OUR NEXT MANAGER?
- Thread starter ivoralljack
- Start date
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Why make a statement like this. If they'd hired the right person, THIS wouldn't be necessary now would it.
Why didn't they just appoint Curt with Leon to assist and go from there ... then there wouldn't be any need for a supporting team. Let's face it Curt has more Prem and Championship coaching experience and for that matter probably as much international coaching experience (through Wales alongside Flynn) than Cooper.
Exactly the point I was going to make Yankee, I still think Birch needs to clarify what merits Cooper had over other applicants. Also who the shortlist consisted of. To me this stinks of American intrusion once again.
CroJack
Key Player
It depends what your definition of merit is. Toni Pulis has promoted Championship clubs and kept them in the Premier League. His merits are indisputable. But would you want Pulis to become Swansea manager? I wouldn't. There are so many 'experienced' managers around who I wouldn't touch with a barge-pole.
The sort list consisted of Appleton, Eustace,Toshack and Cooper.
As much as I understand Birch, Curt and Leon had two options:
- more experience but less progressive ideas
- more progressive ideas but less experience
Obviously not an ideal situation but that's what we can get in our situation.
CroJack
Key Player
The supporting team is not a baby-sitter team. Curt and Leon know the club inside out, they know the players and the staff. Even Laudrup needed Curt.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Appleton, Eustace, Cooper and our Toshack. Who the hell did the long list of “high quality” applicants consist of?
So they chose more progressive ideas but less experience, having progressive ideas is one thing, implementing them isn't quite that easy. Is he going to need the assistance of Curt & Leon ?..... "I'm going to be my own football man " Also.... "But I know what style and quality football fans demand it matches my vision perfectly" It matches my vision also and probably the vision of 20,000 + fans. Every manager in the football league knows what quality of football the fans need, very few are able to implement it, there's a thing called the opposition, who's main objective every game is to prove them wrong.
I played for the schoolboys and trained at the vetch a couple of times a week after school, Cliff Jones also trained at the same time as he was serving his apprenticeship on Swansea docks therefore unable to do daytime training.
The difference between our training and his was awesome, we used to look in amazement at the physical requirement expected from him after doing a days work. Our training was strenuous enough but nowhere near his. I would like to point out with that training that team went on to win the Welsh and English Schoolboys Shields that year in 1955.
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Yankee_Jack
Key Player
I think Laudrup had evaluated the available squad pretty quickly on arrival on his own if he hadn’t already watched sufficient video beforehand. Hence his quick foray to bolster the squad with JdG, Chico, and Michu .... all cheap and exceptional value. Don’t forget Laudrup was still the best player on the field in training. He had a slightly different vantage point.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Also, Laudrup could show the players what to do and how to do it. With Cooper, the likes of Routs will be the demo master.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
On arrival BoBo was also full of “good ideas” on how he wanted the team to play, blah, blah, blah. Quick talk, chip on shoulder, and inferiority complex later we couldn’t organize a piss up in a brewery on the field. His most impressive training video was trying to demo to the likes of León how to pass the ball. 
If we’d never had the likes of Laudrup, Sousa, et al then we might all be in awe that Cooper chose to apply for the position. But the fact is we’ve seen the real deal ... we know how a real duck looks, walks, talks. We know from recent experience what top class football looks like, how it’s organized, how properly prepared and motivated players perform. And if we go back in time, there are plenty of people around here that remember the days of Toshack senior.
So it appears to me, that if Cooper is the best of the bunch, then the final three were underwhelming and the bunch must have been pretty thin. What happened to Henry ... myth, money, expected to much commitment from the club, or talked at too high a level to be understood?
If we’d never had the likes of Laudrup, Sousa, et al then we might all be in awe that Cooper chose to apply for the position. But the fact is we’ve seen the real deal ... we know how a real duck looks, walks, talks. We know from recent experience what top class football looks like, how it’s organized, how properly prepared and motivated players perform. And if we go back in time, there are plenty of people around here that remember the days of Toshack senior.
