ClaphamFox

You can’t just do that! 😂

Both would be horrendous choices, but there’s no clear evidence that Gerrard would be any better.

Is 'high profile' really what we should be aiming for given our current particular circumstances? Or would proven experience of stabilizing teams in crisis be more useful?

What formation?

No—not remotely. And with regards to our current requirements, there's no comparison. Rowett has consistently shown that he can stabilize or rebuild struggling teams, and has done so in the division we're currently in. Gerrard has never shown he can do that and has never managed in the Championship. He was decent at Rangers, crap at Villa and distinctly underwhelming at Al-Ettifaq. I genuinely can't fathom why anybody would consider Gerrard a suitable candidate for us.

First, Frank Lampard did a decent job at Derby and an excellent job in his first year at Chelsea despite being restricted by a transfer embargo. So his record in English football was mixed rather than bad. Gerrard had one job in English football and was terrible at it. I don't think his record at Rangers means anything as far as English football is concerned. Second, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard are different people. The fact that Lampard has done well at Coventry has literally zero bearing on how Gerrard would do for us. The only reason people link them is because they were both England midfielders of the same era who went into management. There is no other connection between them. As I said, nobody would be recommending Gerrard based on his managerial record alone. And that should immediately disqualify him for the job.

Having an 'edge' as a player does not mean you'll be a good manager. Otherwise Roy Keane would be the best manager around rather than a TV pundit. And Gerrard didn't drive any standards at all at Villa, where he was a disaster. The players couldn't stand him and they disintegrated into a chaotic mess despite the fact that he was heavily backed in the transfer market. After Gerrard was sacked, Emery walked in the door, clicked his fingers and the squad was instantly transformed from relegation candidates to European qualifiers. If you ignored Gerrard's status as a player and focused solely on his career in management, I don't think anybody would even be mentioning him. And choosing a manager simply because they were a famous player is plain daft.

I don't think anybody does to be fair.

Why?

You seriously want to trust somebody with zero managerial experience, and not even that much coaching experience, with guiding our mentally fragile, horribly underperforming squad through a very tough relegation battle? Can you explain why you think King is the best person for that job?

I’d probably take Hassenhutl over Rowett in the summer, but I’d take Rowett over Hassenhutl right now. Rowett’s teams are built on doing simple things well—low/mid block, compact lines, fewer risky transitions. I suspect this kind of ‘back to basics’ approach would improve confidence and help us grind out enough results to survive this season. I think Hassenhutl favours a higher defensive line and press, and risk-taking transitions. Our squad’s nerves are already shot to pieces & I don’t think this would work with them, particularly we don’t really have the players for a high press. With a clean slate and a whole preseason to prepare, Hassenhutl might shape our young squad into an attractive team full of pace and aggression, but I’m sceptical that he could accomplish this in the middle of a relegation scrap with an unconfident squad of players. I would avoid both Coleman and Martin like the plague.

We’re in a tricky spot because the managerial job we need doing now is very different to the one we’ll need doing in the summer. Right now, we’re in full-blown crisis management mode—we need to avoid relegation at all costs. This means we desperately require somebody who can bring organisation and structure, improve the team’s mental strength and make them much more resilient. We need a firefighter who can get quick results, and Rowett has shown that he can do that. In the summer, whether we get relegated or not, we will be in rebuild mode. A bunch of players will be out of contract and a few others will be sold, and we’ll be starting again with a core of academy players supported, hopefully, by some decent acquisitions in a few positions. I’m not sure if Rowett is the man for this job based on his record. Would Rowett take it on an interim basis for the rest of the season if we offered him enough of a bonus for keeping us up? I have no idea. But if he would, he may well be the ideal candidate for what we need right now. Just not for the long term.

All good points. But what would you do from now until the summer?

This is a perfect illustration of the lunacy that can occur when people trust a story on Football Insider. The most important thing to know about Football Insider is that it is purely web-based and has no subscription. In other words, it is very heavily dependent on ad revenue, which in turn means it is heavily dependent on driving traffic to the site (advertisers won’t pay to appear on a site with low traffic). Clicks are everything to Football Insider—without them, it cannot survive. To generate clicks, it has to continually publish stories that it knows will generate interest, and manager gossip stories are perfect for that because fans of manager-less clubs will always be very interested in rumours about who their next boss will be. This need to constantly generate stories means that Football Insider is far more likely to publish speculative and inventive stories than mainstream publications. They need those clicks—and what better way to generate clicks than linking a vacant manager’s position with someone they know will get the fans riled up. Hence above, Football League World have taken the Football Insider story and put it to a Leicester fan in order to generate an outraged reaction—and the fan has duly obliged, creating another story out of nothing. And on it goes…

Are you joking? He was absolutely horrendous at Wolves. He had no ability to handle the dressing room and they became a toxic mess, with their players scrapping with each other on the pitch. At Bournemouth they sacked him after they’d had a relatively good season because they could see that he was a coach, not a manager, and sensibly acted before it all fell apart. He’ll never be a successful manager, although he may go back to being a good coach again.

Thankfully.

Coleman is 16/1. Anybody who believes there is something in this rumour has the opportunity to fill their boots.

I'm very much in favour of free speech and we're all interested in any credible rumours, but surely there needs to be consequences for anybody who mentions a name without making it clear the source is Football Insider?

I think it's a stretch to describe Lampard's season at Derby a 'failure'. He took them to sixth, the same position they'd finished the season before (under Gary Rowett!). The Derby fans I know liked him and were disappointed when he left. The following season they came 10th. In Lampard's first season with Chelsea he took them to CL qualification while operating under a transfer embargo and relying heavily on academy players. Yes, Chelsea dropped off the following season before he was sacked and his time at Everton was a bit of a shambles, but overall his record prior to Coventry was very mixed rather than obviously bad. Gerrard did well at Rangers, but I'm not sure how much weight we should attach to success at an Old Firm club in Scotland. His Villa side were a shambolic mess and he got pretty much everything wrong—major fall-outs with senior players, bizarre tactics, no identifiable style of play or preferred formation, etc. Yes, it's possible that his time at Villa will eventually be seen as a blip and he will have a successful career, but I don't want us to take that chance. Would I have wanted Lampard before he went to Cov? Probably not. Does his success there mean I feel more inclined to give Gerrard a go with us? Not at all—they have absolutely no bearing on each other.

And that elephant won't be leaving the room until the summer.

Fabrice, Fabrice, oh with your eyes so blue Fabrice, Fabrice, I've got a crush on you Fabrice, Fabrice, I'm so in love with you...

And the Guardian without a paywall: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jan/27/aiyawatt-srivaddhanaprabha-interview-leicester-championship-psr-marti-cifuentes

Just read Top’s interview in the Guardian. In it, he says: “I’m sure that we still have a chance to get back, in this table, to the playoffs at least. The aim is still there.” Has nobody at the club mentioned the points deduction to him, or does he still believe we’ll get off lightly? Because surely he doesn’t believe we’ll recover from a hefty deduction to make the play-offs ‘at least’?

Thankfully the Martin rumour is from a crap source.

Agree with this. Pearson’s great strength is culture building. Given time, he would get rid of the bad eggs and recruit well, slowing transforming the atmosphere around the club. But right now we’re in crisis management territory. Whoever comes in will have to work with the squad we’ve got until the summer. We need a firefighter snd I’m not sure that’s Pearson’s strength.