Heckingbottom

[Nick Jansky]

As well as steadying the ship post Slav and getting us promoted after clearing away much of the negativity hanging over the squad following the abject 20/21 season Hecky played a major part in the development of the youngsters who are now gracing the first team squad. I know there is a lot of gratitude for him amongst that bunch. He’ll get applause from me.

 

[TJ blade]

Leeds have taken the bull by the horns and scored their way to the top which it’s great if you have the players but Farke has played to those strengths it’ll be interesting if they can do that next season if they were to get promotion as it looks like they will but they could end up doing a Southampton and not change and get hammered.

Doubt it mate, sadly theve got very rich owners, who will spend.

 

[BrisBlade]

W

Didn't like one jot the way he and the Saudi man stabbed Slav in the back and conspired together to get rid of him. The Saudi man wanted to appoint Heckingbottom as a permanent successor to Wilder but fan power stopped that, thank goodness. To sack Slav after the length of time was a disgrace and endorces this. It was Slav who brought in M G W and paired him with Ndiaye and they had a brilliant bond.

That's an oddly positive take on the Slav experiment. I remember us being diabolical most games. Don't get me wrong, I was fully on board when we bought him in but it quickly became apparent it was a terrible fit. Hecky lifted us from a relegation dogfight to play-offs.

 

[moody1889]

I personally never rated Hecky. He did a good job promoting us but the football was poor. He had a plan A and no plan B and his only answer to plan A failing was to stick with plan A and make some subs. In the majority of cases the subs were too late and often baffling. I hold no animosity towards him and he'll get a warm welcome from me.

He could not do much more to be honest.

 

[Champagneblade]

Hecky has a better PPG and goal difference at Preston than Wednesday have, despite having no pre season or signings. Underrated manager, top bloke

I think Wilder has shown himself to be the one to do an accomplished job of building something from scratch which he’s had to do now and in 2016.

But Hecky did a good job with very little recruitment. Perhaps this helped. It was never clear how many of the deals were down to his dealings overall.

It felt like the Slimane and and Traore deal were recruitment team driven. He seems more amenable to go along with that rather than Wilder who appears very single minded on who he wants.

He was guilty mainly due to not being able to fashion a successful Premier League survival campaign having lost his loan players and then have two of his most valuable assets sold.

Appreciate PA, with a lack of cash had no option available but to change the manager and hope for a turn on fortunes but none of that was on Hecky.

Having lost Ndiaye, instead of your Archers and the like, I do wish he’d gone down the pragmatic route of having an extra man in midfield and giving McAtee the Ndiaye role.

Maybe with Souza, Hamer and a Choudhury type we might have been hammered less! All water under the bridge.

Wish the bloke well. He left with his head held high.

 

[Weasel]

On the whole, I liked Hecky and thought he did in general, a very good job in difficult circumstances. Will always be grateful for him steadying the ship after the Slav malaise, and then getting us promoted the season after when it was financially vital to the club that this happened.

Criticisms.... the piss poor PL campaign last season. Yes he was hamstrung by the decisions that the Prihce made iro selling Ndiaye and Berge on the eve of the season (probably needed financially but certainly signed our PL death warrant there and then) and the small budget made available to him (and the subsequent players we did bring in). But Hecky looked completely lost in the PL and didn't have a clue about how to make us more difficult to beat and freshening up the team. It was obvious pre season that he needed to freshen it up more but he stuck with aging players who had gone past their sell by date. It wouldn't have taken a huge outlay to have freshened up the team more with younger players who had played in the FL and some with a bit of experience to help the team. It's not being wise after the event as it was obvious the Flecks, the Norwoods, the Bashams, the Stevens, all needed replacing with new players coming in. They wouldn't have done any worse.

However Heckys biggest crime for me? Telling us that clubs like us need to get used to games / hammerings like this for a few games of the season (post 8 nil defeat at home). Actually Paul, err no. SUFC should never andvi mean never, be beaten by 8 goals, especially at BL. Absolutely ridiculous comment. He lost me at that very comment (and I'd stayed loyal to him up to that point). He said that, he should have been shown the door 5 mins after as that hardly gives the players or fans any confidence whatsoever. It's publicly saying we are really crap compared to everyone else. Bravo.

7 out of 10 for Hecky in my scoring. He's a steady Eddie not without his strengths, but he's not a builder of teams and he was appalling in the PL. Still wish him well though and I still like him.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

He always hinted that we only heard a fraction of the issues around the time it became apparent the Prince was a unfit owner. I wonder if he'll ever open up further on those!

