People see Wigley's status with the Under-21s and hold him in higher regard than his record deserves, IMO. There is no doubting he's a good coach to get to where he is, but at the same time, Stuart Pearce did an awful job at Man City (wasn't Wigley his no.2?) and was then offered a job on the basis that the FA felt sorry for a former England 'legend' (or at least that is how it came across). Pearce then took his mate Wigley with him. As I said, not saying he isn't a good coach, but you'd have thought he'd have had a bit more input experience-wise. Surely the more experienced of the two would have said something to Nick by now about changing something around as it isn't currently working? That said... there aren't many names that are experienced that would want to be a no.2. It's usually people who are either past it as managers or no longer on peoples radars as managers, the likes of O'Driscoll, Peter Reid, Kevin Keegan, Walter Smith, Glenn Roeder, Gary McAllister, Nigel Worthington, Glenn Hoddle etc, etc... Sometimes it's a case of better the devil you know - either stick with it and hope Barmby & Wigley can sort it out, which we'd all love them to do - or take a punt and try and appoint a manager who may or may not fancy the job.
Wigley was only manager of Southampton for 14 games and they were in the Premier League, it's hardly much to go on. And Pearce didn't bring him in for the England U21's, he was already there after being David Platt's No.2.
a well known ex-city player with long standing club connections once spoke to me of Peter Taylor. He said that there three types of Managers: good ones, bad ones and lucky ones. No prizes for guessing where he thought Peter Taylor figured in his thoughts, but some people still think that he is 'the best Manager we have ever had'. Undoubtedly a good coach, for me Taylor is a great example of how a little luck(or a lot, depending if your glass was half full or half empty) can make a bad manager look good. I ll give Wigley the benefit of doubt as a coach for now, bearing in mind the regard his peers in the game have for him as a COACH. Indeed, isnt Watkiss the assistant manager anyway? I think we must judge them as a team and not individuals.
I thought Wigley was assistant and Watkiss was a coach. If Watkiss is assistant that could explain a lot.
As OLM say officially they are both 1st team coaches, but Wigley does an awful lot of the paperwork side, which allows Nick/Watkiss to concentrate on the training ( a bit like when PB/Horton were here, PB did the coaching, Horton did the admin side) - to quote our manager "I would be f****d without Wigley"
So in other words we have no official "assistant manager". Explains a lot. Nick needs an assistant manager with experience to guide him not just some coach who does his homework when he cant be bothered.
No, we actually have two assistant managers, they are just called something different. You could call them 'NB's dog boddies' because their title is irrelevant, but rather than just one man doing the job, two men do it, playing to both their strengths and giving more support to Nick rather than him having just one assistant.
That's why you have a manager, they all have opinions, but it is ultimately Nick who has the final say.
and presumably the final responsibility, although I would guess that Mr Allam and Mr Pearson (if indeed he still has a say) would not want the acrimony of a new manager selection process. the Summer will be intriguing I think?
In terms of who the manager will be next season I think the summer will be VERY dull, NB is going nowhere. In terms of players in/out and how much (or little) financial backing NB gets, then it could be quite interesting.
agreed on the NB position, however, i was refering to the latter of your points, although I wonder what position Mr Pearson will be in by August and who wil have board responsibility for football matters.
He said that after the Millwall game and Burnsie emphasised that prior to yesterdays game. After yesterday Nick was quite rightfully full of praise for the team and confirmed Mclean wont play again this season due to a hamstring issue.
Ooops! blame Wiki As I said, I wasn't saying Wigley is a bad coach, as he obviously has something to get him to where he is today. I just thought he'd had an easier ride than most to getting there and that he had perhaps been hyped up too much by some. It was also a slight question into one of many possible potential answers as to why we might have been doing so badly recently... but it's now irrelevant after the Middlesbrough game, as it is now obvious what it was going wrong: player mentality, player effort and that little bit of extra quality (i.e. Koren).
