A year of Hecky

[1973Blade]

Happy first anniversary in charge Hecky! A year ago I was feeling despondent; Jokanovic had been sacked - I thought he hadn't been backed -, I suspected Heckingbottom might be a yes man and the leadership team were very unimpressive in the press conference. I've been impressed by how well Heckingbottom has done and hope that the fans continue to back him even if we don't go.up this season. I'm feeling a lot more positive than I was a year ago about the club's future.

 

[Bell4]

Happy first anniversary in charge Hecky! A year ago I was feeling despondent; Jokanovic had been sacked - I thought he hadn't been backed -, I suspected Heckingbottom might be a yes man and the leadership team were very unimpressive in the press conference. I've been impressed by how well Heckingbottom has done and hope that the fans continue to back him even if we don't go.up this season. I'm feeling a lot more positive than I was a year ago about the club's future.

Bravo

Well said

Delivered beyond my expectations as a whole

 

[diode_blade]

Happy first anniversary in charge Hecky! A year ago I was feeling despondent; Jokanovic had been sacked - I thought he hadn't been backed -, I suspected Heckingbottom might be a yes man and the leadership team were very unimpressive in the press conference. I've been impressed by how well Heckingbottom has done and hope that the fans continue to back him even if we don't go.up this season. I'm feeling a lot more positive than I was a year ago about the club's future.

From what had been a disastrous start under Slav, Hecky certainly turned things around, from possibly staring at relegation to the playoffs, and now this season. I did have my doubts but as a friend of mine said to me at the time, "he knows the club and how it works and how the fans work and what they want". Ok things might not go as planned sometimes but thats football.

 

[Willglynning]

I'd be the first to admit that I was thoroughly underwhelmed with his appointment, and that's probably putting it quite lightly. I thought it was a massive resignation of ambition from the ownership, and believed that it would essentially stall any potential momentum we had at capitalising on any chance we had at returning to the premier league in the coming years. (Not that we looked like a side with any momentum at the time anyway)

I'm very happy to have been proved completely wrong on this front, although I still think it was an utterly bizarre decision to give him a 5 year contract when it was quite a risky appointment in the first place.

 

[Jon Bon II]

...Jack and Stuart McCall.
And I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it, I la-la-la like it, la-la-la like, here we go-o
With Hecky, Jack and Stuart McCall.

 

[MJM]

Happy first anniversary in charge Hecky! A year ago I was feeling despondent; Jokanovic had been sacked - I thought he hadn't been backed -, I suspected Heckingbottom might be a yes man and the leadership team were very unimpressive in the press conference. I've been impressed by how well Heckingbottom has done and hope that the fans continue to back him even if we don't go.up this season. I'm feeling a lot more positive than I was a year ago about the club's future.

Well said, that man.

The future's bright. The future's red and white.

 

[ATL Recs]

If

Happy first anniversary in charge Hecky! A year ago I was feeling despondent; Jokanovic had been sacked - I thought he hadn't been backed -, I suspected Heckingbottom might be a yes man and the leadership team were very unimpressive in the press conference. I've been impressed by how well Heckingbottom has done and hope that the fans continue to back him even if we don't go.up this season. I'm feeling a lot more positive than I was a year ago about the club's future.

If we don’t go up then we will see what he’s made cloth cutting etc

 

[Katzenjammer]

Truth is, he earned his shot.

In the wake of Chris Wilder's departure, he steadied the ship and managed to get some results out of a side who had been obliterated and effectively down by then.
He prevented a bad season from being a Derby-esque embarrassment and we ended 20/21 on a positive, of sorts.

Had he been in charge for the whole of last season we would've gone up, and he's kept us in the running this season, despite having to contend with an abnormal injury situation.

Gets top marks from me, and the detractors need to wind their fucking necks in.

 

[Bladesthorpe]

Where's Fallowfield

 

[Houston_Blade]

Get Allardyce in.

 

[bartman]

momentum we had at capitalising on any chance we had at returning to the premier league in the coming years. (Not that we looked like a side with any momentum at the time anyway)

I'm very happy to have been proved completely wrong on this front, although I still think it was an utterly bizarre decision to give him a 5 year contract when it was quite a risky appointment in the first place.

I am pretty sure that Hecky already had a long term contract to manage the U21s and below. It was this contract that was upgraded to include 1st team duties from what I can gather

 

[Aston max]

Like a lot of fans I get confused at some of his team picks, but even with all the injuries he has had to deal with we are second ,if we are there in May I for one will take a double helping of humble pie

 

[Sheff de party]

I find it interesting when people say Slav wasn’t backed. Hecky showed last season that we had easily enough quality to finish in the playoffs and Slav was miles away.

Sacked managers love to blame other people but Slav need look no further than what the players said about training under him and the fact he decided on a whim that a team who’d very successfully played 3-5-2 for five seasons was going to play 4-4-2.

Hecky has delivered good football and very good league positions. He’s also signed real quality in Anel, Khadra which should have worked out and that McBurnie fella up front who looks like the other McBurnie we once had but is a far better player.

