First Manager Next Season

Maybe he also knew Gino and Scott (and maybe Giaretta?) rated him as we have been interested in the recent past.

Provided Manga had the ultimate sign off on this, I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt even if I think hes utterly ****.

 

Yet another horrific left back. we seem to have had a lot of them

 

I would be much happier with Wilder. I think he would be fine for us after a clear out.

 

Thats my thinking too. Then again our entire forward line from this season is either leaving now the seasons over, will be leaving before next season starts or already gone so maybe its not so bad as its an area of the squad that needs players anyway.

 

Hopefully this means a return to the Aidy Boothroyd style of hitting the ball long, and getting some big ugly Krauts on the end of it.

 

Football for the dark ages.

This potential appointment makes me want to vomit.

 

Ashley Fletcher will be ideal for the box-head's direct style. Mouth watering prospect

 

That would be an insult to Gary Numan. Valerian was the stage name used by Numan (Gary Webb) on his first singles from his band Tubeway Army.

 

Ismael would be a giant leap backwards. Vertical football at its worst.
A one trick pony.

No, No, No,No, No, No

 

Well he would be if he wasn't the least effective "big man" I've ever seen. Pretty sure he lost almost every header on the few occasions he played for us.

 

Ismael as our Manager/Head Coach would be a massive step backwards.

His vertical football style shows that he is a one trick pony.

If appointed, this will show that Gino Pozzo/Scott Duxbury have learnt absolutely nothing over the past few dreadful seasons. It will also show that the Owner is not building for the future.

The fans are already disgusted with the awful effort shown on and off the pitch by the players and the Board.

Ismael is a Dinosaur in coaching terms.

Don't make yet another terrible decision Gino

 

I’d rather have a one trick pony than a no tricky pony. At Barnsley he significantly raised the ceiling of the players he worked with and achieved their highest finish in decades.

Besides, if fans are disgusted with effort levels, getting a manager with high levels of pressing and industry might be an idea.

 

We are just about the last club who have any right to complain about direct football lol, I don't care about the style as long as it gets results, but I do fear that this lot, unless we get in a lot of reinforcements, won't have the puff for Ismaelball

 

Football has moved on from the GT days.
Ismael is not a coach for the future. His time has come and gone.
Sadly, it looks as if nothing will change at Watford FC.
The Band is still playing while the Ship sinks slowly into the abyss.

 

Yes, true.
Unfortunately, he was found out all too quickly.
Since then? Nothing.
Our players are turds, a clearout is needed ASAP.

 

I don’t think he was found out. He had decent records at WBA - they were seventh when he was sacked and were really underperforming their xG. He also didn’t have a fit striker the whole season until they bought Dike who got injured straightaway. After hiring Bruce they dropped from 7th to 10th.

At Besiktas he only lost 3 games in 19. He was doing fine. His successor has taken them up to second from fourth or fifth after a significant amount of investment in January.

We will have to give him the tools to succeed. We probably won’t. But this is clearly a Manga appointment and hopefully the fans and the club will back him and give him time to get to work.

Why wouldn’t Ismael’s system work in the Championship? It has before. I think it is well suited to the league and also well suited to avoiding relegation should we somehow get promoted.

 

We could have chosen Farioli. A vibrant young coach with the world at his feet. Untainted by any failure in England. An exciting brand of football that we could have all got behind. We could have become a mini Brighton. An exciting project.

Instead we’ve appointed a coach who was regularly booed his own fans and who reportedly fell out with his senior players. And who plays an awful to watch style of football.

It’s an abysmal decision and one that must surely cast more doubts over the judgement of Messiah Manga. The sooner he wakes up and realises we don’t play in the Bundesliga (or Portugal), the better. But I fear the damage has already been done.

 

WBA fans seemed delighted he left. Every other comment is “stubborn and inflexible”. Hardly bodes well. Will likely be just be another November Pozzo sacking, and worse we will probably be left with players to suit that style as well.

