He had no chance of staying. David Dein never wanted him and was overruled by the board. He was a stop gap for Arsene Wenger. When he upset Ian Wright, David Platt flopped and he was ordering the board to give him money to sign John McGinley and sell Ian Wright, Dein finally had the excuse he needed to convince the board to sack him. I personally think Rioch did ok. He got us back into Europe and the semis of The Coca Cola Cup. Yet the problem was that we were lucky to scrape 5th that season. It was only because Everton, Tottenham and Blackburn were poorer towards the end of the season that we got 5th. The board knew that and couldn’t risk keeping Rioch after the commotion he had caused during pre season.
@chrisrowe7503 I don't think he wanted to actually sign McGinley (he just told Wrighty to look at him as an example in training) but he kind of had a point re: moving Ian Wright on. He wasn't getting any younger and Arsenal's over-reliance on him made them predictable to the point where they'd fallen a long way behind the title challengers so potentially selling him and rebuilding the side (as Wenger would do shortly afterwards) kinda made sense in the long run.
It's crazy to think Rioch got the job having been largely a Championship manager prior to joining Arsenal. Shows how much football has changed, we'll never see that again now!
Thanks for posting this. Love watching this history. COYG!
Rioch always gets credit for Bergkamp when it was David Dein who sorted that… and then he ALMOST lost us Ian Wright 😱
My pleasure enjoy them all.
23:30 Who is that in the background swearing? 🤣🤣🤣🤣 deary me!
03/04 season please
I felt a bit sorry for Rioch. He did as well as anyone could've done with the squad that season and there were some promising performances.
Yeah
He had no chance of staying. David Dein never wanted him and was overruled by the board. He was a stop gap for Arsene Wenger. When he upset Ian Wright, David Platt flopped and he was ordering the board to give him money to sign John McGinley and sell Ian Wright, Dein finally had the excuse he needed to convince the board to sack him. I personally think Rioch did ok. He got us back into Europe and the semis of The Coca Cola Cup. Yet the problem was that we were lucky to scrape 5th that season. It was only because Everton, Tottenham and Blackburn were poorer towards the end of the season that we got 5th. The board knew that and couldn’t risk keeping Rioch after the commotion he had caused during pre season.
@chrisrowe7503 I don't think he wanted to actually sign McGinley (he just told Wrighty to look at him as an example in training) but he kind of had a point re: moving Ian Wright on. He wasn't getting any younger and Arsenal's over-reliance on him made them predictable to the point where they'd fallen a long way behind the title challengers so potentially selling him and rebuilding the side (as Wenger would do shortly afterwards) kinda made sense in the long run.
It's crazy to think Rioch got the job having been largely a Championship manager prior to joining Arsenal. Shows how much football has changed, we'll never see that again now!
Newcaslte are the most unlucky club in english football how the title never went to the north east during the 90s 😢