Which football manager has the worst winning percentage in any period?

Photo: Nick Potts/PA

“Patrick Kisnorbo was recently fired at Troyes. During his coaching stint, his record was W3 D14 L23, a modest win record of 7.5%, which led to his club being relegated to Ligue 2. Yikes. Barring the agents (I’d say at least ten games), does he have the title of worst manager in the ‘Big Five’ leagues?” emails Florian Labrouche.

It seems there are three Premier League managers with worse winning percentages, starting with Southampton in 2004-05 where Steve Wigley won just once in 14 top matches, good for a record of 7.1%. Dancing to a record of 5.6% is Alan Pardew (West Brom, 2017-2018), who won just once in 18 league games before being axed, but is still being outpaced Terry Connor, who was in charge of 13 Wolves matches in 2011-12; he won none of them (0%). “The boys have given everything over the course of the season,” Connor said after Wolves were relegated from the Premier League. “It’s clear we haven’t been good enough.”

On the spot

“Who has taken the most penalties and who has the best success rate?” Tony Jones tweets.

Tony’s question is in response to the news that Domenico Berardi has scored 47 of the 56 penalties he has taken in Serie A, and that Tom Paternoster-Howe has taken up the challenge. “One possible answer is Matt LeTissier”, Tom emails. “He also scored 47 goals from 12 yards, but his were only 48 attempts, a success rate of 97.9%.

“Lothar Matthäus took significantly more penalties (76), but he missed nine (a relatively paltry success rate of 88.2%, but still significantly better than Berardi’s 83.9%). Cristiano Ronaldo has apparently taken 187 penalties, of which he scored 158, giving him a success rate of 84.5%. Some websites differ in the number he claims to have scored, but it is still streets ahead of everyone else and certainly the highest in the 21st century. I don’t know anything about the 19th or 20th centuries, but given his longevity and the horribly unbalanced nature of La Liga, I doubt anyone has taken or scored more penalties than him.”

The story continues

Note the gap

“I follow Sweden’s top women’s division, OBOS Damallsvenskan, and can’t help but wonder what the distance is between the top and bottom half of the table this season, where Hammarby took the title,” begins Jonas Jacobson. “Early on, there seemed to be a big gap in the class between the top seven teams and the seven in the bottom half, and the distance between seventh-placed FC Rosengård (champions in 2022) and eighth-placed place placed Växjö DFF (newcomers from the second half level) was 19 points. So naturally I wondered: has there ever been a bigger gap between the top and bottom half of a first division table?

Regular correspondent Chris Roe has done the legwork on this, in terms of answers from an English perspective. “This is a much bigger gap than anything we’ve seen in the top four English leagues,” Chris begins. “Last year’s Premier League table had a seven-point gap between the 10th and 11th placed teams (Fulham 52 and Crystal Palace 45). This was actually the ‘best’ ever recorded in England’s top four divisions. The biggest gap would It was nine points in the 2011/2012 League Two season, if Port Vale had not deducted ten points.”

It’s a team game

“Nine outfield players scored or assisted for Fulham in their 5-0 win over West Ham. Has a team ever had 10 or more different players do this in one game? asks Simon Philips.

“I’ve done my research, gone through my files, dug deep into the history of the Premier League and yes, Newcastle had 10 players score or assist in their 8-0 win over Sheffield United. That was a game with eight different goalscorers, which obviously helps, plus assists from Kieran Trippier and Elliott Anderson to reach the magic 10. Chelsea did it again in 2012, when they knocked Villa out of sight, with only seven different goalscorers at the time.

“If we go back a little further, Liverpool achieved the same in 1989 against Crystal Palace. Steve Nicol was the only player to score twice, John Aldridge came off the bench to make it 6-0 the day before moving to Real Sociedad, and even Glenn Hysen got a goal to remind Liverpool fans that he was quite good in his first goal. season before he was really terrible after that. The only field player who lasted ninety minutes without scoring or assisting was Alan Hansen, who quit shortly afterwards, probably out of shame.”

Knowledge archive

“What is the story behind the unusually area-specific name of Dutch striker Jan Vennegoor van Hesselink?” David Atkinson wondered in 2004.

According to our research, Jan Vennegoor from Hesselink was so called because, way back in the 17th century, two farming families in the Enschede region married each other. Both the names Vennegoor and Hesselink had equal social weight, and that is why they chose to use both, instead of choosing between the two. ‘Of’ in Dutch actually means ‘or’, which would mean that a strict translation of his name would be Jan Vennegoor or Hesselink.

Interactive

Can you help?

“A few weeks ago I was driving home to Stockport after an insipid defeat to Wigan in the [checks internet] Bristol Street Motors Trophy, and in less than an hour we saw it go by; the DW Stadium, the Bolton ground (still the Reebok for me), the AJ Bell Stadium and finally Edgeley Park in Stockport County,” writes Paul Jamieson. “Which got me thinking. What would be the shortest driving route that would allow you to see at least one stadium for clubs from each of the top five men’s divisions in England? I’ve done almost no work on this, but my first thought was around Greater Manchester: Oldham, Stockport County, Manchester United and Bolton, on the way to Preston. Google Maps has that route as 1 hour and 32 minutes. Can this be defeated? Maybe near London? What about other countries?”

“When I look at the foot of the Championship, I see that Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday are in danger of disappearing, with Huddersfield on the brink,” emails Wayne Charlton. “What is the most local triumvirate of clubs that have been relegated or even promoted in the past?”

“After Chris Wood’s treble for Forest at Newcastle just under a year after his transfer, what is the shortest spell in which a former player has returned to his old club and scored a hat-trick?” Masai Graham wonders.

“Roberto Mancini has the chance to win the AFC Asian Cup with Saudi Arabia next month after winning Euro 2020,” Teng Kiat noted. “Is there a coach who has won two or more different continental championships (including the associated women’s tournaments)?”