Del's new job

[22A]

 

Derek McInnes is the new Kilmarnock manager. McInnes knows his one and only goal will be restoring Killie’s Scottish Premiership status, and he obviously fancies himself to get it done as the Ayrshire side lie five behind Arbroath with a game in hand.

Despite it being a while ago, he has previous of winning promotion to the Scottish top-flight. He guided St Johnstone to the First Division title back in 2009 – and he’s since managed Bristol City and the Dons. At Pittodrie he turned Aberdeen from a bottom-six side into a consistent top-six team, regularly competing in Europe and finishing in the top-four.

So City is the only team he's not had success with.

[Dr Balls]

4 minutes ago, 22A said:

 

Derek McInnes is the new Kilmarnock manager. McInnes knows his one and only goal will be restoring Killie’s Scottish Premiership status, and he obviously fancies himself to get it done as the Ayrshire side lie five behind Arbroath with a game in hand.

Despite it being a while ago, he has previous of winning promotion to the Scottish top-flight. He guided St Johnstone to the First Division title back in 2009 – and he’s since managed Bristol City and the Dons. At Pittodrie he turned Aberdeen from a bottom-six side into a consistent top-six team, regularly competing in Europe and finishing in the top-four.

So City is the only team he's not had success with.

The curse of Ashton Gate strikes again!

To be fair, he was given an impossible job by Steve Lansdown. Cut the wage bill by 50% and keep us in the Championship. It explains why he brought in so many cheap (and fairly useless) Scots. I quite liked him as a bloke (remember the Brum minivan incident) he kept us up in the 2011-12, season, and in better financial circumstances with a bit of patience, he might have been a success.

[Fordy62]

3 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

 

To be fair, he was given an impossible job by Steve Lansdown. Cut the wage bill by 50% and keep us in the Championship.

Sounds pretty familiar doesn’t it?!

[eardun]

Wonder if he’s missed the boat for another crack at management in England (if he was ever interested in that). He was linked with WBA a while back although that may have just been paper talk because he played there. 

[Pezo]

7 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

The curse of Ashton Gate strikes again!

To be fair, he was given an impossible job by Steve Lansdown. Cut the wage bill by 50% and keep us in the Championship. It explains why he brought in so many cheap (and fairly useless) Scots. I quite liked him as a bloke (remember the Brum minivan incident) he kept us up in the 2011-12, season, and in better financial circumstances with a bit of patience, he might have been a success.

Isn't that NP's exact remit right now, it's almost as if we're in decades long groundhog Day.

[pongo88]

I could understand Del not understanding the difference in standard between Scottish and Championship football when he arrived. What baffled me that was his second season when we still had the no hope players and the football actually got worse. The players he brought in were so bad I’ve managed to semi forget them. I can’t remember their names, but just have a vague recollection of blobs awfulness 

[AshtonGreat]

He had some crap players when he was here, but he had a number of very decent ones

[The Coach]

The summer we really needed a new defence. We went and got Davies and Baldock!

[cidercity1987]

That's a bit of a step down which is a surprise given he seemed a success at Aberdeen

[glynriley]

54 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

Sounds pretty familiar doesn’t it?!

Yep, here we are again…

12 minutes ago, The Coach said:

The summer we really needed a new defence. We went and got Davies and Baldock!

Assisted on recruitment by Swiss wasn’t he?

[milo1111]

53 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

Sounds pretty familiar doesn’t it?!

Indeed it does. Special prize for anyone who can guess the shared surname of the managers who were indulged to such an extent to create the current and last financial apocalypses.

[GlastonburyRed]

32 minutes ago, pongo88 said:

I could understand Del not understanding the difference in standard between Scottish and Championship football when he arrived. What baffled me that was his second season when we still had the no hope players and the football actually got worse. The players he brought in were so bad I’ve managed to semi forget them. I can’t remember their names, but just have a vague recollection of blobs awfulness 

McGivern & Ricky Foster to name but two!!!

[Mr X]

Some decent players in the squad that last season we went down from the Championship (along with Wolves). On paper that team should have had enough to stay up instead of finishing 15 points from safety. Some absolute dross mixed in that squad as well though.    

