Sometimes it is the manager

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Camden Blade

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Look at Villa after replacing Smith with Gerrard. Man Utd look better already now Ollie's gone. And we seem to be playing with more freedom and energy since Slav has departed.
 

Look at Villa after replacing Smith with Gerrard. Man Utd look better already now Ollie's gone. And we seem to be playing with more freedom and energy since Slav has departed.
For how long tho..? not saying it was the wrong decision to axe Slav, but all changes you've stated above are very recent.

For instance Solskaer when he first came in did a really decent job but then faded.
 
For how long tho..? not saying it was the wrong decision to axe Slav, but all changes you've stated above are very recent.

For instance Solskaer when he first came in did a really decent job but then faded.
That's the question how long do you give them? Solskjaer steadied the ship after Mourinho but it was clear it wasn't working for a long time. Smith at Villa too after all the money they spent hung on longer than I thought he would. Slav got no time and I initially disagreed with the decision. But I've changed my mind. It maybe a stroke of genius or just luck to have dumped him. He wasn't the right fit and the football was boring. Such decisions define seasons.

Also, look at Wenger. Stayed far too long at Arsenal. Yet some managers have built empires. Ferguson, Paisley, Clough. Today's versions would be Klopp and Pep. Even Dyche at Burnley.
 
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Slav will not live long in the memory for most fans. That is for sure.

The fact he had us on a good pathway, will have already been largely forgotten.

He simply chose the wrong club. It happens. I am of the opinion he started to realise this some weeks ago and, to a certain extent, gave up on the project. This became increasingly obvious with the players and the board. The end was thus inevitable.

Shame in so many ways 😒.

Onwards.

UTB
 
For how long tho..? not saying it was the wrong decision to axe Slav, but all changes you've stated above are very recent.

For instance Solskaer when he first came in did a really decent job but then faded.
Because he became Mr nice guy and lost the respect of the players
 
Slav didn’t have his top coach with him. Maybe that’s why he failed
 
As a chairman/owner I would get promoted straight away, set a manager on, change him after a few weeks then get another, then another, twenty managers later, champions, then the following season, start again with, well anybody, he's only going to be there a short while, right now, what's next, oh yes covid, I'll be back later after I've sorted Macron out.
 
I was a Slava fan personally, however you could see it was not working. Our club is based on passion working class fan's ,who connect with the management style of Bassett Warnock kendall and Wilder. If you are a trier that's good enough. With hecky I feel our identity is back again because he tells it how it is.
 
I think the prince deserves a lot of credit for sacking Slav for heckingbottom

No one saw his sacking coming and the majority disagreed with it at the time

Already looking like the right decision we’ll done Prince 👍
 
It's always the manager.

The most important person at any football club, except Watford 😉
 
For me it felt like people, myself included, expected us to just turn up, and get promoted under Slav, and the expectation weighed heavily on everyone....
I wasn't happy with him getting sacked, but not it feels like a wake up call to the whole club, we're back as underdogs, and as fans it's like sh*t, they need us now, lets get fully behind them!💪
 

I never felt like Slav was a good fit. The squad he was inheriting wasn’t in sync with how he approaches the game. And on top of that - as touched on by Jack Lester last week - all clubs are different and, whatever the many combined reasons, we are at the opposite end of the scale to Watford and Fulham.
 
The results in the last couple of matches have been a continuation of the performances in the couple before Slav was sacked.

True, I think getting rid of SJ was premature. I can see Hecky is just continuing what SJ was doing. 3 at the back and playing a more creative player behind the front two. In reality it's the original Wilder formation but with players sitting a bit higher up the pitch but the centre backs not needing to get forward as often.

Only difference is Hecky has them pressing more and winning the second balls in midfield.
 
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Realistically, any higher profile or 'big name' manager would have wanted funds to buy players, as Slav himself did.

For a variety of reasons, we don't have any such funds, as was made clear at the recent press conference.

That leaves us as a pretty unattractive prospect for most managers. On that basis, I think we have appointed the best team for the job and early signs are good.

They really are managing with one hand behind their back for reasons that aren't their fault.
 
