Manager suggestions - Now with added poll

[tomd2103]

Point is still valid.

The top 6 were

Benitez
Hughton
Stam
Carvalhal
Wagner
Jokanovic

Bruce has more promotions than all those added together. This much lauded championship experience is bollocks. A good manager is a good manager.

Hughton aside, they are all fairly young and from other countries as well.  You do have to wonder whether the older, tried and tested British managers are falling behind the times.  There's only Pulis and Hughes of that school left in the Premier League now really.  Howe and Dyche are younger and seem to be much more imaginative.       

Also what they've done and the type of clubs they've managed in those countries is very important as well, they've come from clubs expected to win, which is very similar to the challenge when coming into Second Division Aston Villa.

Jokanovic - Partizan Belgrade and Maccabi Tel Aviv
Wagner - Borussia Dortmund
Benitez - Real Madrid, Napoli, etc etc
Carvalhal - Sporting Lisbon, Besiktas, Braga, etc
Stam  - Ajax

It's why I think Leeds have got the right idea going for Thomas Christiansen, on the face of it everybody says who? But he's just won the league having come from the biggest team in that country. Although it's Cyprus, he's managed the expectations of winning most weeks and got the winning habit, I'd rather go down that route than somebody that has overachieved at Hull or Norwich.

Good point and although Celtic are nailed on to win the league and will be appearing in the Champions League this season, I wonder if Brendan Rodgers could be sold on our 'project' (as he likes to call it)?       

[gpbarr]

I worry we are going round and round in a circular debate.

Bruce and Sherwood failed because they did not have a clue on tactics - well Garde and RHM were supposed to be tactically sound yet they both failed too.

There seems to be an underlying thread that we have had / and continue to have the 'quality' in the squad - I disagree. We have had 6 or 7 seasons now where the quality of the squad, both at a PL level, and now at a Championship level, is being shown up. Our squad right now looks slow and predictable because it is slow and predictable. We lack pace and we lack creativity and a new manager wont be able to fix that without another player merry go-round.

I believe Bruce has to go, but I'm going to worry that whomever we appoint, we are going to continue to decline because we have not fixed the system - all we keep doing is fixing the 'guy in the dugout' but there is much more wrong than just that.  And I think until the system is fixed, we are going to continue to struggle 

[Drummond]

Bielsa currently manages that global cultural hotspot, Lille.

I'm glad the likes of Drummond aren't in charge of the selection policy. There are plenty of people who want to slag off Villa without our own fans joining in.

The "yeah but all their trophies were ages ago" shtick is exactly the sort of shit Small Heath and Smethwick fans come out with.

I'm being realistic.

We're in very real danger of becoming the next big club to become irrelevant. Except we'd be far the biggest. Leeds and Forest are the two clubs who spring to mind that nobody gives a shit about any more because they aren't at the top table.

We should be higher, we should be challenging, we should be winning, but we haven't. Most players now won't remember us as a big club from when they grew up, because barring two league cup wins we've won fuck all for 35 years.

We've got history, tradition, size, glamour, the name, the ground, but we've won fuck all and in this era more than any other it's that success and fame that younger folk seem to care about.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Bielsa currently manages that global cultural hotspot, Lille.

They announced his appointment in February with him officially starting in May, giving him plenty of time to change things around. They have a very rich owner who has surrounded himself with top football people. They won their first game convincingly, playing great attacking and pressing football. Yesterday the lost 3-0 but that was due to having their keeper sent off and having to use two different outfield players in goal because they'd used all their subs.

He really was the man we should have brought in instead of RDM. Now, we are left to scrape the barrel of available managers or try and steal another club's. It won't be easy and it's why Bruce should have gone at the end of last season.

[cdbearsfan]

I think young supporters get patronised too often and are just as likely to know about football history as older fans. Maybe more so, given that they are of the generation that has grown up knowing that every piece of information they need is only two clicks of a mouse away.

In any case, we aren't going to be appointing a teenager as our next manager, so I don't see how that is relevant.

Over 40,000 for Burton Albion. The best supported club away from home in England. We are still massive. Let's act like it. Busted flushes like David Moyes are not the answer.

There is no excuse for a club of our stature being unwilling to match Lille's ambitions.

[Monty]

Bielsa's barely arrived at Lille. He'd have been worth asking otherwise as we would be a project for him (he rather likes being the guy to come in and sort out a mess of this sort), but it won't happen now.

