John Lyall has been voted the best West Ham manager of all time – ahead of Ron Greenwood who of course preceded him.,
The legendary Hammers boss ran out a clear winner of our latest poll commanding 55.42% of the vote with his mentor Ron in the runners-up spot with 28.32 per cent..
A Claret and Hugh poll posed the question which brought in 978 votes and Lyall took 542 making him a clear winner.
Harry Redknapp took third place at 47 votes (4.81%) and Trevor Booking coming in fourth with 27 votes (2.76%).
In bottom spot was Gianfranco Zola with a big fat zero.
Can’t believe Zola came below McCarrie
I suspect many who voted weren’t there at the time. I was. Lyall took them to two relegations – 1978 and 1989. Admittedly the FA Cup was more important then when they won it in 1975 and 1980 but really they had one good season 1985/86 thanks to Cottee and McAvenie. They then slumped dramatically and he was belatedly sacked in 1989.
I voted for Greenwood. He really started ‘The West Ham way’.
If you were’nt there have a quick look at this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvkVfCE56qM
Minute 7.00 to minute 9.00
Close between Lyall and Greenwood. Lyall was not just good as a manager but as a man. When he was sacked I wrote to him via the club to express my disappointment and thank him for his work. A couple of weeks later I was gobsmacked to receive a handwritten letter from him. He just said that he had been proud to manage (and play fro) the club. What a gentleman!