Next Up - Freeman's Replacement

[bobo the clown]

I have to say, & with full knowledge that I have no knowledge of the guy, but Andy Hughes taking the reigns on Saturday and the subsequent press and interviews he looks like a man for the future. Very mature & level headed even if he is inevitably very short term.

Now, he could turn out to be a right tit and useless but from the tiny exposure so far I feel he could do well. I certainly wouldn't mind him staying around. Certainly his post match briefings were better in one afternoon than I think the previous guy (what IS his name ???) managed in his whole 23 months here.


Meanwhile, I read "Lennie Lawrence – Freedman’s right-hand man – turned down the chance to stay on in the interim". Yeah .... because that may have required you doing something Mr Burns !! I honestly thought, 2 years ago, that the young new manager would be massively helped by this older, vastly experienced sidekick. How wrong was that then !!

[Prufrock]

Steve Evans? Hugely likeable?!

[Bruce Rioja]

I have to say, & with full knowledge that I have no knowledge of the guy, but Andy Hughes taking the reigns on Saturday and the subsequent press and interviews he looks like a man for the future. Very mature & level headed even if he is inevitably very short term.

We were saying that. Had an air of Rioch about him.

[SmokinFrazier]

If Phil Brown got the job, I wouldn't attend a game until he got sacked. Not only is he a terrible manager but he's an arrogant, egotistical bully too and I'd hate him to be anywhere near our club again unless Andy Todd is locked in the same room as him. I'd genuinely rather have Coyle back or have stuck with Freedman than go with Brown.

[Andy Waller]

If Phil Brown got the job, I wouldn't attend a game until he got sacked. Not only is he a terrible manager but he's an arrogant, egotistical bully too and I'd hate him to be anywhere near our club again unless Andy Todd is locked in the same room as him. I'd genuinely rather have Coyle back or have stuck with Freedman than go with Brown.

For f*cks sake, get off the fence SF...

[Bruce Rioja]

If Phil Brown got the job, I wouldn't attend a game until he got sacked. Not only is he a terrible manager but he's an arrogant, egotistical bully too and I'd hate him to be anywhere near our club again unless Andy Todd is locked in the same room as him. I'd genuinely rather have Coyle back or have stuck with Freedman than go with Brown.

Well, I wouldn't stop going, but that's exactly where I am with Phil Brown

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Apologies for formatting. Win percentages of a few touted with some of our previous for comparison. Boothroyd included for no purpose other than to make Dan's day!

Edit: also attached as a jpeg..


-----------------Games - Win % - Notes
Steve Clarke -60 -31.67
Phil Brown -321 -31.78 -Only win % 34 and above is current Southend job
Dougie Freedman -192 -34.2
Gary Megson -652 -36.66 -A mixed bag of percentages. But he's a wanker anyway
Aidy Boothroyd -368 -36.68 -Colchester let him down
Tony Pulis -922 -36.77 -Gillingham and Palace aside, he bimbles between 28% and 36%
Alan Curbishley -791 -38.18
Malky MacKay -229 -38.86 -Win % of 33.33 @ Watford, 43.2 @ Cardiff
Sam Allardyce -886 -39.73 - Wanderers percentage was a career high 41.24%
Chris Hughton -231 -40.26 -Impressive win % at Newcastle and Birmingham
Billy Davies -479 -40.71 -Motherwell aside he's in the 40s
Brian McDermott -433 -40.88 -34% plus win ratio in all managerial jobs
Owen Coyle -352 -40.91 -33.32% @ Bolton and 30.43% @ Wigan
Keith Hill -389 -41.13 - Barnsley aside he's in the 40s
Tony Mowbray -450 -43.11 - Aside from a 4 game caretaker spell Win % is almost 40% plus in all jobs
Mixu Paatelainen -217 -43.32 - Win percentages over 34% except at Hibs
Neil Lennon -228 -69.74 -High percentage, but a 1 horse race?

There is no context, but Mowbray stands out as being consistently decent and with experience of our sort of level.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Bobo (and Bruce) - interesting to read how popular Hughes was at Leeds. Good luck to him. But he doesn't want the job.

AT - Nice research but as noted, win %age depends largely on other factors - a team who keep choking in the play-offs will have a high %.

Frazier - while I don't doubt your pledge that you wouldn't go, I noted during Saturday's match that it was our lowest league attendance since promotion to the Prem. So there's a few "not till Dougie goes" claimers that were presumably already busy elsewhere...

[boltonboris]

You can go back as far as "I'm not going til Megson's gone"

He went donkeys ago, yet they never returned.. Maybe it's just a convenient excuse for not being arsed about going..

[General Mannerheim]

what happened between Lennon and Alan Thompson? would this not be a viable partnership any more?

