Did Steve McMahon change our expectations?

Barbarian

Barbarian

Well-known member
The posts about Danny Coid recently got me thinking about how Steve McMahon changed the way BFC played. He was also a reasonably successful manager here. He got us playing 'pass and move' football, something most of us at that time had not seen BFC play. Those of us who remember it, will see many similarities with the Holloway era. So while Simon Grayson, Tony Parkes and Ian Holloway have received lots of credit for getting us to the premier league, did Steve McMahon start it, and start us wanting to see football played in an exciting style?
 
Yes. McMahon (blatant Nepotism aside) was a cracking manager and without being held back by the Oystons would certainly have made us a force to be reckoned with in then Division 2. Brought in some good players and played nice football.
 
Yes, previously we expected manager to be a full-time job, not something to be done between rounds of golf, trips to Spain, requests for club staff to find car insurance for 'Our Stephen' etc
 
The style was often good, but there were some absolutely shocking performances in there too. He never managed to get the defence properly organised either.
But I agree he set the bar in terms of the way we tried to play. Although I think he benefitted from being the manager after Worthington. Tony Pulis style would've seemed like pass and move after the Worthington era.
 
I don't think he changed Karl's expectations.

We only had one season in L2/D4.

I actually think Big Sam raised expectations. We played some nice stuff.

Allan Brown certainly did. Not sure there are many other stand outs.

After McMahon, Ollie obviously, and Grayson in the perfect ten period.

Be interesting to look at which other managers have provided football that is good to watch over the last 50 years.
 
Hills and Tommy J swapping as attacking wing backs, Richie Wellens spraying it, Simmo being pure class, Brett haring into the channels and chasing every lost cause. Bully on his mad runs... Big Murphs backing into defenders and taking stick from our own fans but scoring, scoring at a steady rate. Coidy being a cut above as a kid.

On form that's was my favourite pool team/era ever. If we'd have got the defence right we'd have gone up to the championship. We never did. When we weren't on it, it fell apart, sometimes quite spectacularly. We were like a beautiful vintage car that would break down ever 50 miles. Fantastic when going well, but you'd curse it when it was belching smoke and going nowhere.
 
I think Mcmahon was the first good appointment that the Oystons made after sacking big sam. He got us out of the bottom tier at the 1st time of asking and worked as a bit of a catalyst for the initial stadium development. Probably a lower league Ollie in comparison with us looking great going forward at times. How we would kill now for a Brett / Murphy style strike partnership.
 
In terms of best BFC managers of all time he’s my number one. That’s only because he’s won the most in recent times though. Joe smith has a claim to that crown too for ‘53 and the other two finals he got us to.
 
Yes - absolutely. McMahon gave us hope and belief again after a dire three years of Nigel Worthington. We played some great passing football and as mentioned above bringing in players like Wellens and Simpson, and even players like Bullock and to a lesser extent Scott Taylor were great to watch.

The main drawback from the McMahon era was that he never really seemed to get the defence sorted - we seemed to outplay so many teams only to lose to a really sloppy goal.

Sadly, by the end of McMahon's time it had all gone a bit sour - remember that press conference for his resignation when he changed his mind live on air? Or his last home game against Peterborough where we lost 4-1 and fans were throwing their season tickets on the pitch?
 
Interesting but McMahon insisted the way to build a winning mentality was to play every game to win...including the LDV trophy. And he got us promoted.

Critch seems to have the same attitude.
 
Barbarian said:
The posts about Danny Coid recently got me thinking about how Steve McMahon changed the way BFC played. He was also a reasonably successful manager here. He got us playing 'pass and move' football, something most of us at that time had not seen BFC play. Those of us who remember it, will see many similarities with the Holloway era. So while Simon Grayson, Tony Parkes and Ian Holloway have received lots of credit for getting us to the premier league, did Steve McMahon start it, and start us wanting to see football played in an exciting style?
Click to expand...
No Stanley Mathews Et al that made us want to see the beautiful game.
 
I recall McMahon raging because Oyston would not let him keep John Murphy on a decent contract. Wellens also spoke publically about Karl not letting McMahon bring in quality whilst in League 1. In the end the limits of McMahon's reign at Blackpool were held back by the limit of Oyston's purse strings.
 
Great thread. Yes he did, if you was on the QPR weekend away (2014?) this will bring back memories of great debates and loads of laughter!!!!
 