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		Championship		FA Cup		League Cup
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	ENG	Tom Heaton	44	0	43	0	1	0	0	0
4	DF	ENG	Liam Fontaine	43	1	41	1	1	0	1	0
27	MF	ENG	Albert Adomah	42	7	30+11	7	0	0	1	0
15	MF	SCO	Stephen Pearson	38	3	33+3	3	1	0	1	0
16	FW	ENG	Steve Davies	38	13	21+16	13	0+1	0	0	0
7	FW	ENG	Sam Baldock	34	10	23+11	10	0	0	0	0
25	MF	ENG	Marvin Elliott	33	3	25+7	2	0	0	0+1	1
17	DF	IRL	Greg Cunningham	31	1	29+1	1	1	0	0	0
2	DF	SCO	Richard Foster	31	0	27+3	0	0	0	1	0
9	FW	ENG	Jon Stead	30	5	21+7	5	1	0	1	0
21	MF	ENG	Paul Anderson	30	3	18+11	3	1	0	0	0
14	MF	ENG	Cole Skuse	27	0	24+1	0	1	0	1	0
18	FW	ENG	Ryan Taylor	26	1	16+9	1	1	0	0	0
8	MF	AUS	Neil Kilkenny	24	0	15+9	0	0	0	0	0
5	DF	WAL	Lewin Nyatanga	20	2	18+1	2	0	0	1	0
10	MF	SCO	Liam Kelly	19	0	19	0	0	0	0	0
19	DF	IRL	Brendan Moloney	17	0	17	0	0	0	0	0
6	DF	SCO	Louis Carey	17	0	13+3	0	1	0	0	0
11	MF	ENG	Martyn Woolford	17	3	10+5	3	0+1	0	1	0
39	DF	ENG	Matthew Bates	13	0	12+1	0	0	0	0	0
26	MF	ENG	Joe Bryan	12	0	9+3	0	0	0	0	0
19	DF	SCO	Stephen McManus (on loan from Middlesbrough)	11	1	11	1	0	0	0	0
38	MF	ENG	Neil Danns (on loan from Leicester City)	9	2	9	2	0	0	0	0
12	DF	WAL	James Wilson	8	0	6+1	0	1	0	0	0
3	DF	SCO	Mark Wilson	8	0	7	0	1	0	0	0
29	DF	WAL	Wes Burns	7	0	0+7	0	0	0	0	0
11	MF	ENG	Brian Howard	6	0	0+6	0	0	0	0	0
24	MF	ENG	Bobby Reid	5	1	1+3	1	0+1	0	0	0
10	FW	Jersey	Brett Pitman	4	0	0+3	0	0	0	1	0
22	GK	ENG	Dean Gerken	4	0	3	0	0	0	1	0
20	MF	ENG	Jody Morris	4	0	2+1	0	0	0	1	0
29	DF	ENG	Matthew Briggs (on loan from Fulham)	4	0	4	0	0	0	0	0
40	DF	SCO	Danny Wilson (on loan from Liverpool)	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
30	DF	CMR	George Elokobi (on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers)	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
7	MF	COD	Yannick Bolasie	1	0	0	0	0	0	0+1	0
28	DF	WAL	Aaron Amadi-Holloway	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
32	GK	ENG	Lewis Carey	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

[Maldini]

From an article by Steve Madeley of The Athletic,

Success at McDiarmid Park brought McInnes a chance to return to England as manager of Bristol City in October 2011.

 

It was a spell that ended with the sack 15 months later and one which appears to have harmed his chances of future employment south of the border. It was a period, though, in which he kept the club in the Championship against the odds in his first season and one which he still looks on in a positive light.

 

“They were bottom of the league when I went there and hadn’t won a home game all season,” McInnes says. “They were well adrift of second-bottom and had had four managers in five years prior to me.

 

“I genuinely think I did some of my best work as a manager at Bristol City, especially in that first year when we managed to stay up. After that, I felt the club could maybe have supported me more to get rid of some players.

 

“We had four different managers’ players in the dressing room and the club should probably have helped me make way for the players I was looking to bring in, but we were hemorrhaging money as a club and the squad was too big.

