Manager For The Championship Season 22/23

Huddersfield went down in 2019, but Boro have been down for years. Pre Pozzo we still got to the PL roughly once a decade between Aidy and GT, most teams will end up in the play offs at some point but if we end up like Boro we’ve basically reset to pre Pozzo, even if they happen to be in a PL spot right now.

 

Well, OK. I'm still not sure that sitting 5th and 6th is illustrative of promotion chances 'dramatically receding thereafter', but I obviously take the point that the chances are greatest in the first couple of years.

 

Actually they last got relegated in 16/17, which for some reason I’d totally forgotten, I don’t even remember us playing them. They stayed up for one season and prior to that they were last in the PL in 2009.

I suppose my point is that most teams who stay in the championship long enough normally end up in the playoffs at some stage, in a kind of stopped clock is right twice a day kind of scenario. The reality is once you have had your last PP then then you’re chances are significantly reduced of bouncing back.

 

The club simply don't value the position of head coach, it's been demonstrated time and again under the Pozzos.

I do think it's a shame the way things went with Ivic, he had to deal with so much uncertainty at the start with half the squad in the departure lounge, never had a left back for his whole spell with us, was clearly being undermined by underperforming senior pros and never had Will Hughes fit for him.When you listened to his answers in press conferences he could clearly see what was wrong with the way we were playing but he had limited options to change it.

I don't follow enough football outside of Watford to come up with any names but the criteria for me would be:

i) Young, up and coming manager who plays attacking football with a clearly defined style of play
ii) In a job (or just out of contract at the end of the season and looking to make a step up). No more limiting the talent pool to people out of work, they've usually been sacked for a reason
iii) Proven track record of playing and developing younger players
iv) Speaks good English, really can't put up with more anodyne press conferences from coaches who make little sense

 

Anyone who thinks the club will appoint a 'project' manager and give him 2/3 years to make his mark is deluded

We'll likely see another 2 or 3 managers over the course of next season, all hired whilst out of work and all with completely different styles of play

 

I think we all know that, the thread was more about what you would like to see happen rather than what you think will happen though!

 

It’s an annual thread. Same old things discussed, same old outcomes transpire.

 

Yes. But Boro struggled for a while until appointing Wilder. I was referring to their last two seasons.

Huddersfield is a somewhat similar case - at times they looked like they might go down the last two seasons but they are building towards something. I doubt they finish in the playoffs though.

Cardiff and Swansea are certainly more obvious examples but I think the point is the same.

 

Well yes. Quite. But as the thread starter I wanted to tap into members’ wealth of knowledge and discuss what direction members would like us to go in with the next appointment. It is a hypothetical thought experiment not speculation as to Pozzo decision-making.

 

Lessons learned though, tbf.

 

Perica x 5 would be like Holland 1974.

 

Dislike

 

These days, you'll be arrested and thrown in jail, just for saying our club is run by *******

 

I hate WFC forums. It’s like a state surveillance agency staffed by gullible volunteers.

 

More like Zaire 1974 !

 

First time around we got Vydra, second time around we got Perica. I think we can see the direction of travel as far as what Udinese can give us next season.

 

Isaac Success season long loan.

 

Jail? You’ll go to actual jail?

 

Actually doing fairly well this season to be fair. Had his best season in quite a few years.

I fear it would be more like Felipe Vizeu (currently on loan in the J-League) on a season long loan.

 

Felipe Vizeu sounds dynamite to be fair.

 

He's played 659 minutes over 15 appearances since August, scoring 2 goals and getting 1 red card. Not really setting the bar high

 

3 goals/assists in 500 Serie A minutes shows him to be a useful squad depth option and is the best he’s done since 15/16. But yes he hasn’t been prolific.

 

Thats true but overall Pre Pozzo we were promoted to the PL 3 times in over 100 years. 2 of those promotions were freak occurrences and the 1st was bankrolled by a millionaire and involved recruiting a future England manager and 2 future England attackers, 1 of whom went on to win the golden boot and the other became 1 of the best English players ever to play in the top flight. I'm still not 100% sure we'd ever have been promoted if we hadnt discovered John Barnes. The pre Pozzo promotions were all due to extremely unlikely combinations of events. If Gino left we would be very unlikely to ever return to the premier league again and would be relying on a freakish combination of events to get promoted. We can say what we want about Gino but 3 years out of 4 in the champo he put together a squad capable of winning the league. The Pozzo network might no longer be good enough for the PL but so far its proved to be too good for the championship. With Scott and Gino's track record over the last 3 years, they could easily F it up next season, especially as the manager situation is now a farcical self parody but Id be surprised if Gino didnt put together a squad capable of getting promoted.

