Next Manager Watch

[mil1lion]

Who was gonna offer him a big job out of Australia, though?

If he's a special talent then he gets snapped up a lot sooner. Clubs have massive scouting networks and its not like Australia goes under the radar. Viduka and Cahill got recognised so why is it so different for managers? There's plenty of European clubs who take a chance on managers like this.

 

[Bing]

Because when you manage for so long and don't get a big job you have to question why surely? I mean he could just be a late bloomer but I think it's perfectly normal to be concerned

He was in a completely different system....football is not the global sport it would like to think. We are incredibly euro-centric. Just look at our reluctance to even engage with Gallardo.

There has to be dozens of highly capable coaches operating in Asia/Australia but opportunities for them in Europe are practically non-existent.

Ange has done well moving to a different league and establishing himself.

 

[roy@SC]

One more manager for levy to sabotage. Hopefully the fans attention turns to Levy & ENIC if this fails rather than AP. Personally think he plays good football and doesn't seem the type to take any shit so is a decent appointment, obviously could ( and should) have been better, but with the clowns running our club this could have ended much worse. Hard to have any faith in the board anymore.

 

[Albertbarich]

I'm disapointed we did not get JN or Slot or even Gallardo. It's defintiely an underwhelming appointment but let's not write him off before he even has a chance.

Getting the right manager is a total crap-shoot...Mourninho and Conte have both shown a high profile winner is no guarantee of success.

Ferguson, Wenger, Arteta are all examples of managers without impressive CVs who have transformed clubs....not to mention the likes of Potter, De Zerbi, Poch, Emery, none of which we're accepted without reservation, but who have done a good job.

At the end of the day, the managers job is to develop players, motivate them to perform and get us playing attacking football. Ange may not have the glamour or high profile but he has shown at Celtic that he is a very good coach. Let's get behind him and hope the club invests in the right playing staff and I think we could all be surprised.

I bet 99% of the squad will have never heard of him which makes his job much harder as he is going to have to work twice as hard to win the them over.

This is a group that downed tools for Conte so you better believe they wouldn't show up for someone they don't fancy

I agree it could work out but I also admit if he was the manager of a league one club which I read is a comparable level to the SPL I'd be raging.

It's a strange appointment but I'm ready for the ride. Hoping we could luck into something approaching fun.

 

[Tonio]

BIIIIG Angelous BIIIIG Angelous
He eats the Tim Tams
He drinks Fosters cans

He hates fucking *enter your own nemsis*

Sounds like you’ve been on the Fosters.

 

[wiggo24]

I'm sorry, but I just can't get particularly excited about Ange. I know everyone's going to justify it in their heads now because frankly it makes supporting us much more pleasant, but I just don't see it.

Sure, he ticks a few boxes (good footy, likeable bloke, keen for the job) but I think those boxes could be ticked by hundreds of coaches up and down the country. The difference between a good coach and the sort of elite coaches a club with our resources should be going for is that they've proven they can tick these boxes at the highest level. Nagelsmann has, Enrique has, Poch has, and even Gallardo has done extraordinary work in South America (which is a much higher level than Scotland).

I'll support him all the way but I have real concerns about whether Ange is tactically complex or experienced enough at this level to have us competing with the top 8 teams in the Prem, all of whom have coaches of proven quality. It's essentially like plucking a manager who's just led his team to League One with some lovely footy, except if the team had 10x the resources of every other team in the league bar one.

 

[thebenjamin]

Or they want a manager who will work with a data-led recruitment model and won't demand specific players?

Everywhere I read that we need to be more like Brentford and Brighton, and this is exactly their approach. They sign players based on data models for the manager to coach.

Personally i'm all for that model. Means we don't need a huge churn of the squad, at great expense, every time we change managers.

Every club is influenced by data on recruitment. It's not like it's some new thing. If we're not already doing that we're in the fucking dark ages, because you can bet every other big club is doing it and have been for years. Liverpool have been the moneyball kings under Klopp.

The Brighton / Brentford model is a total red herring for me - they are obviously data led but that's on buying players for very small fees and giving them a shot in the PL, that's enabled them to circumvent their relatively miniscule turnovers. We are never going to be that - you don't build up the club to be turning over £500M a year to then pivot your recruitment towards sub-£10M signings.

I agree that we don't want a huge turnover of players but that's nothing to do with being data-led, that's because we have zero in the way of a coherent plan or identity, and with each managerial appointment we swing wildly to opposite ends of the footballing spectrum.

 

[SixtyFour]

The age thing is such a stupid thing to beat him with.

It’s not like he’s in his 70s ffs

He will be by the time he actually signs the contract…

 

[danielneeds]

If he's a special talent then he gets snapped up a lot sooner. Clubs have massive scouting networks and its not like Australia goes under the radar. Viduka and Cahill got recognised so why is it so different for managers? There's plenty of European clubs who take a chance on managers like this.

