I am still behind CH to build his own team and prove an awful lot of people wrong next season and I really want him to do well. But if were talking about a replacement for me I would like Martinez. I like Wigans style of play.
I got the impression (though I by no means know) that Poyet rejected clubs like Wolves and Reading - hardly suprising! I think, if we stay up, we are a much more attractive prospect - money to spend, flexible squad, a decent amount of managerial control over the squad, relatively low expectations and a generally supportive fan base. I did say I thought Martinez was unlikely, but things might have changed if they get relegated - maybe he wants to stay in the Prem. I'm not convinced he'll definitely stay. Also, it's slightly different taking on the responsibility of Liverpool to taking on the responsibility of Norwich - Norwich are much more similar to Wigan. Again, I think we're reasonably attractive from the hints we have of Martinez's values. We were asked who we would like, I like to think if Martinez comes available we might interest him. Anyway, I seriously doubt Hughton will get fired.
I don't want another manager. We have seen what a disaster repeatedly changing managers can be in our very recent history. I want a bit of continuity. When we stay up, get the cheque from Sky and then start buying the players CH needs to improve the side all the recent angst will be a distant memory. I think he has done well to keep us up with what is available to him. How many of our current team would get into ANY of the teams around us? People keep going on about how poor Villa's defence is but I'd snap up Lowton and Vlaar in a heartbeat. Can't see Holty displacing Kone/Benteke/Remy/Graham/Lambert/Cisse etc. All of the other sides have multi-million pound players and our top signing is Bassong who is a good player and has had a very good season but he is not exactly stellar. Realistically we will not get a proven better manager than CH. We may get an ex-pro taking his first steps at this level but the odds of us finding another Lambert from the lower leagues to lead us to glory are pretty long. We have someone who has been there and done it. He has been given a job to do this season and it has been ugly but the balance of probabilities suggests he will succeed. His remit next season will primarily be to stay up but I would imagine that he will have more chance of success as he will have additional better players at his disposal. I am fed up of people complaining about CH and how much better we would be with Lambert. Villa are below us despite having a deeper squad which PL was able to add a top striker to in the summer. I know it is not great management to say so but CH was spot on when he said that a number of our squad are not up to scratch. We may love them for bringing us through the divisions but they are not Premiership players. Lambert did hugely well last season but he had the benefit of all the momentum from getting promotion plus he knew the squad and they were his players bought to play in his system. CH inherited a club in some turmoil with the most successful manager in its recent history walking out acrimoniously and the captain, top-scorer and leader handing in a transfer request. He had little cash to spend and has had to do the best he can with what he has. We have not had a great run with injuries and for a club our size to lose arguably our best player and only England squad member for most of the season has been a huge blow. We should be able to stagger over the line and improve again next season when CH has had the opportunity to add some of his own players to the team. I can see an awful lot of new faces coming through the door and an awful lot leaving. I suspect if CH had his way he would probably keep only half of the squad he currently has.
Lets see... ..who's in need of a job and would come to "little old Naarrich" as a low-to-middle PL manager? Warnock Hughes Redknapp Keane ?? There's a lot of mediocre talent out there who talk a good game but can't bring it.
It's all very well banging on about what a good job CH has done this season but as yet his mission statement hasn't been completed just yet. The style of football he has served up to the paying public has been at best average, usually dire ! My worry is if he does manage to finish the job this season is that I'm likely to be watching the same crap next season. He's been tactically enept this season, shown he has very little to no idea how to change a game with subs or tactics, so in short I don't see much change if he's kept on ? He's had two full windows to buy players and build his own team so he hasn't Been able to blame anything "Redknapp" style on inherited players. My feeling is he's a decent bloke & a good championship manager but I don't think he's quite good enough at this level.
You say he's had two full windows, when he arrived the first window was already open, he had a holiday booked and took a load of dvd's with him, he then had to come back and assess what he had inherited then had very little of the window left to make a move, nevertheless, he still brought in some cracking defenders! The January window is renowned for paying over the odds for players, he tried several times to get Hooper, so I would argue against you that he's had two full windows, and say, give him a chance!
Chippy. I think that CH's spend has been, for whatever reason among the lowest in the division over the two windows also bearing in mind he only got the job in June and had to spend some time assessing what he had inherited. I don't know if he has not been given the money from the board or if we put bids in for players and couldn't get them. Regardless we have the squad we have and we look like we are going to survive. The board have shown intent and shelled out a record fee for RvW who looks like he is a quality player. We are very likely to make at least two or three more signings to improve what we have and if we have better players we should be able to play better and more successful football. At least I hope so!
