Another one bites the dust! (pt III) | Vital Football

Another one bites the dust! (pt III)

OnLoanfromEnfield

OnLoanfromEnfield

Vital 1st Team Regular
New thread to save Sid recreating one.

Paul Heckingbottom was let go by Hibs a couple of days ago.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50310000

Did well at Barnsley and left to take the Leeds job then went to Hibs and and had a good initial run ..... answers on a postage stamp as to where he went wrong.
One of his summer signings was Josh Vela (ex Bolton player) ... the lad that Wigan had an interest in 3 seasons ago.
 
Paul Cook odds dropped to 6-1 to be the next Stoke manager, 4th favourite behind Pulis, Hughton (who apparently turned them down) and Michael O'Neill. Can't see them wanting to take Cook to be honest, doesn't make sense for them. Suprised Moyes is only 12-1 as they've tried to get him numerous times and he's available.

Barnsley still not appointment someone but looking more likely current caretaker will keep it.
 
Stoke local paper said they have no interest in Cook. Not shocked in the least they have parachute money and what should be a promotion chasing squad they aren't going to want a relegation struggling manager to turn that around when there's plenty of managers with better CVs around.
 
It will be interesting to see who they get from the point of view that it will give some indication of the type of manager we could possibly be looking at if we decide to replace Cook. Hughton has already ruled himself out and according to the local paper Moyes might not be interested, so the list shortens.
 
I drive past Stoke regularly for work. I'll be only too happy to give Paul a lift.

If I'm not going that way, I'll pay for him to get a taxi.

Being serious, I can't see it. I only see Pulis making a return, tbh. Given their problems are almost certainly to do with discipline and effort rather than players' quality, a disciplinarian like Pulis would make sense, especially considering his history with the club.

I'm not a fan of Pulis by any stretch of the imagination, but he'd get them to safety as an absolute minimum, no doubt about it.
 
The_Pon said:
I drive past Stoke regularly for work. I'll be only too happy to give Paul a lift.

If I'm not going that way, I'll pay for him to get a taxi.

Being serious, I can't see it. I only see Pulis making a return, tbh. Given their problems are almost certainly to do with discipline and effort rather than players' quality, a disciplinarian like Pulis would make sense, especially considering his history with the club.

I'm not a fan of Pulis by any stretch of the imagination, but he'd get them to safety as an absolute minimum, no doubt about it.
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I've always had a lot of respect for Pulis, while he undoubtedly plays some ugly football he's managed to make it so effective. He's worked miracles with numerous unglamorous relegation threatened clubs with modest budgets into comfortable mid table Premiership sides and I think that he never got the credit he deserved for that.

I know he had a bad time at Boro but that is a rare blip on a very strong cv over the last 15 or so years. I think he would be a superb appointment for anyone at this level, he'll get results but it will be defensive, long ball and dogs of war football to grind out results 1-0 every week. If the fans are content with that, which at this point I assume Stoke would be he'll be a great appointment.
 
Stoke are in a war. They need someone like Pulis to get his hands dirty and lead from the front, someone who doesn’t care how bad the football is as long as they get three points. I think that’s the way they’ll go. There’s a reason managers like him have never been relegated. Dogs of football war.
 
The_Pon said:
I drive past Stoke regularly for work.
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I delivered pharmaceuticals to chemists around Stoke daily for about 4 years. Loved the Stokies to bits...very much like Wiganers in their down to earth attitudes. Hope they survive along with us obviously.
 
Feels a bit like dejavu with Cook being linked with another club ... but i'm not falling for that one again! Once bitten twice shy and all that! Would be nice if its true, but as its been said, why would Stoke go for Cook when there's better options out there? Pulis is probably the best and most likely option for them, but if they were willing to pay compo, I doubt they'd pay it for the bloke who can only win at home.

This is what Moyes said in a recent interview with BBC Scotland, which appears to rule him out of the running for Stoke -

"lots of opportunities just now to go back to work but most of them have been in the English Championship".

"I've managed most of my career in the Premier League, so that's the level I expect to be at,"

"In most of the years I've managed in the Premier League, it's been the top six, seven, eight in the Premier League so I'm hoping I can go back there."
 
Zeb2 said:
Old boy.....Michael O’Neill supposedly the choice now ?
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I have never been convinced with O'Neill to be honest - he managed to do very well with Northern Ireland but watching his side play a fair few times live i felt they were a bit like us at the moment to be honest over reliant on long ball and set pieces and tactically quite limited. I got the feeling he may be a bit of a Lawrie Sanchez or Chris Coleman type with his national team - not the best manager but for some reason the combination worked.

It will be really interesting to see how he does at Stoke - he's got such a good squad to work with even if he's not great, assuming he's not diabolical like Jones was he should still keep them up. I'm just glad they went with him compared to some of the other candidates as i feared they'd get Pulis, Karanka, Moyes or Hughton, etc and storm out of relegation trouble - at least this is a bit of a gamble appointment that could maybe if we are very lucky help keep them down there with us. Nothing against O'Neill but i hope this Stoke gamble is as good as their last one by appointing Jones as we need to keep at least another team planted below us.

His first game is likely to be against us - so he'll get a first win since we are away guarenteed.
 
I think you might be right about him KDZ.....no doubting the results he’s achieved with N Ireland and over several years which takes some doing to be fair. I’ve just got a suspicion that everything is aligned for him there, his style, players available and channelling an underdog/siege mentality.

None of which means he can’t or won’t carry that forward, but tough games week after week in the face of higher expectation presents a different set of challenges.
Good luck to him in the longer term ....but I hope he gets off to a shit start !
 
He scored a hat trick for us on his debut a number of years ago . Totally irelevent but I thought I would say lol
 
ZAKKY said:
He scored a hat trick for us on his debut a number of years ago . Totally irelevent but I thought I would say lol
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I’m sure that was Brendan O’Connell then he got a bad injury and didn’t play again for us. Michael O’Neill was fucking awful on the pitch for us but seems to have done we’ll as a manager. Managing a club and managing a national team is completely different though. He’s now stuck with the players Stoke have until the next window and has to identify transfer targets unless there’s someone else doing that for him. As national team manager he did really well and seemed to have a close knit group, Stokes squad seems anything but that at the minute and he’s going to have to do a hell of a job to turn it around there if he does take over. They’ll probably start the turnaround when they play us in a few weeks, I’ve just bloody bought tickets for a group of 15 of us going on the train for our annual Xmas piss up (it was supposed to be Blackburn but Sky ruined that)
 
Coddenchips said:
Michael O'Neill was great for us during the last season at Springy, but we gathered a couple of thousand extra fans on the move to the JJB and they all seemed to single him out and I think it ground him down. Another footballer not appreciated by the Wigan public.
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I have to be honest & say that I was never a fan of Michael O'Neill when he played for us. He had his moments mind, but for me just went missing too often
He was better than Paul Rogers though
Having them 2 in midfield is probably the reason why most of Mathias's football seemed to completely bypass the midfield
 
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