Poll: Who do you want most as our next manager?

[Ginolaflair]

Esher Stairs FC

In other news:
Water is wet,
Sissoko has the first touch of a toblerone and
cretinousgoat is great at swears and threats (love you goat!)

EDIT: Oh...and sammyspurs loves a red card

 

[Juicy Sushi]

It's changed a lot in recent years and continues to.

Liverpool went from dumb to very smart since the time Poch arrived at Spurs.
Chelsea went from dumb to kinda-sorta smart.
City went from smart-ish to fully formed best run club on earth.
Leicester was always smart but gained massive resources to work with.
Everton's still dumb but they have Spurs-level money if not more to work with.
Villa got smart, West Ham got semi-smart.

The degree of technical sophistication both in coaching and in scouting and recruitment at PL clubs is night and day versus what it was even 10 years ago. The PL isn't dumber than the continent anymore, it's the other way around if anything.

Some of these clubs got smarter, some did not, but that's not the whole league, and is not an argument that we shouldn't be trying to be much smarter. We could be, for less than we currently spend, in all likelihood. I think the case is that there is still a lot of inefficiencies that can be eliminated, and we could do it. But the club don't have that approach on their radar it seems.

 

[Ginolaflair]

Oh look: more made up shit on twitter! We NEEEEEEEEEED an embargo

 

[MasonBall]

So do we have the cash to pay a manager out of their contract? If we do then why didn't we spend it on Poch? If we don't then does that mean that even the likes of ten Hag and Potter are off the table?

Assuming that we aren't looking to spend any money on buying out a managers contract who does that leave? Sarri seems to be signing for Napoli so would Paratici look to bring in Montella? Southgate or Martinez if they leave after the Euros? Valverde?

 

[Juicy Sushi]

true but if you have insane amounts of money and I mean money to pay big transfers/agent fees/wages you get more easily get the best players who are far less likely to fail and even if they do you can sell them quickly at a loss and get someone else in. It completely changes the dynamic, you can throw shit at a wall continuously until it sticks, see City and Chelsea.

There are ways around it if you don’t have vast wealth and that is to be like Leicester or to some degree even Liverpool and have a very smart in terms of training/system/use of youth players/scouting etc but for that you need a clear and well thought out vision. Something Poch did for the club and made us look a lot better for but even that requires some good degree of backing.

I don't think Poch did that for the club. If anything, I think he was an impediment in us being smarter because he wanted a lot of control. But we don't need to spend a fuckton to do that, we just need a plan and to stick with it. The club have a lot of natural advantages which can be leveraged, but you need to commit to the plan. We're lacking in that.

 

[Juicy Sushi]

We'll see.

It seems a lot of what Brentford did was bring in guys that were talented and needed time to develop, being in the Championship allowed them to do that. It will be much harder for them to identify those same players and have them develop in the PL to the sell on and fund their system.

Maybe they are smarter than everyone else and will be able to do it, but they would be far from the first team to have a good set-up in the Championship and then see it doesn't work as well when they get to the PL.

They seemed pretty good at finding guys who didn't need time to develop, like Jota, Benrhama, and Tovey. They might not be able to find as many guys who can do that at PL level, or perhaps they can, since they know they have a guaranteed pot of money to spend that would let them get those players previously out of their range.

Even if they went back down, the set-up would still put them in good stead as it would mean they wouldn't be financially fucked, and could still function. That's the key thing about good plans, they protect you on the downside.

One of the few things Levy has done well on the player side is the way our contracts are always heavily incentive-based, so the risks are much more minimized in a bad year.

 

[Brian Fantana]

Oh look: more made up shit on twitter! We NEEEEEEEEEED an embargo

It’s the aggregators that are the biggest cunts

 

[Nutter-Naylor]

Conte ended by Levy.

 

[Igula]

If things are as we hope they are there should be a lot of action happening in very short order.

I will admit that I am like being a little impatient but after all the shit I just want something positive to latch onto, and I don't see the appointment of Paratici to be a positive so that doesn't work.

Even something small like Aurier is officially gone to PSG or Moura is gone to that Saudi club he was linked to in that likely bogus report last week. At least that shows we are moving forward. Even better would be something like we added Kulesevski or Demiral so I can excitedly over analyze them in Euro's.

One of the best parts of the Conte saga was getting back to talking about formations, tactics, players that could work under him.

 

[Elias]

Pep doesn't say who he wants. He says WHAT he wants.

For example, Ruben Dias, signing of the summer, right? Pep wasn't spending his very scarce time scouting CB's all over the continent. In working with his technical staff it was clear a CB was needed, Txiki Begiristain and his staff identified Dias as someone with the qualities necessary to thrive in the kind of football the whole operation has been built around playing, and Begiristain went out and made the deal.

Pep is a figure of such stature at City that if he wanted to kill the deal, I dunno, he probably could have (maybe not, who knows). But why would he? He is in full alignment with City's technical staff who he worked with at Barcelona and who brought him to the club, and there is total trust in both directions.

Maybe it is Pep that wants Kane, but if the cost in money and/or players doesn't fit with City's project, it's not going to happen. It would only get to that point if there was alignment between all the relevant parties anyway, and a deal of that magnitude obviously bears a higher degree of scrutiny.

