Who Will Be Our New Manager?

LiviLion wrote:

Durnford wrote:

But comparing 2nd place in the Scottish championship with the 2nd Tier of the Icelandic league is like comparing us with the East of Scotland League - Actually the third place in that league was won by Preston Athletic; would their manager really be more suitable than Duffy who got Dundee to the cup final; got them into the UEFA cup; he managed to keep them in league for a season following the club going into administration and losing most of their star players; he got Clyde into the playoffs and turned a defeated Morton side around and got them promoted. He's had his bad tmes as well mainly as assistant or caretaker manager but he's also won manager of the month quite a few times. Not exactly a "known failure" in my book; maybe not exciting but possibly a safe pair of hands.

Currently we have a plan that works; may not be pretty but it has been catching others out. Ultimately if we're aiming to persist with this (and judging by our recent recruitment we are) then we need a manager who is also a fighter. Obviously Hopkins came to us with no management experience and studying under Burchill was possibly not the best start; we were demoted but it gave him time to get to know the team and them to get to know him.

I suppose it depends on whether you think we can battle to stay in the premiership or whether we are goign to get demoted and then work our way back?

Main point being that dismissing someone because of the league they were last in or them not being a well known name is the kind of thing you get down south. I'm not saying he'd fire us into Europe but he fits what John Ward spoke about in that he wouldn't look to bring in his own staff, done a good enough job on a small budget and had an organised team.

Duffy started handing us some free points last season, not to mention the rest of the league. He might have had success in the past but he seems past that now. If he did get the job I'd love to be proven wrong in fantastic Hopkin fashion, but it's the name that doesn't inspire me at all.

To be fair I'm not dismissing him because he's not a well known name; Hughes and Lambert are both well known names but I'd hate to see them at the club.

My point was there was nothing that I could see in this guy's background to indicate he could keep us in the premier league. Maybe he could; but there is very little evidence based on his previous history to suggest that was the case.

If we were going to take a chance on someone stepping up to this level I'd rather it was Hartson; leastways he knows the club and is well respected by the player - but we know that's not going to happen.

I’ve no idea what the standard of Icelandic league football is except that our top tier sides struggle against their top tier sides when drawn against each other in European competitions. The best Icelandic players are now playing in a few of the top leagues around the world & their national side has qualified for the last two international tournaments.

It used to be said that if our league was strong so too would be our national team...if that applies to Iceland then I think you do their league a disservice.

Jim Duffy has a habit of starting well & fading over time. The guy from the Icelandic side is an unknown quantity in our league. There are pros & cons to both.

Bertie Bassett wrote:I’ve no idea what the standard of Icelandic league football is except that our top tier sides struggle against their top tier sides when drawn against each other in European competitions. The best Icelandic players are now playing in a few of the top leagues around the world & their national side has qualified for the last two international tournaments.

It used to be said that if our league was strong so too would be our national team...if that applies to Iceland then I think you do their league a disservice.

Jim Duffy has a habit of starting well & fading over time. The guy from the Icelandic side is an unknown quantity in our league. There are pros & cons to both.

Likewise I know very little about the Icelandic league other than its clubs in its top four leagues on a per capita basis is one club for every 4,398 of the population where as we have one team per 126,000.

As far as national teams are concerned in the last call up we had 63 players currently in the domestic league compared with 13% in the Icelandic national team. In actual fact most Icelandic players seem to actually start their professional career playing in Norway. All this aside I have to concede though that given the size of the population and the fact that so many of their players seem to have to play overseas; the Icelandic National Team's performance was truly remarkable.

Actually statistics prove very little and I can churn out any list of number with very little gravity in proving my point. However I have been stressing all along that finishing third in a the Icelandic second tier may not be the great achievement that some are claiming it to be (mainly on P&B to be fair). This guy may end up being a great manager but at the moment I struggle to see where people are getting the evidence to base that assumption on.