Can you name any Aussie, Japanese, or Korean coaches who’ve got big European jobs? Hell, let’s even ask about an African coach who’s got one? Let’s face it, BAME coaches hardly get a chance in the UK. There is definitely loads of unconscious biases in selecting managers in Europe.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

If he's a special talent then he gets snapped up a lot sooner. Clubs have massive scouting networks and its not like Australia goes under the radar. Viduka and Cahill got recognised so why is it so different for managers? There's plenty of European clubs who take a chance on managers like this.

Nah. It really doesn't work that way with managers.

Unless they have been distinguished players in european leagues managers rarely ever are recruited from outside of europe. This even extends to managers from south american leagues, and their leagues are rated higher than Australia, Japan etc...

The football world is full of nepotism.

 

[KingNick]

totally. I've been very 'see both sides' on Levy over the years. But he's actively holding the club hostage now. I don't even subscribe to it being financial, we've spent plenty of money, he's just very, very bad at running a football club. He was fine as a disruptor, the little guy (lol) punching up, but now we're actually there as a £500M PA football club, he is absolutely beyond clueless. How on earth you can justify ignoring Gallardo, Pochettino and Nagelsmann in favour of Postecoglou is borderline negligent. And that's not that I particularly mind Postecoglou in isolation - it just shows a CEO who's completely lost the plot and doesn't know which way is up any more.

Anyway, good luck Ange. Enjoy your compensation!

Pochettino wasn't "ignored". He was considered and discounted for many reasons - lots of which are known and others not so known.

There was also ITK that Levy and Gallardo have spoken on a few occasions. It must be that Levy still had reservations off the back of those calls.

Same goes for JN - very good sources suggest discussions were held - most likely via intermediaries and problems were highlighted that Levy couldn't live with.

All three conclusions could be wrong but it's not right to say these managers were ignored and Levy has instead come up with a 2nd rate list without considering other options.

 

[Tucker]

Keep seeing headlines like “Spurs to step up the chase for Postecoglou.”

Now I’m imagining Levy and Munn stalking him with a giant net. They’ve started slow, on tippy toes so as not to startle their prey. Now they’ve broken into one of those half run/half walk things and Ange is looking over his shoulder and starting to sweat.

 

[danielneeds]

I keep seeing it too and the best I can do to understand it is people then say, he paid big wages but wouldn't then make enough big signings to support those high paid managers and so the net result is that he is still as tight as a duck's arse. Of course, it ignores the big spending while Conte was manger.

Yeah, I get the transfer stuff, but saying he’s looking for “cheap” managers makes little sense to me.

 

[Tonio]

If AP was suggested prior to not having joined Celtic you would all be losing your shit. That and having to Google who the fuck he was.

 

[Bing]

I bet 99% of the squad will have never heard of him which makes his job much harder as he is going to have to work twice as hard to win the them over.

This is a group that downed tools for Conte so you better believe they wouldn't show up for someone they don't fancy

I agree it could work out but I also admit if he was the manager of a league one club which I read is a comparable level to the SPL I'd be raging.

It's a strange appointment but I'm ready for the ride. Hoping we could luck into something approaching fun.

Yes, I think that is a fair concern (getting the players on board).

But I would say, he is no shrinking violet and at the end of the day, the players are professionals. I also think his philosophy will be a breath of fresh air to the players and as a squad they will just be happy to have some certainty again.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results.....at least Ange is something different. Let's see how it goes.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Rinse and repeat. This ownership learns nothing. Fully expect Sanchez, Dier and Davies to start Ange first game in the league.

Do you ever get bored of repeating yourself endlessly?

 

[matthew.absurdum]

I will be waiting for the moment when all of you look like Alan Brazil in 2021

 

[Dakes]

Sir Alex was 45 when he joined Utd. A big concern with Ange is he's 57 and not managed in a top league before.

There's another way to view it. We last won the league in '61. If Ange signs a 5 year deal with us, he could be ready to win it by year 4 when he's 61.

So, we could celebrate 61 all over again.

 

[lifeof...]

I agree, and don't for one second think we will be fighting relegation next season. That said it's easier to fall away a few places than it is to climb them in this league.

I think there are several depends on.... I for 1 am not discounting of us being in the relegation battle next season. Atm nothing is resolved. The longer it takes and who the manager and dof are, will start to shape that potential

 

[Trix]

Yes, it's very surprising that in an industry filled with prejudices, stereotypes and lazy thinking at every level of the pyramid, an Australian manager, who has never played in Europe, didn't get a big job in the TOP5 leagues.

Ange is only 4 years older than Ten Hag. Didn't see people questioning ETH's age, more likely he was described as an up and coming manager.

I don't really care about his age, I don't care that he never managed in the TOP5 leagues. He's got equal chance of succeeding as Nagelsmann, Enrique, Gallardo or Mason. As any manager, his success is mostly down to what kind of players he has. Mourinho overperformed with Porto but then regressed to the level of his players with an occasional European cup. Conte worked wonders with Vucinic or Matri at Juventus, but eventually demanded the best available players at every club.

There are only a handful of managers that can make the team consistently play above their level. Maybe there's only one - Klopp - and even he cannot maintain the same level every season.

If we can sign good, hungry players then I'm calm about our chances in the next few season. If we continue this scatter approach to recruitment, then any manager will be doomed.

Just not true.