Manager for the Championship rebuild - who do you want?

[Mike Oxlong]

[Buzzell]

38 minutes ago, dayday said:

Teddy Bears picnic ? 

[shiv]

I’ve said this before but it’s good we’re taking a gamble on someone who probably has a lot to prove. Enzo will be hungry to succeed given his first attempt at being a manager didn’t go well. Would much rather have some one who has a lot on the line to succeed than an EFL journeyman. 

 

If we appoint the likes of Smith, Parker etc the likelihood is they will continue to get jobs in the Championship even if they fail with us.

[whoareyaaa]

👀🔜✍️

[Bilo]

There's much to be excited about here.

 

1. He turned down Southampton according to reports. Possibly Celtic too. Not only does this show that he's not someone to jump at the first offer, but it shows that he sees something in us that he doesn't see at a club in a very similar position. Given Southampton won't exactly have Rotherham's budget, I doubt it's just money. 

2. A winning mentality and associated expectations. Not only did the first team smash everyone and everything in Europe, the PL2 team over which he had direct influence won its league. Yes he had world class facilities at his disposal, but so do we. Arguably only bettered by...Manchester City. Most of us fans hope and believe we'll be the big dog in the division, here we have a manager who will not only expect success, but has a record of delivering it. Huge difference to our mentality - especially to a club who've just had a huge kick in the balls.

3. Making use of Seagrave. None of the other candidates, with the possible exception of Potter, have experience of working at anything like the facilities we have and the associated tasks and challenges. In the right hands, Seagrave will be like a cheat code. In the wrong hands... well, we've already seen that. He's the only candidate who I think would look at Seagrave as an area to develop the club long-term rather than the fairly standard short-term goals of get up and stay up with limited thought to the 'project' that Seagrave, used properly, could help us develop as a club.

4. Contacts. The most obvious is Manchester City loanees, as their own facilities bear the fruit we hope that Seagrave will one day emulate. Their loanees smashed the Championship last season and it looks like Maresca is leaving Man City on good terms and will therefore be able to do business with them. But he'll also have run his eye over players from other teams in PL2 who can't yet get into their squads. He may even be able to secure loans with options to buy or perms with buy backs. 

5. Player development. Everyone who works with him speaks highly from what I can see, especially in terms of making players better. We won't sell ALL of our PL players; I do think players like Iversen, Souttar, Kristiansen, Thomas, KDH and at least one of Daka or Nacho will be here in August. He may even inspire them to do so if he can demonstrate how we can offer more for their development than jumping ship to Sheffield United or Bournemouth to get spanked in the PL before being in the same boat in twelve months. These are players with great potential who've been stymied and ruined by Rodgers. If one manager can ruin them, one manager can make them. Maresca's reputation at Man City tells us he could be that man.

 

We could, repeat could, have got ourselves our own Graham Potter type coach we've been looking for. If he plays the kind of football that Arsenal and Burnley have produced under former Pep prodigies, all the better. Building for the future is good given what we have here. Parker could have got us up (though I think he's due a failure, and his Fulham and Bournemouth sailed very close to the wind in both promotion campaigns,) but we know he can't manage in the Premier League for the next step when it comes in a year or two. Potter was a pipe dream. Gerrard didn't bear thinking about. McKenna was fascinating, but has never worked at a big club or with facilities anything like we have here. Smith would have represented continuation from our worst season in 15 years, even if most of it wasn't his fault.

 

On balance, I'm very content with Maresca. His spell at Parma hasn't put me off because they weren't great before him and haven't improved since. 

[Koke]

15 minutes ago, shiv said:

I’ve said this before but it’s good we’re taking a gamble on someone who probably has a lot to prove. Enzo will be hungry to succeed given his first attempt at being a manager didn’t go well. Would much rather have some one who has a lot on the line to succeed than an EFL journeyman. 

 

If we appoint the likes of Smith, Parker etc the likelihood is they will continue to get jobs in the Championship even if they fail with us.