 

[Groucho Blade]

Has he had the equivalent of a full championship season in charge?…ie 46 games…How many points have we got? Where would we have finished if it had been a full season rather than two half seasons?

 

[Westran]

I saw it as a bit of a Gareth Southgate as England manager type of appointment, knows the system inside out and understands the progress of youth and club culture.

He's done great and I'm glad we're dealing the rewards both in terms of player development and on field results

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

Deserves credit. We are in a great position for the restart. If only we could hire a faith healer or witch doctor though or a faith healer with witch doctery experience.

 

[MobileBlade]

Get Allardyce in.

Dyche surely

 

[Houston_Blade]

Dyche surely

Anyone, Bruce is on the market as well.

 

[Harry's Game]

So it’s just about a year since it last Snowed then?

 

[Jimmy Fleck]

I saw it as a bit of a Gareth Southgate as England manager type of appointment, knows the system inside out and understands the progress of youth and club culture.

He's done great and I'm glad we're dealing the rewards both in terms of player development and on field results

Thing is, like Southgate, does Hecky have the nous to win games when there’s real pressure and meaning?

 

[Westran]

Thing is, like Southgate, does Hecky have the nous to win games when there’s real pressure and meaning?

Well we beat Burnley 5-2 and are 2nd top going in to Christmas, so I'd say yeah he definitely does.

 

[Jimmy Fleck]

Well we beat Burnley 5-2 and are 2nd top going in to Christmas, so I'd say yeah he definitely does.

still early... I meant the games that get us promoted to secure top 2 or a playoff semi...

 

[Bell4]

Truth is, he earned his shot.

In the wake of Chris Wilder's departure, he steadied the ship and managed to get some results out of a side who had been obliterated and effectively down by then.
He prevented a bad season from being a Derby-esque embarrassment and we ended 20/21 on a positive, of sorts.

Had he been in charge for the whole of last season we would've gone up, and he's kept us in the running this season, despite having to contend with an abnormal injury situation.

Gets top marks from me, and the detractors need to wind their fucking necks in.

Good post

 

[Katzenjammer]

Good post

Why thank you sir

 

[SwissBlade]

Get rid, done nowt.
Best manager in the world

 

[Tony Currie]

Also Hecky deserves great praise for bringing the youngsters through - NDiaye and Rhys are just two examples where he is willing to give them a chance. Both took time to get up to speed but he could see the potential.

 

[CPB]

Happy first anniversary in charge Hecky! A year ago I was feeling despondent; Jokanovic had been sacked - I thought he hadn't been backed -, I suspected Heckingbottom might be a yes man and the leadership team were very unimpressive in the press conference. I've been impressed by how well Heckingbottom has done and hope that the fans continue to back him even if we don't go.up this season. I'm feeling a lot more positive than I was a year ago about the club's future.

I felt very much the same. However it is fair to say that Slavisa wasn't backed. Or not how he was expecting to be.
A year on and the whole "new approach" that the club was set to undertake and I think perhaps the whole youth and academy side of things are bearing some truths. Heckingbottom has given debuts to quite a few players from the academy since then.

I also think that the board and perhaps PH himself could see that for Jokanovic to succeed an overhaul of the squad was needed, however if someone is able to work with the playing squad instead such as Heckingbottom then they should be doing better than they were doing.
Turns out they were right in this respect!

I really want us to go up for a few reasons of course but if we don't go up, Hecky will have a much tougher gig next season with expected departures and a much further reduced budget.

 

[Yewsman]

TO BE FAIR TO SLAV MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT HE WAS THE ONE WHO SAID I WANT NDIAYE IN THE FIRST TEAM SQUAD AND THE CLUB HAS TO SORT HIS CONTRACT OUT. There was some issue between Ndiaye and the club and he hadn't been given a contract but after Slav's intervention they sorted it. I will never forget his debut v Peterborough. He and MGW were amazing both scoring twice and we won 6-2.
Having said that I think Hecky has managed him really well. He struggled to play more than 60 minutes when he first came in the team and Hecky also rested him when he thought it right and as a result the kid has just blossomed.

 

[Jacobsenthecrab]

I’m really impressed with Hecky, he makes smart decisions and doesn’t get too emotional win or lose.
You look at what he’s done outside of the club to educate himself and I think we’ve got a throughly modern manager who could go far.
It’s good to have a steady hand on the tiller who seems able to get through to the younger players as they are literally a different generation these days.
Onwards and upwards.

 

[Westran]

Was going to start a new thread, but we have loads for no good reason, but my point I'm not sure has been made well previously. Hecky has really shown what you can do as a manager if you understand that the club has its own strategy. Rather than trying to impose his own strategy, he's used his knowledge of the club, made some minor adjustments to the culture and utilised the strengths he already knows exists.

We're on a roll now and it'll take a lot to stop us, we've got a squad full of quality players who are improving week on week, tactics that the first team and youth teams all understand, confidence and belief that can only be created by everyone knowing exactly what their role is. You can't get that by doing what teams like Watford do, getting a new Manager with a new philosophy in every 6 months.

Hats off to the board for taking the risk and hats off to HJ&S for proving that knowledge, stability and loyalty are better qualities than charisma, money and short termism