The Head Coach Thread.

[Borodane 1,465]

I believe Howson to be a decent, technically able footballer. Some of his goals for Norwich were spectacular!

 

IMO, the team is setup wrong - that lies with the manager. I'm still not convinced we need Clayton to purely protect the backline. Look at Villa on Saturday, they played 3 attack minded midfielders in the middle of the park and were rewarded for it.

 

We try to keep the tempo very low so we don't come out of shape.

 

My son doesn't like going anymore because it's boring. Who can blame him! I'm going purely down to the routine of going to the match for the last 20 years. Not because I enjoy it anymore.

 

I would like the club to develope an identity and stick to it. What happened to promoting from the academy? We seem to be giving them away without an opportunity. Chapman looks like the next one to depart.

 

We haven’t exactly given anyone away en recent years that have gone on to make it. We have Fry and Tav playing regularly directly from the academy and quite a few others have been given their debut this season. I like academy products but not for the sake of it. They have to be good enough and sadly it looks like injuries has done a number on Chapman.

[SmogDane 1,275]

I think what he means, is we have lost quite a few names from the academy, including players we signed shortly before. That Finnish guy to name one.

 

There was a few others, who were sold in the last 2-3 years.

 

But we might have made a profit.

[Borodane 1,465]

I think what he means, is we have lost quite a few names from the academy, including players we signed shortly before. That Finnish guy to name one.

 

There was a few others, who were sold in the last 2-3 years.

 

But we might have made a profit.

 

So? We can’t keep them all for the sake of it. They clearly haven’t been good enough. Who was the last academy player we let go that was a mistake? Brunt? Maybe Graham?

[Tom 409]

I think what he means, is we have lost quite a few names from the academy, including players we signed shortly before. That Finnish guy to name one.

 

There was a few others, who were sold in the last 2-3 years.

 

But we might have made a profit.

 

So? We can’t keep them all for the sake of it. They clearly haven’t been good enough. Who was the last academy player we let go that was a mistake? Brunt? Maybe Graham?

 

Probably Morrison to be honest. Brunt would never have got in the team ahead of Downing and Johnson, and we obviously wouldn't have been planning for relegation, and likewise with Graham. You could argue that was a mistake because the other strikers we had (Mido/Lee/Alves) were all rubbish.

Morrison was actually around the first team.

[Duvel 1,039]

A good article from the Gazette about our attacking failings so far.

 

https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/transfers-alone-wont-necessarily-cure-15497478.amp?__twitter_impression=true

[Borodane 1,465]

I think what he means, is we have lost quite a few names from the academy, including players we signed shortly before. That Finnish guy to name one.

 

There was a few others, who were sold in the last 2-3 years.

 

But we might have made a profit.

 

So? We can’t keep them all for the sake of it. They clearly haven’t been good enough. Who was the last academy player we let go that was a mistake? Brunt? Maybe Graham?

 

Probably Morrison to be honest. Brunt would never have got in the team ahead of Downing and Johnson, and we obviously wouldn't have been planning for relegation, and likewise with Graham. You could argue that was a mistake because the other strikers we had (Mido/Lee/Alves) were all rubbish.

Morrison was actually around the first team.

 

I did think about Morrison, but at the time we did get a decent amount of money for him and we probably thought we could have gotten better quality to replace him (Digard?). In hindsight it was a bad deal though. Of the academy players we have let go on a free and have since gone on to make it on the big stage I can't mention anyone besides Brunt.

 

I'd say the people at the academy are fairly good at assessing the potential of our youngsters.

[Essuuaitch 117]

in fairness BD youre right in that apart from Morrison and Brunt hardly any of them have gone on to have an impact anywhere .  where i have a slight issue though is in the earlier stages of thier progression. theres numerous instances over the last 20 odd years of potential talent , the latest being Harry Chapman,  too many to hawk my memory bank  but im sure between us we could come up with more than a dozen in no time, that we never really had the courage or inclination to give a  decent enough chance in the first team to.  One that i will mention was Josh Walker ,ok for one reason or another he never fulfilled his talent but i remember watching him captain the english under 19.s in a major tournament  as a central defender btw and he was head and shoulders above  the rest  which included players who are or have been premier league regulars since. We never trusted him enough to do anymore than have the odd bench experience .

[Downsouth 1,455]

And still after all these years we have yet to see a proper striker being included within the first team from our supposed famed academy

[SouthernSmoggie 417]

I would have no idea who we should replace him with. Is anyone decent actually available. Putting emotions aside the best bet is probably to keep Pulis until his contract is up at the end of the season. We have the defensive part of the squad in place so we only have to look at attacking reinforcements. Everyone can see that we are lacking pace and technique so that at least narrows our search down for january. Just make sure that it's either loans or players that a new manager can actually use, making it important that we don't sign someone like Puncheon on a three year deal.

 

In order of preference:

1. A manager at a foreign team who would drop down a level for the potential to build a promotion side a la Farke, Wagner, Nuno, (can add Karanka too). I do not have an encyclopedic knowledge of European football but there must be someone in the German, Spanish, French, Portugese, Dutch leagues whose head could be turned by Boro. Are Hudders and Norwich that much more attractive than us, if at all?

