David Moyes

[Bar BS3]

20 minutes ago, RedDave said:

Is this a wind up?  Most ridiculous post I've ever read on here.....and I've read some nonsense over the years! 

He left them with a title winning squad.  People say they were poor but couldn't have been that poor as they were the best team in England.  

Ferguson goes to most games.  You think he is loving watching them lose?  Clearly loves the club.  

If you were fishing then you have got me.  Guess you probably are.....

Not a wind up, no. 

I know he left them as title winners, somehow! I’m sure a large part of that was down to the players wanting it so badly for him, and there’s no doubt he was a fantastic manager and could get the best from his group of players, but I believe he left them with nowhere near the depth or quality that he had ensured during his tenure. 

Nobody was ever going to properly fill his shoes, and I think that deep down, others failure doesn’t bother him too much, as it only increases his legendary status. 

I can see why you think what I’m saying is debatable. But ask one question... if Fergie had not been retiring, do you really think he’d have left the squad as it was for the next manager, for himself..? Personally, I don’t. 

[David Brent]

4 minutes ago, Bar BS3 said:

Not a wind up, no. 

I know he left them as title winners, somehow! I’m sure a large part of that was down to the players wanting it so badly for him, and there’s no doubt he was a fantastic manager and could get the best from his group of players, but I believe he left them with nowhere near the depth or quality that he had ensured during his tenure. 

Nobody was ever going to properly fill his shoes, and I think that deep down, others failure doesn’t bother him too much, as it only increases his legendary status. 

I can see why you think what I’m saying is debatable. But ask one question... if Fergie had not been retiring, do you really think he’d have left the squad as it was for the next manager, for himself..? Personally, I don’t. 

To be fair, it read like Alex Ferguson made a conscientious decision to scupper his successor. I agree he was probably beyond preparing the team for the future but it’s harsh to say he did so to preserve his status.

[Bar BS3]

2 minutes ago, David Brent said:

To be fair, it read like Alex Ferguson made a conscientious decision to scupper his successor. I agree he was probably beyond preparing the team for the future but it’s harsh to say he did so to preserve his status.

I think the 2 points blend in to 1, personally. 

As someone who clearly does love the club (or his status within it) I find it questionable that he had failed to put in place people to replace the keys players who had/were leaving/retiring/needed improving on. 

Anyway, my more pressing point was that Moyes had no better or worse chance of success in the position than any other manager. They were left needing to be rebuilt, but crave levels of success that don’t allow for the time needed to do this. Time that Fergie himself was afforded all those years ago. 

I don’t think Moyes, or many managers on the planet, could turn down the Man Utd job, but they were basically laying down in front of a bus, as their sub standard first team squad was left well below the quality standard that Fergie himself had set. 

 

[David Brent]

30 minutes ago, Bar BS3 said:

I think the 2 points blend in to 1, personally. 

As someone who clearly does love the club (or his status within it) I find it questionable that he had failed to put in place people to replace the keys players who had/were leaving/retiring/needed improving on. 

Anyway, my more pressing point was that Moyes had no better or worse chance of success in the position than any other manager. They were left needing to be rebuilt, but crave levels of success that don’t allow for the time needed to do this. Time that Fergie himself was afforded all those years ago. 

I don’t think Moyes, or many managers on the planet, could turn down the Man Utd job, but they were basically laying down in front of a bus, as their sub standard first team squad was left well below the quality standard that Fergie himself had set. 

 

I agree that any manager was destined to fail though. If only Moyes was given the same chance as Mourinho.

[Distortia]

4 minutes ago, David Brent said:

I agree that any manager was destined to fail though. If only Moyes was given the same chance as Mourinho.

Why on earth would they have given Moyes the same chance as Mourinho?

Mourinho won 2 trophies in his first season, though did finish 6th. Then he finished 2nd in his second season.

Moyes, on the other hand, was knocked out of domestic competitions at home by Swansea and Sunderland, while ending his spell 7th in the league.

