Perhaps more of a special relationship because of a first language in common and that factor could have been similar with Farke and Wagner. That's natural enough. Should the next Head Coach be British there might be similar nuances in the other direction, but I doubt it would be a major factor in a dressing room in today's football.
We don't "know" that there was trouble in the dressing room but all indications would point to this being fact. Could his treatment of the Danish faction be different to other nationalities? That statement he has made does seem curious.
I think there's some revisionism and backsliding here from Knapper & Co. They surely couldn't be serious in claiming (expecting) the aim for this season was promotion, given the state of the squad at start and mid-points of the year. How could they expect a young, inexperienced side, furnished with a couple of loanees to significantly improve on last season's squad? We already knew how porous the defence was and how weak we were in the middle. The wing play, Sainz aside, has been poor for a while and going into the season with only Sargent as a recognised forward is asking for trouble. Signing foreign players for immediate results is asking for trouble, as is expecting unfit players, Jurasek, Marcondes, Sorenson to immediately make an impact in a struggling team. If these are the quality of players Knapper though would win us promotion, then questions need to be asked.
Doesn't suggest that to me,Suffolk. When he talks, with obvious discomfort, about players being sold the club on the basis of a certain story about "the club's project and ambitions", he says "some of the Danes and also the others" (my italics). I would suggest that the reason he then adds "I have spoken to all the Danish players afterwards" is because he thinks that they, already knowing plenty about him, were maybe particularly influenced by his being the head coach driving the "project". When he talks about players reaching out to him, he says "many players", which clearly doesn't just refer to the three Danes.
I just think it’s interesting that he makes that differentiation, they’re not even all Danes as Slimane is Tunisian, those 3 were the players that had worked under him previously which is an important note I feel. He doesn’t include Lungi as one of the Danes. So perhaps they are the 3 players that he had pushed to Knapper to sign given a previously relationship?
There’s a danger we are reading too much into it. The guy underperformed. Our form was dreadful at a time when we could have made the playoffs. And whatever the ums and ahs about our squad and its weaknesses, we have a squad comfortably in the top eight in the division (and two of the best players in the league). That means the team underperformed. And at a team level, he’s the head coach - team underperformance, the buck stops with him. Maybe you think that’s harsh and brutal and some players should own their mistakes (I don’t wholly disagree), but it’s football. It’s all very well having a long term plan and wanting a head coach to be there for three years to build a system and a project. But if the head coach is doing a bad job after nine months, it’s pretty risky to think he’s going to do a good job later just because that was what your plan was. Hope alone does not breed success.
Exactly, because Lunghi was already here and hadn't been wooed by having the "project" spun to him by Knapper and Thorup (hence his wording "some of the Danes and also others", i.e. some of the Danes (and in particular Schwartau), and others such as Cordoba, Crnac and Jurasek. He had never worked with Schwartau before, and he didn't "push" Knapper to sign Oscar. What happened was that Knapper became aware that, because of developments at Brondby, Schwartau might consider a move, and asked Thorup whether he'd like to pursue it, which he was keen to do. It was considered a real coup at the time, both here, in Denmark, and elsewhere in Europe. Nor had Slimane worked with Thorup previously. Obviously he knew about Thorup, but their only association on the pitch was when Slimane scored for Brondby in a 2:0 win over Nordsjaelland in May 2021 which result won Brondby the Superliga that year. Of the three, only Marcondes was at Nordsjaelland in Thorup's time.
I’m not sure I understand the point of the debate about the three Danes. Schwartau is on a long term contract and seems to have great potential. Nothing’s changed due to Thorup’s sacking. Slimane is on a long term contract, a squad player. He might come good but (at the moment) if we wanted to be promoted he’s definitely not Premier League, his performances would need to improve dramatically. Nothing has changed due to Thorup’s sacking. Marcondes has had some excellent performances, was on a short term contract and after Thorup was sacked we exercised the option to extend for a year. So plenty has changed but seemingly all positive so not sure Thorup’s departure can be said to impact that! What’s the point here?
In my case, simply to correct what I see as unjustified speculation re.Thorup's relationships with his players arising from his Bold interview, as per Suffolk's and GE2's posts #79 and #80. Contrast Rick's far more balanced post #81.
You are certainly free to speculate, Suffolk, but where contrary evidence exists, others are entitled to draw attention to it.
