He's only ever achieved moderate success when allowed to spend massive amounts of money by chairmen.
He had a rediculous budget to get Reading out of League 1 and really struggled. Coppell had about the same budget and made them runnaway champions of the 2nd tier.
I don't know whether you're misrepresenting things to support your argument, or just genuinely don't know what you're talking about, but his record at Reading was:
Play off final loser (Old 3rd Div what ever it was called that year)
Automatic promotion (Old 3rd Div what ever it was called that year)
4th place - lost in play off semi (Old 2nd Div / 1st Div / Championship)
At West Ham:
Play off final defeat
Play off winner
9th in the Prem & FA Cup finalists
I'd take that sort of struggling at Town frankly
And he didn't have stupid money to spend at either. Madjewski never spent stupid money, and the biscuit man waited 'til Curbishly was in charge to flush his cash down the toilet.
He did get to spend a good wedge on Butler from what I remember, but it was hardly a mad multi million pound spending spree.