[Mr Popodopolous]

The thing about Mourinho, he will usually get results short to mid-term, but youth? **** all- he doesn't work that way in the main.

Moyes? Maybe deserved more time but wasn't showing much signs of progress, or of blooding youth with the exception of Januzaj IIRC.

Van Gaal however, that could have been interesting- he did miss 4th on GD and only won FA Cup, however putting aside on field results- yes he spent a lot but so too did Mourinho, he spent less per season on average Van Gaal, lot less than Mourinho, Moyes less still.

Reason I say Van Gaal most interesting was because he was blooding youth and blooding it properly- Fosu-Mensah, Borthwick-Jackson, Lingard, Rashford- and he signed Martial and Depay. People may say Depay crap but he's doing well now and not just in a weaker French League- moved there too soon? Fosu-Mensah and Borthwick-Jackson gone nowhere under Mourinho, Depay sold- perhaps rightly owing to age, not quite working out etc, Lingard and Rashford get some time but not always the most- Martial the only one of that youth lot you can really say a success under Mourinho. Van Gaal also had a great record over his career of bringing through youth- an interesting what if, had Man Utd gone down the more patient road with either Moyes or Van Gaal, but especially Van Gaal with the youth emphasis.

Would Moyes be good here? Perhaps- but the Championship is incredibly different to when he had his Preston successes, but then again his track record with Everton and Preston excellent, eventually he did fine at West Ham but perhaps not the man to take them forward or attract the sort of players they needed to do so. He also knows the club here (Moyes) and has an affinity towards it which would help.

[Midred]

Are we talking about the same Ferguson who was about to be sacked in his first(?) season when a long awaited win came along and saved him?

[David Brent]

3 minutes ago, Distortia said:

Why on earth would they have given Moyes the same chance as Mourinho?

Mourinho won 2 trophies in his first season, though did finish 6th. Then he finished 2nd in his second season.

Moyes, on the other hand, was knocked out of domestic competitions at home by Swansea and Sunderland, while ending his spell 7th in the league.

Moyes won 1 trophy. Finished a position lower but spent £100M? less than Mourinho in his first season.

Thats why on Earth.

[Son of Fred]

16 hours ago, Coxy27 said:

He has managed 6 clubs, not 5.

At West Ham, he was brought in on a fairly short term contract with one aim, don't go down. They didn't, so I think you'd have to consider that a success given the circumstances.

I think Manchester United, Sociedad and Sunderland would generally be considered failures so you're right about those in some sense. However, when you consider the fact that he was given one season or less in all three of those, you could say he's been successful at every club where he was given time to build a team.

Depends how you look at it.

The Man U job taking over from Fergie was nigh on impossible-as for us I feel Moyes would be a 'good fit, though sadly very unlikely to ever happen..

[swanker]

4 hours ago, RedDave said:

@swanker I assume you laughed cos I said win percentages are nonsense. Care to elaborate or do you think Danny Wilson is our greatest ever manager?

No, I laughed because you said Moyes ruined the squad he inherited. 

[CHIPLEY RED]

4 hours ago, RedDave said:

David Moyes 

- plays dull brand of football

- poor judge of player. signing history poor

- only success was at first two clubs he managed

- not proven to give youth a chance

- doubting how hungry he would be for success

I would much prefer our next manager to be a tactical coach, maybe from Europe, who plays exciting football.

Whilst I agree with the sentiment I hope we don't go down the European road. What chance do British managers have when they are over looked for unknown, unproven European managers. I have no problem with Man City getting the "Peps" of this world but some of the rest, surely there are equally good British candidates.

[Red-Robbo]

17 hours ago, richwwtk said:

Scott Davidson had offered him the job, but he was then overruled by the rest of the board, who wanted Pulis instead.

 

[BS4 on Tour...]

