. He'd then rush players back against medical advice, who'd then get injured again, see Catermole. This is also something Kenny Cunningham was highly critical of from their time at Birmingham together.

And actually getting a result against the mags also helps supporters opinions on past managers. Played 3, L2, D1.



Lee Johnson was like jekyll &Hyde, home & away. We'd bang the goals in at home, but get thrashed away from home. Which in league 1, getting thrashed just isn't acceptable
 

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