Managerial Merry-Go-Round 2020/21

[Luke Imp]

Leam Richardson is interested in our vacancy.

There were suggestions at Tuesday's game against Oxford that Cowley had an interview early part of the week. Loosely following the timeline from media snippets (very few and far between), we started first interviews middle to back end of last week and I'd be hugely surprised if weren't aiming for a week on Saturday for the new manager to be in place, which will be three weeks between a sacking and an appointment and that's generally the right kinda time scale in these situations.

I'm still not convinced it necessarily means he'll end up back here, although you can see why people think that when we're coming to the end of our interview process and Cowley performs a u-turn on Bradford, but we've not been able to guess any of the three managerial appointments Clive and the Board have made. Every one has been left field. It's almost too obvious to be believable.

But I'd not be surprised if we opted for a manager with more experience after Kennedy and I think that's why we've seen the likes of Leam Richardson, Danny Cowley, Stephen Bradley and Nathan Jones name checked to varying degrees.

EDIT - Just to add, Bradley ends his season tomorrow I think in the LOI at Shamrock and is out of contract. We tried for him before Kennedy, so there's nothing solidly pointing towards anyone at the minute.

 

[F!RTHY]

Certainly looks that way to me.

Doughnut

You talk absolute bollocks, pal.

In actual fact, you bleat on about me going on about attendances more than I go on about attendances.

Prick.

 

[Indian Dan]

Any idea if Young is being allowed to play in the FA Cup Saturday?

 

[クレイグ]

Any idea if Young is being allowed to play in the FA Cup Saturday?

Not a clue. Nothing was said during our press conference for the game. Reckon Swindon fans will know before us.

 

[GTFCfish]

You talk absolute bollocks, pal.

In actual fact, you bleat on about me going on about attendances more than I go on about attendances.

Prick.

I’ve found when it comes to Magpie, the middle button here helps.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

You talk absolute bollocks, pal.

In actual fact, you bleat on about me going on about attendances more than I go on about attendances.

Prick.

Imagine if that were true, if that was actually the case. Somebody went on about attendances more than Firthy What a different world that would be.

There's wrong, there's very wrong, there's laughably wrong and then there is that statement.

Congratulations

It's ok champ it's obviously defence mechanism. It's understandable.

 

[Master D]

That Adkins appointment and contract length is bonkers.

He's always comes across as a bit slimy and creepy IMO. You wouldn't trust him as far as you could throw him, just something off about him. Hasn't managed properly for years either.

 

[Conker]

Never viewed Adkins in that way, Tranmere is a tough gig for anyone they just seem like a club on the slide with very little being done about it.

 

[Chris FGR]

Adkins seems alright to me tbf, and has got his own pretty professional looking website.

Nigel Adkins

Adding Positivity

thenigeladkins.com

 

[northstandexile]

Adkins seems alright to me tbf, and has got his own pretty professional looking website.

Nigel Adkins

Adding Positivity

thenigeladkins.com

Having a professionally looking website doesn’t mean you are a good football manager.

 

[Son of Cod]

Having been in attendance at all but 2 of these games, I can only say imho, that this is bizarrely optimistic at best. The lack of attacking intent in most of the games has been Hurst’s downfall, turgid dull football. Not expecting Grimsby to be Man City or Barcelona but the whole board came to the decision, not just Stockwood. They all felt a change was necessary, most fans, like me, felt up to about 3 weeks ago that Hurst would turn it around, however performances got worse. He admitted he felt we just had to wait for results to turn, not offering anything about what he was going to do about it.
Managers tend to have a timeframe after which they become stale, need a new challenge, I very much feel Hurst needs a break before returning to management probably in the NL

Stockwood has been the one to talk about it though, I just find it a bit disappointing how the entire club from boardroom to fans have done such a dramatic u-turn on the best manager we've had since Buckley mkII. Like I said, short memories and all that. The football is not as bad as it was for a huge portion of 21/22. There's nothing anyone can say to change my mind on this, Hurst should have been given more time.

I agree we’ve not had the rub of the green this season but it can’t be just bad luck if it happens every week, surely?

I think the thing that’s killed Hurst is that it’s the same issue every year, in other years we were still making progress but this year we’ve gone backwards with more money spent. If the issues were different to before then fair enough, but crap football, not signing decent forwards & a criminal inability to tactically adapt have been issues every single year and he’s never going to resolve those issues IMO.

Yeah, like I said he's not entirely blameless of course. We wouldn't be where we are if he recruited and set us up differently but there has definitely been an element of rotten luck against us this season.

Rose and Wilson (early days for the latter though admittedly) are decent forwards for this level regarding forwards, but the problem being we have nothing really beyond them. All the people slating McAtee last season look like idiots now, imo. His quality, drive and workrate brought so much to the side and replacing that in a single player was always going to be impossible.

