Heart of Midlothian's Next Permanent Manager 24/25 Edition

[VincentGuerin]

7 hours ago, Sortmeout said:

For someone who is so passionate about your own club and others on here you have some of the strangest match going habits I think I’ve heard of. This isn’t a criticism just an observation. I saw you posting earlier saying you had only seen a few kicks offs overall in the last few years in addition to your shared season ticket etc.

Again not a criticism.

I share the ST for a number of reasons. Some of them are personal connected to travel and other responsibilities, but it is also that I've found over the years my relationship to the football has changed and I don't necessarily want to go every week. I won't be at any of the next three home league games as it suits better for my mate to take them. In a season with three European trips a few weekends free to do things with the missus suits me.

All of our lives are different. I'm baffled anyone cares.

Edited Monday at 07:02 by VincentGuerin

[FTOF]

8 hours ago, Jives Miguel said:

Who was the last manager to come up here from the EFL and not be a complete arrogant fraud and disaster of an appointment? 

Stephen Robinson.

[Galajambo]

Highly rated at Liverpool under Klopp, brilliant with Blackpool the first time around, and then it's been disaster ever since he went to QPR (what is it about teams with Rangers in their name that bring out the very worst in people?). 

In this instance, it's a very uninspiring appointment but it's who the algorithm threw up, and he'll be in a league with a great budget and working with Starlizard, so it may just work, but if he doesn't hit the ground running then we'd better put the earphones on to drown out the boos, and the fat bag of pish McKinlay will be under serious pressure. 

[Mr. X]

14 minutes ago, Galajambo said:

Highly rated at Liverpool under Klopp, brilliant with Blackpool the first time around, and then it's been disaster ever since he went to QPR (what is it about teams with Rangers in their name that bring out the very worst in people?). 

In this instance, it's a very uninspiring appointment but it's who the algorithm threw up, and he'll be in a league with a great budget and working with Starlizard, so it may just work, but if he doesn't hit the ground running then we'd better put the earphones on to drown out the boos, and the fat bag of pish McKinlay will be under serious pressure. 

That sounds about right.

[Insert Amusing Pseudonym]

10 minutes ago, Galajambo said:

Highly rated at Liverpool under Klopp, brilliant with Blackpool the first time around, and then it's been disaster ever since he went to QPR (what is it about teams with Rangers in their name that bring out the very worst in people?). 

In this instance, it's a very uninspiring appointment but it's who the algorithm threw up, and he'll be in a league with a great budget and working with Starlizard, so it may just work, but if he doesn't hit the ground running then we'd better put the earphones on to drown out the boos, and the fat bag of pish McKinlay will be under serious pressure. 

I don't think you can class last season at Blackpool as a disaster.  They were 2 points outside the playoffs (having lost on the last day).  

The only really bad spell was at QPR and Beale left that club a shambles as has been proven since.   He didn't get to make a single signing in the January and had to ship a number out.  It was a bad decision to take the job for sure. 

Always wary of English managers coming up here but he doesnt seem to be one of them who's coming up with a superiority complex about themselves abs the level they've come from. 

Fingers crossed he does well

[VincentGuerin]

Blackpool are a bit like us in that they've had a relatively traumatic recent past and a lot of instability. Doing a good job there once and a decent one the second time is not a bad thing. His spell at QPR was dreadful, obviously, but again it's not really a club that was particularly flying before or after he got there.

I don't think there's anything particularly appalling about his record. I've banged on about this on here before, but when dealing with EFL coaches very good and very bad runs are almost irrelevant, as all three divisions contain teams that go on streaks all the time due to the sheer number of games and the similarities between a lot of the teams. Someone who looks like a great appointment now could look completely shite in two months' time.

But he's obviously not what any of us were expecting or hoping for. He needs a good start or he'll never win the support over.

Edited Monday at 09:23 by VincentGuerin

[Theyellowbox]

I think you guys are being overly harsh here. Not followed every twist and turn of the process, but seems you guys are bringing in a guy with a seriously elite level of coaching credentials and bar a spell at QPR, which is a graveyard for coaches, he has had a decent managerial career, albeit not a long one.

For where you guys are headed on the technical side, it seems a pretty sensible appointment for me. If you are bringing in Brightonesque players, who are at that level between where you are now and what the OF bring in, you need a manager who can coach them much better than some of the normal managers doing the rounds.

Game is undoubtedly going to this more statistical way and he seems to be exactly the kind of guy to fit into that.

Obviously the game is not played on spreadsheets and results are where it is at, but the way Hearts are headed here, pretty much every club in the Scottish Premiership and EFL would be envious.

[Insert Amusing Pseudonym]

2 minutes ago, Theyellowbox said:

I think you guys are being overly harsh here. Not followed every twist and turn of the process, but seems you guys are bringing in a guy with a seriously elite level of coaching credentials and bar a spell at QPR, which is a graveyard for coaches, he has had a decent managerial career, albeit not a long one.

For where you guys are headed on the technical side, it seems a pretty sensible appointment for me. If you are bringing in Brightonesque players, who are at that level between where you are now and what the OF bring in, you need a manager who can coach them much better than some of the normal managers doing the rounds.

Game is undoubtedly going to this more statistical way and he seems to be exactly the kind of guy to fit into that.

Obviously the game is not played on spreadsheets and results are where it is at, but the way Hearts are headed here, pretty much every club in the Scottish Premiership and EFL would be envious.

Away with your rational takes.   This is the pitchforks thread.

