There's no guarantee whoever we appoint, so it's a bit academic to be honest. I've been reflecting on what criteria a manager needs to satisfy in order to be judged the best candidate and then looking at how some of our previous appointments would fare under it. Sometimes what might seem as a decent candidate doesn't work even though he fits some of that criteria.
This is what I was working on (in my boredom). Tell me what you think?
...
[big personality] + [practical short and long term plans] + [history of success] + [fans trust] = best manager
In terms of managerial appointments in the past 20 years, our best was probably Moyes (who did progress the club towards European competitions and developed some youth players with some shrewd buys, was a hungry, big personality I thought - he only failed in terms of achieving success). Now I understand fans wanted change and felt Moyes had taken the club as far as he could when he left anyway for Man Utd. Would judge him our best appointment though.
Martinez (not sure if he was a big personality to be honest, he was a bit soft - although a likeable guy - had won an FA cup with Wigan although they were also relegated, fans initial confidence in this appointment ebbed away because the results and performances were poor). That said Martinez would appear to tick some of the boxes, so success is not a guarantee either if we include cup competitions. Maybe we should judge success only in terms of the league performances and there has to be a real hunger for success which Martinez did not have. Was a failure.
Allardyce (was a big personality and obviously achieved his short term targets, took us to 8th I think, but did not have the fans onboard). Possibly the second best appointment.
Koeman (had a fairly good reputation when coming here, fans were initially very supportive, Koeman had performed well-ish with Southampton and certainly made them lots of money with sales to the team across the park, but his long term plan here was a disaster and his transfer dealings terrible. Previous success? not sure. Winning personality - not evident).
Silva ... no personality at all. Recruitment also poor. Success?