"Here's an interesting stat - Aitor Karanka's win ratio @Boro is 51.9%, Jack Charlton's was 45.6%, Bryan Robson's 40.45% & Bruce Rioch's 40%."Our information was based on an article we'd read but nevertheless the Tweet led to the inevitable question about which divisions of the Football pyramid those statistics related to. Other than being safe in the knowledge that Aitor Karanka's stats all referred to the second tier we were unable to answer the question. However, after a good deal of research, we can now reveal who is Boro's leading manager in each of the top two tiers of English Football.
The answer is (Cue drumroll)... Jack Charlton.
The statistics that support such an assertion are thus.
| Top Division | Pld | Won | % Win | 2nd Tier | Pld | Won | % Win | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Charlton | 126 | 47 | 37.30 | Jack Charlton | 51 | 30 | 58.82 | |
| John Neal | 168 | 59 | 35.12 | Bryan Robson | 92 | 50 | 54.35 | |
| Steve McClaren | 190 | 64 | 33.68 | Gareth Southgate | 13 | 7 | 53.85 | |
| Terry Venables | 22 | 7 | 31.82 | Aitor Karanka | 119 | 62 | 52.10 | |
| Bryan Robson | 168 | 50 | 29.76 | Lenny Lawrence | 92 | 41 | 44.57 | |
| Lenny Lawrence | 42 | 11 | 26.19 | Colin Todd | 48 | 20 | 41.67 | |
| Gareth Southgate | 114 | 29 | 25.44 | Tony Mowbray | 137 | 50 | 36.50 | |
| Bruce Rioch | 38 | 9 | 23.68 | Bruce Rioch | 84 | 27 | 32.14 | |
| Bobby Murdoch | 42 | 8 | 19.05 | Malcolm Allison | 68 | 20 | 29.41 | |
| Colin Todd | 12 | 1 | 8.33 | Gordon Strachan | 43 | 12 | 27.91 | |
| Willie Maddren | 70 | 17 | 24.29 | |||||
| Bobby Murdoch | 7 | 0 | 0 |
These figures are for League games only, no FA Cups, League Cup, UEFA Cup, Anglo-Italian, Zenith Data Systems or pre-season friendlies are included. Nor are Bruce Rioch's 27 wins in 46 games in the Third tier of English football.
So there you have it. You may argue that there should be a qualifying number of matches before these stats count rather like cricket averages. That might then preclude Bobby Murdoch & Gareth Southgate's 2nd tier performance and Colin Todd's effort in the old first division. Whatever the case I am minded of Darrell Huff's book recommended by an old university tutor of mine many moons ago.
The title of the book...?
"How to lie with statistics".
