Poll Next manager? (Poll reset 21/09)

[jumping mouse]

As usual when a manager is sacked due to poor performance there’s a bit of a pile on.

When you look at his record it’s hard to argue with a lot of what have people said - we didn’t win very many games and despite the narrative of him being a defensive manager, especially recently, we were incredibly easy to play against.

There were times where we did threaten to be a good team but it never really materialised and the good performances were either in isolation or didn’t follow with 3 points.

The biggest complement I can give him is he appears well liked and even despite his atrocious record with us, the fans never really got on his back until the very end.

I think he’d be a good appointment for you alongside McCall to galvanise the fans and he proved he was capable of steadying a ship with us when he first came in.

Agree. On Hecky, his win rate was abysmal. That's a matter of record.

The true story is a little different. When we occasionally played some good stuff, we rarely got what we deserved. And even lost.

He was not a lucky manager. And the margins of his many defeats were often very narrow and/or resulted from bizarre player mistakes.

This summer he (I would say) bravely attempted to change the safety-first approach and dump wingbacks. Something many have been crying out for. And possibly fueled by anticipation of an incoming budget after a takeover, which still hasn't materialised, he started making long-term strategic adjustments. This may have ultimately been his undoing. (A little ironic that we are now choosing a safety-first wing-back manager?)

His results meant he should have been long gone. But he was much more well-liked than his results would normally suggest. Most of us genuinely wanted it to work out for Hecky (unlike other managers).

At times it felt like he wasn't far away. You could see what he was trying. Until some consistently and increasingly bizarre line-ups and horrific substitutions directly impacted the abysmal results ... and left his position untenable.

 

[Vinylman]

So is today finally going to be the day when a new era begins in the continuing saga of Preston North End? There seems to a strong possibility it will be but until something is officially announced I will make no comment. I am actually off this afternoon to look at the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum though I daresay as I contemplate the events that have shaped the history of Britain for nearly the last thousand years a bit of me will be preoccupied with the future of this football club.

Perhaps in a 1000 years people will be going to look at the Deepdale Tapestry at the British Museum!

 

[MBcha]

So is today finally going to be the day when a new era begins in the continuing saga of Preston North End?

They're both the same.

 

[Yan89]

I can't get my head around that we have gone from Robbie Keane, stevie Gerrard, Steve Cooper, Sean Dyche, carlos Corboran to then asking permission to approach Graham Alexander?

A great player for us no doubt and i still learning his trade as a manager, he might have Bradford sat at the top of League 1 but he has been fired at a few previous jobs ie Salford, Motherwell, Fleetwood - not huge clubs these with high expectations.

I think he is certainly one for the future if he does well but at the moment we need someone to sort out the mess that we are in and it is a mess. The defence and striking departments are not up to the task of keeping us up and its a slippery pole that GA will be grabbing if he is appointed as there is no window other than loans for him to get players in and players out.

I hope I am proved wrong but it appears to be once again the cheap option, surely if Mr Zedan is taking over then he would have had a say in the appointment and perhaps his team would have someone in mind.

As I say i hope I am wrong but this does not bode well.

Zero evidence to suggest we've gone 'from' anyone to GA.. they were names banded around on here, and nothing to suggest we approached them all.

 

[Jack Daniels]

I can't get my head around that we have gone from Robbie Keane, stevie Gerrard, Steve Cooper, Sean Dyche, carlos Corboran to then asking permission to approach Graham Alexander?

A great player for us no doubt and i still learning his trade as a manager, he might have Bradford sat at the top of League 1 but he has been fired at a few previous jobs ie Salford, Motherwell, Fleetwood - not huge clubs these with high expectations.

(1) Have you any proof that these 4 names were approached and/or interviewed? I suspect you haven't.

(2) 600+ games as a manager is not what I would call "still learning his trade as a manager". Have a word with yourself.

(3) Every manager gets sacked at some stage. You - and a few others on here - post as if getting the sack is unique to GA only.

 

[jumping mouse]

Perhaps in a 1000 years people will be going to look at the Deepdale Tapestry at the British Museum!

