The Managers Job

So there is no doubting that our beloved Tony favours a certain type of candidate when considering applicants for the post of Manager. A young, recently retired from playing. unproven foreign manager that has enjoyed a wealth of success on the pitch throughout their playing career. This is evident in the appointments of Poyet, Garcia and now Hyypia.

Under Poyet we were brilliant and we achieved great things and in my opinion we had a side a few seasons ago that could have comfortably avoided relegation from the Premiership, if we were competing in that league. We looked comfortable in beating Newcastle and Sunderland early on in the season. The fact of the matter is, we SHOULD have been promoted that year.

Appointing Poyet could have gone either way and there was no guarantee that we were digging up a future gem. Because of his success Tony obviously trusted his judgement and gave him relative free reign on signing players and appointing his own scouting network - which we can't deny also worked well.

So what has changed?

Missing out on promotion that year obviously cost the club a lot of money and I also believe it's what Poyet became that has seen a huge change in Tony's methods. He is certainly not going to give any future manager the free reign he gave to Poyet, unless Hyypia achieves what Poyet did - Promotion perhaps.

I have nothing against Hyypia and I didn't for Poyet and Garcia either. But my questions is: why appoint foreign managers that have no knowledge of the lower leagues in English football? This is what baffles me.

If the spec of the job is: manage the best you can by picking up cheap/free players while the academy bears fruits then surely, someone like Kenny Jackett would have been perfect for us...its what he is the master of.

Either way, I am behind the club 100% and always will be but would just be happier if we had an Englishman at the helm playing 2 strikers, with wide wingers and a solid defence.

How many accounts does Ernest need ?

It's not whether the managers are foreign or not - it's their knowledge and experience. Gus was effectively British in terms of his recent experience and although he hadn't managed before, he had been an assistant in this country, in the Football League as well as the Premier League. I wish Hyypia well, and he's a very pleasant bloke, but he seems even more of a leap in the dark than Oscar did.

Someone like Brian McDermott, on the other hand, not only knows the division but has also won it. His signing of Jason Roberts rates as one of the best of recent seasons. What, as I believe the youngsters say these days, is not to like?

Not Andy Naylor said:

It's not whether the managers are foreign or not - it's their knowledge and experience. Gus was effectively British in terms of his recent experience and although he hadn't managed before, he had been an assistant in this country, in the Football League as well as the Premier League. I wish Hyypia well, and he's a very pleasant bloke, but he seems even more of a leap in the dark than Oscar did.

Someone like Brian McDermott, on the other hand, not only knows the division but has also won it. His signing of Jason Roberts rates as one of the best of recent seasons. What, as I believe the youngsters say these days, is not to like?

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Totally agree. When we appointed Sami I was seduced by the relative caché of his name and the fact he'd coached Bayer Leverkusen. However, what has concerned me since his appointment is his stated lack of experience in the transfer market. I think this is an issue in two ways :
1) At a basic level having an ongoing input on player recruitment and having his own list of achievable targets.
2) Managing the people above him who hold the purse strings which is something that I think Gus was very good at. Whilst it probably ended ultimately with his downfall, he was good at pushing and pushing through force of his personality to always improve to get the best available players. My sense is that Oscar and Sami did/do not see this as part of their role, and probably didn't have the same forceful nature as Gus, but I think it is crucial for someone to challenge the status quo in any organisation.

KRJ7 said:

So there is no doubting that our beloved Tony favours a certain type of candidate when considering applicants for the post of Manager. A young, recently retired from playing. unproven foreign manager that has enjoyed a wealth of success on the pitch throughout their playing career. This is evident in the appointments of Poyet, Garcia and now Hyypia.

Under Poyet we were brilliant and we achieved great things and in my opinion we had a side a few seasons ago that could have comfortably avoided relegation from the Premiership, if we were competing in that league. We looked comfortable in beating Newcastle and Sunderland early on in the season. The fact of the matter is, we SHOULD have been promoted that year.

Appointing Poyet could have gone either way and there was no guarantee that we were digging up a future gem. Because of his success Tony obviously trusted his judgement and gave him relative free reign on signing players and appointing his own scouting network - which we can't deny also worked well.

So what has changed?

Missing out on promotion that year obviously cost the club a lot of money and I also believe it's what Poyet became that has seen a huge change in Tony's methods. He is certainly not going to give any future manager the free reign he gave to Poyet, unless Hyypia achieves what Poyet did - Promotion perhaps.

I have nothing against Hyypia and I didn't for Poyet and Garcia either. But my questions is: why appoint foreign managers that have no knowledge of the lower leagues in English football? This is what baffles me.

If the spec of the job is: manage the best you can by picking up cheap/free players while the academy bears fruits then surely, someone like Kenny Jackett would have been perfect for us...its what he is the master of.

Either way, I am behind the club 100% and always will be but would just be happier if we had an Englishman at the helm playing 2 strikers, with wide wingers and a solid defence.

Click to expand...

This bit doesn't make sense. If you're "behind the club 100%", you would already be at your happiest.

Just saying.