Ok Dave I'll accept your argument about not having the full summer window, but that doesn't excuse the negative style of football he's chosen to play or his inability to use subs to change games, when most fans can see what needs changing ? My argument still stands that he is a negative manager and I do t see that changing next season ? Norfolkbhoy we are assuming that he will get the players in he wants, as we saw in January getting them through the door is another thing ! We have got RVW & I'm excited at the prospect of seeing him, but he is untried in England and its not a given that he'll be a success ?
I totally agree with you about the negative style and lack of tactical substituions. I think that Hughton does not rate a chiunk of the squad and is reluctant to make substitutions. I accept that we will not get every player we want in the Summer but Dave's point about the January window is spot on. No time and no value. Come the Summer we will see another forward and at least a couple of midfielders on board. i would not be surprised to see Curtis Davis and Hooper join and Garrido sign permanently. you are right about RvW but Benteke and Michu and Cisse and Ba were untried in England and succeeded and he looks to be of a similar quality. We are not in the market for players who can score 15-20 goals per season in the Premiership because we cannot afford them. We have to take a chance on any signing we make. We do not have the luxury of thinking Rooney ineeds a bit of competition perhaps I'd better sign Van Persie for £28m. We will be buying people who can't quite cut it for bigger PL clubs, the best from the relegated clubs, lower leagues and lesser European leagues as we have always done. Our best players will leave us for the bigger clubs. that is the reality of supporting Norwich. If you want to watch the best players in the world playing for one of the top managers then the home section at Carrow Road is not the best place to do so.
I don't need a history lesson on watching Norwich I've done that since I was 12 yrs old ! As for the rest of the lecture, we are a premier league club(at the minute) which will have little or no dept come the summer, so I think we can attract a higher quality manager than the one we currently have. We fill the stadium every week, give great vocal support to the team and back the club on & off the pitch, there's not many fans not wearing replica shirts or other merchandise of some kind. And it really does bother me that after the quality of football Lambert served up to us for three seasons that this is what I've now got to watch under CH !! I don't expect the club to do anything drastic, unless we go down, but if he gets his targets in and the quality doesn't improve then I would want him gone by November. I don't think Nasty will wait to long if its not happening, nor do I think the vast majority of the fans will stay on side if it goes bad in the first 10-15 games? That's all I have to say on this subject, I don't know going back to the op who would be best to take over, but I would like to see a lot better style of football next term with or without CH.
isn't rvw a 15 goal a season striker? ok, a risk, but he's that type of player. holt and co aren't going to get into double figures imo. we are premier league as chippy points out, need to build slowly but surely.
Another satisfied customer from the Chris Hughton School of How to Alienate your own Fans... Excellent stuff!
Martin O Neil is the obvious one but I cant see many would have done much better than Hughton this year. The Norwich fans who are anti Hughton need a reality check. You dont know how lucky you are!
I think they do! Oh and MON is nailed on for the Leicester job after they give Pearson the heave-ho next week!
If Hughton changes the style of play and we play a lot more attractive style of football, as well as attack games more. I would love him to stay in the summer. I personally just don't think it'll happen, and it has to happen otherwise we'll get relegated with him at the helm or sack him anyway. With our biggest ever budget coming in the summer (should we stay up) the summer is the time the board need to sit down with him and see if he plans to change style and implement the changes he needs to. I would love to be proved wrong by him, don't get me wrong. I also don't like changing managers but sometimes it has to be done. Sorry I've completely done what DH wanted us to avoid doing. For what it's worth I would like Martinez if we were to install a new manager. If he could keep Wigan up the last few years he can keep us up. Wigan have got their weakest squad this season. Incidently I would mind us going for James McCarthy should Wigan go down, little side note there.
I feel sorry for the club that employs Martin O'Neil! Some of you know I have a lot of Sunderland fans with whom I stayed to watch our match at the SOL, Every one of them agreed that we were robbed by the ref that day, and everyone agreed that MON wasn't the manager he used to be! He plays people out of position and never makes tactical substitutions, so those of you wishing for him will be sorely disappointed!
Sometimes it just doesnt work out for a manager. No manager has really torn up trees at Sunderland. They have been lower prem or championship for the whole prem era. Think Peter Reid got them a 7th once but nothing spectacular. MArtin O Neil has generally done very well where he has gone. Think he'd do a good job at Leicester or someone like West Ham, Forest, Everton
