Greatest achievements in football.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

In the past few days, many have claimed that Diego Simeone managing this Atletico Madrid team to a La Liga title is among the greatest achievements in the history of the game. For what it's worth, I'm inclined to agree. My question is, what other achievements rank as among the best?

kryogen

Fergie - Aberdeen,Breaks Old Firm dominance (still hasnt been done since) also beating Real Madrid in a European final.

Fergie - Manchester United, club had not won the league in more then 20 years when he arrived. Finished outside the top 2 once in his final 20 years in charge, incredible consistency

Manchester United - 1999. Won all major trophies in one season

Bayern 2013 - won all major trophies in one season

Pellegrini getting Villarreal into the CL

Greece 2004 - Won European Championship

Liverpool 2005 - 3-0 down at half time in CL final, came back and won it.

Loads of great achievements in football

upstairs for coffee

Fulham and Middlesborough getting to a European final was a great achievement.

glued

Van Gaal winning the European Cup with Ajax would be one of the best

Brien

Ray Houghtons goal against italy

retalivity

Paul McShane's 31 caps for Ireland

DoctorGonzo08

Man Utd's CL Campaign in 99.
Liverpool's CL Campaign in 05.
Man City's comeback to win the league in 2012.
Last year's Ronaldo v Messi, unbelievable head to head on what they did.

Andersonisgod

Mourinho winning the Champions League with Porto was an incredible achievement. To do it again with another unfancied side(though not to the same degree as Porto) like Inter is remarkable.

greendom

Not many teams have won the league unbeaten. Arsenal's season in '04 has to be up there.

kryogen

greendom wrote: »

Not many teams have won the league unbeaten. Arsenal's season in '04 has to be up there.

It is, without doubt, the amount of draws they had takes the shine of it slightly for me though. Not like they were all conquering either when you look at that and their cup form.

Very good achievement though

JohnFalstaff

Clough winning back to back European Cups with Forest was some achievement.

AwayWithFaries

Denmark winning Euro '92 despite not actually qualifying.

Benimar

JohnFalstaff wrote: »

Clough winning back to back European Cups with Forest was some achievement.

1976-77 Gains promotion to Division 1
1977-78 Wins Division 1 as a newly promoted team
1978-79 Wins European Cup at first attempt
1979-80 Retains European Cup

That is some achievement.

Pepe LeFrits

kryogen wrote: »

Fergie - Aberdeen,Breaks Old Firm dominance (still hasnt been done since) also beating Real Madrid in a European final.

Fergie - Manchester United, club had not won the league in more then 20 years when he arrived. Finished outside the top 2 once in his final 20 years in charge, incredible consistency

Manchester United - 1999. Won all major trophies in one season

Bayern 2013 - won all major trophies in one season

Pellegrini getting Villarreal into the CL

Greece 2004 - Won European Championship

Liverpool 2005 - 3-0 down at half time in CL final, came back and won it.

Loads of great achievements in football

Greece's win stands head and shoulders above the rest of those imo.

Greece and Denmark winning were remarkable achievements.

greendom

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Greece's win stands head and shoulders above the rest of those imo.

It was a great achievement no doubt. So turgid to watch though!

kryogen

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Greece's win stands head and shoulders above the rest of those imo.

Really?

It deserves to be up there alright, head and shoulders above I wouldnt agree, they won a cup tournament, Fergie at Aberdeen trumps it I think. Not only winning the league, but retaining it, winning multiple league titles with them, winning the Cup Winners Cup, Scottish Cup and retaining it!The European Super Cup, the League cup etc

his achievements at Aberdeen are often forgotten because of his overwhelming success at United, but they are every bit as impressive for me, maybe even more so.

As a one off tournament Porto and Greece come into play big time, as a one off season its hard to look beyond United, Bayern, and domestically Arsenal.

Very hard to definitively figure what is the greatest football achievement of all time I suppose, a lot will be subjective and there would be so many variable to consider

Milkers

Greece's win arguably wasn't even the best achievement at a Euros! Denmark ftw.