Epitaph for a Disillusioned Dane “I’m not a believer in what you see in modern football today. A lot of clubs hiring coaches and then they sack them. All that money is wasted. We need to be more professional. I have always committed myself to projects. Do these projects still exist, or am I naïve? Because I still believe in it. I got a call, and it sounded too good to be true, so I was a little bit sceptical. Then I had a meeting with Ben, I had a meeting with Neil, and I was almost convinced. When I stepped in at Colney, I got this really good feeling that I had been hunting almost since I left Midtjylland: this family environment, but also very ambitious. Something that’s bigger than me. That reaches out to a community. That together we can share a dream, an ambition, and really push it hard to maybe in the future be able to promote. But not only to promote but really stay in the Premier League. It will take time, but we are committed … and that’s why I’m here. Asked about Knapper’s request for patience through the bumps in the road that may lie ahead, Riddersholm replied: “Yes, that’s obvious. But I think we share the ambition that in the three years’ time we have contracted so far, we want to promote. If it happens year one, it will be unbelievable. If it happens year two, it would be really good. If it happens year three, it will be expected.” Austria, July 2024
So now we have it. A 3 year plan with the playoffs/promotion expected in year 3. An exciting new coach to be appointed to be groomed to take over in the top job when plan completed. What has happened? Due entirely, in my opinion, to interference from the new owner the expectation in year 3 became expectation in year 1, Thorup and his assistant have been sacked for not delivering on the revised plan and the exciting new Coach has left. Is that a new plan or utter f***ing bungling chaos by an owner who has no knowledge of the complexities of English football. Is this the type of ownership promised to Delia and Michael when they sold the Club? I fear the worst!!
It’s bizarre. We have new owners. How can anyone be surprised that the strategy and plan may have changed. Plus the coach had a disastrous run of results and a serious underperformance for the season based on squad quality, with many players plainly having lost faith in his system by the end. In any other club, the coach would be fired.
When the plan was changed we were only a couple of points off the play-offs so the so called disastrous run of results was probably down to disillusioned Coaches who knew the squad limitations. Whatever the cause we now have no Head Coach, no Number 2, no Chief Coach and no contact with players before preseason training to allow the new team to decide the way forward. To me that represents absolute chaos.
If JHT & co had managed to get us to 'a couple of points off the playoffs' it doesn't seem unreasonable for the new owners to target those playoffs. I don't buy that they said it's playoffs or bust, just that we should be competitive. We weren't even anywhere close to that. There was no clear reason for our performances to collapse to 6 points from 10 games and 13th place. It was depressing and ugly to watch. Wilshere managed 4 points from the last two games with the same set of players and no assistant coaches. No other club in football would allow a head coach or manager 3 years to get things right. To go on with the same coaching setup for another two years after that woeful run of games would be incomprehensible, IMO, much as I liked JHT as a person. Football is a tough business with very high stakes, and that will be the same for Knapper and the new head coach from his appointment onwards. The pressure is on.
We can debate for ever regarding why there was such a drop off in form but that is not the main point I am making which is the parlous state we are now in as set out in the final two sentences of my post. Any new coach coming in will not know the players or who we need to buy/sell is one further aspect and if the new directive is along the lines of playoffs or the sack then the chaos will continue. Whether Thorup should have been given another preseason and, say, 3 or 4 months with Wilshere then taking over if no solid progress has been made is open to debate but the current position is chaotic and any new coaching team is going to need 2 seasons at least to turn things round. Will they be given 2 seasons? If the Owner is a typical American businessman then the answer is no!!
Thorpe was sacked. NOT because we failed to make the play offs, but because , it was clear for anyone to see, that the team had regressed during the last 10 weeks. What is less clear is the reason for this total regression . Some have suggested he had lost the changing room, others have said that teams had figured out how to play against Norwich and that there was no plan B. Whatever the reason, it was simply not good enough. I am happy that we have ambitious new owners . There also appeared to be a problem with discipline amongst the players, therefore Thorup's man management skills are, at the very least, questionable. Good luck to the likeable Dane.
I'm not sure there is ever a good time to change the coaching staff, but IMO this is not a bad one if the appointment is made soon. The players are away on holiday for several weeks with their individual training plans and the new HC can discuss the players with Knapper and watch recordings of last season's games as he prepares. Presumably the overall aim of possession based tactics will continue but hopefully with a better balance between attack and defence. If it's handled right, there should be an element of 'new manager bounce' with some of the Wilshere like enjoyment injected into training. I'd prefer a British HC who knows the league and can get stuck in straightaway but the choice will be a big one for Knapper, who needs to get it right after a year and a half in post. Let's hope he and the board can do just that.
