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Ongoing new manager discussion and speculation


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There are shades of 1983 about this. This year we weren't able to attract our first choice Director of Football, our incumbent being at best second choice for the job. Back in 83, before directors of football were invented, we searched for our eighth manager following the end of legend John Grieg's reign.

 

Our board's first choice was ex-player and Govan boy Alex Ferguson who was doing amazing things with Aberdeen. The Aberdeen board responded by making Ferguson the best paid manager in Scotland and he signed a new contract at Aberdeen. We then turned to Jim McLean, brother of former player and assistant manager Tommy, McLean had transformed Dundee Utd into title winners and European contenders. McLean was interviewed but ultimately chose to stay with Utd, again securing an improved contract in the process. Finally we turned to Motherwell manager Jock Wallace. Wallace had previously enjoyed great success with Rangers before leaving mysteriously after winning the title. Again, the reason for that is always assumed to be money, or lack of it. Wallace joined Rangers second time round as probably the third, maybe even the fourth, best paid manager in Scotland. That reign wasn't a success.

 

This time round I reckon we'd be able to significantly improve the annual salary of any other Scottish domestic manager outside of Rodgers. If we can't then there is literally no chance of us over-turning Celtic in the foreseeable future. That's the pool we're fishing in, the £600,000 a year and under market. What does that buy you? Well Gordon Strachan was on around £500,000 a year at Scotland, Michael O'Neill is on something similar at Northern Ireland. So to attract him for example you'd need to seriously improve his salary. As a comparison his near namesake and ex-Celtic manager Martin is on double that managing the ROI.

 

From England we can forget about attracting anyone from the top league or even someone recently out of work like De Boer or Keoman. Although fired they will still be getting paid their salary, and taking a new job will see that end, so we'd need to match what they were on and we simply can't afford that. Keoman was on £2 million a year at Everton it's reported, De Boer probably half that at Crystal Palace.

 

Whatever happens expect to be disappointed, we are not in a position to attract a top manager. That doesn't mean we can't get the right man for the job, but it will require some genius and incredible foresight to achieve it. Perhaps someone who is a current number 2 somewhere, or managing at a lower level who someone somewhere has seen something in. Souness was a huge call to make manager. No managerial experience, never played in Scotland before, not even any coaching experience before. But what a call he turned out to be. So, it's not impossible, there's someone out there who can galvanise and transform us.

 

So it doesn't surprise me this is taking a long time, what's annoying is they didn't start looking long before they did.

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There are shades of 1983 about this. This year we weren't able to attract our first choice Director of Football, our incumbent being at best second choice for the job. Back in 83, before directors of football were invented, we searched for our eighth manager following the end of legend John Grieg's reign.

 

Our board's first choice was ex-player and Govan boy Alex Ferguson who was doing amazing things with Aberdeen. The Aberdeen board responded by making Ferguson the best paid manager in Scotland and he signed a new contract at Aberdeen. We then turned to Jim McLean, brother of former player and assistant manager Tommy, McLean had transformed Dundee Utd into title winners and European contenders. McLean was interviewed but ultimately chose to stay with Utd, again securing an improved contract in the process. Finally we turned to Motherwell manager Jock Wallace. Wallace had previously enjoyed great success with Rangers before leaving mysteriously after winning the title. Again, the reason for that is always assumed to be money, or lack of it. Wallace joined Rangers second time round as probably the third, maybe even the fourth, best paid manager in Scotland. That reign wasn't a success.

 

This time round I reckon we'd be able to significantly improve the annual salary of any other Scottish domestic manager outside of Rodgers. If we can't then there is literally no chance of us over-turning Celtic in the foreseeable future. That's the pool we're fishing in, the £600,000 a year and under market. What does that buy you? Well Gordon Strachan was on around £500,000 a year at Scotland, Michael O'Neill is on something similar at Northern Ireland. So to attract him for example you'd need to seriously improve his salary. As a comparison his near namesake and ex-Celtic manager Martin is on double that managing the ROI.

 

From England we can forget about attracting anyone from the top league or even someone recently out of work like De Boer or Keoman. Although fired they will still be getting paid their salary, and taking a new job will see that end, so we'd need to match what they were on and we simply can't afford that. Keoman was on £2 million a year at Everton it's reported, De Boer probably half that at Crystal Palace.

 

Whatever happens expect to be disappointed, we are not in a position to attract a top manager. That doesn't mean we can't get the right man for the job, but it will require some genius and incredible foresight to achieve it. Perhaps someone who is a current number 2 somewhere, or managing at a lower level who someone somewhere has seen something in. Souness was a huge call to make manager. No managerial experience, never played in Scotland before, not even any coaching experience before. But what a call he turned out to be. So, it's not impossible, there's someone out there who can galvanise and transform us.

 

So it doesn't surprise me this is taking a long time, what's annoying is they didn't start looking long before they did.

 

Complete speculation mate - we have absolutely no idea - and that is the most frustrating thing.

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Complete speculation mate - we have absolutely no idea - and that is the most frustrating thing.

 

We have some idea, it's not hard to get the ball-park. It might be a wee bit more but it's not significantly more and indeed it might be a lot less.

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I agree that sometimes McLeish teams were dire to watch

but he had to downsize. Newman and Cannegia were victims of this. Replacement Cappuco(?) wasn't up to much.

He did win us that Scottish cup against them and he did take us to the last 16 of the CL. First Scottish team to get there.

I think his time has gone though

 

Methink's we weren't closer to a CL Final than in 1992/3, when Marseille pipped us for a place in the final ... and some still say by illegal means. :shifty:

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