 

“A lot of players were on very good contracts and it wasn’t really in their interest to leave. I was disappointed that I wasn’t really able to put my own stamp on it but by having so many players in the building, we weren’t able to get as much done as we wanted to.

 

“I still felt we would have stayed in the division but unfortunately, I lost my job in January.

 

“What we did was introduce a lot of younger players. Bobby Reid (now Bobby De Cordova-Reid) and Joe Bryan made their debuts as 16-year-olds. We brought Yannick Bolasie in from the reserve team and gave him an opportunity to play and the club sold him to Crystal Palace.

 

“There was a feeling that the club needed to go down in order to come back up and maybe I was a casualty of that process.”

[nickolas]

1 hour ago, 22A said:

 

Derek McInnes is the new Kilmarnock manager. McInnes knows his one and only goal will be restoring Killie’s Scottish Premiership status, and he obviously fancies himself to get it done as the Ayrshire side lie five behind Arbroath with a game in hand.

Despite it being a while ago, he has previous of winning promotion to the Scottish top-flight. He guided St Johnstone to the First Division title back in 2009 – and he’s since managed Bristol City and the Dons. At Pittodrie he turned Aberdeen from a bottom-six side into a consistent top-six team, regularly competing in Europe and finishing in the top-four.

So City is the only team he's not had success with.

Well tbf, we dont play in a pub league so im not surprised. 

[samo II]

An interesting choice of job for him.

I’d have thought his time at Aberdeen may have given him more stock than a second level job there, but perhaps he’s taking a role that suits him more than challenges him.

Wish him luck; I don’t fully subscribe to the notion that he had no chance here, as feel he made some odd choices, and was clearly still learning his trade, but it wasn’t the best time to be taking us on, so can’t fault him too much for what happened.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, pongo88 said:

I could understand Del not understanding the difference in standard between Scottish and Championship football when he arrived. What baffled me that was his second season when we still had the no hope players and the football actually got worse. The players he brought in were so bad I’ve managed to semi forget them. I can’t remember their names, but just have a vague recollection of blobs awfulness 

A certain Mr Ashton was in at consultant at that time and had sacked McInnes’s mate and head of recruitment Russ Richardson.  I wonder why it went so badly.

[GrahamC]

22 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

A certain Mr Ashton was in at consultant at that time and had sacked McInnes’s mate and head of recruitment Russ Richardson.  I wonder why it went so badly.

Don’t think McInnes was exactly blameless, he already had Pitman (who bafflingly he rarely played) & Stead, but thought signing 2 more forwards in Baldock & Davies was needed more than any competent centre half.

Signed Richard Foster, Mark Wilson (who couldn’t run), social secretary Jody Morris plus Stephen Pearson & Stephen McManus on loan & then bleated about a lack of funds, well you spent it all on strikers, mate.

[PHILINFRANCE]

24 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Don’t think McInnes was exactly blameless, he already had Pitman (who bafflingly he rarely played) & Stead, but thought signing 2 more forwards in Baldock & Davies was needed more than any competent centre half.

Signed Richard Foster, Mark Wilson (who couldn’t run), social secretary Jody Morris plus Stephen Pearson & Stephen McManus on loan & then bleated about a lack of funds, well you spent it all on strikers, mate.

I agree with the thrust of your post, but it must be said that both Davies and Baldock were pretty useful.

Just a shame we couldn’t have got at least one good, solid defender to go with them.

[Dr Balls]

1 hour ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

I agree with the thrust of your post, but it must be said that both Davies and Baldock were pretty useful.

Just a shame we couldn’t have got at least one good, solid defender to go with them.

A central defence of Liam Fontaine and Lewin Nyatanga was not going to provide much cover at the back even with Tom Heaton in goal. There were decent players in that squad, but it was unbalanced and there were a number of injuries to important players e.g. John Stead. Plus we had another loanee cursed with injury during their first match in George Elokobi from Wolves. And his was a bad one that I think kept him out for the rest of the season. The only 2 regular players who came out of that season with much credit were Heaton and Albert, both of whom were promptly sold when we were relegated.

[Red-Robbo]

4 hours ago, glynriley said:

Assisted on recruitment by Swiss wasn’t he?