 

Yeah. And would much rather gamble on a Pep prodigy than Parker or Smith.

[Unabomber]

Hopefully will be done today and then we can actually start planning 

[DJAV]

Hope this works out well for you guys 

[Tom12345]

9 hours ago, fox_favourite said:

Reasoning? Quite interested 

Relative to Enzo, Smith is more of a known quantity as a manager. He has had successes including leading Villa to promotion. I like his seemingly more adventurous style when he had put Vardy, Daka and Nachos on at the same time - never happened before with Rodgers. Had he had more time with us and also had more players available (I mean Perez and Albrighton - those who were sent packing by Rodgers before Smith arrived and Nachos not getting injured), I believe he would have helped us stay in the PL. If he remains as our manager, he will also have a proper chance to look at our squad and have more influence to change all the bad things Rodgers left the team with: lack of confidence, risk averse style of football thinking, coaching staff like Sadler who retained a lot of Rodgerism. 

 

 

Edited 16 June 2023 by Tom12345

[Jakemoore]

Is this a good appointment? I have absolutely no idea. How can I? I hadn’t even heard of the guy until a few weeks ago. In fact, I still don’t even know how to pronounce his name.

 

For the most part there seems to be positivity around this. Though I expect that’s mainly because people are choosing to be positive with very little justification.

 

Sorry to be cynical but I doubt 99.9% of FT members had even heard of Enzo what’s his name until now. I also doubt any of you know anything about him outside of what Wikipedia says. 
 

I appreciate that he was a player first but my point stands. 
 

I’ll back the guy 100% but I’m not happy about the appointment. I’m also not annoyed or disappointed. I’m just, merh. 

[Chelmofox]

2 minutes ago, Jakemoore said:

Is this a good appointment? I have absolutely no idea. How can I? I hadn’t even heard of the guy until a few weeks ago. In fact, I still don’t even know how to pronounce his name.

 

For the most part there seems to be positivity around this. Though I expect that’s mainly because people are choosing to be positive with very little justification.

 

Sorry to be cynical but I doubt 99.9% of FT members had even heard of Enzo what’s his name until now. I also doubt any of you know anything about him outside of what Wikipedia says. 
 

I appreciate that he was a player first but my point stands. 
 

I’ll back the guy 100% but I’m not happy about the appointment. I’m also not annoyed or disappointed. I’m just, merh. 

Out of interest what would you have been happy with?

[Vindaloo FOX]

Today is the day 🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕

[Bilo]

Just now, Chelmofox said:

Out of interest what would you have been happy with?

Exactly.

 

Literally everyone is a risk.

 

We could have appointed Pep himself and people would have baulked at his wages and spending in the transfer market to present it as a 'if he fails, we're ****ed' scenario. 

 

I honestly wouldn't have been disappointed with this appointment in a parallel universe where Bournemouth scored an equaliser at Goodison and we stayed up on GD.

[Fox92]

6 minutes ago, Jakemoore said:

Is this a good appointment? I have absolutely no idea. How can I? I hadn’t even heard of the guy until a few weeks ago. In fact, I still don’t even know how to pronounce his name.

 

For the most part there seems to be positivity around this. Though I expect that’s mainly because people are choosing to be positive with very little justification.

 

Sorry to be cynical but I doubt 99.9% of FT members had even heard of Enzo what’s his name until now. I also doubt any of you know anything about him outside of what Wikipedia says. 
 

I appreciate that he was a player first but my point stands. 
 

I’ll back the guy 100% but I’m not happy about the appointment. I’m also not annoyed or disappointed. I’m just, merh. 

I do sort of agree with that but I must say in our position almost all managers are a risk. The expectations are to go back up so anything different to that, or a poor start early on, will see any manager questioned.

 

From all names mentioned I wanted McKenna the most but even then he's still a risk given he's only managed a season and a half in League One.

