Manager Hunt

[RedRoss]

With all the hysteria surrounding our manager hunt. Am I alone in being happy we are taking our time with recruitment? The easiest option would have been to appease the fans and bow to pressure to get in Houghton.

Clearly there is a majority of fans who want CH because he's got a great CV and is a 'big name' in the football world. I'm also very interested for those reasons but I do also think he doesn't really fit our sustainability model we've been pursuing in recent years. Yes he's achieved our ultimate goal of reaching the promise land but he hasn't operated in the same boundaries as our current model. Mixture of championship players and foreign or youth to develop and sell on for profit.

Brentford clearly are the standard set for that model with achieving results/performances on the pitch but they went completely the other way and put Thomas Frank in charge after being assistant head coach and only managing Brondby previously.

With the further complications of Covid I think that's going to have an impact and we may see more emphasis on promoting what we've got already than spending big sums.

That in my mind would be more of a head coach than manager.

Thoughts?

 

 

[Riaz]

Yes I’m with the you.

Theres no rush. Explore all options 

theres lots of good managers out there

[LondonBristolian]

Read the title and thought it was a bit of a curveball.

Decent right back going forward, even if dodgy defensively, but surely not yet managerial material. Would be a **** of a gamble. 

[italian dave]

2 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

Read the title and thought it was a bit of a curveball.

Decent right back going forward, even if dodgy defensively, but surely not yet managerial material. Would be a **** of a gamble. 

Jack, or Nicky?

[stortfordred]

Mike

[wendyredredrobin]

Isaac.

[Southport Red]

What bothers me is that we had absolutely no succession plan in place.

LJ was struggling before lockdown and for three months there was next to nothing to do, yet even then, the leadership did not seem to have any plan for LJ going.  They then fire him and replace with no one.  When an outstanding candidate who had turned many of our peers down, declares an interest in the role, we take two weeks to get to the point where we say "it might be him, it might be someone else, tell you in a week to ten days".

Why did they fire LJ if they hadn't given even a moments thought to what would happen next?

Seriously, there is 'being careful' and there is negligence.  Every supporter on here knew LJ's position was not secure before lockdown, how have we gotten to (almost) August with no progression plan?

There should be scenario planning in place all the time for the loss of key people.  Given the fickle nature of Football Manager/Head Coach, is it seriously too much to ask that MA spent at least a little of his lockdown thinking what we would do if LJ's time ran out?

[AppyDAZE]

1 hour ago, stortfordred said:

Mike

Ahh, our very own Mr. Hunt-Hertz.

[Leveller]

1 hour ago, Southport Red said:

What bothers me is that we had absolutely no succession plan in place.

LJ was struggling before lockdown and for three months there was next to nothing to do, yet even then, the leadership did not seem to have any plan for LJ going.  They then fire him and replace with no one.  When an outstanding candidate who had turned many of our peers down, declares an interest in the role, we take two weeks to get to the point where we say "it might be him, it might be someone else, tell you in a week to ten days".

Why did they fire LJ if they hadn't given even a moments thought to what would happen next?

Seriously, there is 'being careful' and there is negligence.  Every supporter on here knew LJ's position was not secure before lockdown, how have we gotten to (almost) August with no progression plan?

There should be scenario planning in place all the time for the loss of key people.  Given the fickle nature of Football Manager/Head Coach, is it seriously too much to ask that MA spent at least a little of his lockdown thinking what we would do if LJ's time ran out?

I should imagine that they had a list of possibles in place, but also waited to see who applied and reviewed that list. They’re not incompatible. Why does everyone assume that good candidates will disappear if they know other candidates are being properly considered?

[LondonBristolian]

1 hour ago, italian dave said:

Jack, or Nicky?

I don't remember Nicky being decent going forward! But he must have had some good attributes, surely?

[Mr Popodopolous]

He did...at Bolton!

In the PL- upper half at that, European competition once if not twice.

[LondonBristolian]

8 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

He did...at Bolton!

In the PL- upper half at that, European competition once if not twice.

I know. It seemed a great signing until he tried to kick a ball for us...