 

If I was going to offer my real tin-hat Alex Jones pep pills conspiracy theory for seemingly plumping for Ismael, I might say that the Stability know he likes to play route one kick-and-rush football that could be seen as reminiscent of GT's style during our golden era, and so seeing that resurrected at the Vic will magically placate the fanbase. Obviously, if that concept I just invented is true, it would be hilariously stupid. So we should probably all treat it as established fact from here on out.

Like most others, I'm incredibly unenthused by this choice (if it is indeed the choice) - a coach who really only has one standout period of success, over a single season, to his name, and was bounced out of his last job in this league with nary a kind word about his playing style from their fans.

Of course, if Manga is driving the appointment, then he may well actually know more than me/us, and we may all have egg on our faces in 12 months' time. It's a bit depressing for the very first move of the new setup/season to be something else that isn't particularly exciting or hopeful (as it stands), though, so hot on the heels of this most recent dull and hopeless season.

 

Edwards only lost 2 in 10, but I seem to remember you thought that was bad?

 

Maybe I’m missing something - but why is this ‘clearly a Manga appointment’?

 

Mainly because Ismael spent the vast majority of his career in Germany but also because I believe Manga has sought managers who play a similar style/have a similar philosophy in the past. And because French quoted Manga in his interview as saying that hiring and retaining managers was a part of his remit.

We’ve never had a German speaking manager before during the Pozzo era, have we? I’d heard that Manga was keen to work with a German coach due to his familiarity with the German market and the language barrier. Hopefully they will work in concert together to get the players in required.

Can you name a similar manager to Ismael (in terms of background or style) that we have appointed previously under Pozzo?

Maybe ‘clearly’ is an overstatement. But I am baffled at how someone could look at this and say “ach yet another Pozzo appointment.”

I felt the team lacked identity so could understand the decision. Felt that we were regressing rather than progressing. But obviously Edwards and Ismael at Besiktas could well have turned it around given time. And few would hold Edwards’ time at Watford against so don’t think we should do that to Ismael either.

 

Very harsh! 'Fletch' will be an important player for us next season - just you wait and see

 

I know Farioli gets a lot of hype for his style (and I’d be interested to see how that one shakes out too) but he left his side 11th in the Turkish division 2/3 of the way through the season. If you’re going to discount Ismael for his time at West Brom and Besiktas you have to actually look at what Farioli has achieved too (ie not very much). That he used to work with De Zerbi may mean he could be a very successful acolyte. Or mid table in the Turkish league could be his level.

I’d rather have a higher profile manager (Hassenhuttl, Hutter, Lage and Knutsen) were my top choices. They obviously don’t want to come here. There are a number of others who have a more consistent record like Ilzer at Saturn Graz too. But there are plenty of positives with this appointment, if it happens and part of it is empowering Ben Manga and trusting the process. This seems to me to be evidence of that. Let’s see if the recruitment matches but at least we’re going to be watching a defined style of play.

 

I’ve got to be honest I’m surprised at the what I perceive as the overly negative reaction to this news.

1. He has a very solid record in the championship. With his track record we should be looking at least at top half if not play offs so long as he manages to get the players he needs.

2. People are getting very upset over not getting Fariolo, who to be quite frank none of us had ever likely heard of 4 weeks ago. From what I can see he has no record to speak of whatsoever.

3. People are getting upset about the style of football. The daftest thing I read was that it won’t be competitive in the premier league. Give your head a wobble, who cares if we are not competitive in the premier league when we have spent the whole sodding season not being competitive in the championship. Build a team for the league we are in, deal with promotion if and when it happens. The Pozzos chucked Joka out on his arse when we got promoted and that didn’t work too badly. Also I’ve spent this season watching a team with about 70% possession losing to big strong ugly teams with none of the ball.

Let’s be one of those big strong ugly teams for once.

 

I haven’t thought ‘another Pozzo appointment’. But I also don’t look at it as obviously a Manga one either.

 

Hip hip hooray!