I wish Tony S hadn't said what he said. He hamstrung himself unnecessarily. There are plenty of examples of managers with no Championship experience who have done extremely well in the Championship, and just as many of managers with it doing badly. We just want a good manager. I don't care how experienced he is or isn't. In fact if anything I prefer someone with fresh ideas and something to prove. Look at Howe, Dyche, Rowett, Warburton and Dean Smith as examples of young hungry managers who have done tremendously well. These managers need a break somewhere. It is because clubs play it safe and go for experience that we end up with the merry go round of the same old tired faces. Yes, Warnock did great for us, but George Kerr had plenty of experience and look where that got us. Porterfield had no experience at all and Ronnie had only previously managed at Southport in the Conference before they joined us and they did ok. Just get the right man Tony.
I'll second that!
I do wish our local journalists would have the bottle to ask TS some pertinent questions though like why were the four "high quality" managers who have been interviewed deemed not suitable and why is Championship experience suddenly not a pre-requisite for the job?
Instead we get the same old stuff churned out again and again which tells us absolutely nothing new.
Stop treating TS like a god and get some answers from him because his track record of managerial appointments is average to say the least!
I'll second that!
Let's have some decent journalism and not endless 'wait and see' articles.
Ask - what is the player budget? What is our expected finishing position from this new guy? Where would we need to be at the end of September for him to have had a good start etc.
Agree, it does not add to the esteem we hold him in to be so easy with words.
What is is symptomatic of?
Apart from the appointment of SE, I cant see what looks like a thoughtful decision. Of course some will argue the club shouldnt have gone for him due to his personal life, but that aside, there seemed to be a sound decision making process involved.
Following his departure it seemed to me that our lack of grasp of the challenge we were up against not only led to the appointment of a very weak manager but also it could lead nowhere else given the hyperbole about building for the future and kids and youth and academies and so on...what we needed then and now was a very strong passionate manager. Given the very passionate man that TS is , it is very strange to name Andy Scott and Neil Redfen as his choices. He seems impressed to easily by things he does not know and likes to experiment perhaps too much believing he can spot talent. I dont in anyway mean to sound judgemental but just giving an opinion of how it looks to me. Perhaps and to some extent it is very true, TS , was a naive football chairman but not a naive business man. Indeed, the average fan could have beaten TS on any given day on a football quiz. I believe he admitted some nativity at the beginning in terms of football knowledge. He reminds me of what might be a more modern phenomena of very successful business people that think their a***en can easily translate to other ventures.
Having said all the above regarding my fantasy about how his brain works it must be said that it is a really very tricky thing to get a one-off decision right. When I have interviewed others I simply choose the person with the most knowledge and the best attitude and often I have had to fight and sometimes lost due to what I consider to be less noble or logical process.
Most clubs seem to have a very particular culture and no matter who they appoint they do not stray far historically performance wise on the pitch. Derby have appointed several managers and gone for both flare and dogmatism but all to roughly the same result. There are examples of managers taking teams to new highs and lows but generally speaking it seems to be more complex than how good a manager is. The players, the chairman and ethos and feel of the club all seem to produce something to either bring the best out or worst out of a manager. I think if we examine our own life choices we can note the impact of others (our environments) on us.
When TS has his manager then he really seems to treat them with respect and some degree of loyalty. At the end of the day that is perhaps the only thing he has any control over.
Dropped a clanger allowing Barnsley to speak to Robins, then appointed Scott our worst manager in living memory, then RM was fired far too soon when he should have walked us out at NYS, then we get Evans who yes got us where we are but wanted to bankrupt us doing it & how much have we suffered in the football world reputation wise?, Redfearn was an utter disaster. The only decent manager in all those years we've only had for 3 months - tells its own story. We need someone now who can give us survival in an increasingly tough, financially warped & competitive league for the next 5 years, going on past history I don't hold much hope the board can make such an appointment
Robins is another example of a first time manager who did a great job, and in nigh on impossible conditions. I heard Barnsley offered him five times what we were paying him at the time. I don't know how true that is but they were in the Championship with a bit of money to spend at the time, just as we are now (relatively speaking). Sometimes you can't stand in someone's way. Heckinbottom by the way seems to have done well in his first job, and Johnson has done well at Bristol City in his first look at the Championship. I wouldn't want to have a go at TS because you can't argue with where we are now compared to where we started (granted I wouldn't have touched Evans with a barge pole), and appointing a new manager is no easy task, but bearing in mind that we seem to try and run the process in a discrete and professional manner (no problem with that) I thought it was odd that he found it necessary to publicly limit his options. Perhaps it was a cunning bluff? I agree with those who say that they would like the journalists to challenge the club a bit more in good journalistic style rather than just allow themselves to be a mouthpiece for information.
Although Smiler I am not so sure RUFC have been running the manager campaign in a discreet or professional manner. TS has put out there all the names of the candidates wayyyy before they made contact if one looks at the time line and without doubt before they talked to the candidate. In either case one shouldn't know publicly who has applied and who has not really...if one wants to be discreet and professional