2. Probably loads of lower league managers doing well, choose one with a great reputation whose team plays the most like we would like to. Again, I don't know who, but I don't run a football club. There must be some League 1 or 2 coaches earmarked for big things.

3. Some managers available already like Jokanovic and Quique Sanches Florez, probably more out there too - that's just top of my head

4. Poach Mowbray, or another Champ manager in the Summer who has had a good season and would fancy a promotion challenge

 

Edit: said the exact same thing about points 1 and 2 when we sacked Monk, hence being immensely disappointed at what we ended up with.

 

Totally agree, we should be looking abroad especially when a foreign manager will most likely have contacts overseas for identifying players. I said the same when we were looking to replace Agnew.

 

Unfortunately we seem to have closed the door on foreigners since Karanka which rules out a lot of talent.

 

Yep there is a huge pool of talent out there and I have serious doubts as to whether the club has even bothered to look. Just wanted the first 'propah british football man' who was available. Even though our most recent success had come from gambling on an up and coming young foreign coach...

[Neverbefore 1,264]

I said in the summer that we weren't being linked to a single non domestic player and I don't see that changing.

 

I think the dressing room division in the last few months of karankas reign has put Gibson off, which is silly really, or maybe it's fear of the effects of brexit which is equally silly imo. No one is successful from only buying domestically.

[SouthernSmoggie 417]

I said in the summer that we weren't being linked to a single non domestic player and I don't see that changing.

 

I think the dressing room division in the last few months of karankas reign has put Gibson off, which is silly really, or maybe it's fear of the effects of brexit which is equally silly imo. No one is successful from only buying domestically.

 

Completely agree, why willingly cut yourself off from an enormous market. Football is global now, and British players are overpriced if anything. It made me laugh when the club and Pulis claimed 'There are no wingers available'... what, really? In the top 2 divisions throughout the whole of Europe there was not one or two fast direct players who would double their wages to move here? Surely someone was worth a gamble with the £7m we wasted on another centre midfielder! I'm positive they only scouted Premier League and Championship players - and only managers who had managed in one of those two leagues.

[Borodane 1,465]

in fairness BD youre right in that apart from Morrison and Brunt hardly any of them have gone on to have an impact anywhere .  where i have a slight issue though is in the earlier stages of thier progression. theres numerous instances over the last 20 odd years of potential talent , the latest being Harry Chapman,  too many to hawk my memory bank  but im sure between us we could come up with more than a dozen in no time, that we never really had the courage or inclination to give a  decent enough chance in the first team to.  One that i will mention was Josh Walker ,ok for one reason or another he never fulfilled his talent but i remember watching him captain the english under 19.s in a major tournament  as a central defender btw and he was head and shoulders above  the rest  which included players who are or have been premier league regulars since. We never trusted him enough to do anymore than have the odd bench experience .

 

You can't really fault the club for all of Chapmans injuries. We've loaned him out to decent clubs the past few seasons to get competitive action but every time he has been injured. This year Pulis has included him in the first team and played him in the cup and once again he got injured. I think it was Humpty who said in the summer that Chapman wasn't going out on loan because the club thought very highly of him. However it seems like a story of one injury too many. I don't think his lack of opportunities here are down to the management not believing in him but rather due to him never really being fit enough. Tav has been playing regularly so it's not like we are opposed to playing talent. Granted it's a lot harder to include them when you are battling relegation in the Prem, but we haven't had many shining lights over the past 5-10 years. Those that have shown enough promise to take the step up to the senior pros have been given theor chances; Gibson, Fry, Tav to name a few and we've already given debuts to 16 year old Woods and 17 year old Walker.

[Jamie-H 756]

If we go foreign for a manager it won't be straight from abroad like Aitor it would be a guy who's already been in England and the chance we put another foreign director in Gary Gill's role I mean... there's just no way I'd imagine if not Gill we'd get another British guy in that spot above a manager the knives that came out after Aitor and Orta left were something else I still can't believe the smears that came out just to try and shore up Agnew/Bausor and others as we slid out of the PL.

 

Gibson broke club policy to buy Monk and Monk's backroom out of contract that won't happen again either short answer to who's next is someone out of work but outside of that I'm not sure.

[SmogDane 1,275]

In denmark there is a lot of talking, about the arguable best manager Kasper Hjulmand leaving his club FC Nordsjælland.

 

You might know zero about him, but he has a nice style of positive goal scoring football and he has worked incredibly hard and well, to get a lot of youngsters through the academy in to the first team and further on to bigger clubs.

 

Example of a Hjulmand player is Emiliano Marcondes in Brentford.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/emiliano-marcondes/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/232964

 

What do you say, Stephan?

[mendieta420 392]

Steve Gibson is right to worry about Brexit (as every business is). Haulage companies are right in the firing line. Bulkhaul are going to hugely suffer, at least for a few years. I wouldn't be surprised if we had to go back to cutting costs as a club.