Next Manager - Ivic Confirmed

I’d also add that in the case of Dyche and Malky they clearly wanted to become managers at the first opportunity. Looking at Tindall’s record he managed Weymouth for a season but got sacked with only three wins. He then became assistant to Jimmy Quinn at Bournemouth and stayed on as assistant to EH in 2009, even going to Burnley and back with him.

So on the face of things it appears that he gave management a try and then has been happy to spend the last 12 years as an assistant manager, with little to no sign of wanting to become a manager. It’s under those circumstances that assistant managers taking over as manager almost always never work out.

 

Ironically of course had he not refused the offer, we’d have finished last season with our Number Two in charge. And had he kept us up, who knows if he wouldn’t have been offered the job permanently.

Another thing we will never know is would we have offered it to the current Barca manager who seems on the verge of leaving his job there and who got quite heavily linked with us last season?

 

Or Nige has had enough and doesn't want to manage again.

 

I see what you did there...

 

See if you can figure it out.

 

He is the biggest cheat of the lot - the one who told their players to get Kabasele sent off after is first yellow. Expect a whole load of *********ry next season (sans VAR) next season

 

Ohhhhh I didn't realise it was quiz night.

 

Nothing happens on a Thursday.

Except quiz night.

 

I meant sans - as in, without

 

Very exotic.

 

I think as bizarre as it sounds taking the Watford job is now a no brainier for any prospective manager.

You can’t really damage your reputation, all our managers get sacked regardless of surviving, reaching the cup final etc. So even if you completely bomb it can easily be explained away with a shrug of the shoulders because we’re a supposed basket case of a club.

Then there is the money, likely a two year contract for likely six months work.

I genuinely don’t see why any manager offered it wouldn’t jump at the chance.

 

There are only so many managers jobs in the professional game, and a Championship managers job is still highly sought after.

Therefore other than the really big names in football management, the likes of Houghton not being one of them, most would probably be very interested in the WFC job, especially if they are currently out of work or even if they are currently managing a team in the lower echelons of the EFL.

 

Yeah, I mean you don’t leave an established PL team to come and manage Watford in the championship, but then we’ve never (until possibly Struber) gone after managers in jobs anyway. For any manager not in a job, managing in the lower leagues or managing abroad and wanting to get a gig in England the Watford job really is perfect, you can’t really lose.

 

I think if you’re Hughton and you get offered both Bournemouth and Watford you definitely take Bournemouth. But if we we’re the only club that offer him a job then I think he’d definitely take it.

I think for any prospective Watford manager irrespective of any doubts, they’ll always have the thought in the back of their head that they could be the one to finally make it work as well.

Of course we all know that’s ridiculous and they will be sacked after a few months.

 

No.

 

It's not so much promoting the No. 2 as it is that Howe left with the express intent of wanting a club to move in a different direction, then promoting the old guard who were part of the failing old direction. That just seems counter productive.

It could be the No. 2 appointment moves them from a manager to the head coach setup and gives them a more coherent transfer strategy than just signing Liverpool youth rejects as their highest transfer fees.

 

Some Bournemouth fans are speculating that Howe left because MD wanted to take back a bit more control, certainly over transfers. So Tindall could just be a case of Eddie Lite, implementing the same tactics but happy to have less control. So more or less what you’re saying I think.

The point I was making about a number two stepping up is that when they haven’t ever previously shown any desire to be a manager it very rarely works when they make the move. Most managers know that’s what they want from day one and do whatever it takes to get into management as soon as possible. When an assistant has been seemingly happy to be an assistant for 12 years there is normally a reason for that.

 

They must absolutely gutted on missing out on Sinclair.

 

Very. Who knows? They may have paid £10m than our £4m.

 

Maeby little bit of the topic, but I have been thinking about the sackings and the reasons behind those. Mainly this seasons, but You could also widen it to earlier ones as well. We have had four different managers if You count Mullins as a one as well.

We started with Gracia who had shown some promise last season. Everything seemed to be ok, except in the latter part of it. But was it because of the cup final looming, bad recruiting policy earlier on or was it because of bad management. It propably was bit of everything under the circumstances, but I claim that Gracia was doing ok, or would have been if he had been given better tools. Obviously I don`t know what was going on in the dressing room. I seem to value that a lot; is the manager getting best out of the palyers, are they willing to play the way he want`s and is there a positive feeling around? Those are the incredients for a manament to succeed and with those in place, manager should earn more time to make it work. For me his sacking was too quick.

