Who do you want as the next manager? New poll option.

[DeKuip]

From my experience as a football administrator you give it so long for the right candidate to come forward and when it's clear you're getting nowhere you then starting talking to the players' dads. It takes a fair bit of persuasion but eventually you get one of dads to agree to go on a coaching course and take the job on.

[Des Little]

It's going to be be Di Matteo.  If it's not him I'll eat my shorts.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

It's going to be be Di Matteo.  If it's not him I'll eat my shorts.

Do you want red sauce, brown sauce or no sauce at all?

[silhillvilla]

The stand out candidate of the names being banded about is Rafa
Get him in, get it done

[CJ]

It's going to be be Di Matteo.  If it's not him I'll eat my shorts.

If it IS Di Matteo I'll eat my shorts! John Terry was manager at Chelski, and RDM's record in the PL for the Boggies was woeful

[Monty]

OGS wanted the job. He said he had a release clause in his contract for move to PL. He said if an offer was made he would accept. He named other people, players and coaches, he would bring with him. His trusted friends said that he was on his way. However Randy and Co were outwitted by a Nowegian version of Sullivan and Gold. A fiasco IMO.

Hindsight being 20/20 vision and all that, but I definitely think it could have been handled better.

Imagine how easy that conversation was for Rokke:  "So they have left you to face this shitstorm at home, with questions from the media every five minutes about your future and they haven't even offered you the job?   You are just one of a number of candidates?   Doesn't sound like they are serious.  Here's a new salary at x amount per annum, and here's some extra cash for our CL campaign."

Do you both honestly think that is the sole cause of Solskjaer withdrawing from the reckoning? You honestly think he used his family as an excuse to stay loyal to Molde, when he could have just said that if it were the case? Come on.

[Meanwood Villa]

From my experience as a football administrator you give it so long for the right candidate to come forward and when it's clear you're getting nowhere you then starting talking to the players' dads. It takes a fair bit of persuasion but eventually you get one of dads to agree to go on a coaching course and take the job on.

Can we sign one of Mourinho's kids then?

[citizenDJ]

So, who do we think we can rule out so far?

OGS
Martinez (press conference at Wigan's ground strongly suggests he's staying)
Lambert (we've not made contact, so unlikely to do so this late in the game)
Rodgers (turned down talks with Liverpool, so would do the sane with us)

If the above is right and considering the criteria we think they're using, I'd say that leaves Poyet, AVB or another overseas condidate we're unaware of right now.

I think the 'press conference at DW Stadium' is just something someone made up, isn't it?

[Toronto Villa]

Martinez will come to us only a second option if he does not get the scouse job, and if indeed he parts company with Wigan. Benitez is cheap cos he has no baggage. Southgate will have to give up his lucrative TV work. and I'd rather hear his in depth analysis of others failures rather than be elaborating on his own shortcomings. Hoddle, dear God!?
That leaves Lambert who has done a good job of work, and can do better with us,  unless he decides to stay with the Cannaries; and Benitez as very good second choice. The others can take a short walk.
Lambert or Benitez imo. I'd be happy with either!

Benitez is cheap? And no baggage? Unless it isn't Rafa Benitez you're referring to. The Benitez I'm referring to walks around with the tagline, "I won't be cheap and I have an airline's worth of baggage, please hire me" after his name.

OK..He lives in UK, the Wirral I believe, and there is no compo to pay; ergo cheap! I do not mean he will be inexpensive!

Benitez for his wage and transfer demands will be the most demanding and expensive of everyone on the current list of those being linked with us. He'd also bolt quickly to a bigger job should one become available. My personal opinion, for all of his qualifications which looked upon impartially make him appear one of the more attractive and qualified candidates also makes his possible candidacy the most volatile and unpredictable.

[KevinGage]

OGS wanted the job. He said he had a release clause in his contract for move to PL. He said if an offer was made he would accept. He named other people, players and coaches, he would bring with him. His trusted friends said that he was on his way. However Randy and Co were outwitted by a Nowegian version of Sullivan and Gold. A fiasco IMO.