15 hours ago, GoodridgeandGoater said:

If LJ were to go (hypothetical) surely Moyes would be a massive appointment for City.  Sunderland were a basket case; Sociedad a wild card (and he didn’t speak Spanish). At West Ham was a solid job. United sure, he failed, but subsequent years have put it in perspective. If City fans say they wouldn’t want a manager as he wasn’t good at Man Utd, surely we’ve lost a bit of perspective. 

The phrase ‘basket case’ is used on here so often to describe various clubs...just wondered what it actually means in that context?

Ok, he kept West Ham up, but he only won 9 out of his 31 games in charge...is that solid? Oh hang on, win percentages are useless and don’t count, @RedDave said so....my apologies....

[Alan Dicks]

Johnson

Failure

Failure

Failure

[And Its Smith]

10 minutes ago, Alan Dicks said:

Johnson

Failure

Failure

Failure

Lee Johnson

Oldham - success

Barnsley - neither success nor failure

Bristol City - success so far....

[Alan Dicks]

1 minute ago, RedDave said:

Lee Johnson

Oldham - success

Barnsley - neither success nor failure

Bristol City - success so far....

Educate me about this success you say he had at Oldham and us???

[Bar BS3]

7 minutes ago, Alan Dicks said:

Educate me about this success you say he had at Oldham and us???

It’s all relative, I suppose. But no matter what we’ve spent, it’s not anywhere near the “top” clubs in this division spend. 

Can you name me the last Bristol city manager who improved our championship (2nd tier) position, each season that he was in charge..? 

LJ has taken us from near relegation certainties, to a club with genuine, albeit outside, hopes of being play off challengers. 

I’m not really sure what some people actually expect. Can LJ never be deemed to be doing a decent job, unless he actually gets us promoted..? 

[Bristol Oil Services]

5 hours ago, RedDave said:

 

I would much prefer our next manager to be a tactical coach, maybe from Europe, who plays exciting football.

 

46 minutes ago, CHIPLEY RED said:

Whilst I agree with the sentiment I hope we don't go down the European road. What chance do British managers have when they are over looked for unknown, unproven European managers. I have no problem with Man City getting the "Peps" of this world but some of the rest, surely there are equally good British candidates.

I'm with @RedDave on this one. 

In 2017, a prof in economics John Goddard - an expert in the economics of professional sport -  crunched the numbers and found that, from 92/93 to the end of the 2015/16 season:

 

- in the Prem League, overseas Johnny Foreigner coaches, averaged 1.66 points per game. While our homegrown Brit and Irish Ron managers averaged 1.29 ppg in the PL, over the same time.

- the difference averaged out at 14 more points for overseas managers over the 38 games.

 

Ah, you say: but they would, wouldn't they, being manager of Chelsea or Arsenal etc, not a fair comparison. But Prof Goddard also found that:

- in the Football League, over the same period, overseas managers averaged 1.49 ppg, the Brit/Irish ones 1.36 ppg, an average of 6 points more for Johnny Foreigner over 46 games. 

- over the period studied, the Big 6 (Man U, Man C, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs) were managed by Brit/Irish managers for more than half the games (54.9%), demonstrating that the success of overseas managers is not down to financial clout and associated advantages of managing the Big 6. The overseas guys are just better, on average.

 

Prof Goddard also studied the impact of an overseas coach succeeding a Brit/Irish ones at the same club, and found that:

- it was 1.42 ppg for Ron manager, and 1.58 ppg for their overseas successors (a lot of this was down to Wegner's record following Bruce Rioch, but even allowing for this the stats for Julio Foreigner are favourable).

 

Anyone at the club reading this? Hi! Let Uncle Steve know, will you? Cheers.

 

Prof Goddard also found that:

- between 92/93 and 2015/16, there were 1,170 managerial spells by 544 different Brit/Irish managers in English football, with the average spell lasting 86.3 matches. Over the same spell, there 115 spells completed by 80 foreign managers, with the average duration only 58.2 matches. Ron got more chance - or Windows - to get to where he wanted to be than Johnny Foreigner. And still got fewer points.

