Stephen Bettis speaks to local Media

[AWetFlannel]

I think gambling on an unproven manager with a squad that finished 3rd on the last year of parachute payments was an absolutely disastrous decision. We’re now left completely hamstrung by the fallout of that summer. Not sure why we are trying to rewrite history, it remains a period of the club characterised by brain dead decisions.

As for Selles, I’d seriously consider Davie Weir instead of him if I had one match to save my life. Whilst I’m sure he knew his way around Expected Goals, he seemed to expect playing with no central midfield was a sensible way play football. Mind blowing stuff.

At Soton as caretaker he won 2 in 17 and they got relegated. Reading he finished 17th then left when they were 6th halfway through the season. Hull they finished 21st on goal difference and he was sacked. Sacked at SUFC when we were bottom of the league. Sacked at Zaragoza when they were bottom of La Liga 2.

How on earth he has got another job is beyond me, but it looks like a Cypriot professional team has now taken him on. Madness. He must be good at interviews.

I think we're talking past each other. Everyone agrees that period is characterised by brain dead decisions, I just think that those decisions would have hamstrung any manager to the extent that we would have regressed that season. I don't think Wilder would have got us promoted or remained happy with the summer businesses.

You either understand the job he did at Reading and the situation at the club or you don't. I'm not going to type it all out here, we're already off topic, but finishing 17th was a success and if you knew the context you'd probably agree. To a lesser extent, the same is true for Hull.

Plenty of managers, particularly young ones, do average or poorly at two or three clubs before having huge success at another. In my opinion, managers don't have as much impact on results as we usually imagine. Well run clubs cycle through managers without any fuss, whilst clubs run like shit can hire managers with stellar records and immediately flop.

 

[Rodley]

I think we're talking past each other. Everyone agrees that period is characterised by brain dead decisions, I just think that those decisions would have hamstrung any manager to the extent that we would have regressed that season. I don't think Wilder would have got us promoted or remained happy with the summer businesses.

You either understand the job he did at Reading and the situation at the club or you don't. I'm not going to type it all out here, we're already off topic, but finishing 17th was a success and if you knew the context you'd probably agree. To a lesser extent, the same is true for Hull.

Plenty of managers, particularly young ones, do average or poorly at two or three clubs before having huge success at another. In my opinion, managers don't have as much impact on results as we usually imagine. Well run clubs cycle through managers without any fuss, whilst clubs run like shit can hire managers with stellar records and immediately flop.

I’m not sure we’re talking past each other, I just think that if your point is “Selles is a better manager than his really poor track record suggests”, I don’t really think there’s any evidence whatsoever to suggest that is the case.

If your point is generally “some good managers struggle in difficult circumstances”, I think that’s a fair one. But I don’t think Selles is an example of that.

 

[AWetFlannel]

I’m not sure we’re talking past each other, I just think that if your point is “Selles is a better manager than his really poor track record suggests”, I don’t really think there’s any evidence whatsoever to suggest that is the case.

If your point is generally “some good managers struggle in difficult circumstances”, I think that’s a fair one. But I don’t think Selles is an example of that.

My point is that Selles had a good track record when we hired him. You are underestimating the job he did at Reading particularly. After the job he did with us and Zaragoza, his track record is now not good, I don't think he's a good manager anymore.

 

[Hallamboy87]

TBH look at Lampard at Coventry. Didnt do well at all his other clubs. Got derby into the play offs yes but look at the players he had on loan!

When you first get into management you're learning!

I was overjoyed with the Selles appointment as genuinely thought he would be a great manager for us. It didn't work out. I was a bit pissed off we went back to Wilder though. Like former players, we sometimes need to move on

 

[Rodley]

My point is that Selles had a good track record when we hired him. You are underestimating the job he did at Reading particularly. After the job he did with us and Zaragoza, his track record is now not good, I don't think he's a good manager anymore.

Yes he did alright under financial duress at League One Reading, but ultimately he’s been found out. For me, we ought to have been aiming far higher.

 

[Nah den]

"So Stephen, it's raining outside, hahahaha, what do you make of the Sheffield weather?"

 

[Berkshire Blade]

As terrible a job Selles did and as bad an appointment it now undoubtedly was, I think it's strange to suggest it set us back years. He was gone after a few months. Sacking Wilder perhaps did set us back, the AI signings and the desperation signings that followed in that window certainly did, but Selles presumably had little control over those.

We wasted our last season of parachute payments on him. It's strange to suggest that didn't set us back! From 90 points to whatever we were last year to this. It all comes from that summer.

 

[I should coco]

As for Selles, I’d seriously consider Davie Weir instead of him if I had one match to save my life.

Selles or Weir - brilliant!

Would you rather have a strawberry rammed down your cock, or a pumpkin shoved up your arse?

BTW, I'd go Weir too.

 

[I should coco]

My point is that Selles had a good track record when we hired him. You are underestimating the job he did at Reading particularly. After the job he did with us and Zaragoza, his track record is now not good, I don't think he's a good manager anymore.

You keep saying 'good track record' and I've pointed out to you how his team fell off a cliff at Hull and relied on others to stay up on the last day.