Hindsight being 20/20 vision and all that, but I definitely think it could have been handled better.

Imagine how easy that conversation was for Rokke:  "So they have left you to face this shitstorm at home, with questions from the media every five minutes about your future and they haven't even offered you the job?   You are just one of a number of candidates?   Doesn't sound like they are serious.  Here's a new salary at x amount per annum, and here's some extra cash for our CL campaign."

Do you both honestly think that is the sole cause of Solskjær withdrawing from the reckoning? You honestly think he used his family as an excuse to stay loyal to Molde, when he could have just said that if it were the case? Come on.

He's unlikely to come out and say he's only staying for the pay rise now, is he?

I'm not saying that the concerns about family were entirely made up, in the for and against column, that would have most likely been near the top in the latter section. 

In the end, we made it easy for him (and Rokke) by not following through on our interest with a concrete offer. The preliminary talks could have been done over the phone (maybe some were), advisors could have met in Norway (or Brum). Ostentatious displays like the private jet going over (and Norwegian media had photos of it, so it wasn't only  that bloke on VT who knew)  should have been the very final stage, when we knew we had our man and he was signing on the dotted line. To send him back after that to face another 2/3 games for his current club is vaguely in the ballpark (but by no means identical)  to Paul Ince holding aloft a Man U shirt whilst still a West Ham player.   It looks bad, a valuable and popular employee of one club caught out, flirting with another.

[Monty]

Solskjaer gave the sequence of events as talking with his family, deciding it wasn't for him, telling Randy such on Tuesday morning, then going to meet Rokke to see if they could continue at Molde (by all accounts, Solskjaer would like to remain managing Molde if he's not leaving Kristiansund). Rokke presumably couldn't believe his luck and agreed.

Now, I'm not saying we should take everything everyone says at face value. In this case, however, there seems very little reason to doubt him. His previous comments leaked to the press - by Rokke, as it happens - were that he would take the Villa job if offered, and that was well after he fully understood that it was an interview process. I think, other than his family considerations, he would have jumped at any offer from us. I've often criticised the board for the way they've gone about their business, but everyone seems a bit guiltless here. Looking for fires where there is no smoke is not a productive activity. Let's move on.

[Concrete John]

The bit I don't get about the whole OGS thing is why it took until the Tuesday to decide that family reasons meant he couldn't take the job.  We flew him over on the Friday, so you have to assume we initially spoke to him at least a day or two before that.  No facotors that effect the family would have changed in that time, so why on the Tuesday did it become a bad idea?

If he and his wife wanted to stay in Norway until their kids are a bit older, which is perfectly reasonable, they would have known that before they got on the plane.

[PaulWinch again]

I'm still curious with the line about the board being delighted with the level of interest. Maybe it's people that they never suspected would be interested like AVB?

[Concrete John]

I initially dismissed AVB as a highly unlikely candidate, but with each day that passes I can't help thinking it gets more and more likely.

[Monty]

The bit I don't get about the whole OGS thing is why it took until the Tuesday to decide that family reasons meant he couldn't take the job.  We flew him over on the Friday, so you have to assume we initially spoke to him at least a day or two before that.  No facotors that effect the family would have changed in that time, so why on the Tuesday did it become a bad idea?

If he and his wife wanted to stay in Norway until their kids are a bit older, which is perfectly reasonable, they would have known that before they got on the plane.

Maybe they hadn't anticipated interesting offers like Villa this early in his managerial career. Baggies etc would be easy enough to reject, but Villa? More interesting. As it was, they decided that keeping their family at home was more important than Ole's career moves at this stage.

As for why it took so long? Who the hell knows. It can take all sorts of people all sorts of different lengths of time to make important life decisions. When it involves kids, you certainly don't want to rush it. With that in mind, Thursday to Monday night isn't that long, especially with a game in between occupying lots of OGS' time.