Most impressive season under Jol?

[eddiebailey]

2004/2005 Takes over Jacques Santini's struggling team eleven league games into the season, and lifts them to 9th.

Jol put down his calling card. Very few coaches are capable of bringing about sustained improvement without resorting to the transfer market. However there were no concrete achievements.

2005/2006 Finishes fifth, missing out on fourth place on the final day due to a dodgy lasagna, but is knocked out of both domestic cups at the first attempt by inferior opposition.

So close, yet how much did our League form owe to our early cup exits? (I always felt BMJ bungled when short of strikers he elected not to call up Lee Barnard to the match squad for the Grimsby game.)

2006/2007 Finishes fifth but eight points adrift, yet also reaches the semi-final of the League Cup and the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and the UEFA cup.

For me this is the most impressive. Our surge up the table to secure fifth spot coincided with the return to fitness of Ledley King, emphasising just how much he had been missed, and by implication how close we were to having a team capable of competing with the very best. I don't understand those who say we were going backward.

2007/2008 Least said...

 

[Banjo]

:shrug:

After getting rid of Burkinshaw; sacking Jol after only two full seasons in charge - and two fifth places, was so crazy ....

Couldn't get us to 'the next level' - well we are well on our way now!

 

[Banjo]

mg:

I'm sure this wasn't a poll when I first relplied - or am I going even more gaga?

:duh::shrug:

 

[eddiebailey]

Was always intended as a poll, maybe there was a slight time lag before the poll questions appeared...

 

[General Levy]

05/06 and it isn't even close imo.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

The thread would appear on here whilst you were creating the poll, which, once completed would then appear at the top of the thread.

 

[themanwhofellasleep]

In terms of our most impressive season it's definitely 05/06, but my favourite season was 06/07 - we scored more goals, looked more exciting, had Berbatov on fire and looked like we could beat anyone on our day.

 

[Flatters]

Definitely 2007/08. We won a cup!

 

[DC_Boy]

I ran a very similar poll not so long ago - and 2005-06 won it easily - tho I had the full 07/08 season in - not just jol's bit

personally I thought 06/07 was a better season than 05/06 though as flatters said 07/08 tops both of them (but no way can Jol get the credit for that one) so has to be 06/07 in this poll for me
we played better football that season IMO than the previous season, and factually we scored a lot more goals


and eddie like you i'm still miffed by Jol's bungling in the lge cup in 05/06- it was a golden chance to play Barnard and he missed it - while the keane/defoe partnership flopped once more (that was the game I think MJ really decided them two don't work together)

 

[Bus-Conductor]

How about 2007-8. The season he was fired and despite taking over a floundering team his successor took us to Wembley - via the humiliation of our arch enemy - where we vanquished the most expensively assembled side in the world who we'd only beaten once in sixteen years, thus taking us into europe against all the odds and saving what would have been a disastrous season and enabling us to sign quality players in the summer.

Don't get me wrong EB, The second fifth place finish was a very good season, and much more consistantly enjoyable to watch (well at home anyway) but this almost daily "I miss big Mart" love in is getting very, very boring.

Why not include several seasons in the sixties, seventies, eighties or nineties just to give it a vaguely original slant ?

 

[eddiebailey]

The thread came about because of a post (by Hakano, I think) saying that we had gone backwards in 2006-7. I disagreed and thought it would make an interesting topic for discussion. And a diversion to the countless threads about our current predicament.

 

[DC_Boy]

The thread came about because of a post (by Hakano, I think) saying that we had gone backwards in 2006-7. I disagreed and thought it would make an interesting topic for discussion. And a diversion to the countless threads about our current predicament.

I agree that far from going backward in 06/07 we actually went forward, because we played better football

of course we lost things as well as gained them

as I've already pointed out though my recent poll was very similar, and the early lead of 05/06 (easy winners of my poll) confirms us 07s and 08s are still in the minority

 

[Coyboy]

I voted for 06/07 in the last poll but I am pretty torn. The thing about 05/06 was that I don't remember ever being that depressed about Spurs. Obviously the last day of the season hurt but I wasn't pissed off with the coach, chairman or players. Grimsby was comical and Leicester was embarrassing but I quickly took perspective. I just remember always feeling confident when we played. Last minute goals at Fulham, Chelsea and Sunderland cost us but I am sure we scored as many if not more last minute winners/levellers.

It's a tough one but maybe I instinctively side with 05/06 because I was living in Spain and in 06/07 I was in final year of uni.

Either way both beat last season by a country mile and this season we would have to drastically improve in the league and win two cups for it to trump Jol's seasons.

 

[Coyboy]

How about 2007-8. The season he was fired and despite taking over a floundering team his successor took us to Wembley - via the humiliation of our arch enemy - where we vanquished the most expensively assembled side in the world who we'd only beaten once in sixteen years, thus taking us into europe against all the odds and saving what would have been a disastrous season and enabling us to sign quality players in the summer.

Don't get me wrong EB, The second fifth place finish was a very good season, and much more consistantly enjoyable to watch (well at home anyway) but this almost daily "I miss big Mart" love in is getting very, very boring.

Why not include several seasons in the sixties, seventies, eighties or nineties just to give it a vaguely original slant ?

2007-2008-Jol was coach in name only and we finished eleventh.

 

[TheBigMatch]

2006/2007 despite the League starting very poorly (almost as bad as Ramos) but finished very well to charge back up to 5th.

Came within a tap in of beating Chelsea 4-1 in the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge.

Outplay arsenal for an hour at the Lane in the Carling Semi 1st leg to go 2-0 despite losing Berbatov, end up drawing 1st leg 2-2, see Mido come onto equalise the 2nd leg and almost win it with a header in the last few minutes, before eventaully losing in extratime.

Outplay holders and eventual winners Sevilla in the UEFA only to be denied by a blind referees penalty (Robinson got the ball) in the 1st leg, and Steed's crazy own goal in the 2nd leg.

Remember we were supposed to push onto the top four after that. The blood was up, Keane signs for 5 more years, there's money in the bank. Pity King was a mess, Berbatov wanted to go to United, Comolli bought a lot of dross, Robinson hadn't recovered from his Croatia nightmare, and of course Top 5 was so easy with the top 4 squad that we had but shame Jol couldn't take us to the next level.

Those were the days. Those were the days.

In days like these what else do we have except to look back on the good old days. Mind you defeating the mighty Stoke 0-1 would be a start.