Sign Russell Martin and stick with him

CroJack

Key Player
Russell Martin is obviously the manager with whom I share footballing philosophy.

Some quotes (taken from WOL):

"This talk of a plan B, I don't understand what people mean. What they mean is, put a big guy up front. It's not happening, this style of play (our style of play) scores us a record goal and I feel strongly about this. It's a myth that that's the problem, it's not.
Our style of play gets us to the box three times more than the opposition, double the amount of touches in the opposition box.
I'm getting angry because it just gets thrown at us all the time.
Ultimately, I believe fundamentally in how the game should be played.
We won eight in 11 playing in the same way and then no one throws anything at you about the style of play, and then all of a sudden it's 'you need a plan B'. No. We need to get better at what we do. We need to solve more problems, being us with the identity we want to have at the football club, otherwise, you're just completely outcome based and every single result changes how you feel about the players, the club and the process.
I'm not going to do that because my job is to be consistent with what we are doing because fundamentally I believe in it and I believe in the players.
I have a real strong belief that they can be really brilliant. Really top.
I've said all the way along this season, the expectation is to improve and progress. We are doing that and come the end of the season that's when we will be judged.
After that, the expectation will I'm sure change again next year.
But fundamentally, have we improved the players? Yes. Have we improved the style of play? Yes. have we got an identity? Yes.
Do we still need to find solutions for a lot of problems? Of course we do.
Every team is capable of losing. We have something that is clear, it's consistent that everyone buys into, and ultimately I think we will be successful."

Amen. That's a manager I want.
 
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Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Defender Zak Jules commented on Martin's style of play, stating: "The way we play, we almost demoralise teams. We keep the ball so much that when teams do get the chance to keep possession – they’ve got no legs and, within no time, we’ve got the ball back and they don’t see the ball again for a while."

Seems like I heard something along these lines from Britton after Martínez took over.
 

CroJack

Key Player
Pass them to death. Oh happy days, we thought they’d never end.
Keeping the ball is good, because you don't allow opposition to attack and put you under pressure constantly (something we have seen a lot under Cooper), but this is more important:

"Our style of play gets us to the box three times more than the opposition, double the amount of touches in the opposition box."

This means that we, if we appoint Russell Martin, won't see backward passing only but also forward thinking football. We'll create more chances and we'll have more shots than opposition.

And this:

"...within no time, we’ve got the ball back..."

This means high pressing. I've never heard Steve Cooper talking about the importance of pressing, and under Cooper we used to apply pressing sporadically.
 
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ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
There's no question that Russell Martin best suits our DNA and should be the logical choice. He also has management experience that Jody Morris does not. BUT BUT, we'd have to pay some compensation for Martin whilst Morris comes free. Guess who our cheapskates would prefer?
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Jody Morris would be lower on my list than Toshack and Martin. I would put TJ before Morris.

I saw a video last night of TJ talking about Mourinho's coaching style, work ethic and practices as manager of Chelsea. Mourinho was revolutionary at Chelsea when he arrived. TJ was, as was Lampard and others, overwhelmed by, bought into and absorbed the Mourinho methodology. TJ carries that pedigree with him today. In 2009, during a summer tournament, I had the chance to watch back to back practice sessions by Inter and AC Milan. Mourinho was managing Inter. The difference between the structure, efficiency and application between the two sessions was stark - in comparison to Inter, AC's session was a shambles. In the match between the two teams the following day, the teams played exactly as they had practiced. Inter was clinical and won the match with relative ease despite AC having a team of stars.

If we could land TJ, we'd be in a very good position.
 
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CroJack

Key Player
Murinho is an excellent tactician, so is Pep.

Mourinho doesn't compromise when it comes to work ethic, neither does Pep.

But I am pretty sure if you gave both managers a similar squad Pep would win 8 out of 10 times. Interestingly, it's Mourinho who is obsessed with the results, and Pep is obsessed with his style of football. Mourinho has never had a problem with parking the bus if that was in his opinion the best way to win a game. Pep, on the other hand, has always known that his superior style of football would give him wins on a consistent basis. His teams, unlike Mourinho's, don't need to be clinical. They create so many chances that 4:0, 5:0, 6:0 is not an exception to the rule. It's a rule. While Mourinho tries to steal a win, Pep destroys opposing teams. Whilst Mourinho doesn't care about possession, Pep does. Whilst Mourinho's teams are well organised defensively, Pep says he doesn't know what defending means. Whilst Mourinho loves to have a big and strong striker up front, Pep prefers pace and technical ability. Whilst for Mourinho's teams hoofing is something normal, Pep's teams always play from the back. Whilst Mourinho doesn't care much about high pressing, Pep's football is nothing without high pressing.

So, if John Terry's teams play similar football to Mourinho's teams, then it's a big no from me.
 

CroJack

Key Player
Some media reports say Russell Martin has turned down the Swans offer to become our manager. This is not a surpise, every manager wants a proper pre-season with the squad.

I didn't know this. Last season MK Dons were ranked the third best team in Europe in terms of possession stats, only behind Barcelona and Manchester City.
 

KVetch

Key Player
Yes a lot of reports all but confirmed he doesn't want the job. Chris Wilder is now the rumour but I would expect him to turn it down as well. 2 managers have turned us down. That's a big worry. They let Cooper go without any plan, I thought it would be arranged so there's no gap like this.

I hate our owners so much.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Look at this another way ... the more the Club is rejected, the better the odds of Toshack coming home (if he actually wants the job). On the the other hand, the great the possibility that we're stuck with Tate.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
I wonder whether we are being turned down because of comp to other clubs or because the candidate is not being allowed to bring assistants with him
 

Jackflash

Midfield General
Staff member
I wonder whether we are being turned down because of comp to other clubs or because the candidate is not being allowed to bring assistants with him
Or too many penny pinching contract clauses by the yanks, seems they all reject us when it comes down to the late nitty gritty bits in discussions.
 

Jackflash

Midfield General
Staff member
I wonder whether we are being turned down because of comp to other clubs or because the candidate is not being allowed to bring assistants with him
would seem like they would have to allow that being the Cooper faithful followed him..
 
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