So it appears to me, that if Cooper is the best of the bunch, then the final three were underwhelming and the bunch must have been pretty thin. What happened to Henry ... myth, money, expected to much commitment from the club, or talked at too high a level to be understood?
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Ffs guys , give the man a chance !
He's the one in post , support him and the team . As any manager appointed anywhere he says the things the fans want to hear, so no surprise there.
When he won the cup with the under 17s they played an expansive , high tempo aggressive attacking game. If he can bring that to the last third of the pitch and stiffen our defence he'll do very well.
Yes he's not a megga name but did we want a name that failed somewhere else , playing pullis type dour ball ?
So give the guy till the end of September before unnecessarily slagging him off.
He's the one in post , support him and the team . As any manager appointed anywhere he says the things the fans want to hear, so no surprise there.
When he won the cup with the under 17s they played an expansive , high tempo aggressive attacking game. If he can bring that to the last third of the pitch and stiffen our defence he'll do very well.
Yes he's not a megga name but did we want a name that failed somewhere else , playing pullis type dour ball ?
So give the guy till the end of September before unnecessarily slagging him off.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
We’re not slagging him off. We’re commenting on the situation and what it appears to be versus what was communicated and lessons of seasons past.
We were denied what could have been a promotion season last season because the squad was raped of talent at the very start that would have made our squad one of the strongest in the division. This season coming is the season we should be challenging for promotion and winning or coming runner-up. We lose Potter and James and now have a rookie coach to contend with. That idea gets smacked out of our head.
Pretty football is great on paper, but as we saw last season it doesn’t necessarily translate to points on the table. We need a manager/coach of some substance not only to speak plainly and with some authority to ownership and execs about what the squad needs and why, but also to provide a clear vision, inspiration, and experience during the dog days of the season when games, injuries and suspensions are in abundance and the tricks that triumph in a short tournament with underlings doesn’t translate to a senior season where every bar steward with a set of studs is clawing to deny us a point, or officials for that matter.
We may yet lose players before the season starts. Players not inspired by the Club’s appointment and see a much greener field elsewhere may opt out. Players that we may seek to recruit may be asking their agent why? Is Cooper the guy to convince them that this is where they should play. And as for recruitment, we’ve had nothing but pleas of poverty, if that mantra has been tossed into interviews and Cooper is one of the few that ignored the reality of what may be the Club’s delusion of creating a silk purse from a sow’s year so that he could put a notch on his career belt, how is speaking truth to power going to happen in July when the squad is looking too thin with the loss of James, Fer et al. and replacements fail to materialize because the proposition has no value or the pounds aren’t available.
I’m sure Cooper is a lovely lad and may talk a great game, but this is not a job for a novice Batman Robin duo still having a struggle with how to wear their cape while the crooks and dirty deeds of Gotham go about business as usual.
We were denied what could have been a promotion season last season because the squad was raped of talent at the very start that would have made our squad one of the strongest in the division. This season coming is the season we should be challenging for promotion and winning or coming runner-up. We lose Potter and James and now have a rookie coach to contend with. That idea gets smacked out of our head.
Pretty football is great on paper, but as we saw last season it doesn’t necessarily translate to points on the table. We need a manager/coach of some substance not only to speak plainly and with some authority to ownership and execs about what the squad needs and why, but also to provide a clear vision, inspiration, and experience during the dog days of the season when games, injuries and suspensions are in abundance and the tricks that triumph in a short tournament with underlings doesn’t translate to a senior season where every bar steward with a set of studs is clawing to deny us a point, or officials for that matter.
We may yet lose players before the season starts. Players not inspired by the Club’s appointment and see a much greener field elsewhere may opt out. Players that we may seek to recruit may be asking their agent why? Is Cooper the guy to convince them that this is where they should play. And as for recruitment, we’ve had nothing but pleas of poverty, if that mantra has been tossed into interviews and Cooper is one of the few that ignored the reality of what may be the Club’s delusion of creating a silk purse from a sow’s year so that he could put a notch on his career belt, how is speaking truth to power going to happen in July when the squad is looking too thin with the loss of James, Fer et al. and replacements fail to materialize because the proposition has no value or the pounds aren’t available.