WesternZulu

Benimar wrote: »

1976-77 Gains promotion to Division 1
1977-78 Wins Division 1 as a newly promoted team
1978-79 Wins European Cup at first attempt
1979-80 Retains European Cup

That is some achievement.

Look at that record, it's like something out of Football Manager when you cheat!

elefant

kryogen wrote: »

Really?

It deserves to be up there alright, head and shoulders above I wouldnt agree, they won a cup tournament, Fergie at Aberdeen trumps it I think. Not only winning the league, but retaining it, winning multiple league titles with them, winning the Cup Winners Cup, Scottish Cup and retaining it!The European Super Cup, the League cup etc

his achievements at Aberdeen are often forgotten because of his overwhelming success at United, but they are every bit as impressive for me, maybe even more so.

As a one off tournament Porto and Greece come into play big time, as a one off season its hard to look beyond United, Bayern, and domestically Arsenal.

Very hard to definitively figure what is the greatest football achievement of all time I suppose, a lot will be subjective and there would be so many variable to consider

What about Barca in 08/09? They also won every single competition they entered if I remember correctly.

buckfasterer

Celtic being the first club from the UK to win the European Cup and with all the players having been born within 30 miles of the ground.

HalloweenJack

Otto Rehagel won Euro 2004 with Greece and only a few years earlier won promotion to the Bundesliga with Kaiserslautern and won the league in their first season.

I was also reading about Graham Taylor taking Watford from the old Fourth Division to the First Division in seven years and finished as runners-up to Liverpool in their first season.

greendom

buckfasterer wrote: »

Celtic being the first club from the UK to win the European Cup and with all the players having been born within 30 miles of the ground.

Glasgow gene pool's finest achievement ?

x43r0

Benitez bringing Valencia to their first La Liga title in 30 years in his first season in charge of a top club. Then winning it again two years later

DoctorGonzo08

Paul Green becoming an Irish International. Think Disney are in talks with him about making the movie.

iDave

Spain: Euro 08 WC 10 Euro 12

Pepe LeFrits

kryogen wrote: »

Really?

It deserves to be up there alright, head and shoulders above I wouldnt agree, they won a cup tournament, Fergie at Aberdeen trumps it I think. Not only winning the league, but retaining it, winning multiple league titles with them, winning the Cup Winners Cup, Scottish Cup and retaining it!The European Super Cup, the League cup etc

I believe Aberdeen finished 3rd and 2nd the seasons prior to his arrival, and Dundee United won their first ever league title with a record points tally while Ferguson was at Aberdeen too.

citytillidie

Joe Fagan 2 seasons of management and in his 1st wins the English League and League Cup along with the European Cup

Lando Griffin

WesternZulu wrote: »

Look at that record, it's like something out of Football Manager when you cheat!

Cheat?
I call it using all the resources and back ground knowledge!

dfx-

elefant wrote: »

What about Barca in 08/09? They also won every single competition they entered if I remember correctly.

Coming off a lowpoint of the season before too. Pedro scoring in all 6 competitions that season.

Messi scoring against all other 19 La Liga sides consecutively last season

aodea

Iraq winning 2007 asian cup was a miracle of a story.

Greece and denmark as mentioned winning the euros.

Would give it to England winning the world cup because lets face it never looked like they would before and certainly have not looked like they will again. (it truely was a miracle):D:D

citytillidie

aodea wrote: »

Iraq winning 2007 asian cup was a miracle of a story.

Greece and denmark as mentioned winning the euros.

Would give it to England winning the world cup because lets face it never looked like they would before and certainly have not looked like they will again. (it truely was a miracle):D:D

Not really as England unlike other host nations England played all there games in their home stadium, other host nations played games around their country

Nalz

Hasn't Ronaldo scored a goal every minute of 90 minutes in a professional match?

carraig2

Trilla wrote: »

Hasn't Ronaldo scored a goal every minute of 90 minutes in a professional match?

