The replacement for MON...?

[Des Little]

All I will say that if we appoint MacDonald after all this pissing about & dithering until after the deadline allowing others to strengthen whilst we follow the 'process', I will be hugely disappointed.  If Randy wanted MacDonald all along he should have appointed him and allowed him to deal in the market.

[Mac]

   With all due respect Mac, MON is not responsible for the mess we are in, and there is no need to right off the season,

  Fulham quickly replaced Hodgson with a good appointment, surely we can attract as good a candidate as Hughes, we have had plenty of time to attract the right kind of manager, and an appointment of KMac , or his ilk, is a copout.

   MON acted like a spoilt brat, but hes not the reason we are still in this situation.

Are you saying it's the board's fault for not acting more quickly to replace MON ?

Tell me who is available that's acceptable.  Or are you saying Randy should have royally fucked over another club?  The man that's given it's shirt sponsorship away to a kids' charity for two years?

[midnite]

Is it me not reading the article right or is that another piece of completely pointless journalism? After spending a minute or two reading it i'm completely none the wiser.

Apart from the fact that we now have a shortlist... Which isn't exactly rocket science to figure out is it?

[fredm]

I agree with you on every point BUT putting KMac in charge. He is not ready to be a manager, maybe he never will be. If we finished 9th-14th this season who is to say any potential manager we are targetting (Moyes or Jol), would be interested in us?

Football operates in the present, we need the best available man for the job now and KM is not that man.

Agree with that. First, as IA says, who is to say the person we want is going to be available next summer anyway? Unless we have a firm commitment, that's a big risk to take. Second, if we do have a poor season, or even a mediocre one, there is the risk that the pool of candidates next summer will be of a lower calibre than the current one.

Realistically who is there available who can start tomorrow?

If RL has spoken to someone who he wants to be the next manager, but who has said "sorry but I am not prepared to do the dirty on my present club at the moment but next April I will tell the chairman I am leaving so that he has all summer to find my replacement and then will come to VP", what is he supposed to do?

And the fact that we might finish 9th - 14th this season would mean what to that person exactly?  It would still be the same squad of players except some of the younger ones might well have gained some PL experience, plus Delph will hopefully be available.  Also he would have had time to assess exactly what he wanted at VP and would, presumably, know what his budget was going to be so could put events in motion from day 1.

Yes, it is not the best scenario this season, but it may well be the best one over the next 5 years, and would show that RL is determined to try and put the club back at the top table.

[PaulWinch again]

I don't want KMac to take over, but I'd take him over Allardyce. I couldn't stomach Allardyce's brand of football.

[PeterWithe]

I've been away for a while but before I went there was a lot of talk about Bilic which now seems to have disappeared, did he rule himself out?

[MarkM]

My head hurts!!!

I'm really not sure what the best option is, lets hope those in the know have a plan

Mark

[atomicjam]

I don't want KMac to take over, but I'd take him over Allardyce. I couldn't stomach Allardyce's brand of football.

I would rather Sam Fox than Sam Allardyce!

[midnite]

I've been away for a while but before I went there was a lot of talk about Bilic which now seems to have disappeared, did he rule himself out?

No, not that i've heard. Bilic is still there somewhere. AVFC have released a statement though saying that premiership managment experience is a must for any potential candidate.

But then the General said that it's just premiership experience not necessarily management

[midnite]

I don't want KMac to take over, but I'd take him over Allardyce. I couldn't stomach Allardyce's brand of football.

I would rather Sam Fox than Sam Allardyce!

How about Uncle Sam??
We are american after all!

[Irreverent ad]

I agree with you on every point BUT putting KMac in charge. He is not ready to be a manager, maybe he never will be. If we finished 9th-14th this season who is to say any potential manager we are targetting (Moyes or Jol), would be interested in us?

Football operates in the present, we need the best available man for the job now and KM is not that man.

Agree with that. First, as IA says, who is to say the person we want is going to be available next summer anyway? Unless we have a firm commitment, that's a big risk to take. Second, if we do have a poor season, or even a mediocre one, there is the risk that the pool of candidates next summer will be of a lower calibre than the current one.

Realistically who is there available who can start tomorrow?

