cityfanlee23

Knowing our lot, they are going to look at this and say, "really we should offer him an extension, he's got experience in relegation fights"

I think you could be right, but I think for many championship clubs the gamble is just too big, all speculation on my part, but I'd imagine many of the clubs in the division who predicted to be fighting for top half, wouldn't necessarily want to gamble on a new manager who is unproven in club football, and the clubs who may have taken a gamble, would not have been a big enough move for LC given his growing stature. Despite the mess we are in, we are now a massive club in L1 with ridiculous facilities, which if we can keep them open could be a selling point, maybe Big club + L1 + being able to rebuild a squad could be a tempting offer? Regarding the last question about playing promising youngsters over slightly older U21 players that's a good question and I don't have a clue, would need to research that!

Tops Broom after he performs a "clean sweep" of the board (promoting Rudkin again)

As others have pointed out, Carsley might be a shout, I think the jobs he's been linked with so far are typically lower champ clubs, I think for where we were 12 months ago it was probably too much of a risk on an unknown, up and coming manager, but Carsley would play the youth which is something we need to do, and League 1 you'd hope would be a good starting point for both of us for a rebuild, it hopefully takes the immediate "risk" factor away as its clear he has potential as a manager, but needs a team to take a gamble on him transitioning to club football, maybe this is the perfect opportunity for that. I'd imagine that he would also have decent relationships with prem clubs who need to loan players out too. Could be the right manager at the right time.

Agreed, under Enzo Fatawu had acres of space, he constantly had the Ndidi underlap through the midfield channel which opened space for Fatawu to drive into in the middle of the pitch, and when Ndidi didn't underlap, Ricardo would usually overlap. Under Enzo Fatawu always had space, two things have become clear for me. 1) Fatawu is bang average unless he has loads of space to run into, his decision making is awful 2) When given space to run into things happen, and the fact multiple managers haven't worked this out and tried to find a way to create space for him is astounding. He showed all of the hallmarks of being a future £30-50m sale, in the end I think Enzos system massively carried him, and when the system isn't built around him, he really isn't anywhere near as good as we thought.

Gerhard Struber has been a bit hit and miss in his career, but from what i've seen when glancing at the BCFC forum, the fans have responded in a similar way as they did under Pearson where it seems they could see what Struber was trying to build, but was fighting with his hands tied behind his back. Need to do more research, but as always i'm intrigued by someone who has come through the Red Bull system, plays a 3421, demands players who work hard as he does like to counter-press and tries to control the game through quick passing and trying to create chaos in the final third. A less inspiring option could be Tony Mowbray, did a decent job at Blackburn, continued the progress of Sunderland and took them to the next level after Alex Neil left. Neither make me jump out of my seat, but right now it's not really about finding someone who is going to play amazingly attractive football, it's about finding someone who has a solid blueprint, is willing to give a chance to our younger players and rebuild on a budget. https://www.otib.co.uk/topic/233698-thank-you-gerhard/

I don’t want him, but statistically he could have saved us if we had brought him in a few games earlier. Was very vocal against the way he was setting us up. But with that said, I also believe if we had given him the job after relegation, we may not have gone up 23/24, but I believe we would likely be in a better financial position now and still in the championship. He would not have been signing winks on 90k a week? We would have avoided Ayew and BDCR, we wouldn’t have given Vestergaard a deal etc. Dean Smith at the time was not the “right man for the job”, but in hindsight he was better than the course we’ve taken since 22/23. I think given where we are, he would be more than good enough to give us at the very least a sensible rebuild.

I completely get that, i'm trying to sit somewhere in the middle of the two sides of our fanbase of "He will never come you're crazy" and "We are massive Lincoln are tiny we can get him easily" You could easily be right about Lincoln in the next 5 compared to us, I'd love to see them in the prem alongside us!

