| Lawrie McMenemy 12:43 - Jul 26 with 3909 views | A1079 |
The big man is 90 today. What a guy this has been for our club. Probably the best times were under McMenemy (certainly if you are around my age) and made Southampton FC a side to be reckoned with against the so called best. For a while we could compete with anyone. He has remained a big name for the club and the city. The word legend is over used and abused but I would say he is in terms of SFC and Southampton.
When the sad day comes of his passing I hope he gets the recognition and celebration that he deserves as I have to say SFC have a mixed record of recognising previous managers and players etc that have served the club well.
Happy 90th Lawrie and thanks for all the good times. |  | | |  |
| Lawrie McMenemy on 12:55 - Jul 26 with 3865 views | 1885_SFC |
Amen to all that mate.
Happy 90th Lawrie Mac. |  |
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| Lawrie McMenemy on 15:53 - Jul 26 with 3607 views | kingslandstand1 |
Absolutely. And the highlight for him, other than May 1st 76, was in the news last week. Bringing in King Kev!
His biggest mistake? Going to Sunderland ................ |  |
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| Lawrie McMenemy on 17:48 - Jul 26 with 3487 views | Bridders2 |
What a guy, legend, hero. He had amazing charisma and presence, the media, fans and general public would hang on his every word. Not only was he a brilliant manager he was almost messiah like to his followers.
Happy birthday Big Mac we love you.1 | |
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| Lawrie McMenemy on 18:22 - Jul 26 with 3439 views | grumpy |
Brought great players to grace the little old Dell.
Happy Birthday, Big Man.
Thanks for the memories. |  | | |
| Lawrie McMenemy on 21:55 - Jul 26 with 3242 views | Chesham_Saint |
Happy Birthday Big Lawrie. Nothing short of brilliant for Saints. |  |
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| Lawrie McMenemy on 08:03 - Jul 27 with 3010 views | kernow |
A big man in every sense, stature, character, presence, reputation and achievements.
The respect that he commanded persuaded some of the best players at the time, although he himself admitted, they were supposedly past their best, to come and play for little Saints at the Dell.
After a slow start to his career at Saints, relegated in his first year at the helm, he gradually built a team to win the FA Cup, gain promotion and challenge the best.
Happy birthday Lawrie McMenemy, a true Saints legend. 90 years, WOW! 😇 | | | |
| Lawrie McMenemy on 09:13 - Jul 27 with 2945 views | SaintNick |
| Lawrie McMenemy on 08:03 - Jul 27 by kernow |
A big man in every sense, stature, character, presence, reputation and achievements.
The respect that he commanded persuaded some of the best players at the time, although he himself admitted, they were supposedly past their best, to come and play for little Saints at the Dell.
After a slow start to his career at Saints, relegated in his first year at the helm, he gradually built a team to win the FA Cup, gain promotion and challenge the best.
Happy birthday Lawrie McMenemy, a true Saints legend. 90 years, WOW! 😇 |
No one can argue against Lawrie McMenemy's place in the history of Southampton FC, Ted Bates built this club up from the then 3rd division to the top flight and then Lawrie took those foundations and built on them.
For a decade we had a great time and saw some great players, even back then we had a tendency to get right on the cusp of things and then something blew it all out of the water.
IN the summer of 1982 we thought that it would be our year, Kevin Keegan in the side Steve Moran coming back from injury, the upcoming Danny Wallace and that we would have a shot at a trophy, perhaps even the League title after leading for so long in the season just gone.
What we didn't know was that in the run up to the end of the season Lawrie had fallen out with Keegan in a dressing room bust up and that the player wanted out and then left for Newcastle.
But McMenemy after a lacklustre 82/83 season rebuilt the side for 83/84 and that season was probably 1976 aside the best season that I have seen in terms of the football we played, we finished 2nd and were knocked out of the FA cup by a last minute extra time winner from Everton in the semi finals.
Sadly Lawrie left for the money and not glory, he went to Sunderland who had just been relegated to the second division and they made him the highest paid manager in the country.
It was perhaps not going to ever go well there, he was a Newcastle Geordie and so would never be accepted at Roker Park.
In his one full season 85/86 they finished 18th and the fans were baying for his blood, in 1986/87 they were even worse and he resigned just a week or so before relegation to the 3rd tier was confirmed.
At just 51 his managerial career was effectively over, he would never manage another club.
