New head coach.

[morty]

Seeing lots about Gary Monk, thoughts?

Will be amusing to see dirty Leeds reinstated as our feeder club once more

 

[GJP]

Yes please.

 

[OldRobert]

I can't say I know a huge amount about him.  He's certainly done very well with UghLeeds this season.  I do prefer him to the other names that have been bandied about, particularly elsewhere.

 

[hogesar]

Well, I'm up for anything that winds up Leeds fans. The fact he's actually pretty good at his job is purely a bonus!

 

[rbf]

Monk, if it´s he, would be a good choice

But too early yet, to start to rejoice,

And in my opinion much better by far

Than lower League residing, one Uwe R.

 

[dj161]

preventing Leeds from winning on Saturday would essentially end their playoff hopes and would go a long way to increase our chances of getting him, would certainly be high up on my list of potential suitors, lets hope we can get the chant of 'there's only one Gary Monk' going on saturday, much like Villa did to us with Lambert

 

[Canaryboy]

Heckingbottom would be my first choice.

 

[morty]

Heckingbottom would be my first choice.

Not a name I have heard bandied, but interesting.

 

[dj161]

Not a name I have heard bandied, but interesting.

he was heavily linked when we sacked Neil, certainly got the best out of his Barnsley squad, took them up and then to a comfortable mid table finish, I certainly wouldn't be against him, though I've not heard too much of that rumour in recent weeks

 

[GJP]

Not sure. Barnsley let in a lot of goals. Only 6 sides have conceded more (us being one). Is Heckingbottom the man to tighten us up?

Unsurprisingly Brighton and Newcastle have the small numbers in the goals against column. They are also the only two sides to have conceded less than Leeds...

 

[Canaryboy]

Barnsley were 7th until they lost Hourihane, Bree, and Winnall in January. Selling club. 

 

[GJP]

If they hadn't have sold them do you think they'd have finished 7th or higher?

I don't. 

 

[Canaryboy]

If they hadn't have sold them do you think they'd have finished 7th or higher?

I don't. 

The counter question would be... if we sold our best centre midfielder, top goalscorer, and best right back in January, do you think we could avoided slipping down the league like Barnsley in the second half of the season. For arguments sake, lets say that this would be selling Howson, Pinto, and Jerome. 

Barnsley finishing in the top 6 is probably the equivalent of us finishing in the top 10 in the Premier League. Possible but way beyond realistic expectations in the medium term.

I do know that if they stay in 14th or above that will be the highest they have been in the league system for 17 years, and that the transfer fees paid for their entire squad amount to significantly less than the fee we paid for Pritchard alone. 

 

[GJP]

I can see what you're saying but I just think we need to be looking at someone who can sort out the defence and has experience operating at the top end of this league or better.

And also, despite the change in structure, someone who players will play for. In terms of both on the pitch and attracting them to the club. I was pretty sure not long after Wembley that AN was not that man. Though Heckingbottom may well have a better way about him.

 

[Canaryboy]

There are Norwich fans advocating Uwe Rosler, do these fans not realise that he managed to f*ck up Wigan's second season on parachute payments. 

I do think Monk is a decent enough suggestion though. 

I would prefer either of Monk and Heckingbottom over a manager who doesn't already have experience in English football (e.g. Hudson). 

Wagner at Huddersfield too. 

Its interesting actually that all four of Heckingbottom, Rosler, Monk, and Wagner are all 'head coaches' in their current roles, and all doing well, really does show that this is the way football is going. 

Also shows Alex Neil to be far less progressive than was being made out when we appointed him, because he was publicly insistent that he wouldn't come here as a 'head coach' but would want full control. He may find that his opportunities are limited if he doesn't change that stance. It actually makes him sound very old school. 

Good article about Heckingbottom here by the way:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/football-league-blog/2017/feb/13/paul-heckingbottom-barnsley-mission-impossible-championship

 

[GJP]

Yup. Well I never saw anything progressive about AN anyway. Because of his young age people came to the conclusion he was bright and full of ideas. Actually he's more like a manager with 20-30 years under their belt stuck in their ways and stuck in the past.

 

[Canaryboy]

He came from a level where it remains possible for managers to have 'full control', because their all skint so have no choice and there is less to manage. Reminds me of that Barry Fry documentary from the 90's where he was the chairman, manager, and majority shareholder, and would do 80 hour weeks trying to hold it all together. That's how I imagine things to be like at clubs like Hamilton, where you get into a panic because the gate was 100 lower than usual and that £1500 is the money you needed to hire the coach and a b&b for your long trip to Inverness the following Saturday. 

 

[morty]

The counter question would be... if we sold our best centre midfielder, top goalscorer, and best right back in January, do you think we could avoided slipping down the league like Barnsley in the second half of the season. For arguments sake, lets say that this would be selling Howson, Pinto, and Jerome. 

Barnsley finishing in the top 6 is probably the equivalent of us finishing in the top 10 in the Premier League. Possible but way beyond realistic expectations in the medium term.

I do know that if they stay in 14th or above that will be the highest they have been in the league system for 17 years, and that the transfer fees paid for their entire squad amount to significantly less than the fee we paid for Pritchard alone. 

I think though sometimes it can be about expectation of your board and your fans that can shape perceptions of success. For instance there is probably considerably less pressure and expectation in managing Barnsley than there is at Norwich. Barnsley know they aren't going to win the league, or probably even bother the play offs, so in some ways there is very little pressure in a job like that. In some ways similar to when Alex Neil came here in his first season, sure there was pressure, but the type of "untried in this league" manager he was meant that there wasn't a huge weight of expectation.

I think too much is made of wanting a manager who can do things on a shoestring, because we really aren't in that position. For instance, I rate Mick Mccarthy, but if we gave him 20 million to spend, would he know what to do with it?

 

[Canaryboy]

Ha, nearly got my head kicked in for daring to suggest that Barnsley are the type of team that will always yo-yo between League One and the Champs by an angry Barnsley fan who effectively said that they definitely had an automatic right to be permanent members of the Championship and suggested I looked at their history.

Yesterday my taxi driver (picked me up from outside Barnsley station) said that he didn't go to games because its a disgrace how they sold players in January and their ticket prices are extortionate, pretty sure you can often get a ticket for about £20 and those players were all out of contract in the summer. So don't be fooled into thinking that Barnsley fans are grounded in realism and take a more pragmatic approach just because they are tinpot, they are by and large a bunch of morons. They do really hate Leeds though, I'll give them credit for that. 

To some degree Alex Neil created his own pressure in the way that he spent his transfer budget. I think the way he dropped £8m on Pritchard and then never gave him a proper run in the team is going to look progressively more stupid by the month for a sustained period of time, hopefully climaxing this time next year when our promotion is confirmed and Pritchard has had a whole season taking the p*ss and scoring a worldie every two or three weeks. 

 

[Canaryboy]

May be right about it being a bit early for Heckingbottom though, next logical step for him may be a move like Leeds or Huddersfield to replace Monk or Wagner if they leave?