I guess one thing that I'm happy about is that we might bring in a manager who might be able to sign the type of striker we've been crying out for for the last few seasons.

 

[Indian Dan]

Flynn signs a contract extension til 2026.

 

[Agombar stool]

Michael Flynn signs a contract extension to 2026

Edit - beaten to it by ID. Happy that the club have been pro-active given all the managerial merry-go-round activity happening these days.

 

[Indian Dan]

Can’t think of any fan not being happy with that. For all the moans and groans about the budget - or lack thereof - he must be happy enough with his T&Cs to sign up for that long.

 

[Conker]

When was his current contract due? I reckon he won’t make it till then.

 

[F!RTHY]

Michael Flynn signs a contract extension to 2026

Edit - beaten to it by ID. Happy that the club have been pro-active given all the managerial merry-go-round activity happening these days.

He hasn’t been there long, has he?

Do you think a club may have made contact?

 

[Agombar stool]

He hasn’t been there long, has he?

Do you think a club may have made contact?

Joined in May this year. I think given the good start to the season I'm sure other clubs might have been having a look. He knows league 2 pretty well and has made a strong start here. I think it makes sense for all parties to provide security.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Good move by the club to protect their position.

 

[JJ1990]

Adkins seems alright to me tbf, and has got his own pretty professional looking website.

Nigel Adkins

Adding Positivity

thenigeladkins.com

He's a weird guy. All this incessant positivity stuff is bizarre, does anyone else in the world think/act like that?

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

He's a weird guy. All this incessant positivity stuff is bizarre, does anyone else in the world think/act like that?

Yea of course, just very rare in football and basically a rainbow unicorn on football forums and message boards.

 

[JJ1990]

Yea of course, just very rare in football and basically a rainbow unicorn on football forums and message boards.

Who do you know who acts like that? I've never once met anyone like him. I'd argue it's rare in real life. Just comes across as weird when the world is as fucked as it is right now.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Smithy, Budgie, Dirt Box, Chinese Alan, Deano and Deano's brother.

And that's not including any Americans who are huge exponents of positivity breeds positivity.

 

[lordofthepies]

He's a weird guy. All this incessant positivity stuff is bizarre, does anyone else in the world think/act like that?

Doesn't surprise me that positivity is a concept you can't understand

 

[Indian Dan]

He hasn’t been there long, has he?

Do you think a club may have made contact?

Possibly. Hopefully the handful of players we’d like to sign their contract extensions will be happy to think likewise.

 

[Limerick Mariner]

Stockwood has been the one to talk about it though, I just find it a bit disappointing how the entire club from boardroom to fans have done such a dramatic u-turn on the best manager we've had since Buckley mkII. Like I said, short memories and all that. The football is not as bad as it was for a huge portion of 21/22. There's nothing anyone can say to change my mind on this, Hurst should have been given more time.


Yeah, like I said he's not entirely blameless of course. We wouldn't be where we are if he recruited and set us up differently but there has definitely been an element of rotten luck against us this season.

Rose and Wilson (early days for the latter though admittedly) are decent forwards for this level regarding forwards, but the problem being we have nothing really beyond them. All the people slating McAtee last season look like idiots now, imo. His quality, drive and workrate brought so much to the side and replacing that in a single player was always going to be impossible.

I guess one thing that I'm happy about is that we might bring in a manager who might be able to sign the type of striker we've been crying out for for the last few seasons.

Hurst built a squad to play a certain way and the McAtee point above is what baffles me about it; if you are only going to have two recognised forwards in the squad, (plus the converted wing back), then the McAtee type player looks essential.

I agree we've had some bad luck on the pitch and with injuries but since we returned to the EFL Hurst has failed to deal with the shortcomings up top in 3 windows and in the summer he messed up with the keeper as well. Up to the last couple of weeks or so, I was firmly in the camp of giving him more time and the next window, but he seemed to go into "rabbit in the headlight" mode.

Hurst seems to be the sort of manager who is better scrabbling around on a tight budget. I expect he'll be back at the top end of the NL again. - somewhere like Rochdale?

 

[pontoonlew]

Very quiet on our side with names, just small rumblings of the Cowley brothers but I really can’t see it.

 

[Gi Dalor]

Very quiet on our side with names, just small rumblings of the Cowley brothers but I really can’t see it.

The Bradford colour commentator, Gary Jones, said they turned us down because they want L1, plus close to home, so...

 

[クレイグ]

The Bradford colour commentator, Gary Jones, said they turned us down because they want L1, plus close to home, so...

Why interview them then? Time wasting twats.

 

[Gladders]

Looks like Widdrington is out, he signed a new contract yesterday

 

[クレイグ]

Someone has seen this pic and thought "It's Joey Barton, is that."