Over the years on here I've been accused at times of being a 'Levy lover' or an 'ENIC lover' or whatever other nonsense the idiots on here say, but whatever good things I may attribute to them, the one thing they've always been totally clueless at is recruiting managers. (Btw I don't necessarily think we've been any worse at recruiting players than your average other club, there will always be some hits and more misses). My issue is that we don't seem to take any notice of the potential manager's typical style of play, nor the make-up of the squad that the outgoing manager has assembled, so instead we lurch from one style to another (or indeed to no style at all sometimes...), with a squad that never fits, which is just unforgiveable at this level.
I do understand what I perceive to have been the thought process behind some of the appointments after Poch:
(Not my words above obviously, but how I expect the board looked at it).
- Mourinho - "Poch has taken us so far, but is not a proven winner, that's what we need to get over the line"
- (Nuno - doesn't really count as he was a desperate last resort after failing to get many others)
- Conte - "Mourinho was a winner but he wasn't tough enough, Conte is a tough winner"
- Ange - "Conte turned out to be a coward who took no responsibility for anything and basically set light to the club on his way out, also both he and Mourinho played boring football, fuck these arrogant 'super managers', let's just get someone who will play attacking football"
- Frank - "Ange was recklessly attacking, let's get someone more stable"
...and on it goes. So personally whilst I was reasonably ok with Frank being appointed, was eager to see his alleged ability to adapt for (and indeed during) games to get the best out of the squad and focus on opposition shortcomings, and hence still hope he will turn a corner and start improving us, he is still yet another wild lurch from one style of manager to a completely different style of manager (when surely what we all really wanted in a new manager was Postecoglou's attacking intent but without the ludicrous naivety and with some, well, actual coaching... whoever that might have been...)
I could see the logic of appointing him in the summer though. A manager not set in his ways with one style but one who is meant to be pragmatic and would change tactics as and when. The problem has been that he has done it too much and seem to focus on other teams and not us. I suspect he has been told in no uncertain terms now that he has to work on the team more. The fact that has come out in the press this week that the players are worried we don’t is actually a good thing as it means that there is a discussion. If he is talking to the players then that’s great if he is taking on some of their thoughts. That is good management and something some of our previous managers haven’t done in the past which has contributed to them losing their jobs.