Wagner finished second with the Swiss side Young Boys , after the record breaking 18 game winless run at Shalke firing. Huddersfield fired him 8 points adrift in last spot in the Premier league. Not filling me with excitement
I get the concerns, but to be fair to Wagner he’s the last manager to keep a team up on a shoe string budget and his most recent record at Young Boys isn’t terrible - managed to beat Man U in the Champions League
His Shalke record was horrific, was he manager when Rashica and Sargent were there ? Not that they did much
In my opinion, keeping Huddersfield up, even for one season, was a far greater achievement than anything Smith has done in his career. I just hope the disaster at Schalke hasn't shattered Wagner's confidence. If not, I'd be happy if he is appointed (although preferably on a short-term contract to minimise risk).
In fairness, he started really well and he kept them up in his one full season in charge despite a disastrous second half to the season. It looks like the supervisory board took the flak for that. Then when you look at how the managers after him performed (three more full time managers that season, one stand in) - of them, only the stand in (two matches) had a better win record in the Bundesliga 1 than Wagner and the team got relegated. Wikipedia claims that “Schalke was hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and in April 2020 the club said that it was threatened by bankruptcy. Against the backdrop of a worsened financial situation caused by a high level of debt and a decrease in revenue related to restrictions put in place to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the club decided to introduce a player salary cap of €2.5 million per year.” So I think his torrid time at Schalke (with his downturn in form neatly coinciding with when the club’s finances went really bad) has more to it than meets the eye of his win record.
It amazes me that people that criticise Smith for his lack of a style of play would want Parker here. He would basically offer the same thing
Smith scraped through in the play offs after breaching FFP with lots of class loan signings and England's most expensive player . Had Villa lost in the play offs they would have been sanctioned or just fined heavily. Bournemouth sold a few players after almost bankrupting the club and finished 2nd comfortably . Purely on the getting Fulham and Bournemouth up in the last few years fills me with optimism. He's briefly worked with Cantwell too which is an amusing twist.
Farke did well raiding Bundesliga 2 for misfits and bargains at a time where money was very tight selling Maddison to fund it, his spine of over achievers was a match made in heaven , Webber signing Pukki and Buendia was a master stroke or lottery win . When Webber was tasked with recruiting players to help Farke survive at Premier league level the wheels came off . Pretty much all loanees flopped and tens of millions blown on permanent signings. Sometimes it just clicks , we don't have the funds to throw at the squad so whomever comes in needs to be a good man manager. We may be heavily reliant on the academy in the next few seasons
https://www.pinkun.com/sport/23217251.norwich-city-david-wagner-target-managerial-search/ Probably the wisest option as we are still paying Farke and Smith's contracts off so need a bargain bin appointment preferably on a short term deal . Not overly thrilled but I'll get behind him
I said playing style, I wasn’t discrediting his managerial record. A lot of people have said that Smiths playing style, or lack of one, was the reason they didn’t want him before the results turned to crap as well. Bournemouth fans never took to Parker for the exact same reason. I also doubt that Cantwell will look back at his spell with Bournemouth and Parker fondly considering he barely featured for them whilst on loan, siting out the last 5 or so games of the season.
Parker only lost 8 won 25 & drew 13 scoring 74 & conceding 39 with Bournemouth when they went up. Criticising the playing style would be a hard sell with those numbers
Finished 5th won 25 lost 15 drew 6 Scoring 56 conceding 58 Doesn't scream great style to me personally
I opened the link then clicked on Mashiter's tweet and laughed out loud at the Greta Thunberg thing about 5 tweets below Mashiter's.
Wagner's Huddersfield tactics explained. I think there are elements of that which map well onto our current squad, but I don't think it's flawless. A consistent lineup would be something like: Gunn Aarons Hanley Omobamidele Giannoulis Hayden Nunez Sargent Dowell Cantwell Pukki
Nunez was excellent for the first eight or so games but our coaching team trained that out of him. Obviously, to me at any rate, he was asked to play in a way that negated his natural talents. Sarge has proved that he is a striker not a winger. Two transfer windows to assemble his own squad and we are worse than before he came. These players under DF would be much higher in the table. I believe when we were in the PL Farke needed some help and guidance, such as Roy Hogson, Delias friend. We may still not have survived but we would have been relegated with a degree of dignity.
Personally I'd be worried about Sargent in that position. I don't think he has either the touch or the vision required, and I'd much prefer Ramsey. For me, the only place for Sargent is up top, either alone or in a pairing with Pukki, where Sargent does the physical stuff and Pukki provides the guile.