 

[keasden]

Hopefully we will be put out of misery soon and the announcement made. If, as expected, it is GA and CL then he will have the best wishes and support of virtually all PNE fans based on his playing status, if not his managerial record. If I had to choose a manager who would bring us some degree of success, I would want no one more than Grezza to succeed here. A good season under him would feel so much better than a good season under someone like Keane or Baines. And at this stage, a good season is nothing more than survival this year, or fingers crossed, our usual 12th place finish.

His recent managerial record is not too dissimilar, if not better, than Lowes when we poached him from Plymouth. Lowe came here partly because it was nearer to Liverpool, not because he loved the club like GA does. He also came without his sidekick Schumacher, and it looks like we are getting the full team this time.

Grezza wasn't my first choice but the more I've thought about it the more it makes sense and if nothing else there should be a great atmosphere at the first home game (till full time at least!)

 

[NorthEnd4-0]

Hi guys, hope you are all well. I haven’t managed to be on here really or post for along time because of my illness but I would really like some help please in a reponse to a lasher neighbour who has said that Grezza has been sacked at every club he’s been at bar Bradford and wouldn’t have him at Blackpool based on his record. Is there any stats or info that Incan respond with please to shut him up? Actual Grezza info not insults towards Blackpool, I give enough of those.

Thank you everyone.

 

[jumping mouse]

Hi guys, hope you are all well. I haven’t managed to be on here really or post for along time because of my illness but I would really like some help please in a reponse to a lasher neighbour who has said that Grezza has been sacked at every club he’s been at bar Bradford and wouldn’t have him at Blackpool based on his record. Is there any stats or info that Incan respond with please to shut him up? Actual Grezza info not insults towards Blackpool, I give enough of those.

Thank you everyone.

Consistent with pretty much every football manager ever. Around 75-80% leave because they are sacked. It's not even a thing.

 

[Nobber]

Hi guys, hope you are all well. I haven’t managed to be on here really or post for along time because of my illness but I would really like some help please in a reponse to a lasher neighbour who has said that Grezza has been sacked at every club he’s been at bar Bradford and wouldn’t have him at Blackpool based on his record. Is there any stats or info that Incan respond with please to shut him up? Actual Grezza info not insults towards Blackpool, I give enough of those.

Thank you everyone.

I’m very well thank you, thanks for asking.

Sorry, ain’t got a clue on the Gregan front.

 

[Jack Daniels]

Hi guys, hope you are all well. I haven’t managed to be on here really or post for along time because of my illness but I would really like some help please in a reponse to a lasher neighbour who has said that Grezza has been sacked at every club he’s been at bar Bradford and wouldn’t have him at Blackpool based on his record. Is there any stats or info that Incan respond with please to shut him up? Actual Grezza info not insults towards Blackpool, I give enough of those.

Thank you everyone.

I think he has but...

... ask your neighbour how Salford, Fleetwood and Scunny especially have "progressed" since he left. That will shut him up. As a Brucie Bonus, you could remind him that they are only 2 Points from oblivion.

PS - Hope you're on the mend. 👍

 

[Kathryn]

Radio Lancashire are reporting that an announcement is likely today regarding GA coming to PNE.

 

[Bodney Rewes]

Ey up everyone, me again. Thanks for the (mostly 😉) kind words around my messages the other night. Pesky message limit cut me off.

Word on our end, as someone’s already said, is that club announcements will be today (Monday), and you’ll get GA and CL, but our training will be done by Truman and Doyle, so no risk of them coming.

Pretty downbeat about it all to be honest, it feels like a big risk to leave Bradford, but GA always spoke about ambition and aiming upwards etc.

Just popped in to say that the only name we’ve got so far from reliable sources is Heckingbottom. Do with that as you will, but for me it’s a manager who’s had about 20 League One games so not sure on that one.

Any questions on GA that weren’t answered before I’ll try to answer. If there’s anything you could say to bring a positive to the prospect of Hecky then I’d welcome it - I don’t think I’ve heard anything exciting so far.

Good luck for the rest of the season 🙂

Just to add to what everyone else said about Heckingbottom, he could be quite streaky (lots of wins in a row but also lots of games without a win in a row). We were already a bit streaky under Lowe but Heckingbottom's were more extreme. It's also what contributed to his sacking as we've only won 5 league games out of the last 28.