With regard to Duffy I'm not sure his fading with Morton last season can really be termed a habit; he has done very well with quite a few clubs often with little funds or staff to work with. However if he started well with us but faded ending up just above the playoff position I'd still be happy. Not saying he's the best choice for us or even the right choice but he's certainly a more reliable choice than some names that have been bandied around by the OF centric press.

I suppose if we used the same formula for signing a manager as we do for signing players then Ryder would fit in perfectly, young ambitious guy that has shown potential to do well and move on to bigger things. At least he has shown promise with success at his last position anyway, but like most of our players it'll be a higher level he'd be moving to.

Maybe it wont actually matter who we get as it'll be Martindale making all the decisions, still not sure what the dynamic was between him and Hoppy, if it was Hoppy coaching the players but Martindale's tactical genius on match days, a bit like Leishman and Hay, Leish was Mr man management/motivator and Hay was the footballing brains, if that was the case then Duffy would be pretty good too, he has great man management skills. Or maybe it was a bit of both, and Martindale has picked up enough from Hoppy to continue from where he's left us. Ward certainly puts a lot of faith in Martindale anyway, as the new manager has to fit in around him and the backroom staff.

Got the feeling Martindale was more on the fitness and training side; certainly that's where his qualifications now sit.

Think Hoppy was more into being a coach at Morton too, whoever did the fitness work deserves a lot of credit, we got quite a few late goals due to how good our fitness was, 2nd half performances in the play offs carried us through too, we had to dig deep.

Liviforever wrote:Think Hoppy was more into being a coach at Morton too, whoever did the fitness work deserves a lot of credit, we got quite a few late goals due to how good our fitness was, 2nd half performances in the play offs carried us through too, we had to dig deep.

Not only but, at the beginning of the season in particular, many sides were caught out by the way we started the games at 100 miles an hour.

I think it will be Gary Holt or Kenny Miller.

Hopefully it will be Holt, and hopefully it will be soon.

Duffy's lack of faith in sports science lets him down massively; that was a massive part of our success last season, and I can't see how having a manager who's very conservative in his footballing beliefs will help us. The more I think about it, the more I think Holt will get the job.

Starting to get excited for the season now, hopefully get the new manager in soon so we can properly get some signings/friendlies set up in addition to those already sorted before Hoppy left.

Apparently expecting to be announced Thursday/Friday or Monday at the latest. Fuck it, even if it's Duffy I'm sure I'll find a way to be excited.

There's rumours floating around that Tommy Wright is in the frame for the job...if true it could be a very good appointment

Why on earth would he leave St Johnstone?

orco wrote:Why on earth would he leave St Johnstone?

Talk is he's disillusioned at St Johnstone. Supposedly they've let player go against his wish, his coaching staff have all abandoned ship and his signing targets have gone elsewhere...it's one of these "in the know" guys on P&B so I'm taking it with a huge pinch of salt...however, if we were to pull it off it'd be outstanding and he fits the criteria.

That would be unreal, way above anything we could have hoped for, if it is true then we've hit the jackpot there. This is as bad as waiting to see if Halkett was staying now, nah it couldn't possibly happen could it?

A wind-up from the St Johnstone fans it would appear. Between them and the St Mirren fans, it's going to be a long season.

It would require us paying compensation to StJ to get him, so it was never likely to be him

#Don'tAnnounceKennyMiller #Please

Daily Record have been wrong before but looks like Kenny Miller is our man. A stopped clock is right twice a day and all that.

In time I think I can get behind that, will need to see how the first few months go. Obviously he comes with the reputation as dressing room wrecker so hopefully we can keep the togetherness of the squad, and it also gives us one of the couple of strikers we'll need. If Hardie isn't one of the players he pissed off it might strengthen our chances of getting him back on loan too.

Also I think with the system we have in place we're probably looking at Martindale pulling the strings and Miller being more of a coach and player.

They've worn me down the amount of time this has taken. Maybe that was their plan all along, drag it out for over a month so we'd get to the point we'd just like a manager in place and not give too much of a feck who it was.