He has indeed

The_Kew_Tour

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Greece's win stands head and shoulders above the rest of those imo.

ya cause winning a European competition with Aberdeen should be easy.

aodea

citytillidie wrote: »

Not really as England unlike other host nations England played all there games in their home stadium, other host nations played games around their country

That was very much in jest.

Pepe LeFrits

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

ya cause winning a European competition with Aberdeen should be easy.

Didn't say it was.

I am pie

Probably Ferguson's managerial career is the greatest achievement across a longer period of time (sadly, from my point of view, but it is an awesome unparalelled career).

After that it's Cloughie's back to back for me.

Wimbledon are worth a mention to for their meteoric rise and FA Cup win against Liverpool denying us a double..the bstrds.

Northern Ireland beating Spain in 1982 in Valencia...

patmac

Uruguay winning the 1950 World Cup decider beating Brazil 2-1 in front of 200,000 fans in the Maracana Stadium would take some beating, unless of course unless they did it again this year........... now there's a bet.

homerjay2005

David Moyes fooling Ferguson into giving him the United job, will take some beating.

carraig2

homerjay2005 wrote: »

David Moyes fooling Ferguson into giving him the United job, will take some beating.

Grow up

Mentioned already but Benitez at Valencia was incredible.

La Liga winners in 2002 and also in 2004. Also won the Uefa cup in 2004 !

citytillidie

Bob Paisley with 6 Leagues and 3 European Cups in 9 seasons is not to be forgotten when talking about great managers

Derry City after 4 seasons being in the League of Ireland winning the treble in 89

citytillidie

citytillidie wrote: »

Bob Paisley with 6 Leagues and 3 European Cups in 9 seasons is not to be forgotten when talking about great managers

3 European Cups in 5 years :cool:

Magic

Zebra3

dfx- wrote: »

Coming off a lowpoint of the season before too. Pedro scoring in all 6 competitions that season.

Messi scoring against all other 19 La Liga sides consecutively last season

Pedro only became a first team regular in 09/10, but not only had Barca come from such a bad season in 07/8 to the success of 08/09, it was also Pep's first season as manager of the side.

citytillidie wrote: »

Derry City after 4 seasons being in the League of Ireland winning the treble in 89

Not really as Derry at the time attracted huge crowds and basically hoovered up the best of Rovers 4-in-a-row team and even brought in far better players from abroad.

Nuri Sahin

Borussia Dortmund's rise from the ashes after flirting with bankruptcy a little over a decade ago in which in recent years thanks to the fans, city of Dortmund and Klopp has seen them win back to back Bundesliga titles and nearly win the Champions League Final.

Although a little dated at this stage given when the article was written and what has occurred since, this is worth a read - http://swissramble.blogspot.ie/2012/10/borussia-dortmund-back-in-game.html

Skid X

Dundee United beating Barcelona home and away in the 1987 UEFA Cup

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2318190/Barcelona-lost-Dundee-United-1987-UEFA-Cup.html

Alfred Borden

The rise of Southampton has been incredible in recent years. I remember them getting relegated from the championship. Played up the divisions with a good few players that are still there today.

I am pie

Raf32 wrote: »

The rise of Southampton has been incredible in recent years. I remember them getting relegated from the championship. Played up the divisions with a good few players that are still there today.

Not really the greatest achievement is history, they have underachieved and now returned to the division they have consistently played in, fair enough they finished a few places higher than normal playing some nice football but I don't think it's quite fairytale stuff....

Lennonist

Benimar wrote: »

1976-77 Gains promotion to Division 1
1977-78 Wins Division 1 as a newly promoted team
1978-79 Wins European Cup at first attempt
1979-80 Retains European Cup

That is some achievement.

In 1972/73 he also took Derby County to the European Cup Semi Final where they lost to Juventus, the 1st Leg in Turin was lost in controversial circumstances, after winning the League title the season before.

NIMAN

Anyone mentioned the Crazy Gang's rise up through the English leagues to winning the FA Cup?