Murray
Irwin
Butler
Lescott
Kennedy
Kightly
Rae
Ince
Jarvis
Ndah
Sturridge

Subs
Hennessey
Cameron
Newton
Blake
Blake

*Not in subs = don't rate

For me

......................Murray
Irwin, Stearman, Lescott, Naylor
....Kightly, Ince, Rae, Jarvis
.............Miller, SEB


7 Jones 4 Mick

Maybe this supports the opinion that Micks sides are 'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts' more than individuals.

Interested to see if others would pick a similar team man for man or not?

You really rated Blake then

2002-03 = 16 points behind 2nd place Leicester!
Really should have done better with that side.

for sure, interestingly though it seems converting draws into wins was the problem, actually lost the same amount of games both seasons, but Micks side won 7 more.

Jones side scored 1 more and conceded 8 less.

So yeah, should defo have done more with that side, would have been a massive failure had we not gained promotion that season.

Fav wolves side was under Taylor. Still don't understand how that side didn't get promoted. I was uni at the time and my mate was adamant we wouldn't go up, I was having non of it.

He later went on to win a £200k accumulator a few years back!.

Feels like your side isn't entirely truthful by the way

Kennedy should have been a LB so that's where I put him.

Surprised you chose Miller, he is and was Sh[te

Anyway up @ 6, off to bed.

#iKnowUnc

I rate Miller, was torn between him and Sturridge.

Sturridge was injured a fair bit the promotion season or it would have been an easy choice, still scored ten goals though.

Murray

Irvine Lescott Berra Foley

Jarvis Edwards Ince Kightly

Seb Ndah

Speed, muscle, experience, flair, balance - with Mick as the man to get the best out of them, naturally

Squeezed Foley in eh.

To be fair, he and Irwin would be the best two full backs overall.

Ndah fan i assume? Wish he spent more time fit.

The biggest difference between the Jones team and the Mccarthy one was that Jones built his team around a load of experienced heads whose days as Premier League players was gone. We needed to totally rebuild after promotion and we didn't and the consequence was inevitable. McCarthy got promoted with a young team and a number of them grew into players that were good enough to keep us there for three seasons.

Murray
Irwin - Craddock - Lescott - Naylor
Kightly - Ince - Rae - Jarvis
Ebanks Blake - Miller

Subs
Hennessey
Ward
Butler
Cameron
Ndah
Iwelumo
Sturridge

So yeah, as previously mentioned, Jones team - better players, Mick's - better team.

I was also relecting on the mid 90s teams at the weekend that Taylor built and again wondered how on earth we failed to get promotion. So many things conspired against us, injuries mainly, poor refereeing (Bolton - McGinley), rank bad luck, but we had a team then capable of holding its own in the premier without ridiculous investment.

By the way, how has Unc managed to draft Alan Irvine in to his team?

Obviously he still has an ongoing obsession with the living dead.

comment by Oldgoldilox - Brought to you by Mr Sizzle

So yeah, as previously mentioned, Jones team - better players, Mick's - better team.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
DJ & Oldgoldilox have hit the nail on the head, and stolen a little of my thunder, but I'll post anyway...

Good idea for a thread, (and two great sides), but unfortunately, although we can compare footballers from different sides all day long, it's not so much about which individual players are better in different positions. It's about which team does best as a unit, and that can be influenced by the calibre of the management of course.

It's a TEAM that wins the title, at the end of the season.

The simpler method for comparison between the respective sides would be to establish

1) Which of the two sides was the highest finishing team in the Championship.

2) Which of the two sides had the longest run in the Premier League following promotion.

Of course you could also go on to compare the management, and consider who has the most Championship titles, but that's secondary, although the influence of management shouldn't be discounted.

a cryptic comment from mick relating to the possibility of ipshít going for doyle

"There are a number of issues to consider," admitted McCarthy. "He is out of our league in terms of his salary. That's the first thing. Secondly, Jez Moxey, the chief executive at Wolves is a good pal of mine. So I don't think there is much chance of it happening."

Not sure about that one. Chris Wood is mentioned in the papers today as being a possibility.

Nice, and most gracious, quote from Ian Holloway, regarding Mick, following the weekend's match incidentally: “What he has done at Ipswich is fantastic, he is the best manager in the Championship.”

That would be debatable of course, but I expect it will be regarded as a compliment by MM.

Murray
Foley Lescott Craddock Irwin
Kightly Ince Rae Jarvis
SEB Sturridge

I know Irwin was mainly a RB for us but I’m pretty confident he’d have been a better LB than Ward or Naylor

Ummm yeah Bute, I kind of pointed that out in the opener.

Hence you took it down to the base level, players.

Fair point tats, and to be honest I think Irwin is probably the best player we have had at the club in the last 30 odd years.

Hence I took it down to the base level, players.

DJ, I agree to a point but can't help wondering how things would have turned out had we not lost Murray and lescott for the whole season.

I think the worst moment under Jones, was when we were in 2nd place, with a seemingly unassailable 11 point lead over WBA, and threw it away. We had a fairly strong side, on paper, which had been reinforced by the shrewd appointment of Cedric Roussel (sp?). I can remember the disappointment to this day.

*Not the signing of Cedric, the missing out on automatic promotion.