If Miller signs then he'll want to play, so it is prob going to be Lee Miller, K Miller/Quitongo, or a combination of two of those 3 rotating. L Miller's age may not allow him 90 mins every game but him and one of the other two looks the best formation up front for target man and pacy runner working off the knock downs/flick ons.

Well if the impending rumours are true i have to say im extremely dissapoited.Of course il give Kenny Miller my full backing but i like many others feel the board has got this one wrong.Like L/F i fell the club has taken so long that it was getting beyond ridicolous as this should have been sorted weeks ago.It certainly doesnt fill me enthusiasim for the coming season but as ive said will get behind him and the club as ive always done.Still waiting on any news of a striker and back up goalkeeper which we definatly need though the horse may well have bolted on that one and we may be left with whoever we can get at the last minuite.All in all i hope im wrong but i still feel this is a gamble that was probably unnecessery by the board,only time will tell.Knackered with it all and dissapointed!!!

Words can't express how much I'd love Kenny Miller to prove me wrong. Just can't see it though.

Troy wrote:Well if the impending rumours are true i have to say im extremely dissapoited.Of course il give Kenny Miller my full backing but i like many others feel the board has got this one wrong.Like L/F i fell the club has taken so long that it was getting beyond ridicolous as this should have been sorted weeks ago.It certainly doesnt fill me enthusiasim for the coming season but as ive said will get behind him and the club as ive always done.Still waiting on any news of a striker and back up goalkeeper which we definatly need though the horse may well have bolted on that one and we may be left with whoever we can get at the last minuite.All in all i hope im wrong but i still feel this is a gamble that was probably unnecessery by the board,only time will tell.Knackered with it all and dissapointed!!!

Well that's one of our strikers signed, need another one yet though, maybe Quitongo, or/and Hardie back on loan.

We've managed to sign up most of our players from last season anyway, Martindale has done all that, he's the fitness coach too so pre season training hasn't been affected, I don't think not having a manager has hampered us. Possibly Jacko would've stayed but I think Mullin was always leaving so don't think Hoppy leaving us managerless made any difference there.

Don't know how this partnership will fit in is my only concern, happy enough to have Miller as a player, think he'll have to work around Martindale though, so hope that doesn't cause conflict, if it does then I dare say Miller will be punted.

Greatly underwhelmed if this is true.

1 He has no management experience.
2 If he has ever been in a relegation battle as a player (possibly at Hibs in 98 & definitely at Wolves in 04) he failed to stay up.
3 He may be super-fit but he will not get anywhere near the number of chances to score for us as he would playing for the Huns.
4 Player-manager rarely works.
5 If he is demanding that he will be the starting centre forward then he is not the man for the job because that is not fitting into the existing framework at the club & smacks of a super-ego which has no place in our squad.

Not seeing the problem signing Miller as one of our strikers, no idea what he'll be like as a manager but with Martindale and the backroom staff from last season i'm not too worried. As a player though he has a wealth of experience and will bang in some goals, we know everyone else will chip in with some too so a prolific striker isn't the be all it might be at other clubs. Wouldn't say no to Ryan Hardie too though, he'd get us a few more goals than either of the Millers.

He'd lead the line and chase down balls to put pressure on defenders, which is exactly what we need to make life easier for the midfield and defence, and how we played last season.

Liviforever wrote:Not seeing the problem signing Miller as one of our strikers, no idea what he'll be like as a manager but with Martindale and the backroom staff from last season i'm not too worried. As a player though he has a wealth of experience and will bang in some goals, we know everyone else will chip in with some too so a prolific striker isn't the be all it might be at other clubs. Wouldn't say no to Ryan Hardie too though, he'd get us a few more goals than either of the Millers.

He'd lead the line and chase down balls to put pressure on defenders, which is exactly what we need to make life easier for the midfield and defence, and how we played last season.

For what we can afford I'm not expecting to get excited about any of the candidates - that said we've had plenty of managers who have arrived straight from playing; some more effective than others.

Wouldn't be too worried about Miller although I might have preferred Hartson but only because he knows the players already. With his background I'm sure the players will respect him for his achievement. I'm certain we could do a whole lot worse.