[Negan]

9 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Don’t think McInnes was exactly blameless, he already had Pitman (who bafflingly he rarely played) & Stead, but thought signing 2 more forwards in Baldock & Davies was needed more than any competent centre half.

Signed Richard Foster, Mark Wilson (who couldn’t run), social secretary Jody Morris plus Stephen Pearson & Stephen McManus on loan & then bleated about a lack of funds, well you spent it all on strikers, mate.

To be fair McManus for the few games he played in his first loan spell was absolutely immense, I can remember being excited when we got him back again but the damage was done. Watching Liam Fontaine and Nyatanga that season, along with foster.... you'd be lying if you aren't suffering from PTSD now. Martyn Woolford, Stephen Pearson, Ryan Taylor, Neil Kilkenny, Jody Morris.... Jesus wept we must have been part of some sort of sick social experiment to test how loyal/stupid we were to keep going every week to watch these players 

[Fordy62]

8 minutes ago, Negan said:

To be fair McManus for the few games he played in his first loan spell was absolutely immense, I can remember being excited when we got him back again but the damage was done. Watching Liam Fontaine and Nyatanga that season, along with foster.... you'd be lying if you aren't suffering from PTSD now. Martyn Woolford, Stephen Pearson, Ryan Taylor, Neil Kilkenny, Jody Morris.... Jesus wept we must have been part of some sort of sick social experiment to test how loyal/stupid we were to keep going every week to watch these players 

Remember how it became a weekly tradition to write FFS Fontaine on the match day thread?

Not sure if it was under McIness, but this game still gives me nightmares…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/23565332

[Fordy62]

12 minutes ago, Negan said:

To be fair McManus for the few games he played in his first loan spell was absolutely immense, I can remember being excited when we got him back again but the damage was done. Watching Liam Fontaine and Nyatanga that season, along with foster.... you'd be lying if you aren't suffering from PTSD now. Martyn Woolford, Stephen Pearson, Ryan Taylor, Neil Kilkenny, Jody Morris.... Jesus wept we must have been part of some sort of sick social experiment to test how loyal/stupid we were to keep going every week to watch these players 

Christ, look at the state of this 4th goal!!! Probably one of my most vividly remembered goals against…

 

[Red Billy]

Turned from bottom 6 to top 6! They sit 6th in a 12 team league so……….. have they moved at all?

[sglosbcfc]

Kilmarnock are a huge club by Scottish second tier standards with double the gates of most of the division. He will be under pressure to take them straight back to the Premiership. My bet us that he will be backed this month in the transfer market and will win the title.

[Phileas Fogg]

10 hours ago, Davefevs said:

A certain Mr Ashton was in at consultant at that time and had sacked McInnes’s mate and head of recruitment Russ Richardson.  I wonder why it went so badly.

Richardson is now a scout at Liverpool too. Would've been really interesting to see where the club would've been in a parallel universe where we go back 10 years and Ashton was never involved in any capacity. 

[Fordy62]

7 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Richardson is now a scout at Liverpool too. Would've been really interesting to see where the club would've been in a parallel universe where we go back 10 years and Ashton was never involved in any capacity. 

Premier League Champions and Cotts has just been poached by Real Madrid. 

[Taylor10]

For those who keep saying stuff like ‘this is by far the worst football/side etc we have had in some time’….they clearly don’t remember the McInnes era. 
 

Del wasn’t helped by the club and lack of any solid foundations. It was all a bit of a mess in truth but he didn’t help himself at all. He had a difficult job it must be said, but some of his signings defied belief and his use (or lack) of certain players was really poor. That said he was a likeable guy and I wish him well, in all honesty I completely forgot he got the chop at Aberdeen. His record in Scotland though is decent and I’ve no doubt he will do a good job at Kilmarnock.

[luke_bristol]

1 hour ago, sglosbcfc said:

Kilmarnock are a huge club by Scottish second tier standards with double the gates of most of the division. He will be under pressure to take them straight back to the Premiership. My bet us that he will be backed this month in the transfer market and will win the title.

Not too dissimilar to the situation LJ finds himself in, a very different job to managing city but challenging for different reasons.