Even discounting extremely strong rumours... We approached ten Hag and failed. We approached Poch and failed. We approached Conte and failed. We approached Fonseca and pulled out. You strike me as an astute and successful businessman. If one of your senior employees behaved like that in the space of 2 months, would you congratulate them on the good work they did 3 years ago and leave them to it, or start having some polite but firm chats with them about improving their conduct and strategy?
We can call them rumours all we like. But the rumours are coming from 2 journalists who have a very good track record and can generally be trusted. Therefore it’s fair to say they aren’t just rumours. On that basis, we may as well have a chat about it now (this being a discussion forum an’all) as it’s very likely to happen, rather than waiting a few days.
If, as has been implied by several decent sources, Paratici is planned to be speaking to the media a fair bit, then he’s going to have some interesting questions to answer about the managerial search, that’s for certain.
If you aim to hire the best then you fail a lot more often than you succeed unless you are the best already in which case everyone wants to join you. So if I owned Man City I might well have a word. Anyone else it is not obviously bad performance.
With the exception of Conte we haven't really been aiming to hire the best though. We're either being rejected or rejecting good or average managers and making ourselves look stupid and even desperate in the process, so much so we're now seemingly moving for a poor manager.
I tried to be a bit of a naysayer in the face of initial negative reaction to Fonseca but I’m struggling with Gattuso. He won the Italian cup with Napoli (on pens against Juve IIRC) but I’m seeing a lot of short stints at clubs on his record. Some of these were circumstantial beyond his control - he took charge of Sion for example as player- manager and was their 5th manager that season. And Palermo under Zamparini, which was a complete dumpster fire towards the end. And a club in Crete which couldn’t even pay its players. But his two most relevant jobs - Milan and Napoli, for me raise more questions than can be answered in a way that makes me comfortable with his appointment. Tifo did a video on his Milan team which I’ll link below and it’s not exactly great news. And while he finished considerably above Fonaeca’s Roma this season at Napoli, he did balls up CL qualification on the final day. Overall I think of the two, Fonseca is more our profile of manager per the brief Levy laid out. I’m also uncomfortable about how in bed Gattuso seems with his agent Jorge Mendes. Some of his previous clubs I can understand the short stints but leaving Fiorentina so quickly (apparently because he wanted to sign Mendes clients) strikes me as a recipe for disaster. I’d rather steer clear of a situation where Levy, Paratici, Mendes and Gattuso have to collaborate, no matter how good of a coach he may be. So it’s a no from me. Edit: Tifo video
Leicester should be close to announcing Soumare and have also apparently agreed a fee for the highly rated Patson Daka of Salzburg. Meanwhile we still can't decide on a manager after nearly 60 days without one, let alone having a plan for our transfer targets. Pending a minor miracle it's gonna be another season looking up the table at them, the usual suspects and a good few more I fear. I've wanted recent previous seasons to end quickly, I don't even want the next one to start!
People are also digging out a load of dodgy comments from Gattuso in the last decade or so that are, shall we say, questionable, about women in football, racism against players, and same sex marriage. Even allowing for the capacity for people to change, I’d be amazed if Levy signs off on this one. The club is in a PR hole as it is and to invite this kind of scrutiny seems beyond sense to me, especially considering the manager in question ain’t exactly stellar. Kind of hoping we just do the right thing and pay up for Potter or Ten Hag now but **** me, what a mess and who knows what’s going to happen.
completely agree. your last paragraph sums it up for me. If that happens, what a waste of time this will have all been and a totally needless PR cock up in the process.
If (and its a big if) Gattuso does Apparently it was nothing to do with Fonseca's requirements, he thought that the deal was done and we pulled the plug today before he signed on the dotted line. Its a ****ing mess and there is nothing about this process that says anything good about us.
I can see Levy stepping in and overruling Paratici and Paratici quitting as a result. You heard it here first.