[New Dazzler]

IIRC we were 1-0 at Elland Road (nothing new there!) during his 1st season, and he laid on an assist for Albert to assist the equaliser (scored by Stead?).  And then single-handedly gifted the game to Leeds with 2 howlers and they won 3-1.  Never to be seen in a city shirt again IIRC.

[BritAbroad]

I'm kinda caught with the time taken on the appointment of the new manager. On the one hand, I want us to get it right. On the other hand, I want the new manager to be in already and sorting out who is staying and who is going.

[Red Exile]

2 hours ago, RedRoss said:

With all the hysteria surrounding our manager hunt. Am I alone in being happy we are taking our time with recruitment? The easiest option would have been to appease the fans and bow to pressure to get in Houghton.

Clearly there is a majority of fans who want CH because he's got a great CV and is a 'big name' in the football world. I'm also very interested for those reasons but I do also think he doesn't really fit our sustainability model we've been pursuing in recent years. Yes he's achieved our ultimate goal of reaching the promise land but he hasn't operated in the same boundaries as our current model. Mixture of championship players and foreign or youth to develop and sell on for profit.

Brentford clearly are the standard set for that model with achieving results/performances on the pitch but they went completely the other way and put Thomas Frank in charge after being assistant head coach and only managing Brondby previously.

With the further complications of Covid I think that's going to have an impact and we may see more emphasis on promoting what we've got already than spending big sums.

That in my mind would be more of a head coach than manager.

Thoughts?

 

 

My thought would be to question the 'sustainability model'. The purpose of a football club is to entertain football supporters and perform well on the pitch...win matches, promotion, trophies. It doesn't exist to break even. No one makes money out of football, never have. 

Hire great people, don't surround yourself with mates, friends of mates, family members. I say Houghton would be a great hire. Back him. Take a calculated risk.

[RedRoss]

3 hours ago, Red Exile said:

My thought would be to question the 'sustainability model'. The purpose of a football club is to entertain football supporters and perform well on the pitch...win matches, promotion, trophies. It doesn't exist to break even. No one makes money out of football, never have. 

Hire great people, don't surround yourself with mates, friends of mates, family members. I say Houghton would be a great hire. Back him. Take a calculated risk.

Do you think our football club will survive on that basis? Look what happened to Wigan, QPR ect when the rich sugar daddy chairman stopped putting funds in. Clubs bounce from owner to owner (shady ones at best) strip assets, administration. Managers hired and fired every 2 months. The club isn't always going to be run by the Lansdowns forever even with Jon onboard for the foreseeable future.

Rightly so Steve is funding us in the right way so we've got the revenue streams to be competitive for the long-term. I think us fans our blinded by that season ticket money or 30 quid ticket and expensive beer that then commands a hefty budget to spunk in the transfer market when it's actually Steve's money and in my opinion he's spending it right by building for the future.

[tin]

6 hours ago, RedRoss said:

Brentford clearly are the standard set for that model with achieving results/performances on the pitch but they went completely the other way and put Thomas Frank in charge after being assistant head coach and only managing Brondby previously.

Thoughts?

Not sure how much you know about Frank, Brentford or their owner Matthew Benham, but the latter was the majority shareholder at FC Midtjylland before getting involved with Brentford. His prior knowledge of Danish football gave rise to bringing Frank over to Brentford. As you say, he’d managed Brondby and was not some random unproven European with no experience applying for our job. Frank’s appointment was therefore low risk because the owner knew was he was getting. 

Our owner/board has nowhere near the same level of overseas knowledge or a similar inside track. In fact, I have long held suspicions they know very little about football when it comes to managerial judgement spanning around 20 years. I hope I’m proved wrong. 

[Son of Fred]

14 hours ago, Southport Red said:

we take two weeks to get to the point where we say "it might be him, it might be someone else, tell you in a week to ten days".

Have faith...

Steve's got a 'crack team on the job....sorry,,,"hunt"..

[Murraysrightplum]

Roger?

[22A]

17 hours ago, RedRoss said:

 our manager hunt.

 

 

Well, he is a former City player who was motivational in the dressing room. 2' 51" into this;

 

['Pack' It In]

 

 

 

Judging by the title, I mistakenly got Nicky Hunt as our next manager !!

 

Sad 

https://images.app.goo.gl/HbDKGWPAY7iyce648