As a personality, he's quite a straight talker. He's good at understanding the general state of the club in terms of youth development and things. It's under his tenure that we finally saw efforts to improve the quality of our pitch and investing in younger players to potentially develop as part of an under 21 team.

Just to elaborate on Raefil's point about cards and suspensions, I'd say it's not that he's inclined to get carded during a game. What happened with us is that he managed to get suspensions from what he said to the refs either before the game, during half time or after it. There was one ref in particular that he had an issue with (I think it's James Bell).

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

Hi guys, hope you are all well. I haven’t managed to be on here really or post for along time because of my illness but I would really like some help please in a reponse to a lasher neighbour who has said that Grezza has been sacked at every club he’s been at bar Bradford and wouldn’t have him at Blackpool based on his record. Is there any stats or info that Incan respond with please to shut him up? Actual Grezza info not insults towards Blackpool, I give enough of those.

Thank you everyone.

Pretty much every manager gets sacked in the end, unless they get poached. Even the successful ones end up being poached, moving up a level and then potted quite often. I can't think of anyone who has gone from League 2 straight through to the Championship/Prem without a period of failure.

If you dismiss the most recent success at Bradford as well as the promotions and play off finishes elsewhere earlier in his career and just focus on the sackings, then you'd have to be consistent with that to all managers. Evatt would just be a bloke potted at Bolton, you can dismiss his success at Barrow.

 

[PrideNeverEnds]

Let's hope they stay that way... Graham Alexander's Super White Army has a nice ring to it...

Town End won’t remember all those words.

 

[simon_pne]

Hi guys, hope you are all well. I haven’t managed to be on here really or post for along time because of my illness but I would really like some help please in a reponse to a lasher neighbour who has said that Grezza has been sacked at every club he’s been at bar Bradford and wouldn’t have him at Blackpool based on his record. Is there any stats or info that Incan respond with please to shut him up? Actual Grezza info not insults towards Blackpool, I give enough of those.

Thank you everyone.

 

[Aitch]

Consistent with pretty much every football manager ever. Around 75-80% leave because they are sacked. It's not even a thing.

I think the worry is that GA has been sacked by clubs who, without being disrespectful, aren't as big as us or at the level we are at and hoping to progress higher. If you can't hack it in L1 L2 at Fleetwood, Salford etc, then will you be able to do it at a higher level?

 

[Sherfield White]

Enough said really!

 

[Jack Daniels]

I think the worry is that GA has been sacked by clubs who, without being disrespectful, aren't as big as us or at the level we are at and hoping to progress higher. If you can't hack it in L1 L2 at Fleetwood, Salford etc, then will you be able to do it at a higher level?

(1) Gary Neville has been very public in regretting his sacking of GA.

(2) Fleetwood, with crowds of 2k-3k, were always going to be limited in what they can / could do, especially with the off field antics of Pilley. Their ground hold 5311, only the IPS is smaller than their ground.

From the Fleetwood Wiki page.

League One years​

Playing at the club's highest level, the 2014–15 season was very successful. After three games the team was top at the league, and remained in the top half of the league for almost the whole season, eventually finishing 10th. Notable results were away victories against Sheffield United and Rochdale and home draws against Bristol City, Preston North End, Swindon Town, Sheffield United, Rochdale and Chesterfield. Also in 2014, the club purchased a 57-bedroom hotel in Blackpool for the youth team; the following year, the club started to move into its new training ground at Poolfoot Farm in nearby Burn Naze.[22]

The 2015–16 season was more difficult. In July 2015, chairman Andy Pilley announced a new club strategy, moving towards a self-sustaining model utilising the development and sell-on of homegrown talent to attempt to climb the league pyramid further rather than more expensive player signings.[23] The playing budget was trimmed heavily. After a poor start to the season with only two wins in 10 league matches, Graham Alexander was sacked on 30 September 2015,

 

[PrideNeverEnds]

Zero evidence to suggest we've gone 'from' anyone to GA.. they were names banded around on here, and nothing to suggest we approached them all.

I’m glad Pep wasn’t on the Poll.