It isn't by any definition 'good'.
I'd suggest 'mixed' at best.

 

[AWetFlannel]

We wasted our last season of parachute payments on him. It's strange to suggest that didn't set us back! From 90 points to whatever we were last year to this. It all comes from that summer.

My argument is that we would have been set by anyway due to the other decisions made by the board. Clearly it was a bad appointment, but a better one wouldn't have had us getting promoted with Ukaki and Zatterstrom bossing it.

We declined for loads of reasons, I'm just suggesting that Selles isn't the biggest one.

 

[AWetFlannel]

You keep saying 'good track record' and I've pointed out to you how his team fell off a cliff at Hull and relied on others to stay up on the last day.

It isn't by any definition 'good'.
I'd suggest 'mixed' at best.

Right, and you see how you're selectively picking the five months you want to criticise and can reasonably frame as mixed, rather than the job he did at Reading. It was never 'his team' at Hull, it was just a mess he inherited and delivered with.

 

[I should coco]

Right, and you see how you're selectively picking the five months you want to criticise and can reasonably frame as mixed, rather than the job he did at Reading. It was never 'his team' at Hull, it was just a mess he inherited and delivered with.

It's not about being 'selective'.

You keep banging on about Reading, but his track record HAS to include Hull, otherwise it's not a track record.

Most mangers inherit someone else's team, it's part of the job.
I am completely bemused, why you are still trying to paint him as Pep#2, but each to his own

 

[AWetFlannel]

It's not about being 'selective'.

You keep banging on about Reading, but his track record HAS to include Hull, otherwise it's not a track record.

Most mangers inherit someone else's team, it's part of the job.
I am completely bemused, why you are still trying to paint him as Pep#2, but each to his own

Now you are being disingenuous, because I don't think he's a good manager and have repeatedly said so.

Yes, his track record has to include the five months at Hull, in which he did a decent job, but the year and a half at Reading is more significant because it was a year and a half including dealing with transfer windows. A good 18 months and a decent 5 months comes out as good overall to me.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

My argument is that we would have been set by anyway due to the other decisions made by the board. Clearly it was a bad appointment, but a better one wouldn't have had us getting promoted with Ukaki and Zatterstrom bossing it.

We declined for loads of reasons, I'm just suggesting that Selles isn't the biggest one.

There's hundreds of managers out there and we appointed one sacked three times in a year. I think it's hard to suggest a bigger issue from a proven manger with a proven method to at least have us as a play off side for a AI led data method that was so bad it's been binned off after the previous manager said he wasn't a fan of it as part of his return.

But even with the crap AI we would have been half decent with a half decent manager

 

[I should coco]

Now you are being disingenuous, because I don't think he's a good manager and have repeatedly said so.

Yes, his track record has to include the five months at Hull, in which he did a decent job, but the year and a half at Reading is more significant because it was a year and a half including dealing with transfer windows. A good 18 months and a decent 5 months comes out as good overall to me.

I understand your argument, but I think we have to agree to differ.

 

[Nick Jansky]

There's hundreds of managers out there and we appointed one sacked three times in a year.

We also reappointed Wilder when he had been sacked twice in a year. We are generally fairly shit at choosing managers.

 

[Blade In Flame]

Hull fans, certainly the ones I knew, had major reservations.

Were they Native American Indian chiefs?

 

[Bladedog]

Im sure rosen said on the podcast he,d secured investment...anyone back this up?..if so..it's a question for bettis..in terms of time frame.

 

[The Crab]

Based on gut feeling at the time, and some of the stuff I’d read and heard, I was happy with the Selles appointment. There will be posts on here where I supported it.

I don’t think anyone can really deny it was a catastrophe, and yes that period set us back significantly.

But like all the other issues with the club, it’s more a sequence of unfortunate events rather than one thing, or person, that we can point at and blame.

How the club is run, its mindset, this culture bollocks, all of that underpins the real problem.

They are what needs addressing, but I have very little faith that it will be

 

[diplomat]

His 'failures' included a year at Hull, where after starting like a train, they only managed to stay up on the last day of the season due to other results.

When he started talking about 'chaos', I did a little more than raise eyebrows. If you can be bothered to search back, you will see that there were a small band of us questioning his pedigree and performance in the friendlies, BEFORE the disastrous start. I called him a charlatan from the start, as IMHO, he talked complete tripe.

If we are that 'uninformed', let's not bother offering opinions at all, eh?

Did they start like a train? If so why did they sack their manager?

 

[ATL Recs]

He was a successful and well regarded manager before joining us, let's not rewrite history.

I hope this is humour
He was shyte everywhere 10% win ratio Southampton
Reading 40%
Hull 30%
Us 0%
Overall and up to leaving us 25% win rate
Which Arsenal did the analysis here
Who scrutinised his portfolio
It was an Absolute piss take and our accountant ceo should have done some fit and proper stuff
Hull n Southampton fans pissed themselves

 

[AWetFlannel]

There's hundreds of managers out there and we appointed one sacked three times in a year. I think it's hard to suggest a bigger issue from a proven manger with a proven method to at least have us as a play off side for a AI led data method that was so bad it's been binned off after the previous manager said he wasn't a fan of it as part of his return.

