Manager for next season

[gpbarr]

First of all, I think Garde will go.  He'll either jump or we'll fire him - either way, I think it will be for the best.  We're a basket case and we need radical surgery not a pleasant Frenchman...

Secondly, I have very little faith in the people who will make the appointment.  This is one decision they can't get wrong.  The place needs a clear out from top to bottom.  Nobody should be safe - players, coaching staff, senior management need to be culled in huge numbers.

As Chairman, it seems that the decision should then fall to Hollis because the other idiots should all be shown the door.  So he needs a manager to who he can say 'I entrust the football side of things to you entirely.  You pick the coaching team.  You decide if you want a director of football etc but you're the expert - you sort it all out, I'll back you with X amount of money, you tell me the players you want and we'll go and get them together'.  Whether he has the nous to do that though is a different story...

Given the above, and the amount of blood that should be spilled in the dressing room and the boardroom, I think we might need a year of consolidation in the Championship to settle down.  Promotion straight back up would be nice but we need to build a strong foundation - make sure we're ready for life back in the Premier League.  We've struggled for too long - what's the point of going up if they're just going to subject us to the same shit all over again?

So for me, if he's still available, I think Moyes could do that.  I don't think he'd be too proud to drop down a division.  His reputation has taken a battering the last few years - so we both have that in common.

Appoint the wrong person though, fail to clear out the deadwood, and the freefall will continue...

I'd agree with that - if a couple years in a lower league allowed us to clear decks and rebuild the rotten foundations, that is a price worth paying. The TV money is the only concern I would have but let's face it, having money and spending it well has escaped us these past 5-6 years so not even sure that matters as much as a complete clean out top to bottom

[ozzjim]

I don't want ultra defensive but it's no coincidence that the best sides in the Championship have the best defensive records at the moment.

Swansea fans with all their good will wanted Monk out by the end there. While I think he is potentially a good manager I think our job would end him! It needs a genuinely experienced safe pair of hands for 2 or 3 years to get some stability into the squad.

[dave.woodhall]

Actually I think Bruce would be a good shout.  But he may well be in the PL next year with Hull and he's been burnt by jumping ship before, so unless there were a lot of guarantees, he may well have no interest.

I would tend to prefer Moyes, but of the two Bruce certainly has more experience of getting promotions.  I've always found him to be pretty eloquent and gracious about us when being interviewed, even as a Blues manager.  I would have him every day of the week over Pulis or Sam.

I can remember him running all over our pitch when they scored like he'd just discovered a cure for flatfaceism.

[Des Little]

i think his running days are behind him now.  A bit like Gabby's.

[Edvard Remberg]

Couldn't care less - until those useless players are not part of our squad, it doesn't matter who is in charge.

[chrisw1]

Actually I think Bruce would be a good shout.  But he may well be in the PL next year with Hull and he's been burnt by jumping ship before, so unless there were a lot of guarantees, he may well have no interest.

I would tend to prefer Moyes, but of the two Bruce certainly has more experience of getting promotions.  I've always found him to be pretty eloquent and gracious about us when being interviewed, even as a Blues manager.  I would have him every day of the week over Pulis or Sam.

I can remember him running all over our pitch when they scored like he'd just discovered a cure for flatfaceism.

You'd be against then Dave?  Who would you like?

[Toronto Villa]

Actually I think Bruce would be a good shout.  But he may well be in the PL next year with Hull and he's been burnt by jumping ship before, so unless there were a lot of guarantees, he may well have no interest.

I would tend to prefer Moyes, but of the two Bruce certainly has more experience of getting promotions.  I've always found him to be pretty eloquent and gracious about us when being interviewed, even as a Blues manager.  I would have him every day of the week over Pulis or Sam.

I can remember him running all over our pitch when they scored like he'd just discovered a cure for flatfaceism.

Not that I'm advocating Bruce for one second but isn't his excitability all a bit like "Villa fan" Lescott pretending to throw his shirt into the travelling crowd at Goodison after scoring? I don't really buy into how a player/manager acts when doing their job for someone else. Off course its been funny what happened to Bruce at that lot as much as Lescott looking the prize wanker as Young scored the winner...