 

“Just like a new signing”.

 

I was really talking about Aidy a decade before Gino, and GT second time less than a decade before Aidy, and he definitely didn’t have the help of any England strikers that time around.

My point really was that even average championship teams tend to flirt with the play offs every now and then if they stay in the league long enough, the example I was referring to being Boro and the fact they’re currently in a play off spot is not really much to do with the fact they were once in the PL. even if we don’t get promoted by the time the parachute payments run out law of averages says we’ll probably get in the play offs eventually (with or without Gino, like we always did before occasionally) irrespective of having spent time as a PL club. I’m not suggesting that’s a good thing, just the nature of the league.

I’m not talking about stuff that happened 40+ years ago before the championship even existed.

 

I think this is exactly right. Only the very smallest clubs who just occasionally pop up into the Championship (Wycombe, Peterborough, Rotherham etc.) will probably never get a shot at promotion to the PL. All the other mostly medium-sized clubs like us will get there now and again and this is mainly due to the existence of the play-offs. It's true that parachute payments skew the probability of promotion in favour of the recently relegated, but we know from our own experience in 1999 that a late run into the play-offs gives you an unexpected chance of going up.

 

Local hookers and Majestic Wine hoping so.

 

Perhaps given the P model where the coach is so unimportant, we should just do without one and let the players sort out amongst themselves for each match who's going to turn up, who's going to play where, and what tactics if any will be adopted ? Training could be restricted to a cross country run through Cassiobury Park for those inclined.

 

Perhaps a rota? Different player manager each game? If you lose you have to take the kit home and wash it? It’s also your job to bring the oranges that week.

 

I’m genuinely at the stage where I don’t think that would make us worse.

 

Effectively each Player-Manager is sacked at the end of their game incharge, and a new Player-Manager appointed ? That could work and Lineker would love it.

 

Exactly, it was an absolute miracle and almost entirely down to GT. We won the play offs with only 1 premier league level player in the team. It was by far GTs biggest achievement as a manager. It's very unlikely we would ever repeat something like that. We used to compare ourselves with teams like Palace Wolves and Brighton. Right now we can compare ourselves with teams like Norwich Burnley Bournemouth West Brom etc but in a Pozzoless future our peers could well be Luton, Wycombe and QPR and then maybe even smaller teams. We are an established championship side but without an owner like Gino that can change in 1 season. We know for a fact that Gino can bring in players for free who are good enough to get promoted from the champo. How many other teams can say that about their owner? Gino so far has proved to be too good for the championship but in recent years not good enough for the prem. We've only spent a few years of our history in the PL so to have an owner like Gino who can recruit promotion winning championship players is a miracle for a club like Watford. In my view the problem with the club isnt Gino, it's the fact that he hasn't build an effective management structure, has overseen terrible communication with the fans and the club hierarchy has a massive lack of integrity, sincerity and credibility. The club hierarchy seem to have turned Watford into a fake version of itself. It's all very weird.

 

No, no, no, NO, NO!! It might hack off those just up the road but we must never put our faith in the Moany Merthyr Midget.

A quick listen to the poison dwarf whining after a defeat last season should convince you. To use his own words, if we appoint this idiot you would soon be parroting him:
"I feel physically sick, literally sick, I could be sick...I...I...I...I...err....it's....I thought we were excellent....". The bloke is simply weird.

 

I appreciate the efforts to turn him into some incredible villain as we attempt to re-ignite the previously defunct rivalry with Luton but he clearly is an impressive manager - he has taken Luton from the bottom half of League 2 to chasing the playoffs. He is young and has a clear style of play. I think his time at Stoke might be too much of a red flag for us but let’s not dismiss him because he is a poison dwarf or has an accent or whatever.

 

I am sold on Nathan Jones for no other reason than ******* off the scum up the road. Make it happen Gino.