That's the question how long do you give them? Solskjaer steadied the ship after Mourinho but it was clear it wasn't working for a long time. Smith at Villa too after all the money they spent hung on longer than I thought he would. Slav got no time and I initially disagreed with the decision. But I've changed my mind. It maybe a stroke of genius or just luck to have dumped him. He wasn't the right fit and the football was boring. Such decisions define seasons.

Also, look at Wenger. Stayed far too long at Arsenal. Yet some managers have built empires. Ferguson, Paisley, Clough. Today's versions would be Klopp and Pep. Even Dyche at Burnley.
Wenger stayed because he signed a contract with arsenal that he wouldn't leave until they had built and payed most of the stadium off. Listened to an interview of his recently and he explained it was easier for them to get sponsors and loans for the new stadium if he was in charge.
 
The problem was that Slav just didn't interact with anyone (even the players), tried to change a system that was embeddied over 5 seasons and made everyone at the club feel demotivated. You can see from the video of the team having a laugh in London, due to the amount of time between games, that they want to enjoy life at the lane. The spirit of the club has risen overnight and that fits in with the manager's ethos.
So I think the OP is right in that the right manager can turn things around and permanently. Chris Wilder did from a six season slump.
I always thought the dummy corner was Blackwell's invention but seeing it again against Cardiff, it must have been McCalls. So having someone as positive and inventive as McCall on the staff working closely with the players has to be a vast improvement. Jack Lester came across really well on his interview so I think this management team will do well. It really now depends if they get backed or not.
 
True, I think getting rid of SJ was premature. I can see Hecky is just continuing what SJ was doing. 3 at the back and playing a more creative player behind the front two. In reality it's the original Wilder formation but with players sitting a bit higher up the pitch but the centre backs not needing to get forward as often.

Only difference is Hecky has them pressing more and winning the second balls in midfield.
"There will be times in games when you lose the ball, that's ok, but when you do, you go and fucking get it back"

Paul Heckingbottom ( Nov 2021)
 
"There will be times in games when you lose the ball, that's ok, but when you do, you go and fucking get it back"

Paul Heckingbottom ( Nov 2021)

Bollocks, he's nicked that from our games of cricket played in a small field surrounded by tall hedges and miserable bastards patrolling their gardens in the 70's.
Six and out and fetch the fucker if you twatted it over on purpose.
 
To be brutally honest, I never understood what Slav was trying to do. OK I know I'm thick, and all a footballer has to do is do as he's told to the best of his ability. but how do you do that when you can't understand what the managers saying unless he brings in a interpreter. and I doubt the coachers he brought in were any better .
He wasn't a fit with the team he inherited, and I think the only way he could possibly go was to bring in a load of overseas players who could under stand him and his coachers... , not a cheap thing to do in one season. .
To me it looked like one of those ideas that could well work down south ,
but just not reight for dis club, da knows,
Thank god...... :tumbleweed:
 
I never felt like Slav was a good fit. The squad he was inheriting wasn’t in sync with how he approaches the game. And on top of that - as touched on by Jack Lester last week - all clubs are different and, whatever the many combined reasons, we are at the opposite end of the scale to Watford and Fulham.
They seem the very antithesis of northern and working class.
 
Either Beans or Roygbiv said it on Bladespod best.

The board thought that Slav was the man for the job when they (and me) thought the squad was good enough. That we would dominate teams through the talent and by outscoring the opposition under a "we'll score one more than you"

Now that it has become apparent that the talent level in the squad isn't enough to push for Automatic promotion, or paper over the grand canyon we have at the back, a rethink was required.

Slav could have done that rethink himself - and maybe he did some of it - but the board decided enough was enough (probably with one eye on L1).

Under Hecky, the ceiling of the team is probably lower - but the floor is a lot higher as well.
 
Let's just relax for now David weir started well then went on a losing streak
 
We had no chance of getting in the playoffs with Slav as he needed new players from the off but if we’d have had Hecky from the start of the season there’d have been an uprising. Hecky’ s appointment has been sold to us very well with the other appointments of Lester and McCall and the social media that came with the it.
 
Maybe so, but I think we had a team before that was greater than the sum of it's parts because it had Hart with a capital H. and I believe the present managerial team has more chance of bringing that back than the last...
 

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