Hope he and Stuart McCall get the win over Burnley this weekend!

 

[Champagneblade]

On the whole, I liked Hecky and thought he did in general, a very good job in difficult circumstances. Will always be grateful for him steadying the ship after the Slav malaise, and then getting us promoted the season after when it was financially vital to the club that this happened.

Criticisms.... the piss poor PL campaign last season. Yes he was hamstrung by the decisions that the Prihce made iro selling Ndiaye and Berge on the eve of the season (probably needed financially but certainly signed our PL death warrant there and then) and the small budget made available to him (and the subsequent players we did bring in). But Hecky looked completely lost in the PL and didn't have a clue about how to make us more difficult to beat and freshening up the team. It was obvious pre season that he needed to freshen it up more but he stuck with aging players who had gone past their sell by date. It wouldn't have taken a huge outlay to have freshened up the team more with younger players who had played in the FL and some with a bit of experience to help the team. It's not being wise after the event as it was obvious the Flecks, the Norwoods, the Bashams, the Stevens, all needed replacing with new players coming in. They wouldn't have done any worse.

However Heckys biggest crime for me? Telling us that clubs like us need to get used to games / hammerings like this for a few games of the season (post 8 nil defeat at home). Actually Paul, err no. SUFC should never andvi mean never, be beaten by 8 goals, especially at BL. Absolutely ridiculous comment. He lost me at that very comment (and I'd stayed loyal to him up to that point). He said that, he should have been shown the door 5 mins after as that hardly gives the players or fans any confidence whatsoever. It's publicly saying we are really crap compared to everyone else. Bravo.

7 out of 10 for Hecky in my scoring. He's a steady Eddie not without his strengths, but he's not a builder of teams and he was appalling in the PL. Still wish him well though and I still like him.

With such a small budget I feel he was just on a hiding to nothing, especially given the contracts he extended. That told its own story.

Fleck for instance. Ok he didn’t remain fit. But if he left, from Hecky’s point of view, that would have been another player to recruit, a bigger agent fee, another potential transfer fee and signing on fee and it was all coming out of one pot.

His budget just simply wasn’t competitive.

As I suggested, could he have been less open? Probably. We did bring in Souza and Hamer and Davies who are now getting plaudits. We made small profits on Traore and Slimane.

On the field there was just too much to do.

Remember we started with Basham next to Norwood and teen Osula and Traore up front. That bullshit Spurs game was the turning point, where the ref just played and played until they scored. Twice. But that was a win in every other season than a stupid World Cup season where they added ridiculous minutes.

I doubt if Rhodri had been the midfield addition we’d have stayed up. But we’d also stopped properly investing in the team during Hecky’s time, being very short term in the market and that lack of turnover eventually cost us too.

 

[ATL Recs]

W

That's an oddly positive take on the Slav experiment. I remember us being diabolical most games. Don't get me wrong, I was fully on board when we bought him in but it quickly became apparent it was a terrible fit. Hecky lifted us from a relegation dogfight to play-offs.

It was only a terrible fit due to not getting the funds he was promised and the players he wanted - bloke never stood a chance

 

[Nedski]

It was only a terrible fit due to not getting the funds he was promised and the players he wanted - bloke never stood a chance

After relegation I felt we needed revolution not evolution. Scrap 352, get in fresh management, fresh players, fresh system.

Slav was the man to do that but suddenly found his hands tied behind his back. I would have accepted an average season if he was given a proper parachute payment infused budget to change everything and go again properly next season.

Hecky did a lot of good things and was a brilliant bloke but the football was generally poor, midfield non existent, and this was a team which had Ndiaye, MGW and Berge! At least 75% of the premier league would pay crazy money to have all 3 in their team. Madness to think we had them all at once.

 

[Balham]

Didn't like one jot the way he and the Saudi man stabbed Slav in the back and conspired together to get rid of him. The Saudi man wanted to appoint Heckingbottom as a permanent successor to Wilder but fan power stopped that, thank goodness. To sack Slav after the length of time was a disgrace and endorces this. It was Slav who brought in M G W and paired him with Ndiaye and they had a brilliant bond.

"The Saudi man". Grow up.

Here is why Jokanovic was relieved of his duties:

 

[Bladesince59]

Hecky is great.

 

[Frank the tank]

Doubt it mate, sadly theve got very rich owners, who will spend.