 

In all seriousness, I'm hoping it is a solid logical choice.   It just isn't very exciting 

[VincentGuerin]

6 minutes ago, Theyellowbox said:

I think you guys are being overly harsh here. Not followed every twist and turn of the process, but seems you guys are bringing in a guy with a seriously elite level of coaching credentials and bar a spell at QPR, which is a graveyard for coaches, he has had a decent managerial career, albeit not a long one.

For where you guys are headed on the technical side, it seems a pretty sensible appointment for me. If you are bringing in Brightonesque players, who are at that level between where you are now and what the OF bring in, you need a manager who can coach them much better than some of the normal managers doing the rounds.

Game is undoubtedly going to this more statistical way and he seems to be exactly the kind of guy to fit into that.

Obviously the game is not played on spreadsheets and results are where it is at, but the way Hearts are headed here, pretty much every club in the Scottish Premiership and EFL would be envious.

f**k off, Neil.

[smellthepaw]

1 hour ago, Insert Amusing Pseudonym said:

I don't think you can class last season at Blackpool as a disaster.  They were 2 points outside the playoffs (having lost on the last day).  

The only really bad spell was at QPR and Beale left that club a shambles as has been proven since.   He didn't get to make a single signing in the January and had to ship a number out.  It was a bad decision to take the job for sure. 

Always wary of English managers coming up here but he doesnt seem to be one of them who's coming up with a superiority complex about themselves abs the level they've come from. 

Fingers crossed he does well

Yeah im pretty sure he inherited the squad that Beale dropped the morale in the dressing room at QPR. 
December is a tough time to take a job, assess the squad and free up space for your own signings in the next window. Seemed he was only able to get 2 players in the door the January window and was sacked a couple of weeks later. Was he not backed or was it just poor recruitment on his behalf?

[DukDukGoose]

1 hour ago, Galajambo said:

Highly rated at Liverpool under Klopp, brilliant with Blackpool the first time around, and then it's been disaster ever since he went to QPR (what is it about teams with Rangers in their name that bring out the very worst in people?). 

In this instance, it's a very uninspiring appointment but it's who the algorithm threw up, and he'll be in a league with a great budget and working with Starlizard, so it may just work, but if he doesn't hit the ground running then we'd better put the earphones on to drown out the boos, and the fat bag of pish McKinlay will be under serious pressure. 

Brilliant.

[RandomGuy.]

I think his issue is he's a charisma vacuum who sticks to his approach regardless of results, and as such fans will just never get behind him. It sounds like Blackpool fans didn't want him back even after the success of his first stint.

He'll probably do well enough but it feels like one where when the inevitable bad run of form hits most fans will turn on him pretty quickly and, based on Blackpool fans, he doesn't seem like he'd be able to win them back round by how he speaks/acts/his team performs.

[VincentGuerin]

43 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

 

He'll probably do well enough but it feels like one where when the inevitable bad run of form hits most fans will turn on him pretty quickly and, based on Blackpool fans, he doesn't seem like he'd be able to win them back round by how he speaks/acts/his team performs.

So, like pretty much every Hearts coach ever then?

[Ludo*1]

I followed Critchley being appointed by Blackpool at the time because it was the exact same time we sacked Gary Bowyer. Most initially thought he left because he wanted back down South and that Blackpool was a club close to him etc. Turned out we were wrong and it was due to him falling out with John Nelms.

Anyway, I remember their forum being very excited about the return of Bowyer with a few reasonable comments saying 'you should never go back'. Once Bowyer left us it pretty became a done deal in the media that he was going back to Blackpool. Then they appointed Critchley. To say their forum was underwhelmed is a massive understatement.

I stopped following the situation at that point as he was just a random English manager at a random English club but sounds like he didn't do too well.

I appreciate Hearts can't maybe attract the managers that their fans will speculate about online but they can damn sure do better than Critchley.

[Theyellowbox]

1 hour ago, VincentGuerin said:

f**k off, Neil.

Hiya

[RandomGuy.]

14 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

So, like pretty much every Hearts coach ever then?

Reading Blackpools forum about him did honestly make me instantly think of Robbie Neilson.

[the jambo-rocker]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said:

Reading Blackpools forum about him did honestly make me instantly think of Robbie Neilson.

That's weird because it instantly made me think of that fictional Basketball coach from Malcolm in the middle that gave him a stomach ulcer.

"It's so simple. You pass, pass, dribble shoot!"

[Galajambo]

3 hours ago, DukDukGoose said:

Brilliant.

Hey, we're sceptical too mate, but it's worked for Brighton, USG, and to an extent Ipswich, so why not eh? 

[Tony Wonder]

We've clearly leaned in on the analytics side of it and if that's the route we are going down you have to trust it.

On the face of it, it's not terribly exciting, but as pointed out elsewhere,  this is what Bloom specialises in, getting guys in that others don't spot something in and getting them to fit your club.

I also think some Hearts fans have went in too hard on his failures. He done a great job by all accounts at Blackpool first time and 2nd time he had one season and missed the playoffs by 3 points. His only genuinely awful spell was QPR who were a mess at the time and he couldn't bring players in.

Do I think we could've gotten someone who'd readily look better suited? Yes. But I also don't think we are hiring some absolute diddy. 

He needs to make a big effort to learn about the game up here though and not just see it as an extension of the English leagues.

[Savage Henry]

Dare I say it, but it seems like a very Hibs-esque appointment.