 

Ron Manager 0 Johnny Foreigner 1.2. Anyone not convinced yet?

 

It would seem that having a Nige Farage good ol' Blighty they don't like it up 'um Brexit bulldog local owner keeping the coaching work for local lads "who know the division/game here/what it takes at Stoke on a wet Wednesday" are shooting themselves in the foot. On average. According to the Prof and his pesky numbers. The overseas owners know there is a lot more managerial/coaching talent across the globe than there is in the small talent pool in these islands, and they are not afraid of the swarthy, overseas types.

Local owners are great for many things in English football, we all agree on this, but their preference for appointing "one of our own" to the most important roles (we can probably include Chief Operating Smooth Operator here) is their achilles heel, the data appears to show. 

Whoever it was that appointed Benny was on to something, 20 years ago (City, ahead of the curve! Leading the way!), the only mistake they really made there was to stop at Benny and go back to what we know, good ol' Ron Pulis/Wilson/Jonson/Millen, with his safe pair of hands. The correct thing to do would've been to keep trying overseas. Oh well, another missed opportunity at Bristol City. Plus ca change, as they say overseas. 

We know overseas players are better, we buy them up as much as we can; it can be no surprise, then, that overseas managers/coaches are better too. Only our "Charles Hughes/Brexit" pride and our prejudice keeps us going back to Ron manager.

Prof Goddard by the way was the one that crunched the numbers and showed that the 'new manager bounce' is inaccurate. And now he has shown that "experience of the league" is overvalued. UK clubs owners, on average, just like - this'll ring a bell - "familiarity." Mentioning no names! "Experience feels safe," even though the data shows otherwise.

That David Dein, up London, mixing with all them funny foreigners, playing Charades with unknown Frenchies of an evening  - cuh! 

Time to go Dutch, Steve? Or Portuguese, or anything foreign - the world's your oyston. Try a game of Charades -next time you are in need of a head coach, of course......

[Distortia]

3 hours ago, David Brent said:

Moyes won 1 trophy. Finished a position lower but spent £100M? less than Mourinho in his first season.

Thats why on Earth.

For me, the Community Shield does not count as a real trophy, otherwise I'd have said Mourinho won 3 in his first season. Also, I respectfully disagree with the sentiment any club (or indeed business) should give more time to somebody who was so clearly out of their depth. United were clearly regressing massively under him. His record was absolutely atrocious.

[ZiderEyed]

15 minutes ago, Moments of Pleasure said:

 

I'm with @RedDave on this one. 

In 2017, a prof in economics John Goddard - an expert in the economics of professional sport -  crunched the numbers and found that, from 92/93 to the end of the 2015/16 season:

 

- in the Prem League, overseas Johnny Foreigner coaches, averaged 1.66 points per game. While our homegrown Brit and Irish Ron managers averaged 1.29 ppg in the PL, over the same time.

- the difference averaged out at 14 more points for overseas managers over the 38 games.

 

Ah, you say: but they would, wouldn't they, being manager of Chelsea or Arsenal etc, not a fair comparison. But Prof Goddard also found that:

- in the Football League, over the same period, overseas managers averaged 1.49 ppg, the Brit/Irish ones 1.36 ppg, an average of 6 points more for Johnny Foreigner over 46 games. 

- over the period studied, the Big 6 (Man U, Man C, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs) were managed by Brit/Irish managers for more than half the games (54.9%), demonstrating that the success of overseas managers is not down to financial clout and associated advantages of managing the Big 6. The overseas guys are just better, on average.

 

Prof Goddard also studied the impact of an overseas coach succeeding a Brit/Irish ones at the same club, and found that:

- it was 1.42 ppg for Ron manager, and 1.58 ppg for their overseas successors (a lot of this was down to Wegner's record following Bruce Rioch, but even allowing for this the stats for Julio Foreigner are favourable).