Assistant to Graham Taylor with England did not turn out well as we failed to qualify for the 1994 World cup and his only other managerial role was as Northern Ireland manager for a couple of years, a part time position that he took after he left Saints for a second time after 3 years as director of football at the Dell. |  |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| Lawrie McMenemy on 09:39 - Jul 27 with 2912 views | kingslandstand1 |
| Lawrie McMenemy on 09:13 - Jul 27 by SaintNick |
No one can argue against Lawrie McMenemy's place in the history of Southampton FC, Ted Bates built this club up from the then 3rd division to the top flight and then Lawrie took those foundations and built on them.
For a decade we had a great time and saw some great players, even back then we had a tendency to get right on the cusp of things and then something blew it all out of the water.
IN the summer of 1982 we thought that it would be our year, Kevin Keegan in the side Steve Moran coming back from injury, the upcoming Danny Wallace and that we would have a shot at a trophy, perhaps even the League title after leading for so long in the season just gone.
What we didn't know was that in the run up to the end of the season Lawrie had fallen out with Keegan in a dressing room bust up and that the player wanted out and then left for Newcastle.
But McMenemy after a lacklustre 82/83 season rebuilt the side for 83/84 and that season was probably 1976 aside the best season that I have seen in terms of the football we played, we finished 2nd and were knocked out of the FA cup by a last minute extra time winner from Everton in the semi finals.
Sadly Lawrie left for the money and not glory, he went to Sunderland who had just been relegated to the second division and they made him the highest paid manager in the country.
It was perhaps not going to ever go well there, he was a Newcastle Geordie and so would never be accepted at Roker Park.
In his one full season 85/86 they finished 18th and the fans were baying for his blood, in 1986/87 they were even worse and he resigned just a week or so before relegation to the 3rd tier was confirmed.
At just 51 his managerial career was effectively over, he would never manage another club.
Assistant to Graham Taylor with England did not turn out well as we failed to qualify for the 1994 World cup and his only other managerial role was as Northern Ireland manager for a couple of years, a part time position that he took after he left Saints for a second time after 3 years as director of football at the Dell. |
One other major issue and decision he made, was to drop that other God of the time with Saints, Terry Paine.
Paine didn't like it that someone else was coming in and taking over the mantle that he held a d Laurie could see that. It was a marker that he was in charge | |
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| Lawrie McMenemy on 09:47 - Jul 27 with 2908 views | templarinexile |
Interesting how the passage of time colours memories..........
When McMenemy first arrived at the Dell as assistant to Ted Bates,his appointment was met with derision - he had no experience as a pro footballer and very few credentials as a manager. Bates himself wasn't popular at the time as many people felt that he had outstayed his welcome - but it seemed that he was an immoveable and integral part oF Southamton FC.
As said, the team's performance and reults at the start of Lawrie's Saints career were very poor - in these days he would have been sacked long before things turned around.But turn around they did - 1976 and all that followed.
Quite how he manged to lure Keegan, Ball, Shilton, Osgood at al to the Dell remains a mystery, but will always be a testament to his persuasive skills and "emotionally intelligent" man management (despite the coccassional high profile bust ups).
Later, there was a big sense of disappointment when he left to chase the dollar, and in hindsight, I can imagine he regretted some of the ill advised moves he made post Saints.
There is no doubt however that the Saints remained the high spot of his footballing life and it is also evident that he continues to hold the club in great affection.
I have been fortunate enough to meet Lawrie on a few occassions (normally on a golf course) and always thought he was a great guy - polite, well mannered and always open to a chat.
Happy birthday Lawrie - and thank you for giving us so many great memories that have long since extinguished any earlier disappointments.
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| Lawrie McMenemy on 09:59 - Jul 27 with 2894 views | SaintNick |
| Lawrie McMenemy on 09:47 - Jul 27 by templarinexile |
Interesting how the passage of time colours memories..........
When McMenemy first arrived at the Dell as assistant to Ted Bates,his appointment was met with derision - he had no experience as a pro footballer and very few credentials as a manager. Bates himself wasn't popular at the time as many people felt that he had outstayed his welcome - but it seemed that he was an immoveable and integral part oF Southamton FC.
As said, the team's performance and reults at the start of Lawrie's Saints career were very poor - in these days he would have been sacked long before things turned around.But turn around they did - 1976 and all that followed.
