Whatever Happened To?

I'll bite, but I'll exclude caretakers.
Rankings based on mostly subjective criteria.
Here we go:

1) O'Driscoll
2) Lamouchi
3) Davies Mk1
4) Hart
5) Calderwood
6) Freedman
7) Platt
8) Pearce
9) Karanka
10) O'Neill
11) Warburton
12) Kinnear
13) Davies Mk2
14) McLeish
15) Cotterill
16) Hughton
17) Montanier
18) MacLaren
19) Megson

The bottom half is really hard to sort out as there were some incredible demonstrations of ineptitude by these clowns.
I'll start looking for a psychologist right away....

O'Driscoll at #1 blows my mind. He's not just bottom half for me, he's probably bottom 5. Utterly bland, pointless, toothless football.

I'll admit that I wasn't there to be able to judge the aesthetics of the football offered, but results were trending up at the time of O'Driscoll's sacking.
I thought the playoffs would've been achievable had he stayed on the job.
And once in the playoffs, who knows what could've happened?
Considering what happened to the other managers on this list, reaching the playoffs that year would've been a tremendous achievement.
The list also shows how difficult it is to rank different levels of failure, so I know for sure that my ranking should not be considered in any shape or form as the ultimate authority on Forest's managerial ineptitude in the 21st century.
Speaking of minds blown, I can't see how O'Driscoll could be considered as worse than any of Cotterill, Hughton, Montanier, MacLaren or Megson, but I'm more than happy to consider different points of view on this list.

I didn't hate Cotterill the way many do/did, I think if they'd had the team the other way round with Cotterill in charge and O'Driscoll coaching we might have had some more success. Hughton and Montanier were both much better than O'Driscoll IMO, MacLaren and Megson I'll grant you.

Coterill is too low if you include the O’Driscoll period. He was dealt a shit hand by the McClaren/Doughty departures, it was shit for ages and I think he set a club record for consecutive games without scoring but it picked up once SOD (and Geddy) turned up and he kept us up easily in the end.

Fair comment. Thanks for making me reappreciate Cotterill.

O'Driscoll came into choas at short notice and looked like he was moving things in the right direction when he was fired. Belongs in the top half.

Montanier had no idea how to set up defence, created his own choas - being likeable doesn't excuse him being a shit manager for us.

Hughton took over a team that had finished just outside the playoffs and took them deep into the bottom half, fired having another dabble at relegation, then Cooper took the team back into the playoffs. He's way down the list and certainly below O'Driscoll, however much slack you give him for playing behind closed doors.

Was it under Montanier that we suddenly sold Ollie Burke on deadline day? The cheesemeister might've fared better but for that.
SOD was a strange one. There were some awful results - 1-4 v Millwall at home, a stuffing at Watford where Ayala kept kicking people until his 2nd yellow whilst SOD dithered about subbing him. What SOD did have was Sharpe and Cox, who were starting to look a real threat. Then Cox got a season ending injury at Wolves and Sharpe / Blackstock just weren't the same.

Dark days.
Reading some of those player’s names makes me quiver.

He also brought us the magnificent James Coppinger in his attempt to turn us into Rotherham with a bigger stadium. Dark, dark days.

My recollection is that Moreno was shot and totally unsuited to the blood-and-thunder of the first division, Petrachi was talented but completely disinterested, but Matrecano looked decent until he fucked his knee.

That said, you are asking me to go back more than half a century.

u wot m8

I am biased towards Cotterill as I used to watch him at Burton Albion, before he was sold to Wimbledon (I think)

Wasn't that part of operation 'buy players who play well against us so they can't play well against us even if they are shit for us'?

I will always remember Cotterill for Leeds 3 Forest 7. The 13th anniversary of which was 8 days ago.