You're quite right. We really should be contenders regardless of the manager but it's a no brainer that certain managers will make that a reality. That maybe comes at a cost in terms of playing style but if the goal is promotion and the income that represents on the balance sheet (again PSR) then an astute owner may be forgiven for seeing that as their primary focus rather than the never ending bollocks we hear about "building a club style that....." yah di yah blah. I mean, we've heard that ****e repeatedly and so have fans of all clubs. Few pull it off. I joked about Parker on here a while ago but he'd be my absolute first choice if I had a magic wand. Warnock? Well yes, dinosaur may be apt but he's a Promotoutofchampoctosaurus. My point is it's really easy to structure a deal that says x to the media but really means get us up and we'll bung you a few million. Horses for courses.
Personally think the best option would be to hire someone to get us promoted then sack them and hire someone else for the PL. Not likely to happen though. More realistically if say you hire someone with the sole aim to get promoted and give them a very short leash in the PL, like October to see how it’s going and make a change. It’s the similar argument with player recruitment. We should be able to attract higher profile/better managers as a PL team so it makes sense to see who is around when you are first confirmed promoted as there may be managers interested who weren’t before. Cooper should be our first choice by a long way in my opinion but he’s just not a Saints appointment at all. It’s Liam Manning anyway so we’ll see how he gets on
If we don't get Rohl then yes I agree. But I happen to think Rohl would get us up and have a good shot at keeping us up.
Bit of info from Bristol City. Trust the person who told me, but think it’s more “Saints will definitley show interest in him” rather than “Saints will definitely hire him”
Not sure Beattie has a spotless moral history though, so... (Yes, the Redknapp thing would sting a bit, granted!)
Hopefully we’ll start hearing more about the new manager in the next week or so. To be fair the club have have kept things pretty quiet, leak wise. Most of the linked managers have now finished their respective seasons. Rohl, Lampard and now Still, whose Lens team beat Monaco 4-0 today. Have a feeling it will be one of these 3.
Looks like Liam Manning might be going to his hometown club, Norwich. Shame as I think that he'd be a great fit for us with his history of working with academies and he has a fair level of first team coach experience with a pretty good win % too. Getting Bristol City to the play-offs is an achievement too.
I thought he’d be pretty high up our list but a Bristol City mate doesn’t really rate him and listening to him speak about him made me get serious PTRussD as he may as well have been talking about Russell Martin with the critique he was giving
Can't imagine we are that interested then. If we had shown real interest then you'd think Lens would wait for compensation rather than just let him leave for free.
Will Still’s other half has been struggling with encephalitis in recent months, which is why he’s decided to leave France and return to England