[sacreblueits442]

8 hours ago, STUHILL said:

A tiny bit of credit must go to Rudkin/Top, for thinking outside the box on this one, and not going for a Parker or Smith. It shows they have at least some imagination and forward thinking. It certainly isn't the "sensible" choice. 

...can't help thinking there is some link where we are connected mutually by friendship or some sort if agreement in place with Man.City!!!

  Rudkin, Khun Top or Whelan are not capable of thinking outside the box.

[weller54]

43 minutes ago, Bilo said:

There's much to be excited about here.

 

1. He turned down Southampton according to reports. Possibly Celtic too. Not only does this show that he's not someone to jump at the first offer, but it shows that he sees something in us that he doesn't see at a club in a very similar position. Given Southampton won't exactly have Rotherham's budget, I doubt it's just money. 

2. A winning mentality and associated expectations. Not only did the first team smash everyone and everything in Europe, the PL2 team over which he had direct influence won its league. Yes he had world class facilities at his disposal, but so do we. Arguably only bettered by...Manchester City. Most of us fans hope and believe we'll be the big dog in the division, here we have a manager who will not only expect success, but has a record of delivering it. Huge difference to our mentality - especially to a club who've just had a huge kick in the balls.

3. Making use of Seagrave. None of the other candidates, with the possible exception of Potter, have experience of working at anything like the facilities we have and the associated tasks and challenges. In the right hands, Seagrave will be like a cheat code. In the wrong hands... well, we've already seen that. He's the only candidate who I think would look at Seagrave as an area to develop the club long-term rather than the fairly standard short-term goals of get up and stay up with limited thought to the 'project' that Seagrave, used properly, could help us develop as a club.

4. Contacts. The most obvious is Manchester City loanees, as their own facilities bear the fruit we hope that Seagrave will one day emulate. Their loanees smashed the Championship last season and it looks like Maresca is leaving Man City on good terms and will therefore be able to do business with them. But he'll also have run his eye over players from other teams in PL2 who can't yet get into their squads. He may even be able to secure loans with options to buy or perms with buy backs. 

5. Player development. Everyone who works with him speaks highly from what I can see, especially in terms of making players better. We won't sell ALL of our PL players; I do think players like Iversen, Souttar, Kristiansen, Thomas, KDH and at least one of Daka or Nacho will be here in August. He may even inspire them to do so if he can demonstrate how we can offer more for their development than jumping ship to Sheffield United or Bournemouth to get spanked in the PL before being in the same boat in twelve months. These are players with great potential who've been stymied and ruined by Rodgers. If one manager can ruin them, one manager can make them. Maresca's reputation at Man City tells us he could be that man.

 

We could, repeat could, have got ourselves our own Graham Potter type coach we've been looking for. If he plays the kind of football that Arsenal and Burnley have produced under former Pep prodigies, all the better. Building for the future is good given what we have here. Parker could have got us up (though I think he's due a failure, and his Fulham and Bournemouth sailed very close to the wind in both promotion campaigns,) but we know he can't manage in the Premier League for the next step when it comes in a year or two. Potter was a pipe dream. Gerrard didn't bear thinking about. McKenna was fascinating, but has never worked at a big club or with facilities anything like we have here. Smith would have represented continuation from our worst season in 15 years, even if most of it wasn't his fault.

 

On balance, I'm very content with Maresca. His spell at Parma hasn't put me off because they weren't great before him and haven't improved since. 

Re No 2:

Lance Armstrongs coach was considered a genius too. 

[sacreblueits442]

23 minutes ago, Tom12345 said:

Relative to Enzo, Smith is more of a known quantity as a manager. He has had successes including leading Villa to promotion. I like his seemingly more adventurous style when he had put Vardy, Daka and Nachos on at the same time - never happened before with Rodgers. Had he had more time with us and also had more players available (I mean Perez and Albrighton - those who were sent packing by Rodgers before Smith arrived and Nachos not getting injured), I believe he would have helped us stay in the PL. If he remains as our manager, he will also have a proper chance to look at our squad and have more influence to change all the bad things Rodgers left the team with: lack of confidence, risk averse style of football thinking, coaching staff like Sadler who retained a lot of Rodgerism. 