 

Anyone at the club reading this? Hi! Let Uncle Steve know, will you? Cheers.

 

Prof Goddard also found that:

- between 92/93 and 2015/16, there were 1,170 managerial spells by 544 different Brit/Irish managers in English football, with the average spell lasting 86.3 matches. Over the same spell, there 115 spells completed by 80 foreign managers, with the average duration only 58.2 matches. Ron got more chance - or Windows - to get to where he wanted to be than Johnny Foreigner. And still got fewer points.

 

Ron Manager 0 Johnny Foreigner 1.2. Anyone not convinced yet?

 

It would seem that having a Nige Farage good ol' Blighty they don't like it up 'um Brexit bulldog local owner keeping the coaching work for local lads "who know the division/game here/what it takes at Stoke on a wet Wednesday" are shooting themselves in the foot. On average. According to the Prof and his pesky numbers. The overseas owners know there is a lot more managerial/coaching talent across the globe than there is in the small talent pool in these islands, and they are not afraid of the swarthy, overseas types.

Local owners are great for many things in English football, we all agree on this, but their preference for appointing "one of our own" to the most important roles (we can probably include Chief Operating Smooth Operator here) is their achilles heel, the data appears to show. 

Whoever it was that appointed Benny was on to something, 20 years ago (City, ahead of the curve! Leading the way!), the only mistake they really made there was to stop at Benny and go back to what we know, good ol' Ron Pulis/Wilson/Jonson/Millen, with his safe pair of hands. The correct thing to do would've been to keep trying overseas. Oh well, another missed opportunity at Bristol City. Plus ca change, as they say overseas. 

We know overseas players are better, we buy them up as much as we can; it can be no surprise, then, that overseas managers/coaches are better too. Only our "Charles Hughes/Brexit" pride and our prejudice keeps us going back to Ron manager.

Prof Goddard by the way was the one that crunched the numbers and showed that the 'new manager bounce' is inaccurate. And now he has shown that "experience of the league" is overvalued. UK clubs owners, on average, just like - this'll ring a bell - "familiarity." Mentioning no names! "Experience feels safe," even though the data shows otherwise.

That David Dein, up London, mixing with all them funny foreigners, playing Charades with unknown Frenchies of an evening  - cuh! 

Time to go Dutch, Steve? Or Portuguese, or anything foreign - the world's your oyston. Try a game of Charades -next time you are in need of a head coach, of course......

This post reads a lot like 'employing an overseas manager = success'. I also find the 'overseas players are better' quote to be very weird. Obviously Hörður Magnússon is a better centre half than John Stones then?

Also, It's not fair to compare Chelsea and Man City and say they're part of the big 6 and include their British and Irish managers. Neither were anything like successful til the mid 00s..

Maybe it's also something to do with price? Smaller clubs in the league system not being able to tempt foreign managers away from their, normally, country of birth down to wet, miserable League 2? Additionally not having the adequate scouting network to be aware of these managers?

I'd like to see his dissertation.

[And Its Smith]

1 hour ago, Alan Dicks said:

Educate me about this success you say he had at Oldham and us???

I work in Oldham so know a lot of Oldham fans and have been to a fair few games.  He saved them from certain relegation, spent barely a penny, bought in good players for a pittance and progressed them on and off the field.  

That is success.  

With us, his nett spend is tiny, he saved us from possible relegation and has progressed us each season.  I have been watching since 1988 (assume you are even longer with your name), and Lee Johnson has got us to become a stable mid table tier 2 team.  That hasn't happened much in the last 30 years.

[nebristolred]

7 hours ago, RedDave said:

David Moyes 

- plays dull brand of football

- poor judge of player. signing history poor

- only success was at first two clubs he managed

- not proven to give youth a chance

- doubting how hungry he would be for success

I would much prefer our next manager to be a tactical coach, maybe from Europe, who plays exciting football.