[Worthy4England]

You can go back as far as "I'm not going til Megson's gone"

He went donkeys ago, yet they never returned.. Maybe it's just a convenient excuse for not being arsed about going..

I think there's lots of that going on...

[Jugs]

Steve Evans is one of the most widely-disliked managers in the game. Prosecuted for tax evasion at Boston. When they went down, he pledged to stay then three weeks later jumped to moneybags Crawley. There he got a 10-match touchline ban. Moved to Rotherham and, after an ill-tempered game against Bradford, had an altercation with a female Bradford employee who claimed he'd exposed himself to her; he was found guilty of "using abusive and insulting words and behaviour".

He's not the only managers to have a charge-sheet but there's something about him that rubs a lot of people up the wrong way. Some might say that's a good thing, but I'd rather it happened through success. Yes, Allardyce wound folk up, but usually because we'd beaten them. I'd rather us be annoyingly successful than successfully annoying.

Well, you're right that a lot of other managers have similar rap sheets. He's definitely not the only manager who has pledged to stay and then jumped ship not long after. They all do it. As for using abusive and insulting words, again he's not the only manager to have lost his rag.

He is a bit of an arse, and he's done questionable things, but it's not like he's killed anybody. To have got two successive promotions at Rotherham, a club who were in dire straits when he took over, is pretty impressive. I have to admit, I liked the way he did it. You could see last year that they had real team spirit there, the players really play for him. And he's the kind of guy who runs down the touchline for a mad celebration now and then, I like that. Fans like that.

I get that a lot of outsiders dislike him, and I understand that he might not work for Bolton. But I reckon he's one of the better man-managers out there.

[bobo the clown]

what happened between Lennon and Alan Thompson? would this not be a viable partnership any more?

Well, Lennon finally gave up on Tommo when he was pissed and out of control one time to often. I think Tommo's been on the wagon (I sure hope so ... & kept on it). I think the fall out was pretty permanent though, from what I read.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... eltic.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The above contains the sort of photo I associate with Lennon, btw

[thebish]

If Phil Brown got the job, I wouldn't attend a game until he got sacked.

and so it starts all over again!!!

[thebish]

You can go back as far as "I'm not going til Megson's gone"

He went donkeys ago, yet they never returned.. Maybe it's just a convenient excuse for not being arsed about going..

I think there's lots of that going on...

which is basically a1's oft-repeated point...

[General Mannerheim]

what happened between Lennon and Alan Thompson? would this not be a viable partnership any more?

Well, Lennon finally gave up on Tommo when he was pissed and out of control one time to often. I think Tommo's been on the wagon (I sure hope so ... & kept on it). I think the fall out was pretty permanent though, from what I read.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... eltic.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The above contains the sort of photo I associate with Lennon, btw

oh well.

btw, Thommo went to Aston Villa before Celtic, we got 4.5 mil for him.

[LeverEnd]

You can go back as far as "I'm not going til Megson's gone"

He went donkeys ago, yet they never returned.. Maybe it's just a convenient excuse for not being arsed about going..

With the pretence that they are making some sort of principled stand. When in fact they aren't supportive enough to see a few losses. Fair enough, no logical reason why they should shell out money to be miserable and annoyed.
I've stopped going at various times, because I had other things that were more important to me, not because of some made up moral high ground bullshit.

[LeverEnd]

Question is will the Bolton Coroners Office require compensation when we go for Mixu Paatelainen?

Wake up, people - Phoenix Nights/Max and Paddy reference almost slipped under the radar!

You sick animal, you're laughing at death!

[LeverEnd]

If Lennon is up for it I'd go for him. We need a stroppy git, but one with a brain. I thought he was just a Keane-type ranter, but having heard his punditry and been impressed with his strength of character given the shit he's had to put up with I changed my mind. I think he's got the right blend of experience, character and he's on the up having left a big club job with his head held high.
I think he might be aiming higher though, bottom with no money isn't attractive. He's been talked about for Prem jobs too.

[EverSoYouri]

You can go back as far as "I'm not going til Megson's gone"

He went donkeys ago, yet they never returned.. Maybe it's just a convenient excuse for not being arsed about going..

With the pretence that they are making some sort of principled stand. When in fact they aren't supportive enough to see a few losses. Fair enough, no logical reason why they should shell out money to be miserable and annoyed.
I've stopped going at various times, because I had other things that were more important to me, not because of some made up moral high ground bullshit.

I think it's possible for the continuing absences to be a combination of factors. Going to the match is often a habit which goes back years. When people break the habit (be it poor performances, bad results, despising the current manager or all of those) the removal of the cause of their gripe isn't always enough to tempt them back. Many of them will have got into other habits and joined the missing thousands who watch out for our result, but won't be rushing back to watch the matches. At least not unit we find the next Rioch or Allardyce.