| This McGreal / Col U business 19:10 - Jul 14 with 756 views | Wacko |
It seems like the club have identified a clear strategy going forwards, and are committed to appointing someone who fits that strategy, regardless of how 'good' other candidates / incumbents are.
This should be the way forwards for every club: fit the manager to the strategy, not the strategy to the manager. Sadly we / ME never do that! |  |
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| This McGreal / Col U business on 19:18 - Jul 14 with 730 views | PJH |
Good idea and if the strategy is to win football matches then all you need is a manager that wins football matches.
Simples. |  | | |
| This McGreal / Col U business on 19:21 - Jul 14 with 709 views | Swansea_Blue |
I’ve not been paying attention. What’s their strategy and why have they got rid of McGreal? |  |
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| This McGreal / Col U business on 15:50 - Jul 15 with 520 views | TieDyedIn95 |
I would say in the case of Mick McCarthy, Paul Hurst and Paul Lambert that all 3 of those managers fit perfectly with what we were/are trying to achieve at the time of appointment.
Mick was hired to steer us clear of relegation, settle the ship and work around the budget limitations the owner implemented post 2012 when our finances had really become a mess after Keane/Jewell and he achieved just that. He kept the club ticking within the budget he was set each season.
Paul Hurst was hired to recruit a younger team from the lower divisions, improve the entertainment value of the football meanwhile also working within the same financial structure as Mick. Evans realised this wasn’t working early on and brought in Jon Walters and attempted to bring back McAuley to try and add that experience and top flight pedigree into the mix as it was clear early on that Hurst, and his signings were duds but Hurst did comply with what Evans himself publicly set out to achieve post-Mick.
Paul Lambert was brought in to bring back some of the spirit and community to the club during a relegation fight to keep the fans on side when the club desperately needed them, meanwhile maintaining financial prudence and to continue to develop younger players while relying less on external signings and loans in terms of a long term strategy.
As a club during the relegation season it was clear we were not going to throw the kitchen sink at trying to stay up both in terms of the players Lambert brought in during the mid-season window, as it was it was clear that the "young and exciting" recruitment strategy from the lower leagues, along with a number of loan players had failed, and we simply didn't have the quality to make a fight of it anyway and I think Lambert knew that.
Lambert performed the role he was hired for perfectly in this scenario, even at the last game of the season where we beat Leeds 3-2 there was hope, optimism and you’d have thought we had gone up, not down that game. Many supporters renewed or returned the following season after years of remaining at home off of the back of the renewal of spirit Lambert had created at the club.
Lamberts overall goal this season was revealed to be the Playoffs, which is put down by the club as being narrowly missed out on due to a “bad month”. But again he has complied broadly with the overall (and continuing) strategy of working within the budget so we don’t spend ourselves into trouble while developing younger players, limiting loans and when we do sign players at all, it’s players within that budget and players of a certain age/potential. This strategy did not work, and it was clear we lacked 2 or 3 quality players to really make the difference. On the pitch the performances this season matched my expectations given that we are a younger side in a cynical league, our two senior players in Chambers and Skuse are in their mid-30’s now and that even players like Jackson and Norwood are still to establish themselves as League One players. I’d agree the tactics throughout the season were poor, but in terms of an overarching strategy from the leadership of the club I’d say Lambert has more or less achieved what they wanted (minus Playoffs), hence the 5 year contract.
Backtracking slightly, Paul Hurst in terms of a strategic sense did what was asked of him by the club, and a large amount of the supporters desperate for change after the Mick era. It just unfortunately isn't a successful strategy to sell or release key first team and reserve players such as Tommy Smith, Luke Hyam, Kevin Bru, David McGoldrick, Adam Webster, Martyn Waghorn and Joel Garner in one swoop and replace them with players who in some cases barely had League One experience and credentials, let alone Championship and the result was inevitable. If we had kept the likes of Webster, Didz and Waghorn alone we would have stood a better chance of making that strategy work but Hurst due to our budget (rightly or wrongly) had to make the choice between signing the players he wanted or keeping Waghorn, Garner and Webster (the others were released prior to his appointment) and that ultimately did not work in his favour.
Broadly speaking on each occasion, in terms of hiring a manager to then carry out the clubs strategy, each manager (Mick and the two Pauls) has done what was asked of them by the club. On each occasion, prior to the results of said strategy failing, the support was largely in favour of everything the club and management were trying to do on appointment. I would say the bigger issue is the leadership at the club (or lack thereof), more than anything else, that has developed the wrong strategies in the first place for footballing success. Although fiscally we did stop losing a significant of money and are “stable” from a monetary perspective which I think the leadership at club considers at this time to be more important than the results on the pitch. That may upset some to read that but I don’t expect that to change anytime soon with the losses from last season, enforced wage caps and so on, on their way.
So with that in mind, i'd say ask you instead, would you really want the non-footballing side of the club to continue to fit the manager to the strategy? Because in my view they absolutely have and the results have been exactly as expected. [Post edited 16 Jul 2020 0:53]
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