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.
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?
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.
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 can’t correct speculation as it is purely that, we can all interpret things in our own way
You are certainly free to speculate, Suffolk, but where contrary evidence exists, others are entitled to draw attention to it.
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.
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!!
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.