Whilst I agree with most that Skubala is likely to turn us down, if the finances are somewhat redeemable (in the sense of having say 12 months to survive and reset) given the different financial rules for league 1, I do believe there is a chance someone like Skubala may be tempted. We all know the mess we are in, Lincoln right now have a more solid foundation and better culture, but their wages are far smaller for potential signings, I think most players will join Lincoln aiming to try to survive, whereas with someone like Skubala on board, players would be joining us with an eye on a rebuild back to being a premier league club, the Andy King route. Let’s say that the board can prove to Skubala that the finances can be redeemed and we will survive if we get promoted next season, who has the higher ceiling in terms of 5-10 year trajectory, us or Lincoln? You’d argue we do. The thing is, the core of our squad will still potentially have players you’d argue would strengthen Lincolns first team or bench, Aluko, Page, Nelson (if he stays), Silko, Braybrooke/Alves to some degree, Jakub, at this rate Coulibaly, Hamza for his flaws would likely improve Lincoln. These players are the core of what we have left over, and I believe that a manager like Skubala would back himself to get promoted at the first time of asking. I can completely understand why he would turn us down, but I think someone like him is who we need to throw the kitchen sink at providing we can prove that we will survive financially. If Hassenhuttl fancies a stab at league one with a massive promotion bonus I’d go all out for him, but I think he’s too established to come.

Jakub just doesn't look to have progressed at all, he's massively regressed. From the eye test alone, the Jakub that stepped up when Mads got injured is lightyears ahead of the one we have seen for much of this season, i'm sure statistically it would be hard to compare, I was fully expecting Jakub to really step up as the #1 and at least take the burden of having to find a #1 goalkeeper away from us for the considerable future. He's obviously good enough for League 1, and in a better side is an upper Championship keeper who could still step up to the top flight in future, but I think he's a player that has suffered in a similar way that Justin did, if he goes to another club he may thrive and improve, with this ownership, and this squad, and this lack of culture building from the management/coaches, he's regressing. If the next manager is a leader and brings in some real leadership players, Jakub could easily become that player that we don't have to worry about.

Yesterdays performance was the sort of performance where you actively try to move finances around to keep him where possible, but the figures i'm seeing for his wages coupled with his injury record scream bad financial decision and get rid ASAP. It's sad as he's had a rough time here and hasn't really done much wrong when he's played, yesterday showed he can be well above league 1 level and if he can stay fit, is 1 less player to worry about. Huge risk potentially though.

I'd hope not, I just have this horrible gut feeling though.

It's just sickening to know that I spent the best part of 6 months banging on about Danny Rohl, only for us to miss out on him by 1 week where we refused to pay for him to come, then went for Cifuentes days before Rohl left Wednesday on a free, Then ended up having to spend money sacking cifuentes and signing the likes of Carranza, Aribo, Ramsey on decent wages. Rohl has taken Rangers from 17 points from the top, and playing like a non league club, to now just 1 point from the title. We would not have been anywhere near this situation imo.

Just before I got in with my reply, I think they would be one of the few that may look at him.

I hope you're right, but sadly a lot has changed for us both in that time, from RM's pov I can't see him having any offers at Champ level. I guess maybe the likes of QPR/Bristol City might take a glance, but I just can't see where he's going to go now after the collapse of his Southampton side then his spell at Rangers. He would hold a lot of power over the board if he came here that's for sure.

I'm doing a lot of research on managers I'd want that I think are achievable, but my gut instinct is Top will double down and get Russell Martin, and the worst part is, given the dire scenario we are in, I would be forced to 1000% back him over the board. He would use the youth, those youth players would dramatically improve on the ball, I absolute detest the football he produces, but we are in a now or never scenario regarding promotion and potentially administration. I really hope we avoid him, but he would probably be less of a risk than quite a few of the managers at this sort of level.

That's a fair point, that's way above where we are for sure. Will likely be a free/loan player come in. Richards is free in summer, really hope that Rowett wakes up and plays him upfront for the next 2 games to give him a trial.

Do you think? if we are in that sort of ballpark then it's probably worth missing for now and looking again in future. It all really depends on how many idiots we can get out of the door really. Dujuan Richards on a free?

Leyton Orients finances are bad, obviously not as bad as ours, but relative to club size they are significant, it really depends on whether our finances allow us to spend more than £0. I would imagine he would be available for £2-3m, over a 5 year deal that's not a huge upfront cost, I would expect that come the summer, we would also be a massive draw for the player who would likely want to make the move. It's all speculation obviously, and it may not end up "cheap" to us, but cheap relative to 22 goal a season strikers given the level.

