19 Feb 2023 08:04:35
I do find it interesting how the Premiership treat coaches and in particular how we have treated our managers in the very recent past. Take Steven Gerrard for example an allegedly up and coming English coach, after an initial up turn in results, performances dipped, results were poor Gerrard refused to alter his method of play was deemed to be stubborn, the fans turned and he was sacked. Incomes Emery a more established manager with a proven track record who similarly after an initial honeymoon period has seen results dip he too remains stubbornly insistent on playing a style which doesn't suit the players at his disposal and yet not a murmur from the fans. Now to be absolutely clear I am not for one moment suggesting we should sack Emery far from it I think he is a world class coach,but it is a shame to think we will give the established candidate time to get things right but not the up and coming new kid on the block? It's hardly surprising we have had no successful English coaches during the lifetime of the Premiership we don't give them a chance to establish themselves.
19 Feb 2023 10:00:58
To be fair Gerrard had the start of the following season too. Who's to say that Emery won't get sacked if we stumble and just stay up this season and then he starts off poorly next season. Plus think the owners gave Purslow the benefit of the doubt over Gerrard but maybe weren't totally convinced by the appointment.
19 Feb 2023 10:09:33
Good comments LOTM. I think the difference is SG was always up against it with the fact he was following Deano. I also think and have read, he upset too many of the players especially Marmite Mings who seems to be a massive presence in the team. Yes we got Kamara, which I’m sure was down to SG (not to mention the alleged £175k per week). But, he was stubborn and insisted on his favourites, even when they weren’t performing. With Emery, the supporters can see he is trying out the majority of the squad and not afraid to chop and change. Plus, there now seem a positivity in the squad. UTV
19 Feb 2023 10:16:53
That is way too vague a statement, there are very clear reasons why.
Gerrard sat in an office all week and picked 11 players on a matchday.
Gerrard had a formation, not a system, at best he was trying to be prime Barcelona or current City with slow possession which we 100% did not have the players for.
Gerrards 'upturn' was against teams in a mid season malaise like Brighton and Palace who didn't have all that much to play for.
Emery is constantly working with the players, trying to work on a lot of intricate details. It's a complete 180 from where we were and we're clearly playing better football and working better as a team outside of the mistakes.
Emery has managed wins over Spurs and United, Gerrard got nothing against any top teams.
Emery wants better control 9f possession but wants it with intensity. I don't agree with him that we shouldn't play long balls, I actually liked us mixing it up at times yesterday although maybe he was referring to later in the game where we kept taking long goal kicks.
19 Feb 2023 10:34:25
And you know Gerrard sat in the office all week how rk? I take it you were present during training? Far to specific a comment I think!
19 Feb 2023 12:05:01
I read Villa news and interviews throughout the week. It was stated multiple times by him and the coaching staff that he let the coaches take training and tended to spend his time in the office watching it either over CCTV or recordings.
Why do I need to be there if it comes from the horses mouth?
19 Feb 2023 12:33:11
So you believe everything that comes from the press? Wouldn’t be that the press even Villa’s might have an agenda? tut tut such naivety. I am assuming when you refer to the horses mouth that horse would be Stevie G himself would it?
The point that I was making in my earlier post was that not all coaches are afforded either the time or the space to deliver the results we as fans demand, and that English coaches trying to establish themselves are finding themselves at a particular disadvantage when you look at the history of the premiership. I don’t understand what is too vague about that observation.
19 Feb 2023 14:15:19
Lots, Gerrard got the sack because he couldn't get results with our players. Even Emi came out in an interview and said he'd never known the assistant manager (BEALE) do all of the team talks and training sessions. Gerrard seemed to be just a big name that Purslow wanted. Style over content.
19 Feb 2023 16:15:18
Bucktooth rarely do modern day managers do the coaching sessions a lot of clubs have specific attack, defence even set piece coaches so that of itself isn’t all that unusual. Whether or not he is responsible for the training is neither here or there, he is accountable for the results on the pitch and consequently paid the ultimate price. In fairness though he was neither given the time or the money needed to turn things round, he was promised significant funds to spend but only spent £52 million net over 2 transfer windows hardly big money. I’m not a Gerrard fan but I do believe in fairness in that anyone hired to do a job should be given the time and support needed to complete the task and I don’t think he really got either.
19 Feb 2023 16:43:25
Interviews with a manager and his coaching staff as well as players is not random press musings.
I get that some things can get cut out to focus on one side but nothing else they might have said can change the narrative of those points. Gerrard, Beale and others have all said Gerrard let the coaching staff do the work on the training pitch and he rarely got involved, the press can't pull those comments out of thin air otherwise they'd have been struck down with libel cases and we'd have seen retractions.
I don't think English coaches are necessarily afforded less time, it probably seems like it because more of them take on difficult roles.
A lot are at clubs trying to avoid relegation or expecting play offs/promotion without a good enough team to do it.
Which foreign managers do you think got way more time than would have been afforded anyone else other than maybe Arteta?
19 Feb 2023 17:23:06
Hassenhutl at Southampton for one, lost 9 -0 kept his job, Nathan Jones got about 9 weeks and that might be overstating how long he got! Also Solskjaer got longer at United than any English coach would have got.
I agree with the point that a lot of English coaches take a punt on clubs at the wrong end of the table but in some ways that’s because it’s likely that that’s the only premiership job they are likely to get offered. I think such jobs have been the death of a number of talented young coaches Paul Lambert with us being just one example.
It will be really interesting to see how Potter gets on at Chelsea I really hope they persevere with him because he is a good coach who I genuinely believe if he is given time he will get it right. Also Dyche at Everton his achievements at Burnley were outstanding given the constraints he was working with now he is with a club who should be able to provide him with some money to spend it will be really interesting to see firstly whether he will change the style of football his teams play and secondly what success can he achieve at a club whose expectations are much higher than Burnley’s
19 Feb 2023 18:28:52
I had a feeling you'd mention Hassenhutl. Until this season he had them at an expected level, not comfortably safe but also not really in any serious danger.
Nobody likes a drubbing but he kept managing to pick them back up to go on a run leaving those results as fairly isolated incidents.
Jones was on a long run of defeats and may have had a bit longer if he didn't go clinically insane and start ranting about being the best in the world at everything.
Solksjaer probably had the benefit of being a fan favourite and maybe the board were finally starting to realise that some of the squad were the problem. Despite having time it's not like they backed him much with signings though.
19 Feb 2023 19:39:28
Jones had a long run of defeats? he hadn’t been in the job long enough to have a long run of defeats! And didn’t his team beat Man City in the quarter finals of what was the old league cup?
19 Feb 2023 20:07:46
They lost 6 out of 7 of his league matches and by all accounts were getting worse, not better.
Under normal circumstances I would agree that they were already not great so he needed a chance to fix things but like I said previously he probably nailed his own coffin with his crazy interviews.
19 Feb 2023 21:01:38
Mings. He lost 8 of his 9 league games! Smith lost 5 games in a row and got sacked with us. If that was Emery you'd be calling for him to be sacked, especially if we'd fallen to the bottom of the league.
19 Feb 2023 23:15:49
Bucky I would not be calling for any managers head who hasn’t been given the opportunity to put things right it’s pure insanity. I would rather he take us down and be given the chance to bring us back up simply pulling the trigger every time a manager goes on a bad run is crazy in my view. If anything particularly in the cases of Southampton and Leeds then it’s the board who should look themselves in the mirror but of course they never do.