[dave.woodhall]

Actually I think Bruce would be a good shout.  But he may well be in the PL next year with Hull and he's been burnt by jumping ship before, so unless there were a lot of guarantees, he may well have no interest.

I would tend to prefer Moyes, but of the two Bruce certainly has more experience of getting promotions.  I've always found him to be pretty eloquent and gracious about us when being interviewed, even as a Blues manager.  I would have him every day of the week over Pulis or Sam.

I can remember him running all over our pitch when they scored like he'd just discovered a cure for flatfaceism.

You'd be against then Dave?  Who would you like?

No idea. I'd like Garde to have at least the summer to sort this lot out and bring his own players in.

[Toronto Villa]

I can't decide on Garde anymore but I'd fully support him in the summer only if he got 100% backing in the summer to rid the club of every player he wanted to. Maybe part of my indifference is due to recent events but tempered by the fact that mitigating factors aren't helping him make sound decisions at the moment. The players at the root of the problem most definitely have to go with or without Garde.

[Villa in Denmark]

The whole attitude of Lerner and the board will be the key thing i agree. As those rejections from Martinez, OGS etc., show, a manager with a reputation and good options isn't going to jump headlong into a job without the backing of the club or a plan by the club that makes sense. Yeah you'll get the desperate  yesmen accepting it, but as their record here shows, a manager following a plan he doesn't really believe in, just gets you a bad manager. Hopefully Lerner and Co. have had 6 years to work out that a managerial structure where the manager is little more than a hired help is just as expensive and less successful than MON's control-freak model of running a club. They may be more willing to give a new manager a bit more hands-on control given the complete mess they've made of it.

Solskjær didn't just turn us down. He was effectively blackmailed by Kjell Inge Røkke, the majority shareholder in Aker solutions who are to Molde what Etihad are to Man City.

The deal was he could continue to negotiate with us, but Røkke would pull the sponsorship of Molde, effectively putting them into administration. All of this was freely reported in the Norwegian press at the time.

[LeeB]

Actually I think Bruce would be a good shout.  But he may well be in the PL next year with Hull and he's been burnt by jumping ship before, so unless there were a lot of guarantees, he may well have no interest.

I would tend to prefer Moyes, but of the two Bruce certainly has more experience of getting promotions.  I've always found him to be pretty eloquent and gracious about us when being interviewed, even as a Blues manager.  I would have him every day of the week over Pulis or Sam.

I can remember him running all over our pitch when they scored like he'd just discovered a cure for flatfaceism.

You'd be against then Dave?  Who would you like?

No idea. I'd like Garde to have at least the summer to sort this lot out and bring his own players in.

So would I, but it's not going to happen, is it?

[ChicagoLion]

Actually I think Bruce would be a good shout.  But he may well be in the PL next year with Hull and he's been burnt by jumping ship before, so unless there were a lot of guarantees, he may well have no interest.

I would tend to prefer Moyes, but of the two Bruce certainly has more experience of getting promotions.  I've always found him to be pretty eloquent and gracious about us when being interviewed, even as a Blues manager.  I would have him every day of the week over Pulis or Sam.

I can remember him running all over our pitch when they scored like he'd just discovered a cure for flatfaceism.

You'd be against then Dave?  Who would you like?

I am in this camp, no one knows better, who the real culprits are and what needs fixing.
A new manager has got to get all that learning before he sets upon the task of rebuilding the Team.
The most positive news we can get this summer is that he is staying, because I believe that means that he will have sufficient backing to start clearing up this awful mess.
No idea. I'd like Garde to have at least the summer to sort this lot out and bring his own players in.

[olaftab]

Couldn't care less - until those useless players are not part of our squad, it doesn't matter who is in charge.

Agree. Let's leave Garde in place and get rid of ***** who have humiliated us behind belief.

[Des Little]

I'm in the 'change the owner/board, change the playing staff & keep the manager' frame of mind myself.

[littlevillain]

Sir Brian please