The New Manager Thread

[kev776]

It is interesting to see, how all these fancyful names are thrown into the ring, completely ignoring any managers from Germany (and I do not include Klinsmann in that category).

Has anyone ever considered Felix Magath, who not only won the German championship and cup twice with Bayern, but took a middle class team, Wolfsburg, to collect the title last season. This season he managed to form a reliable team in Schalke who are in second position as we speak.

This may not have the glamour some other suggestions here have, but Magath has a CV well worth reading.

Excellent call with Magath, but his teams tend to be very organised and difficult to beat rather than exciting to watch, but they do produce results. Last year he did miracles with Wolfsburg and he has sorted out Schalke big time this year, I suspect they will win the Bundesliga.

[Bender]

Mourihno is a boring cunt. His teams are even more robotic and negative that Rafa's, only difference is that he is a bit of an arse licker and always ends up with owners having loads of dosh, which doesn't seem to tarnish his reputation as he's got all the tools at hand to create a good team.

Fact is, Rafa has always owned him CL wise. He's still pissed off for it probably.

Ahh at least you acknowledge Your mate Rafa does play robotic and negative football ...... ps are you Rafa in disguise

[Lecter]

You're like Campbell, to Rafa's Blair
Bite fido, bite!
You really are.

Whatever way you look at it, its infinitely preferable to sounding like Gordon Brown

[kris90210]

Mourihno's teams are boring and the dull draws prove this point. He was the one who devised a system whereby Ballack was played at right midfield. He had 4 central midfielders in his team, Lampard, Ballack, Mickel and Deco, all in a mish mash of a formation.

Yes he was successful because he had the money to buy all the best players. Drogba, Ballack, Deco, Carvalho etc ... Rafa outwitted him with a team worth a fraction of Chelsea's.

And Mourihno's constant baiting and winding up of other managers, officials and the likes is dull as **** now. He should change his record a bit.

By most accounts, Mourinho was 'given' Ballack and Mikel without his say so. It seems he didn't have that much say when it came to buying players. Shevchenko is another example. I think Mourinho was forced to adapt his prefered system when Abramovich brought in Ballack and Shevchenko. That's when the performances started dipping. Before that, they were pretty much untouchable in the league.

And to talk about how Rafa outwitted Jose with a team worth the fraction of the price. That's football. Martinez did it to Rafa the other day. Steve Bruce has made a habit of it. Our biggest failing this year is that we have been beaten by teams who are worth a fraction of the cost of the XI we put out.

Love Mourinho, or hate him. He does have a certain X factor about him.

Lets hope the players turn it around for Rafa though. At the moment, their attitude is beginning to make the managers job untenable.

[Lecter]

Also Mourinho 1 CL title, 1 Uefa cup, 5 league titles (6 if you count this years Serie A title, which is basically a formality), 1 FA Cup, 5 league cups collectively and an unbeaten home streak which goes back to his time at Porto in 2002. 8 years, unbeaten. 8 YEARS!

Rafa 1 CL (thanks to Gerrard), 1 Uefa cup, 2 league titles (both with a team that Hector Cuper mainly put together and took to 2 CL finals) and a FA cup (thanks to Gerrard)


You may not like Jose, but to label him as a **** manager is quite simply deluded. He is the best young manager going around. He adapts to any situation, he gets the maximum out of all his players. He gets them fired up and motivated to win at all costs.

Rafa is the polar opposite. He has his ideology...and he sticks to it rain, hail or shine. He won't budge for anyone, and it seems the more people push him, the more he holds his ground. Its an admirable quality to have in every day life, but you simply can't be so ridged in football.

With Mourinho you do have to take into account the enormous financial resources he had, thats not to say hes a poor manager because he isnt BUT his record is helped by more than just his own ability

Its the same with whoever manages City they will be riding on the coat-tails of owners giving them huge amounts of cash

[Spanishfly]

The more I think about this subject, the more I do think it may be time for my beloved Rafa to go. However I would love to see either Hodgson or Martinez there. Both get the teams playing well in different ways. Hodgson like a defensively strong team, however Martinez teams play football.

However no matter how much I think about it, I just can't get away from the fact i'm pretty certain Rafa won't go. Unless Real or Juve actually do want him he will stay. If he does I hope a for a big reshuffle, and a good world cup for the Spanish, English, Argentine and Brasillians in our squad, it may restore the confidence ready for next season.