But even with the crap AI we would have been half decent with a half decent manager

His first job was Reading in which he didn't get sacked, then he got sacked at Hull which most saw as further evidence of their owner's delusions of grandeur, what am I missing?

We might have been a play off side with a solid manager or if we'd kept Wilder, but for me we've been on the slide for a while. The manager and players deserve credit for the 92 point season, but we outperformed our statistics by a fair whack and Wilder has struggled to recapture the results or performances since.

 

[AWetFlannel]

I hope this is humour
He was shyte everywhere 10% win ratio Southampton
Reading 40%
Hull 30%
Us 0%
Overall and up to leaving us 25% win rate
Which Arsenal did the analysis here
Who scrutinised his portfolio
It was an Absolute piss take and our accountant ceo should have done some fit and proper stuff
Hull n Southampton fans pissed themselves

He was caretaker manager at Southampton, which happened because they were already basically relegated and the players had given up. Completely unfair to judge him on that.

A 40% win ratio at Reading is very, very good considering the context, which you obviously aren't.

A 30% win ratio at Hull was just enough to keep them up and better than what they were managing before with a mess of a squad and loads of injuries.

 

[ATL Recs]

I think we're talking past each other. Everyone agrees that period is characterised by brain dead decisions, I just think that those decisions would have hamstrung any manager to the extent that we would have regressed that season. I don't think Wilder would have got us promoted or remained happy with the summer businesses.

You either understand the job he did at Reading and the situation at the club or you don't. I'm not going to type it all out here, we're already off topic, but finishing 17th was a success and if you knew the context you'd probably agree. To a lesser extent, the same is true for Hull.

Plenty of managers, particularly young ones, do average or poorly at two or three clubs before having huge success at another. In my opinion, managers don't have as much impact on results as we usually imagine. Well run clubs cycle through managers without any fuss, whilst clubs run like shit can hire managers with stellar records and immediately flop.

The only clubs supporters who eventually showed some positivity Reading
Hull very mixed mainly negative
Southampton more negative
A 25% win ratio overall upto leaving us
He was part of the poker mans project hook line and sinker
There is a world of upcoming young coaches we pick a failure who personally went with the experiment
He’s been sacked since as well hasn’t he?
From the moment his name was mentioned it was very
WTF are we doing

 

[ATL Recs]

He was caretaker manager at Southampton, which happened because they were already basically relegated and the players had given up. Completely unfair to judge him on that.

A 40% win ratio at Reading is very, very good considering the context, which you obviously aren't.

A 30% win ratio at Hull was just enough to keep them up and better than what they were managing before with a mess of a squad and loads of injuries.

1 game as caretaker the rest in the same giving up season 19 with 2 wins I think
Yes I am considering the context with Reading he had a good run in the last third of the season prior was shyte
Hull fans response was puzzling crap at home not sure about formations
Better away, admittedly it was the away form that scraped them out of it
My Hull mates will and did say there win at the Lane was standout of the season
Never reached that level again and the away wins mainly muggings
An absolutely terrible appointment should never have happened

 

[HeCanDoMagic]

We also reappointed Wilder when he had been sacked twice in a year. We are generally fairly shit at choosing managers.

And now scared.

What a combo. We'll have to wait even longer for another shit manager.

 

[AWetFlannel]

2 games in the giving up season then 19 in the next season with 2 wins I think

Eh? He was caretaker until the end of the season, then left.

Yes I am considering the context with Reading he had a good run in the last third of the season prior was shyte

You are not considering the context at Reading because you clearly don't know it. If you did, you wouldn't be saying what you are.

Hull fans response was puzzling crap at home not sure about formations
Better away, admittedly it was the away form that scraped them out of it
My Hull mates will and did say there win at the Lane was standout of the season
Never reached that level again and the away wins mainly muggings
An absolutely terrible appointment should never have happened

Hull were terrible, loads of injuries and the squad was a mess. They appointed him whilst in the relegation zone (I think?) and kept them up.

You keep talking about what fans of these clubs thought of him despite the fact that most fans are clueless. He objectively did a good job at Reading and he kept Hull up. Clearly not a failure by any definition.

 

[Tom Bott]

Well Selles didn't have much of a record before he came to us either. Bang average at Reading and did enough in a few months at Hull City to get sacked.
I wouldn't say he'd had any success

Though maybe he set the wheels in motion for Hull to be promoted the following season.
Maybe he was a delayed reaction genius.

Friday night conspiracy theory...

 

[Tom Bott]

You keep talking about what fans of these clubs thought of him despite the fact that most fans are clueless. He objectively did a good job at Reading and he kept Hull up. Clearly not a failure by any definition.

Lasted 4 months at Zaragoza after leaving us, though he did manage to win 5 games out of 20.

 

[AWetFlannel]

Lasted 4 months at Zaragoza after leaving us, though he did manage to win 5 games out of 20.

I'd hoped the clarification wasn't needed, but he wasn't a failure before we hired him. He has failed since.