A manager going to the board and saying "get me player X and player Y" is dinosaur age stuff.

But this is where the theoretical model of the DoF hires the head coach & identifies the talent breaks down.

Pep basically to Shitty said "I want Txiki as DoF".

Just as with the NFL General Manager model, the most successful head coaches basically hire GMs who work for them. Eg Belichick, Kyle Shanahan.

Pep won't be saying "Mr DoF, please buy me a striker with these characteristics", which is what Ramos said to Monchi when they bought Fredi Kanoute from us, & he was perfect for their system. That was a genuine DoF - Head Coach system.

Pep will be saying "Txiki, mate, buy me Kane or Haaland - no one else is acceptable."

 

[Ginolaflair]

It’s the aggregators that are the biggest cunts

Aggregators?

 

[Igula]

They seemed pretty good at finding guys who didn't need time to develop, like Jota, Benrhama, and Tovey. They might not be able to find as many guys who can do that at PL level, or perhaps they can, since they know they have a guaranteed pot of money to spend that would let them get those players previously out of their range.

Even if they went back down, the set-up would still put them in good stead as it would mean they wouldn't be financially fucked, and could still function. That's the key thing about good plans, they protect you on the downside.

One of the few things Levy has done well on the player side is the way our contracts are always heavily incentive-based, so the risks are much more minimized in a bad year.

I don't think any of those guys were ready to step into the PL when they were bought the development time was at the Championship, not time to develop into Championship level. I think it is easier to get players at that level then get guys who can play in the PL and develop into better players.

I think they have a good plan and agree if they go down they aren't likely to be screwed, I just thin k they may be a club that is great in the Championship, but struggles to translate it to the PL.

 

[enfield1985]

Conte ended by Levy.

I think Conte was using us as bait to try and get either the PSG or Real Madrid jobs. To be honest I never wanted Conte it felt like we will be here again in two years at least and that is what we just had in Mourinho. Conte may be a better coach but it would still be a short term appointment.

 

[Igula]

But this is where the theoretical model of the DoF hires the head coach & identifies the talent breaks down.

Pep basically to Shitty said "I want Txiki as DoF".

Just as with the NFL General Manager model, the most successful head coaches basically hire GMs who work for them. Eg Belichick, Kyle Shanahan.

Pep won't be saying "Mr DoF, please buy me a striker with these characteristics", which is what Ramos said to Monchi when they bought Fredi Kanoute from us, & he was perfect for their system. That was a genuine DoF - Head Coach system.

Pep will be saying "Txiki, mate, buy me Kane or Haaland - no one else is acceptable."

Kane is a bit of an extreme outlier though.

Do you think that Pep said "get me Ferlan Torres and no one else is acceptable"? Or Zack Steffen?

 

[Sir Archibald Crooks]

Not even annoyed with this anymore, just bored. They've made this search so convoluted and ridiculous whoever comes in now its just....meh whatever.

 

[FightingIllini]

Kane is a bit of an extreme outlier though.

Do you think that Pep said "get me Ferlan Torres and no one else is acceptable"? Or Zack Steffen?

Pep absolutely was watching internet streams of the Columbus Crew in the middle of the night to see Zack Steffen.

 

[Dr Rocktopus]

With every passing hour Bob Martinez's gormless face edges further into view.

 

[Elias]

Kane is a bit of an extreme outlier though.

Do you think that Pep said "get me Ferlan Torres and no one else is acceptable"? Or Zack Steffen?

But Steffen is a back-up keeper & Ferlan Torres is a promising young Spanish player, so I'm sure Pep is happy to evaluate the scouting recommendations.

Kane or Haaland would be first choice striker in Pep's system, so he's going to tell Txiki who he wants. Because he's seen enough to make his own evaluation.

 

[Igula]

But Steffen is a back-up keeper & Ferlan Torres is a promising young Spanish player, so I'm sure Pep is happy to evaluate the scouting recommendations.

Kane or Haaland would be first choice striker in Pep's system, so he's going to tell Txiki who he wants. Because he's seen enough to make his own evaluation.

I think when it came to Jesus and Aguero he likely did the same thing left it mainly up to the scouting staff and they were starting strikers as well.

Kane and Haaland are top 5 transfer in the world which is why he would be more involved. You make those deals maybe once every 5 years, even a club like City.

 

[FightingIllini]

Pep basically to Shitty said "I want Txiki as DoF".

This is false. Txiki was brought in with Ferran Soriano in 2012 to build a Barcelona-like operation at City, and his first managerial hire was Manuel Pellegrini.

Of course it was always obvious that City would love for Pep to coach them and had the resources to make it work, but that was a settled and already title-winning technical department that went out at hired Pep to take charge of the team several years later.

Pep will be saying "Txiki, mate, buy me Kane or Haaland - no one else is acceptable."

And if the deals can't be done, they'll figure it out, someone else will be acceptable.

For the caliber of player they sign and the amount of money they spend, there has been remarkably little protracted transfer drama at that club. Which serves as proof that Pep is not actually charging in with "this specific galactico or nothing" type demands. That's not really his personality anyway.