Would United have won the league with Tommy Docherty?

[blue blue]

Tommy Docherty
Dave Sexton
Jose Mourhino

Antonio Conte anybody?

 

[MoskvaRed]

Reading some of the replies above on Atkinson, I was shocked to read Garth Crooks played for United. I recall random players turning up in that era like Peter Barnes and Terry Gibson but have absolutely no recollection of Crooks. But, there it is - 7 appearances on loan according to Wikipedia. Mercifully short, unlike his punditry.

 

[Robbo's Shoulder]

Nice story. Sounds like a terrific guy.

That 85/86 season was crazy. We lost the charity shield against Everton, then were unstopable until November. The way we capitulated after Robson's injury really upset the board. They wanted to do everything possible to win it the following season, but when Atkinson decided to go to Mexico to co-commentate on the world cup with ITV, it was deemed as a lack of commitment by the board. A poor start to the campaign sealed his fate. If he'd have stayed behind in the summer and looked for a couple of defenders and a replacement for Hughes, things may have turned out differently.

Yeah, my injury definately cost us the title that year, i just landed awkwardly. Sorry about that

 

[lysglimt]

Yeah, my injury definately cost us the title that year, i just landed awkwardly. Sorry about that

A lot of things in the end went wrong. We only had one prolific goalscorer in Hughes (17 goals) even if Olsen had his best season with 11. Defensively we only had 2 players with more than 30 matches (McGrath and Albiston) - Moran, Gidman, Duxbury all missed about half the season with injuries, and the backups we had were nowhere near good enough. The situation was the same in midfield - only Whiteside played over 30 matches. Strachan, Olsen and Robson all missed about 15-20 matches each - and the substitutes were at least 2 steps down.

So basically - we had an injury-plagued squad - where a majority of the players were in the late 20s, and where the first 11 was as good as the best teams in England, but where our subs were poor. So even if the general opinion is that Robsons shoulder cost us - we probably wouldn't have won anyway. We had too many injured players.

 

[The Brown Bull]

I remember Tommy Doc's team very fondly, they brought the optimism back to United and played some great, fast, exciting football .Loved Buchan for his class and coolness, Daly for his artistry in midfield, Hill and Coppell on the wings, proper wingers who only seemed to score screamers, and Stuart "Poncho" Pearson at centre forward.They came close to winning it in 75/76 and we all thought with a few additions that it was only a matter of when they won the league.Not to be unfortunately.

 

[711]

Pancho not Poncho!

 

[Moriarty]

We only missed out on the league by two points in 79/80, Wilkins’ first season. In 80/81 Wilkins was injured a lot (now where have we heard that before ), results were poor and we finished eighth. Winning the last seven league matches wasn’t enough to save him; the dull football and the disastrous signing of Alexis Sanchez (aka Garry Birtles) didn’t help

We missed out on the FA Cup in 1979 because our midfield was overrun by the brilliant Liam Brady. We had nobody of that quality to dictate play so Sexton went out and got Butch Wilkins. He made a big difference the following season and when Ron Atkinson came in and bought Robbo and Moses, we had a great midfield.

 

[The Brown Bull]

Pancho not Poncho!

I know! Don’t know what I was thinking! Never forget his goal in the 77 Cup Final.
Scousebuster!

 

[Revaulx]

We missed out on the FA Cup in 1979 because our midfield was overrun by the brilliant Liam Brady. We had nobody of that quality to dictate play so Sexton went out and got Butch Wilkins. He made a big difference the following season and when Ron Atkinson came in and bought Robbo and Moses, we had a great midfield.

We did, but all three, except Wilkins in his first season, were terribly injury prone. Robbo was able to hit the ground running on his return from injury, but Wilkins invariably took ages to get back up to speed.

Moses appeared quite limited at first, and being United’s first black player couldn’t have been easy, but he became absolutely crucial without anyone really noticing, and was only properly appreciated after injuries had finished him. A rather racist lad I went with was absolutely appalled that we’d signed him, but soon became a massive fan and was happy to take on anyone in the Stretford that gave him abuse

 

[BigRon1985]

I think Liverpool were too strong at the time especially when they won the European Cup. Our best chance pre-Fergie and post Busby was the the 85/86 season when we won our first 10 games and were unbeaten after 15. Then Robson got injured and as usual it all fell apart without him - ended up 4th! I remember going to the last home game against Leicester and the atmosphere was really flat despite winning 4-0 including a screamer from Clayton Blackmore........

 

[Ramshock]

My oul fella said Tommy Doc was the best one since Busby and he was disappointed when they had to fire him. Unfortunately my dad died the October before we won the first PL.