He was a good manager that turned things round for us and didn't want to leave, but felt he had to because of the Oyston budget restrictions. I remember hearing an interview with him about a week after he left and he was quite emotional. He liked the job and the club but just got worn down with it all.
 
This is a great OP and very good question.

I think McMahon did yes. And I think the football we played with him as manager was, at times, just incredible. It was total football.

Weird how Steve McMahon didn't carve out a better career in football management.
 
We were on the verge of something big. Taking over from Sam Ellis, Mullen, Megson, Fat Sam, Worthless his style of play was a breath of fresh air. However, as someone alluded to, golf and ego took over and he never seemed that committed towards the end. You never knew which Blackpool were going to turn up. The Peterborough home game (1-4?) at the end of his tenure, unfortunately summed us up at the end.
 
Steve McMahon followed the dark night of the soul that was Nigel Worthington. I almost gave up the will to live never mind my season ticket. McMahon was a breath of fresh air with whom we actually started to win things. Playing his son over some more promising youngsters probably wasn't his most promising moment.
 
There were moments, perhaps 20 mins here and there where I genuinely felt we'd have beaten *anyone*

I remember saying to my mates who support big teams that and them scoffing at me, but I took the odd one of them to watch us occasionally and they were always taken aback by how good we actually were. Or at least how good we were sometimes.

Forever 2 or 3 players away.

I've always thought the same. Why didn't he take another proper job? I wonder if experience with Karl burnt him out?
 
Loved the way we played under McMahon. Had he been given money I'm fairly sure we'd have had more success under him.

Yes we had awful days when he was here but 3 trips to Cardiff in 4 years........
 
Great football with McMahon I agree, but it was also about the time we started to see the half n half performances that dogged us for years. We would be as good in the second half sometimes as we were woeful in the first half. Sometimes we would be brilliant for the first 15 minutes then unable to string a pass together till 15 minutes to go.

I used to moan - who! me? - that we rarely got a full 90 minutes football out of Blackpool and it still seems to be something we suffer from now. On the few occasions when we did fire on all cylinders we were magnificent.

There are exceptions now and then when we got it together such as the Perfect 10 Season but that just reinforced that “Where could we be now” feeling if we had produced a near perfect 50!
 
We always, always seemed to be 2 or 3 players away from going from good but inconsistent, to great, but the signings would never materialise.

It's no wonder McMahon burned out and lost interest towards the end. Who wouldn't after the nonsense he had to put up with from those twunts.
 
Has to be a yes.

I can't add much to all the above, just that there was a 10-12 year period, starting with McMahon, where for several of those seasons we genuinely scared the hell out of virtually any other team in the division. All they could think about was altering their game to stop ours, all we had to do was know we were on form and whatever they did wouldn't likely make much difference in the end.

I don't suppose the other Prem teams did much altering as such, but they were worried by our approach to the game all the same.

It's a great feeling as a fan, to know that your team is that highly respected. McMahon, Grayson and Holloway all had it going on at certain points in their tenure. And God, I missed it. Here's to hoping NC brings it back.
 
Steve MacMahon was stood in his technical area when a high clearance from a Blackpool defender looped over towards him ......... he watched it and trapped it instantly with his right foot .... the ball was sat at his feet and one of the opposition players walked towards him to take the throw in .... MacMahon folded his arms and watched as the player had to bend over and pick the ball up from right in front of him ...... got a big cheer for that!
Some maybe thought he could be arrogant but with his ability, history & medals H3 could be ..... I liked him and Wayne Gill!
Where did MacMahon find him ?
 
Always have high regard for McMahon after witnessing Paul Dalglish put the ball into the Luton net ,finishing off the most sublime sequence of passing movement I have ever witnessed Blackpool produce.
 
Who did we play in "that game" under McMahon? The one Paul Dalglish scored his only ever goal.

We played like Brazil. Almost up there with the Leeds game at home in April 2012.
 
Which 'nearly' signings would have taken McMahons team to the next level - for me it was re-signing Shittu on a permanent. Would have helped with some of those defensive frailties.
 
Peter Clarke after his first loan spell. He was *magnificent* in that first spell. Getting him permanently or on a season long if Everton weren't willing to let him go then would have made a big difference.

I cannot believe he's still playing.
 
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