[Lecter]

And to talk about how Rafa outwitted Jose with a team worth the fraction of the price. That's football. Martinez did it to Rafa the other day. Steve Bruce has made a habit of it. Our biggest failing this year is that we have been beaten by teams who are worth a fraction of the cost of the XI we put out.

Thats been a failure of ours since the Dalglish era

We have had various managers with various differring philosophies and yet all have struggled against inferior opposition at times

[kris90210]

Thats been a failure of ours since the Dalglish era

We have had various managers with various differring philosophies and yet all have struggled against inferior opposition at times

[Harv]

With Mourinho you do have to take into account the enormous financial resources he had, thats not to say hes a poor manager because he isnt BUT his record is helped by more than just his own ability

Its the same with whoever manages City they will be riding on the coat-tails of owners giving them huge amounts of cash

He didn't have an enormous budget at Porto, and hasn't spent that much at Inter.

Another of Mourinho's qualities i forgot to mention was his ability to manage players ego's. He had some big ego's to deal with at Chelsea and Inter....and he gets them all playing to their maximum. Something Rafa has always struggled with.

[Lecter]

Rafa is a fantastic manager, but he has shown that he doesnt have the correct mentalily to get us out of the mire we are in.

Instead of batting down the hatches he should have just gone for broke. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and we may have lost even more than we have allready. But its plain to see this defensive mentality has been bloody awful!!

I played football to a decent level (semi-pro) and have experienced ups and downs

The biggest thing when things are going wrong is going back to basics. By that I mean being organised, stopping conceeding and fighting and scrapping. If you look at our run of results a few weeks ago thats exactly what we have done

It isnt advisable to do a Keegan and go gung-ho because its highly unlikely you will arrest the slide (look at Newcastles fall from top of the league back in the 90's). Keegan himself admitted that perhaps he should have gone against his own instincts and gone back to the basics..

[Lecter]

He didn't have an enormous budget at Porto, and hasn't spent that much at Inter.

Another of Mourinho's qualities i forgot to mention was his ability to manage players ego's. He had some big ego's to deal with at Chelsea and Inter....and he gets them all playing to their maximum. Something Rafa has always struggled with.

Rafa didnt have an enormous budget at Valencia either

I dont think Mourinho dealt with players ego's they had to deal with his!!

[Lecter]

Last season is the most successful season we had (in league terms) that I can remember against lower quality opposition

I know craig has said that we were lucky at times with players being sent off, late goals etc..... BUT in the games when we did nick a win we put the opposition under huge amounts of pressure near the end of the game. At times we were literally pinning them back on their own penalty box

Eventually that pressure would force a mistake and we would get a goal

Still I do remember we had a period of draws that wrecked our title chances so maybe it wasnt quite as rosey as I remembered

[Darkon]

Also Mourinho 1 CL title, 1 Uefa cup, 5 league titles (6 if you count this years Serie A title, which is basically a formality), 1 FA Cup, 5 league cups collectively and an unbeaten home streak which goes back to his time at Porto in 2002. 8 years, unbeaten. 8 YEARS!

Rafa 1 CL (thanks to Gerrard), 1 Uefa cup, 2 league titles (both with a team that Hector Cuper mainly put together and took to 2 CL finals) and a FA cup (thanks to Gerrard)


You may not like Jose, but to label him as a **** manager is quite simply deluded. He is the best young manager going around. He adapts to any situation, he gets the maximum out of all his players. He gets them fired up and motivated to win at all costs.

Rafa is the polar opposite. He has his ideology...and he sticks to it rain, hail or shine. He won't budge for anyone, and it seems the more people push him, the more he holds his ground. Its an admirable quality to have in every day life, but you simply can't be so ridged in football.

to many are biased in their view of Mourinho from his public appearances rather than his results which speaks for itself really.

He is one of the best managers around today and we should be happy if we can get one with his managerial qualities.

[red n white]

Why don't we do a bleedin' casting show ?

I don't think Mourinho is even interested, simply because he is not used to fight for the funds necessary to buy a team ... he just gets it.

The aspect I really do respect Rafa for is that he battled it out so far without giving up. Unfortunately it appears he has eventually.

IMO we need a hard worker, not a dream catcher.

[wiw]

If we're using the team Rafa inherited at Valencia against him, then we surely have to say the same for the Chelsea squad Jose inherited? Let alone the money he had to build on it further