If RL has spoken to someone who he wants to be the next manager, but who has said "sorry but I am not prepared to do the dirty on my present club at the moment but next April I will tell the chairman I am leaving so that he has all summer to find my replacement and then will come to VP", what is he supposed to do?

And the fact that we might finish 9th - 14th this season would mean what to that person exactly?  It would still be the same squad of players except some of the younger ones might well have gained some PL experience, plus Delph will hopefully be available.  Also he would have had time to assess exactly what he wanted at VP and would, presumably, know what his budget was going to be so could put events in motion from day 1.

Yes, it is not the best scenario this season, but it may well be the best one over the next 5 years, and would show that RL is determined to try and put the club back at the top table.

There are plenty I would take who could start ASAP over KM. eg Sven, O'Driscoll, Houllier, Klinsmann, Grayson, Pulis etc

[Chris Smith]

Is it me not reading the article right or is that another piece of completely pointless journalism? After spending a minute or two reading it i'm completely none the wiser.

Apart from the fact that we now have a shortlist... Which isn't exactly rocket science to figure out is it?

Reading between the lines they wanted Hughes but didn't have the heart/bottle* to sack MON and she thinks Kevin is now the favourite.

Reading the lines themselves they interviewed a candidate yesterday, one of 4 others who all have PL experience.

*You pays your money, you takes your choice; a little bit of both in my view.

[Matt C]

I love that line about Allardyce's style of football being 'an acquired taste'. What a marvellous polite way of saying it's shite to watch.

[hilts_coolerking]

Realistically who is there available who can start tomorrow?

If RL has spoken to someone who he wants to be the next manager, but who has said "sorry but I am not prepared to do the dirty on my present club at the moment but next April I will tell the chairman I am leaving so that he has all summer to find my replacement and then will come to VP", what is he supposed to do?

And the fact that we might finish 9th - 14th this season would mean what to that person exactly?  It would still be the same squad of players except some of the younger ones might well have gained some PL experience, plus Delph will hopefully be available.  Also he would have had time to assess exactly what he wanted at VP and would, presumably, know what his budget was going to be so could put events in motion from day 1.

Yes, it is not the best scenario this season, but it may well be the best one over the next 5 years, and would show that RL is determined to try and put the club back at the top table.

Realistically, there are plenty of people who could start straight away. Eriksson for one. He might not be your choice but the point is that he is one example of someone who is available.

If Randy's first choice is currently employed and not prepared to leave his club then Randy needs to get a firm commitment from him that he will join us next summer, or in January or whenever (although I doubt we'd wait more than one season). If he doesn't have that commitment then I reckon it's a big risk to proceed in the hope - because that's what it would be - that this guy would join us. Plus, this bloke would have to be significantly better than those currently available if we're going to basically mark time for 12 months before we get off and running again. So, I would hope that if Randy's first choice is unavailable then he try his second choice, and his third, and so on until his shortlisted is exhausted.  We went through all this 'better to wait and get our first choice rather than sign players for the sake of it' business under O'Neill and we ended up with a lot of crappers who never played and are still on the books. The point being that you can wait and wait and still not get your first choice. Or you can wait til you get your first choice and he still turns out to be crap.

If we have a crap season (and with no additions to the squad and a rookie manager it's possible) it may be that some of our better players - particularly Ashley - may decide it's time to move on. They may not fancy another 2 or 3 seasons of rebuilding, on top of the crap 12 months they've just had.

So if Randy was to say "Kevin MacDonald for 12 months and then Guus Hiddink" then I'd say yes, that's worth waiting for. But Kevin Macdonald for 12 months and then Martin Jol? I'm not sure.

[Matt Collins]

I'm definitely gearing up to feel rather disappointed! None of those names in the guardian had me excited. I actually feel a bit unsulted that nothwithstanding the timing of the situation, one of the candidates is southgate who took boro down!

I may give up football if we get Allardyce (I think he's a good manager but I really don't like him and MON's style would begin to look subtle by comparison).

It was interesting that the general clarified faulkner's comments about what was meant by premiership experience, not just management experience. That can't just be Kmac related, it must mean someone who's played here but managed elsewhere - Bilic, Klinsmann seem the most likely?