I’m sure Cooper is a lovely lad and may talk a great game, but this is not a job for a novice Batman Robin duo still having a struggle with how to wear their cape while the crooks and dirty deeds of Gotham go about business as usual.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
And on the question of “do we want somebody that’s failed elsewhere”, the short answer is “yes”.
Failure is a powerful teacher. Everybody makes mistakes when they are starting off. Failures, fuckups and adversity is how the strong get stronger and the smart get smarter. The best candidate for a job is not the person that hasn’t so much as had a scratch, but one that carries a few scars ... and the wisdom acquired with them. It is that process that winnows the wheat from the chaff. Neither Rogers nor Sousa nor Laudrup (for that matter) came to us spic and span. The problem with Clement was that he was too spic and span. The problem with Monk .... too much to say.
And here we are again ... spic and span.
I’m not against Cooper. I am annoyed that he’s the best we could recruit. I hope he can figure out how to walk on water and deliver the miracle from what he’s inherited and what he’s not going to be given. He’s going to need to be every bit as good as Sousa was. I hope I have to eat every single word I’ve typed on this thread.
And as for Birch ... he’s quick to talk, but we now know that we need to read carefully between the lines of what he says.
Failure is a powerful teacher. Everybody makes mistakes when they are starting off. Failures, fuckups and adversity is how the strong get stronger and the smart get smarter. The best candidate for a job is not the person that hasn’t so much as had a scratch, but one that carries a few scars ... and the wisdom acquired with them. It is that process that winnows the wheat from the chaff. Neither Rogers nor Sousa nor Laudrup (for that matter) came to us spic and span. The problem with Clement was that he was too spic and span. The problem with Monk .... too much to say.
And here we are again ... spic and span.
I’m not against Cooper. I am annoyed that he’s the best we could recruit. I hope he can figure out how to walk on water and deliver the miracle from what he’s inherited and what he’s not going to be given. He’s going to need to be every bit as good as Sousa was. I hope I have to eat every single word I’ve typed on this thread.
And as for Birch ... he’s quick to talk, but we now know that we need to read carefully between the lines of what he says.
And do we want someone that's failed elsewhere, I think Rodgers answers that question, sacked twice in almost as many months,taken off the dole queue and put us in the Premiership.
Neither am I slagging him off personally, I just feel he's the wrong choice,if anyone needs slagging off its Birch. Do you really think his high tempo attacking game with 16yrolds is also going to work against probably the most ruthless defences in the country the Championship,
With his lack of experience at this or any professional level being Zero. and on those grounds we give him a three year contract, Have we not learned our lesson from that yet? As he seems able to talk the talk,a one year contract should establish as to whether he can walk the walk, bearing in mind he's starting with a squad that know how to play football.
I'm all for giving Cooper a chance and will keep my powder dry until he's had a fair chance to prove himself....... or otherwise. What I do strongly object to is the awarding of a THREE YEAR contract. This guy is unproven and should have been given a one year contract with an option for an extension should he show genuine signs of promise.
There again I don't know how much he is being paid and, if it's comparative peanuts, then paying off his contract might be affordable. All that said, I don't know why but I have a feeling that this might work out. He obviously likes to coach our style of football and that will please the players for a start. He must have learned a few wrinkles from his time at Liverpool and England, even with the kids, and I'm hoping that he'll have a few contacts at Liverpool who might be inclined to look favourably on him to develop a promising player or two on loan.
There again I don't know how much he is being paid and, if it's comparative peanuts, then paying off his contract might be affordable. All that said, I don't know why but I have a feeling that this might work out. He obviously likes to coach our style of football and that will please the players for a start. He must have learned a few wrinkles from his time at Liverpool and England, even with the kids, and I'm hoping that he'll have a few contacts at Liverpool who might be inclined to look favourably on him to develop a promising player or two on loan.
Borini
Key Player
Yes we can play our home games on fantasy Island.