I think Baz and Prutton being positive about Alex Neil as an option has brought his odds right down. Schumacher drifting quite quickly. Cooper shortened to 8-1 due to a photo of a bald guy at a funeral near Zoological . All gone quiet on Jokanovic - not even listed on Oddschecker. Robins also now on the drift. Hughton still short for no known reason!
Yeah not sure where he gets that from. Founder members and won quite a bit. Definitely seen better days and their crowds are really poor currently but there's no doubting they're far bigger than us historically
Perhaps he means in terms of recent success/ambition/crowds. It might be more accurate to say we're a more attractive/ambitious club than Blackburn, rather than bigger.
I've never subscribed to the idea that rich people have to be super shrewd. In fact I think it's a bit sad that people are so happy to believe that. As I said, I think there've been a few times where it's looked like he's followed a crowd. The Rosenior sacking is complex because many thought it was stupid but an awful lot did complain about Rosenior too. It was said that he was surprised by the negative reaction to it. I think it's plausible he thought that a majority were sick of Rosenior, based on the negative voices being the loudest. Maybe it wasn't far off true even, it's hard to accurately measure which side was the majority really.
The big club debate is such a pointless and boring one. Most people take it to mean historically, which to me is the least relevant factor of all, and it makes it difficult to ever talk about club size in the way Baz did because you always know someone will jump all over it with historical records. As you say, if his point was that we are more ambitious and have a bigger budget than Blackburn then great. He should've said though; it was excruciating hearing the other three question it and him just not explain at all.
Id be really surprised if it was Hughton. Let’s face it, it’d be a fairly boring appointment. In terms of ‘boring’ appointments, Robins and Neal currently beat him when it comes to a recent decent record. Jokanovic, Cooper and Schumacher feel a bit more Acun-like. Bit showbiz but also with a Championship record.
Baz even confirmed that Acun was swayed by people being unhappy with Allsop and with starting with no striker which came from fan complaints, and contributed to him sacking Rosenior.
Yeah I've only just listened and I do find sometimes he ties himself in knots but I think it's a function of being on a podcast with 4 people each trying to speak that you don't really have the time to properly explain what you mean when the broader point he was making was that Eustace was someone he thought we should be trying to get and that Blackburn isn't so big that it wouldn't be possible.
It was possible to be both frustrated with Rosenior, whilst still wanting him to carry on. He’s a bit of a club legend, a definite fan favourite, and he was doing a great job of building a proper team and club to be proud of. It was frustrating watching us constantly be so negative, leisurely passing back to the goalkeeper when chasing a goal in injury time, and just so rigidly sticking to his system of playing no matter what the circumstances. As a new manager, he would have learned a lot from that season and will continue to develop his management style. It was a ridiculous decision to sack him really, and I’m disappointed we will never get to find out how far we could have gone with him. Now we will just get to look forward to having a mercenary team managed by a mercenary manager all largely with no real connection to the club or area.
I think this is basically the crux of it. An unusually sensible post from you. I think there's a lot of 'plug and play' belief amongst football fans the world over. So and so is a great player, we should sign him and he'll instantly replicate what he was doing in a new environment with new players, a new manager and a new surrounds. So and so is a good manager, we should be able to see him replicate his success elsewhere instantly. The reality is that sometimes lightening in a bottle means that managers can come in and have instant success (arguably Mckenna at Ipswich), but the far more common reality is that time is needed to develop a squad, an ethos and a belief (look at Carrick at Boro). Stability and patience when it's earned is most commonly the way to go. Rosenior had a clear trajectory of improvement, and while that improvement didn't equate to promotion doesn't mean it wasn't improvement. While we would have still had squad turnover, there was a clear case to be made for our year on year step up and development. I think some of the players who left (Tufan, Seri in particular) would still be here if Rosenior was still here, while we would have made summer signings much earlier and a case could be made that someone like Conway would have been more open to a move here. While people didn't love Rosenior's style, even the biggest Rosenior critics have to admit we played some brilliant stuff at times last season which was down to the system and set up. All our players bar Delap and arguably Greaves have gone on to struggle or have poorer seasons this year than last so I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that Rosenior had a good track record of getting the squad playing to their strengths. We scored our third most goals ever in a Championship season last year, and there's nothing to suggest we would have collapsed in a heap to the extent we have this year with him, and instead a case to be made that we would have made further strides forward as a club even if it did ultimately result in missing the play offs again. What I can't get my head around is Acun giving him a new three year deal in December which seemed to indicate that Acun saw this too, that it was a project and would take time, and then weeks later almost suffering a crisis of identity and flipping everything on its head and saying it was now or never.
I was thinking along these lines too at the time I listened but then Fletch misunderstood due to connection and presented Baz with an opportunity to explain further or say something else but to my surprise he doubled down
Yes I thought the same! I tend to like Baz with a lot of what he says and does but I do think sometimes he says things without fully thinking through the implications of what he's saying and then it gets away from him. Like I think at one point he said we have a bigger fan base which I just don't think is true at all. If he'd actually said (what I think he meant) that we get bigger crowds and we have a more active fanbase at the moment then that would have made more sense.
How many managers would leave a club who are 8th to go to another club who are 22nd in the same division ?
Dunno but Scott Lindsey left a club in League One for a club in League Two just recently. Didn't Alex Neil leave Sunderland for Stoke a few seasons in a similar position and Schumacher ditto from Plymouth?