As for being in the position we are and being a laughing stock - Leeds two most recent managers are of the type that I think we need. Fulham, laughing stock of the division, hired Jokanovic. Huddersfield, bumbling amiably along as usual, hire the Next Big Thing off the Dortmund coaching production line, and now they're back in the top flight. Just because we're at a real low moment, doesn't mean we can't hire someone really good.

[tomd2103]

I worry we are going round and round in a circular debate.

Bruce and Sherwood failed because they did not have a clue on tactics - well Garde and RHM were supposed to be tactically sound yet they both failed too.

There seems to be an underlying thread that we have had / and continue to have the 'quality' in the squad - I disagree. We have had 6 or 7 seasons now where the quality of the squad, both at a PL level, and now at a Championship level, is being shown up. Our squad right now looks slow and predictable because it is slow and predictable. We lack pace and we lack creativity and a new manager wont be able to fix that without another player merry go-round.

I believe Bruce has to go, but I'm going to worry that whomever we appoint, we are going to continue to decline because we have not fixed the system - all we keep doing is fixing the 'guy in the dugout' but there is much more wrong than just that.  And I think until the system is fixed, we are going to continue to struggle

I agree with that to be honest.  We've changed pretty much every aspect of the club in recent years - owner, manager, backroom staff, technical staff, academy staff, playing staff - and the malaise still remains.  I don't know if the whole things needs ripping up and starting again to be honest with a fresh approach and a team built around young players at the club.  Hopefully this will be the last season that Hutton and Agbonlahor darken our door and the day can't come quick enough when Richards goes as well.       

[Rudy Can't Fail]

We really need Xia to have a word with Terry to tap up Jokanovic.

[tomd2103]

We really need Xia to have a word with Terry to tap up Jokanovic.

The only issue I see with him is that the fairly hefty amount to get him from Fulham will be on top of the fairly hefty amount we'll have to pay to get rid of Bruce. 

[Rudy Can't Fail]

We really need Xia to have a word with Terry to tap up Jokanovic.

The only issue I see with him is that the fairly hefty amount to get him from Fulham will be on top of the fairly hefty amount we'll have to pay to get rid of Bruce. 

Xia through Recon can rename the Witton Lane Stand for £10m a year if he so wishes. Also, I don't see it being a 'hefty' amount. £1m a year until 2019?

[Chris Jameson]

We really need Xia to have a word with Terry to tap up Jokanovic.

The only issue I see with him is that the fairly hefty amount to get him from Fulham will be on top of the fairly hefty amount we'll have to pay to get rid of Bruce. 

Offer them Hogan in exchange for their manager, they are crying out for a striker. Or better still, McCormack and Agbonlahor.

[gpbarr]

I worry we are going round and round in a circular debate.

Bruce and Sherwood failed because they did not have a clue on tactics - well Garde and RHM were supposed to be tactically sound yet they both failed too.

There seems to be an underlying thread that we have had / and continue to have the 'quality' in the squad - I disagree. We have had 6 or 7 seasons now where the quality of the squad, both at a PL level, and now at a Championship level, is being shown up. Our squad right now looks slow and predictable because it is slow and predictable. We lack pace and we lack creativity and a new manager wont be able to fix that without another player merry go-round.

I believe Bruce has to go, but I'm going to worry that whomever we appoint, we are going to continue to decline because we have not fixed the system - all we keep doing is fixing the 'guy in the dugout' but there is much more wrong than just that.  And I think until the system is fixed, we are going to continue to struggle

I agree with that to be honest.  We've changed pretty much every aspect of the club in recent years - owner, manager, backroom staff, technical staff, academy staff, playing staff - and the malaise still remains.  I don't know if the whole things needs ripping up and starting again to be honest with a fresh approach and a team built around young players at the club.  Hopefully this will be the last season that Hutton and Agbonlahor darken our door and the day can't come quick enough when Richards goes as well.       

I expect to get slated, but the 'fresh approach and a team built around youngsters' is more and more what I now advocate. We may go backwards in the short term, but perhaps building some financial stability, and having a longer term plan than the season to season panic we seem to endure these days, is an approach that might pay different dividends.

[PeterWithesShin]

Pretty sure there are rules to stop that kind of thing happening. Recon can sponsor anything to do with us but it has to be at what is deemed the going rate. So Recon can't offer £50m a year to sponsor us if the going rate is say £2m a year.

[AVH87]

Jokanovic is tied to Fulham to 2019 and speculation is he could cost around £5m to get in compensation.

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/810096/Crystal-Palace-Fulham-Slavisa-Jokanovic-new-manager-Marco-Silva-Watford

[andyh]

When bang average players are changing hands for over £10m in the championship, then £5m for a decent manager is chicken feed.