This will be a huge call by Speakman if he decides to pull the plug on TM.... I would go as far as career defining ( as far as his career at Sunderland is concerned) if it happens and a new guy comes in and it goes tits up....he will experience the wrath of the Sunderland fan base that will be difficult to come back from... This is NOT broken...don't fix it
It will at some point. Football isn’t like that. Even if it takes until we’ve won 5 champions leagues in a row
Agree, but as @Prehab26 has said, the club want a Head Coach fully aligned to their model and there will be no swaying from this. TM is more aligned than AN ever was, but he's still making these comments about balance (I have heard him say anything about experience, but that could be implied) I really hope he stays
I know what the club would like.... But...if this goes pear shaped now....I'm sure our fan base will be very vocal about it.
Bob,if you think you have some information why the hell don't you just come out....in the words of your super namesake Mr Dylan... and scream it?
I just get the impression Speakman and KLD want a “Head Coach” rather than a Manager. And with the best will in the world, whilst TM is much better suited to our model than Neil was, he’s still a Manager. He will still expect autonomy. They likely want somebody who genuinely wants nothing to do with recruitment. However - even those guys are going to want the right squad balance provided for them. I love Tony and wish we’d keep him. And I still think it’s a bad decision. I can just see why they might doing it. They’re going to get A LOT of stick for it in the press. A lot. Pressure will be sky high on new guy from day 1
There's definitely an arrogance about Speakman, but he has got 95% of things right so I think should be given a little latitude by the fanbase. Some people seem to have an agenda against him and leap on any mistakes whilst ignoring all the good things he's done - our recruitment is night and day since the Madrox/Short/Congerton/DiFanti eras. I noticed the 1st tweet after the final whistle by one of the podcasts was referencing Speakman. Some people are obsessed
Thinking about it I would prefer Speakman to go rather than Mowbray, after all with this new model won’t we have someone to replace him as well. What Mowbray has done with this squad of youngsters and injuries is nothing short of a miracle.
Yeh I think I said in one of my posts above - I love what he’s done to our club and I’m so glad he’s here. The progress of our club is there for all to see. But if (yes I’m using if this time) things start to go wrong, I do worry about his single mindedness and how that plays out. I’ve always hoped he would learn from the mistakes re recruitment but I actually don’t think he does. He shakes it off and goes again. Which I actually admire. Just need to see how things go next season and replacing a popular manager with a different one is inviting pressure on himself and the team. Brave of him and might be genius.
I definitely wouldn’t go that far personally. Speakman going would be incredibly disruptive. The structure is designed to allow most roles to be replaced at drop of hat. And whilst his could be, this is all built on his vision. Not sure I want to change or disrupt that vision just because a manager who came 6th was popular (I’m intentionally being harsh on Mowbray here - I love Mowbray)
Not forgetting that KLD appointed him and is his boss. KLD has a vision too and if it starts going wrong he has the power and the ability to replace him
Excellent effort through a season racked by stupid amounts of injuries and a lack of strikers. Amazed we were anywhere near given all that, and it caught up with us last night when we bumped into a rugby team with a rugby ref allowing them fouls at almost every challenge in midfield. If I had to watch the ****e they play, it would be the garden centre or the pub for me. We'll lose a player or two, and probably would have done if we'd went up. That's the way we are about it now, so fair enough as long as they keep finding gooduns. But unless TM wants to go, ( whatever the semantics around his job title), replacing him is almost defiantly stupid IMO. If we collared some bloke no one knew of and he managed to do what TM did this season, we'd be all saying how clever it was. It won't be clever chasing TM, no matter how exotic his replacement might sound.
I would I’m afraid. Some people seem to have forgotten who our last half a dozen managers were, I haven’t, this one’s a gem mate.
We def cant lose speakman, the work that guy has done at the club is unbelievable. He has played a massive part in getting us where we are today, hes made a few bad decisions but overall hes got things spot on. I dont want TM to go but if the club gets rid of him ill get behind the new guy the same way i got behind TM. Its a big risk getting rid of him but i suppose sometimes with big risk comes great reward. Still remember when southampton got rid of adkins and everyone was going mental, they replaced him with poch - so it can work at times
agree with this entirely. Like I say I don’t want Mowbray to go. I’d much much much rather he stayed.
Let’s look it a different way, if the manager/ coach was still one of our previous lads these players would of still been nobodies, so it’s the coach who gets the best out of them not Speakman. In that case let’s say they are equal, I would choose Mowbray over Speakman as he’s the one who gets them to play.
I wonder if there's a way to keep Mowbray on and have a new head coach. We can talk about models all day, but honesty in self appraisal of that model is just as important. We've got to be willing to acknowledge the failures as well as the successes in order to progress. Mowbray has decades of experience in what works and what doesn't.
Agreed, it's not a lack of balance in the squad it's the ruthless destruction of it through injury that's cost us. With Ballard, Batth, Ekwah, Stewart and Alese (as an option) that's enough big lads in the team. In terms of experience there's enough even without Evans and there are several leaders. Tweaking is all that's required and key areas like goalie, CB and CM are already sorted. So are plenty of other positions.