You're absolutely berating Moyes here over his performance at Manchester United... you do realise though that every manager since then has pretty much failed as well right? After Moyes they have had 2 of the world's top managers, with 15 domestic league titles and 3 Champions Leagues in total, between them spending nigh on half a billion pounds, and for that they've won an FA Cup. Does that not tell you that Moyes would actually have had to perform out of his skin to get anything from his short tenure at United?

Not sure how you can criticise his youth record either. At Everton he brought through Rooney, Rodwell, Barkley, Coleman, Hibbert, Osman... maybe he just got very lucky? 

I'm not sure he'd be a good fit for us at the moment but you really do have to give Moyes the benefit of the doubt. He's really not had anything resembling good circumstances in which to succeed since Man Utd. Bristol City, for all of our faults, do give managers the room and support to succeed.

[richwwtk]

1 hour ago, Moments of Pleasure said:

 

I'm with @RedDave on this one. 

In 2017, a prof in economics John Goddard - an expert in the economics of professional sport -  crunched the numbers and found that, from 92/93 to the end of the 2015/16 season:

 

- in the Prem League, overseas Johnny Foreigner coaches, averaged 1.66 points per game. While our homegrown Brit and Irish Ron managers averaged 1.29 ppg in the PL, over the same time.

- the difference averaged out at 14 more points for overseas managers over the 38 games.

 

Ah, you say: but they would, wouldn't they, being manager of Chelsea or Arsenal etc, not a fair comparison. But Prof Goddard also found that:

- in the Football League, over the same period, overseas managers averaged 1.49 ppg, the Brit/Irish ones 1.36 ppg, an average of 6 points more for Johnny Foreigner over 46 games. 

- over the period studied, the Big 6 (Man U, Man C, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs) were managed by Brit/Irish managers for more than half the games (54.9%), demonstrating that the success of overseas managers is not down to financial clout and associated advantages of managing the Big 6. The overseas guys are just better, on average.

 

Prof Goddard also studied the impact of an overseas coach succeeding a Brit/Irish ones at the same club, and found that:

- it was 1.42 ppg for Ron manager, and 1.58 ppg for their overseas successors (a lot of this was down to Wegner's record following Bruce Rioch, but even allowing for this the stats for Julio Foreigner are favourable).

 

Anyone at the club reading this? Hi! Let Uncle Steve know, will you? Cheers.

 

Prof Goddard also found that:

- between 92/93 and 2015/16, there were 1,170 managerial spells by 544 different Brit/Irish managers in English football, with the average spell lasting 86.3 matches. Over the same spell, there 115 spells completed by 80 foreign managers, with the average duration only 58.2 matches. Ron got more chance - or Windows - to get to where he wanted to be than Johnny Foreigner. And still got fewer points.

 

Ron Manager 0 Johnny Foreigner 1.2. Anyone not convinced yet?

 

It would seem that having a Nige Farage good ol' Blighty they don't like it up 'um Brexit bulldog local owner keeping the coaching work for local lads "who know the division/game here/what it takes at Stoke on a wet Wednesday" are shooting themselves in the foot. On average. According to the Prof and his pesky numbers. The overseas owners know there is a lot more managerial/coaching talent across the globe than there is in the small talent pool in these islands, and they are not afraid of the swarthy, overseas types.

Local owners are great for many things in English football, we all agree on this, but their preference for appointing "one of our own" to the most important roles (we can probably include Chief Operating Smooth Operator here) is their achilles heel, the data appears to show. 

Whoever it was that appointed Benny was on to something, 20 years ago (City, ahead of the curve! Leading the way!), the only mistake they really made there was to stop at Benny and go back to what we know, good ol' Ron Pulis/Wilson/Jonson/Millen, with his safe pair of hands. The correct thing to do would've been to keep trying overseas. Oh well, another missed opportunity at Bristol City. Plus ca change, as they say overseas. 