 

 

...bringing on Daka to play on the left and having Nacho and Vardy on the pitch at the same time was not innovative thinking,  it was desperation!!!

  It did not work,  he was poor as an interim manager and it would be a blessing if we bypassed his application for the managers role.

[Guest Mee-9]

Happy Enzo Day! 
 

🚨🚨🚨

[HankMarvin]

7 minutes ago, Bilo said:

Exactly.

 

Literally everyone is a risk.

 

We could have appointed Pep himself and people would have baulked at his wages and spending in the transfer market to present it as a 'if he fails, we're ****ed' scenario. 

 

I honestly wouldn't have been disappointed with this appointment in a parallel universe where Bournemouth scored an equaliser at Goodison and we stayed up on GD.

The risk is far higher from someone sacked from his last managerial job, with a team relegated the season before. 
He blamed the amount of new signings for 4 wins in 13

 

“Nobody ever told me that we should have gone to Serie A in the first season, especially as there were about 15 players arriving at the club”

 

Let’s hope expectations are explained a little better here as the circumstances are fairly similar.

If you exclude the Pep association, would there be so many clubs linked?

Yes he had a successful part to play in the PL2 title, but they have also won that the following 2 seasons after he departed for Parma. Which suggests it has more to do with their setup and the talent at their disposal rather than an individuals merit.

[Stinkenzo]

2 hours ago, Daggers said:

Really looking forward to the scenes following Gerrard being unveiled at the lunchtime press conference.

Are you an Al Ettifaq fan too? 

[brookfox]

Loving all these elaborate songs knowing we’ll muster up an “Enzoooh, Enzoooh, Enzoooh (repeat ad infinitum)” at best!

[StinckleyFox]

4 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

The risk is far higher from someone sacked from his last managerial job, with a team relegated the season before. 
He blamed the amount of new signings for 4 wins in 13

 

“Nobody ever told me that we should have gone to Serie A in the first season, especially as there were about 15 players arriving at the club”

 

Let’s hope expectations are explained a little better here as the circumstances are fairly similar.

If you exclude the Pep association, would there be so many clubs linked?

Yes he had a successful part to play in the PL2 title, but they have also won that the following 2 seasons after he departed for Parma. Which suggests it has more to do with their setup and the talent at their disposal rather than an individuals merit.

In fairness though, he was sacked in November because they weren’t in the promotion places yet. If you take the championship as an example, Middlesbrough, Coventry and Sunderland were all in the bottom 10 in November and all 3 made it in to the play offs. If he was given time he may have turned it around, it’s not really fair to judge someone on 1/3 of a season.

[Ric Flair]

It's a risk, it's a move away from the managerial decisions the club have taken under Vichai and Top. I think this is the first appointment of a manager that has no experience in the league in which we are in. That was always a bug bear of mine but it served us OK in the past didn't it.

 

This feels very much like the club attempting to change things, so credit where credit is due in that regard let's hope it is a successful decision. They are long overdue some.

[Happy Fox]

Enzo will know if he doesn’t deliver here he will get sacked.

[Strokes]

6 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

The risk is far higher from someone sacked from his last managerial job, with a team relegated the season before. 
He blamed the amount of new signings for 4 wins in 13

 

“Nobody ever told me that we should have gone to Serie A in the first season, especially as there were about 15 players arriving at the club”

 

Let’s hope expectations are explained a little better here as the circumstances are fairly similar.

If you exclude the Pep association, would there be so many clubs linked?

Yes he had a successful part to play in the PL2 title, but they have also won that the following 2 seasons after he departed for Parma. Which suggests it has more to do with their setup and the talent at their disposal rather than an individuals merit.

Yes returning the club to the Premier League asap is important but we have to build success in continued fashion.

That might mean the first steps take a little while to blossom.

I can have patience if I believe in the project.