That's just not true
Not sure where this myth Comes from
What have they spent since they come in
And why have they had to sell hundreds of millions of pounds of players just to keep afloat
If they stay up. They may have. A bigger budget than us but not muchn

 

[TJ blade]

That's just not true
Not sure where this myth Comes from
What have they spent since they come in
And why have they had to sell hundreds of millions of pounds of players just to keep afloat
If they stay up. They may have. A bigger budget than us but not muchn

Maybe wrong but I thought they were owned by Redbull, who basically print money?

 

[Uganda Blade]

Maybe wrong but I thought they were owned by Redbull, who basically print money?

I think Red Bull only own 10% of Leeds

 

[Frank the tank]

Maybe wrong but I thought they were owned by Redbull, who basically print money?

They're major shareholders are the 49ers who also have quite a bit of. Money but have shown no evidence of spending it on Leeds United
So I'm not sure how you can boldly state they are going to spend big when you know so little about them

 

[TJ blade]

They're major shareholders are the 49ers who also have quite a bit of. Money but have shown no evidence of spending it on Leeds United
So I'm not sure how you can boldly state they are going to spend big when you know so little about them

Ok pal only a comment, obviously I've got it wrong and Boldly went in when I thought there owners were backing them up to the hilt, couldn't give 2 fucks about if I'm Boldly honest

 

[robbiez666]

Yep, mainly the promotion season. Not consistent enough for me. In the majority of matches we were poor for the best part of 65-70 minutes every game. It was the 20-25 minutes where we did play well that saw us get the results. Then there was also the inevitable defend the lead and try to see out games instead of pushing to extend the lead while we're on top and dominating. Hence baffling subs.

Is it any different this season?

 

[robbiez666]

You can't overstate the job he did getting us up with all the crap going on in the background. Saved the club in the same way Wilder saved the pub first time around.

He's always come across as an intelligent, thoughtful guy who really just lives and breathes football. The work he did with the young lads is incredible.

Deserves a hero's welcome whenever he returns.

 

[Numpty's Dusty Ruts.]

I like Hecky. He's a decent manager, and more importantly seems to be a thoughtful and decent bloke. One of Barnsley's finest!!

 

[Frank the tank]

There are people on this forum who at the time made it pretty clear they knew the restraints hecky was working under but wouldn't divulge
So surely now the old regime is gone they could enlighten us

I can only imagine the shit that man had to put up with

 

[lazyfecklessblade]

It must have been tough to hold his tongue through some of the chaos he witnessed here, but he did. Seems a good man, who all things considered did about as well as anyone could have envisaged.

Preston Burnley tomorrow absolutely screams 0-0 to me, come on Hecky!

 

[Silky Sabella]

W

That's an oddly positive take on the Slav experiment. I remember us being diabolical most games. Don't get me wrong, I was fully on board when we bought him in but it quickly became apparent it was a terrible fit. Hecky lifted us from a relegation dogfight to play-offs.

Appreciate your take, but my point was that Slav wasn't given anything near the length of time to implement his style of play that we all wanted. I reiterate, there was a hidden agenda with the Saudi man and Heckingbottom!

 

[1987]

W

That's an oddly positive take on the Slav experiment. I remember us being diabolical most games. Don't get me wrong, I was fully on board when we bought him in but it quickly became apparent it was a terrible fit. Hecky lifted us from a relegation dogfight to play-offs.

He's a pig mate. Don't give him a second thought

 

[Dkc]

Appreciate your take, but my point was that Slav wasn't given anything near the length of time to implement his style of play that we all wanted. I reiterate, there was a hidden agenda with the Saudi man and Heckingbottom!

So why hire Slav in the first place?

 

[Silky Sabella]

So why hire Slav in the first place?

A damn good question, but the obvious answer was to keep the fans happy due to making their feelings clear about not wanting Heckingbottom

 

[Scarebus]

Didn't like one jot the way he and the Saudi man stabbed Slav in the back and conspired together to get rid of him. The Saudi man wanted to appoint Heckingbottom as a permanent successor to Wilder but fan power stopped that, thank goodness. To sack Slav after the length of time was a disgrace and endorces this. It was Slav who brought in M G W and paired him with Ndiaye and they had a brilliant bond.

I'm all for opinions, but that's an absolutely mental take

 

[DifferentClass]

Come on Preston.

 

[Nick Jansky]

Come on Preston.

I watched Norwich v Preston the other night. What Hecky’s achieved there in a short period of time made me realise what a good Championship manager he is. They looked a tidy team, short of quality, but starting to turn defeats into draws & draws into wins.

 

[Gin&Juice]

Hecky’s a good manager. Knows how to steady a ship, a players manager. Was dealt a shit hand and had no choice but to trust Prince’s “football advisors”.