By Deadly Submarine
April 12 2011

After another week of your votes, the results are in for our final poll in our Team of the Decade (2000's) as John Aldridge is voted in by fans as Manager of the eleven players already chosen...........

After another week of your votes, it has been decided by Rovers fans that John Aldridge will be the Manager of our Tranmere Rovers Team of the Decade (2000's) in our final poll of this series.

As you can see from the poll results below it was far from a runaway victory for Aldridge in the poll but he did manage to poll 37% of the vote to earn his place in the dugout of our Team of the Decade.....

After five seasons as a Rovers player following Johnny King's surprise swoop for his services from Real Sociedad, John Aldridge took charge as Manager of the Club following King's dismissal on 12th April 1996 - exactly 15 years ago today.

What followed was the most memorable spell for a very long time, if not ever, for differing reasons as two seasons of Cup drama and upset, most often in Rovers' favour as well as ultimate relegation to what is now League One followed during the former strikers tenure.

After three successive attempts at the Premier League in the mid 90's, all which ended with play-off semi-final defeats, John King's time as Rovers Manager came to an end as the 1995/96 season was in its final weeks and it was then player John Aldridge who was offered the position.

Tranmere finished 13th at the end of that season and his first full season in charge, Aldridge guided Rovers to a slightly better top half finish in 11th place.  14th and 15th placed finished followed in 1997/98 and 1998/99 as Rovers began to struggle to compete with the drying up of the financial backing of Peter Johnson but it was the following two seasons which helped Aldridge leave a lasting mark as a Rovers Manager.

The 1999/200 season saw Rovers knock out Premier League teams on almost a regular basis in both domestic Cup competitions as teams including Coventry City, West Ham, Sunderland and Middlesbrough all fell by the wayside as Rovers reached the sixth round of the FA Cup but more importantly, the final of the League Cup where of course they lost 2-1 to Leicester City.

After another 13th placed League finish that season despite the Cup distractions, Rovers continued their cup exploits the following season defeating Leeds United, Southampton (in the memorable 4-3 comeback game) and perhaps most memorably Everton 3-0 at Goodison Park. 

However this time around Rover's League form was to suffer and in the end they finished rock bottom of the League and were relegated to League One but not before Aldridge himself had resigned on St Patrick's Day 2001 to try and give the Club a chance of surviving relegation.

Whether best remembered in managerial terms as the man who took us down or the man who brought some of the most memorable moments in the Club's history, Aldridge will be fondly remembered as a player and by most as a Manager too!

So our Team of the Decade for the 2000’s is now complete and looks like this, with both the playing staff and manager now in place..........

Tranmere Rovers Team of the Decade (2000's): John Achterberg (GK), Ryan Taylor (RB), Ian Goodison (CB), Clint Hill (CB), Gareth Roberts (LB), Iain Hume (RM), Gary Jones (CM), Nick Henry (CM), Jason Koumas (LM), Chris Greenacre (S), Eugene Dadi (S), John Aldridge  (Manager)

Total Tranmere would like to thank all readers who voted each week to make this series a success and we hope you enjoyed reading and taking part in it.  Thanks also in particular to Mikey for the graphics used in the series and to Matt for providing information related to some of the players and Manager.

We hope to soon have another series of polls so keep checking back to Total Tranmere, especially over the summer months!

Aldo Voted Manager of Our Team of the Decade

Discussion started by Total Tranmere (IP Logged), 12/04/2011 00:17

Total Tranmere
12/04/2011 00:17

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
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Matty_1985
12/04/2011 00:34

8% need their heads testing!

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Matthew the rover
12/04/2011 00:39

Absolute legend.

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bigmart
12/04/2011 09:39

A very enjoyable series well done for all the ahrd work.

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whinfrey
12/04/2011 10:33

Gave me my happiest times as a TRFC fan.

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NUTTY BALLS
12/04/2011 10:58

JOHN BARNES GOT 8% ???????? HE MUST OF BEEN REALLY BORED @ HIS PC ONE NIGHT. BRIAN LITTLE AND LES PARRY WERE (ARE) BOTH S+#TE AS WELL

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The Gene Genie
12/04/2011 17:55

"Shed a tear 'cos I'm missing you...."

Ah, memories. Period.

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