We know overseas players are better, we buy them up as much as we can; it can be no surprise, then, that overseas managers/coaches are better too. Only our "Charles Hughes/Brexit" pride and our prejudice keeps us going back to Ron manager.

Prof Goddard by the way was the one that crunched the numbers and showed that the 'new manager bounce' is inaccurate. And now he has shown that "experience of the league" is overvalued. UK clubs owners, on average, just like - this'll ring a bell - "familiarity." Mentioning no names! "Experience feels safe," even though the data shows otherwise.

That David Dein, up London, mixing with all them funny foreigners, playing Charades with unknown Frenchies of an evening  - cuh! 

Time to go Dutch, Steve? Or Portuguese, or anything foreign - the world's your oyston. Try a game of Charades -next time you are in need of a head coach, of course......

Surely this disparity, for both players and managers, is that the people brought in from abroad have already built their reputation and gained much of their ecperience in their home countries before being brought in, whilst British players and managers start their careers here (in the main) meaning the figures are skewed by all the players and managers that just didn't work out for whatever reason.

[Alan Dicks]

2 hours ago, Bar BS3 said:

It’s all relative, I suppose. But no matter what we’ve spent, it’s not anywhere near the “top” clubs in this division spend. 

Can you name me the last Bristol city manager who improved our championship (2nd tier) position, each season that he was in charge..? 

LJ has taken us from near relegation certainties, to a club with genuine, albeit outside, hopes of being play off challengers. 

I’m not really sure what some people actually expect. Can LJ never be deemed to be doing a decent job, unless he actually gets us promoted..? 

Maybe this is the season he will relegate us?

[Alan Dicks]

1 hour ago, RedDave said:

I work in Oldham so know a lot of Oldham fans and have been to a fair few games.  He saved them from certain relegation, spent barely a penny, bought in good players for a pittance and progressed them on and off the field.  

That is success.  

With us, his nett spend is tiny, he saved us from possible relegation and has progressed us each season.  I have been watching since 1988 (assume you are even longer with your name), and Lee Johnson has got us to become a stable mid table tier 2 team.  That hasn't happened much in the last 30 years.

His father finished 4th 10th and 10th before we went down, i believe Gary to be our 2nd best manager since the end of the war.

[Fiale]

Frank de Boer, offer him whatever he wants (when your paying millions for players and contracts in million / millions a year splash out something for the manager). Sell him on wanting to become a Wessex area team sucking all the local talent, playing youth if he can, let him get the first team to the academy playing decent football and eventually move him up to DoF implementing the overall club philosophy. yeah yeah I know unlikely, but if Palace (a team we were competing with until recently can get him... we can't be that far off).

[oldstandrobin]

20 hours ago, richwwtk said:

Scott Davidson had offered him the job, but he was then overruled by the rest of the board, who wanted Pulis instead.

Can anyone furnish those directors name and current addresses so we can send the boys round 

[And Its Smith]

9 minutes ago, Alan Dicks said:

His father finished 4th 10th and 10th before we went down, i believe Gary to be our 2nd best manager since the end of the war.

Dicks

Cooper 

Gary J

Jordan

Lee J

Ward

Cotterill

[GoodridgeandGoater]

4 hours ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

The phrase ‘basket case’ is used on here so often to describe various clubs...just wondered what it actually means in that context?

Ok, he kept West Ham up, but he only won 9 out of his 31 games in charge...is that solid? Oh hang on, win percentages are useless and don’t count, @RedDave said so....my apologies....

Doesn’t Sam Allardyce have the best ever win ratio as England manager ? 

[Bar BS3]

1 hour ago, Alan Dicks said:

Maybe this is the season he will relegate us?

Maybe. 

Maybe it’s a season that will show further improvement again by finishing above 11th. 

Maybe we will claw back the 4 points that we currently lay outside the play offs..? Who knows. I can only imagine how disappointing you’d find it if we did well..!