out of the 4 appointments speakmen made only beale didn't bring anyone in with him, even neil had the option to sack are goalkeeping coach, and to be honest i don't agree with people saying dodds is forced on every coach neil tried to take him to stoke with him and mowbray calls him all the time about the job he's doing here, beale was a panic appointment after stills compensation and dodds didn't want to take it for more then half a season,
Magnus, I'm not calling out here BUT, Dodds is lined up to work with KS full time, they are inseparable. Wether it's here or elswhere, any new gaffer will be pushed to take him on. May will hold all the answers.
I’m not 100 percent sold that Dodds is a bad coach, he’s not up to being head coach but there is merit in keeping a consistent structure. I’ve said this before but I think Dodds is best developing himself in a sports director role and could probably see him as assistant to speakman
I've seen this happen further down the pyramid and, to some extent, it is sensible to have some permanent members of the coaching staff under the DoF/Head Coach system. Dodds being guaranteed a job is very different to "the new manager won't be allowed his own assistants and it must be Dodds". Would be better if he went back to his individual player development role though.
i'm not saying dodds will leave but every coach we've got in apart from beale have all brought in the own assistant
The football was poor but he compounded it with what he was saying. Nobody likes the 'I know better' attitude from someone producing football and results like that. Easy to avoid, but he didn't want to. Just like the handshake.
The campaign started before the Coventry game and went up a notch 50 minutes into it. He made us less expressive to avoid results like Blackburn.
This is an interesting read for anyone stuck on a f**king train https://bluesfocus.co.uk/2024/01/02/the-unravelling-of-birmingham-citys-no-fear-football-experiment/
The football wasn't great to watch but the results weren't much different to how they'd been under Mowbray this season. All of which indicates that the problem this season hasn't been the head coach. I don't recall him saying he knew better. He bit back a little bit at the nonsense that some 'fans' were firing in his direction but good for him. It really is a concern if fans are so precious that they'll turn on a manager just because they don't like the way he speaks. It puts the club under greater pressure as their criteria for who would be a good candidate becomes more constricted. They won't want to appoint someone that the fans give a hard time to unnecessarily.
Bit of history being rewritten here. Beale failed to improve on the mediocre run which had led to TM being sacked - the football was poorer and there were clear signs he had very quickly lost the dressing room as he had done at Rangers earlier this season. If he'd been up to the job and was winning games he'd have gotten loads of praise - unfortunately the majority of fans were right and speakman was wrong on the idea Beale would benefit Safc. The season has now dwindled away to nowt because Speakman was desperate to give Dodds the job and would have made him permanent if the results hadn't predictably fell off a cliff because him and Proctor just aren't up to managing at this level imo.
Guess your observations depend on perspective Year 1 achieve promotion and bring in some good young talent Year 2 overachieve and continue with recruitment policy and build up decimated academy, activate contract extensions and tie best performing players onto new improved contracts, discuss contract extensions with older players and decide on theor futures ( If RS was fit would have loved to keep him but he wanted to go and we got best deal for him, Danny Baarth has proven we were right to move him on and Dan Ballard has benefitted from this. Year 3 Gooch would have been 3rd or 4th choice so he wanted to leave for playing time and as for Pritchard he wanted a 3 year contract with a wage increase which would have seen him past the age of 33 so was never really an option. We signed Bradley Dack to provide experience to the middle of the park and have continued to build the young players and academy, this has led to a levelling out at first team but our foundations look to be much stronger. We have changed manager too often and confidence and continuity has been affected but our foundations still seem strong and we have a plan in place. Year 4 My hope is we get the right man in for the top job and can now start to be more focused on first team affairs. I expect to see some real improvement in this year and if not then maybe some of the concerns that have been aired here may hold more weight with me but at this time I am prepared to see where we are this time next year. Year 5 Top of premier
The reports we got from Rangers fans about his manner were dismissed initially (because they're generally crackers up there)but it became clear very quickly that they were spot on in this case. He's just not a front man. And it's perfectly reasonable to not like what he came out with when it was clear we were going backwards. A bit of humility might have kept him his job but it just became untenable because he kept digging the hole. You don't say things that make it worse.
That's a phrase I'm seeing used increasingly, on forums, and it's a really cheap shot as well as being a bit daft. Of course anyone, in any business, would always believe they know best otherwise they'd be incapable of doing the job. It's just becoming a quick and easy catchphrase that's generally without a great deal of fact or foundation ... ... I truly hope KLD & KS know better, if they don't we won't keep progressing as we have.
How many other championship clubs were prepared to take Kieron McKenna when Ipswich did St league 1 level but I bet a lot of them would have him now. We need the right appointment for us a good fit and I don't really care about pedigree or any if that I just want somebody who gets the area and club and can align with the fans to produce some attractive attacking football and grow with the club.
And it's me that's rewriting history?! You can look the PPG up for yourself. Beale's was only slightly worse than Mowbray's. Which demonstrates that the head coach hasn't been the problem this season. Even if you subscribe to the inaccurate belief that results are solely the product of who the head coach is, the PPG shows that the club got rid of a head coach who was doing about as well as his popular predecessor to replace him with someone who isn't doing as well. And fans wanted that middle head coach gone because of inaccurate preconceptions they held and because they didn't like the way he said things. That is beyond pathetic.
We were 6th in May 9th when Mowbray went 10th when Beale went 13th now with Doddsy That is regression not progression - if the people running the club think we are progressing as you suggest then they won't recognise some things need to change I fear.
And that, if you don't mind me saying, is a very short term way to look at things ... ... when Leicester dropped out of the promotion race it didn't mean they were regressing. Now they're back on top.
I don't need stats or accents to help me see the matches and how the football was getting worse under Beale and how he couldn't see when things were going wrong quickly enough - he's just a really poor manager. You are judging him against a sample of Mowbrays worst spell as well for some daft reason - so if Beale is nearly the equal of Mowbray spell that got him sacked it isn't a great achievement or argument you are making imo.