Quite how he manged to lure Keegan, Ball, Shilton, Osgood at al to the Dell remains a mystery, but will always be a testament to his persuasive skills and "emotionally intelligent" man management (despite the coccassional high profile bust ups).
Later, there was a big sense of disappointment when he left to chase the dollar, and in hindsight, I can imagine he regretted some of the ill advised moves he made post Saints.
There is no doubt however that the Saints remained the high spot of his footballing life and it is also evident that he continues to hold the club in great affection.
I have been fortunate enough to meet Lawrie on a few occassions (normally on a golf course) and always thought he was a great guy - polite, well mannered and always open to a chat.
Happy birthday Lawrie - and thank you for giving us so many great memories that have long since extinguished any earlier disappointments.
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I dont think either my memory or indeed yours are far out from the truth, he did have great man management skills, but as you say he was prone to the odd bust up.
His appointment was originally as manager designate, ie on the surface the club were saying Bates was still in charge and McMenemy effectively his assistant learning the ropes, although now we know the truth was different, McMenemy was running the show.
When we were near the top of the League in November 1973 I think, the club announced McMenemy would now step up and that seemed to co incide with a massive slump that saw us relegated and for around 18 months after that Lawrie was the subject of horrendous abuse, especially in 1974/75 as we failed to win instant promotion back to Div 1 and finished lower mid table.
75/76 made him, a good start to the season saw fans start to get behind him and the rest as they say is history.
McMenemy's career as a club manager was relatively short, around 19 years in total, 3 at Doncaster, 2 at Grimsby, 12 years at Saints & just under 2 at Sunderland.
Looking back the big surprise is that he effectively retired as a manager at 51 | |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| Lawrie McMenemy on 16:27 - Jul 27 with 2670 views | Butty101 |
Happy Birthday to the Old Guardsman.
Football back then was so much better. I love the stories like how he scouted Steve Moran. [Post edited 27 Jul 16:28]
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| Lawrie McMenemy on 19:33 - Jul 27 with 2556 views | UTS1885 |
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| Lawrie McMenemy on 09:53 - Jul 28 with 2345 views | A1079 |
| Lawrie McMenemy on 09:13 - Jul 27 by SaintNick |
No one can argue against Lawrie McMenemy's place in the history of Southampton FC, Ted Bates built this club up from the then 3rd division to the top flight and then Lawrie took those foundations and built on them.
For a decade we had a great time and saw some great players, even back then we had a tendency to get right on the cusp of things and then something blew it all out of the water.
IN the summer of 1982 we thought that it would be our year, Kevin Keegan in the side Steve Moran coming back from injury, the upcoming Danny Wallace and that we would have a shot at a trophy, perhaps even the League title after leading for so long in the season just gone.
What we didn't know was that in the run up to the end of the season Lawrie had fallen out with Keegan in a dressing room bust up and that the player wanted out and then left for Newcastle.
But McMenemy after a lacklustre 82/83 season rebuilt the side for 83/84 and that season was probably 1976 aside the best season that I have seen in terms of the football we played, we finished 2nd and were knocked out of the FA cup by a last minute extra time winner from Everton in the semi finals.
Sadly Lawrie left for the money and not glory, he went to Sunderland who had just been relegated to the second division and they made him the highest paid manager in the country.
It was perhaps not going to ever go well there, he was a Newcastle Geordie and so would never be accepted at Roker Park.
In his one full season 85/86 they finished 18th and the fans were baying for his blood, in 1986/87 they were even worse and he resigned just a week or so before relegation to the 3rd tier was confirmed.
At just 51 his managerial career was effectively over, he would never manage another club.
Assistant to Graham Taylor with England did not turn out well as we failed to qualify for the 1994 World cup and his only other managerial role was as Northern Ireland manager for a couple of years, a part time position that he took after he left Saints for a second time after 3 years as director of football at the Dell. |
I think McMenemy was good for us and we were good for him. We were just a natural fit and sometimes it happens like that. The move to Sunderland proved a wrong move but after 12 years who could blame him or anyone for wanting to try something new and yes maybe the money was a factor but I think he could also see that he had probably taken it as far as he could with Saints at the time.
So he had the odd bust up. Who hasn't? Maybe he did not allow fame and status of certain players to influence his thinking. I think he was a far greater force for good for SFC than not. | | | |
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