Dom Ballard is well worth a look. Signed from Cambridge to Leyton Orient in the summer for £500k Striker, 21 years old, Scored 22 assisted 5 this season and is improving week on week. Would likely be cheap and has potential to be a striker for us for a long time if he continues progressing.

Yeah they own just under 10% which is significant, however when given a chance to buy into a new share issue last year Red Bull declined. So who knows why they didn't, if it's because of whatever Leeds finances look like then we are clearly stuffed, but maybe it was because they wanted more brand awareness for example? Who knows. The difference here though is that they would be able to buy the entire club, and given the pipeline of profitable talent the Red Bull network produce, they could potentially be a route out of this debt mess. There have been multiple players from RB Salzburg that I have been screaming about us signing when we were in the prem. Amar Dedic, Dorgeles Nene, Oscar Gloukh, Stranhinja Pavlovic, Sesko, Okafor, Seiwald. In the last 5 seasons according to Transfermarkt, Salzburg have spent around £140 on players, and sold £378m. And even now, they have players being touted for big moves in the summer, Kerim Alabegovic has just had an unfortunately low £8m buy back clause triggered by Leverkusen, but they signed him for 1 season, made £6m profit, and he's being circled by the likes of Dortmund, Arsenal and Inter. These are the sorts of deals that get us out of this debt mess. ~ I completely get why people are against Red Bull and for example how when they took over Salzburg they came in, changed the kit colour and the crest and the now Austria Salzburg fans setup the new club in protest, completely get that, and we would obviously need to make sure there were legal grounds preventing them from changing the blue brand identity etc. But the way things are going right now, I can't see a more traditional style ownership coming in and doing anything other than loading us with more debt, and American ownership would be even worse. It's going to have to be an obscenely wealthy foreign owner from somewhere like Saudi, or it will have to be a "brand". I just cannot see an individual style owner wanting to buy our club with these finances.

I'd snap your arm off to become RB Leicester at this point. We don't want KP here anyway so they can call the stadium whatever they like. All of those fantastic young players coming straight through Seagrave, a proper managerial and coaching blueprint. The pros outweigh the cons imo.

It just cannot be understated how important this next appointment is, I'd argue it's more important than any manager we've appointed in the last 30 years. Our finances are potentially worse than ever, we've been in admin before, but never with this level of debt. The pressure on the next manager will be absolutely insane. The next manager needs to be a leader and needs to be able to spot good personalities in players (something we have failed to do for years), needs to be charismatic enough to convince young players we are the hot destination to come and springboard their careers on, needs to be tactically astute to be able to convince premier league teams that sending us their best loan players will massively help their career, needs to have the strength to stand up to the board, needs to be able to win the fanbase over and have a clear plan and direction that gets us excited again. Usually you can get away with 1 or 2 of those traits, we need all of them if we are going to get out of this mess. Whoever becomes the next manager needs to seriously look in the mirror and step up, because I don't think many will realise just how big of a job this is in the next 12 months and just how much pressure they will be under from all angles. God knows who this magician is, but the club could very well hang in the balance on getting this next appointment right.

Posted this a couple of times in other threads, and there are rumours other champ clubs are looking at him, but Enzo Bardeli on a free transfer would be a cheat code in League 1 imo. Looks set to leave Ligue 2 Dunkerque this summer. 30 games, 9 goals 5 assists. (33/10/6 in all comps) Plays as a very central midfielder who plays not as a CAM but more a box to box player, 25 years old. Absolutely elite at League 1 level, and we should be bending over backwards to sign him and build around him. Easily a top level Champ player imo. This is a MUST SIGN player. I'd happily give him favourable terms with a low buyout clause if we fail to get promoted just to get him over the line, give him strong assurances and he may just take a gamble on us, rumoured to be on 7-8k per week. If we can stretch to 15k a week as one of our top earners it could be possible. Obligatory video showing only the best parts of his game without the flaws

Yep, you’d hope if we can get a charismatic manager in with a clear identity and plan we would be able to maybe convince prem clubs to send us some of their most promising young players, if we can keep seagrave it would make sense to send the to our facilities for a season, they get the benefit of the physicality of league 1, but the world class facilities to improve their game in.