So to the next one. Why choose Flores. My answer, and aproval to some extent, is that he did know the place and the players. I would say that he was an easy choise to try and make things work. Those responsible for player recruiting trusted these players to be good enough. And I would say that it would be fair enough to assume that Flores can manage to turn things for better. It was not to be. Was he sacked at the right point? Was there any signs for better future?

My only live game at the Vic was against Sheffiled United and I think we were unfortunate to lose that game. Sometimes one win can change the feeling around and who knows what would have happened with three points at the time. Also Deeney being out so much and Welbeck not ready; we were lacking quality upfront. That is how I feel. One thing also. Drawing against Sheffield was seen as a failure, because they were not seen as good as they eventually proved to be. A bit like losing to Burnley. Those team were better than they reputation.

I would say there were some positives to be seen, but eventually he didn`t make the team match the expectations. There were too many games against our level of opponents which we should have been getting points.

Pearson was like a fresh air; hugging players when substituting them, producing some team spirit and getting the results early on. But it didn`t last. Disappointment after disappointment in the latter parts of the season. Team not showing the spirit anymore and needed to rely on other teams results alarmingly. And he was sacked. Was it wise? We don`t know what was going on behind the scenes, but it certainly didn`t seem to work anymore. For me his sacking was grounded because the main worry was to try and save our place in the prem. What else could have been done? They must have decided by that time, that he wouldn`t be here next season. So why not try something once more.

So for me, Gracia should have been given more time, Flores was easy choice but failed one, Pearson lost it eventually for some reason and Mullins just didn`t manage to make it work. Actually it should be said, that the players didn`t manage to make it in the end. With all this behind us, how an earth there can be any kind of wisdom to choose a new manager? What do they expect from him/her? What sould be the gualities of the next manager and what kind of tools he/she might need to succeed? With the current structure at the club, is it even possible to be a long time manager of our wonderful club?

Ps. I didn`t know how to start a new treath; be free to remove this.

 

On paper QSF wasn’t necessarily the worst decision. We were shipping goals for fun (3 against Brighton, 3 against West Ham) he was a safe pair of hands defensively and the question was could he do better than the latter part of his first reign with much better attacking players?

The answer was a resounding no, so in hindsight a disaster of a decision but one that had the potential to work if we’d played more like we did against Arsenal under him, compared to all our other games.

I’d argue that there are two stand out situations when Gino has deviated from his normal way of doing things and on both occasions they’ve cost us.

The first is showing good will to Gracia despite major question marks from the cup final and the performances (semi final aside) from most of that year. Now there is nothing wrong with showing good will for what Javi achieved, but it’s unlike Gino. Sentiment doesn’t normally come into, but as he allowed it to come into his thinking then we were left in an awful position four games in with little choice about who to appoint.

The other is Gray, an unusual Pozzo signing to say the least, paying top dollar for a player with with no real upside potential and sticking them on a big wage.

 

I’m not having it that Pearson was sacked to “save our place in the prem”, particularly since no replacement was lined up to instantly replace him. You would have to be insane to think that by removing the Head Coach with two difficult games to go and installing one of the coaching staff would result in avoiding relegation. No, he was sacked because of a falling out, or worse. With or without Pearson for those two games we were wholly reliant on the other two teams stuffing up.

 

I expect it's totally unrelated to our pursuit of Gerhard Struber but Greg Miller, Head of Academy Coaching at Barnsley, has left to "seek a new challenge".

 

Sooooo, Leventhal said it could be next week we make an appointment...tomorrow then?

 

My prediction is that Gerhard Struber will be our manager by Thursday.
News to break on Wednesday and confirmed the day after.

 

Nothing is ever announced on a Thursday. Schoolboy error

 

I'm hoping for Ivic announced tomorrow

 

And just like that @Burnsy , your work to give some credence to the 'ITK' thing has taken a few steps back.

 

I’m a trailblazer in the industry.

 

I won’t believe a thing until we’ve heard from our tried and true ITK network of informants.