ClaphamFox

Why are you posting meaningless bookies’ odds?

Exactly. At this stage it‘s just lazy guesswork from the bookies. Nobody has a clue who it will be, including the people who run our club.

I agree that we need a strong manager to sort out our toxic mess of a squad. I’m just not remotely convinced that Gerrard is that man.

It’s very competitive though—teams take points off each other all the time. it’s slog to get out of it. It’s very different to Old Firm-dominated Scottish league. Under Gerrard Villa were a horrendous mess—no coherent style of play, players being played out of position, weird tactics that made no sense, etc. Emery walked in the door and vastly improved them before he bought a single new player. Gerrard would be an awful choice.

In a Micky Mouse league. Means nothing.

Gerrard was awful in his only managerial job in England. We should steer well clear.

We’re not going to appoint Russell Martin.

You are correct. Hardly any media outlet would agree to share questions in advance or allow the club to edit the interview afterwards, and the BBC definitely wouldn’t. It’s the kind of thing some people outside of the media imagine happens but almost never does in reality.

Southgate won’t go into club management again.

There is an ‘edit’ option 😉

It's interesting. He was interviewed yesterday and Radio Leicester released a short excerpt a few hours later. As yet there is no sign of the full interview or any details of when it will be broadcast. Jack Rafferty wrote on X that the full version will be available 'at some point in the near future', which sounds surprisingly vague to me. Now I'm usually deeply sceptical of conspiracy theories, but I find this a little odd. Is it possible that parts of the interview have been held back to be broadcast after the points deduction has been announced? The view in the media seems to be that Top is only in the country because the verdict is imminent (sacking Marti was not on the agenda until FT on Saturday). Did he talk to OPA about the club's PSR issues & they're just waiting for the announcement before broadcasting it?

Mowbray and Rowett both have solid records at managing clubs in the Championship. Typically their teams tend to be hard-working and disciplined, and both are regarded as good motivators. Neither name excites me in the slightest and as recently as the summer I would have been horrified if we'd been linked with either of them, but right now a solid Championship manager who comes in and steadies the ship is as good as we're going to get. We are already in a very precarious position and it will become even more precarious soon when the points deduction comes in. King has never managed and was part of the coaching staff under our last two managers, both of whom were disastrous. There is no evidence whatsoever that he'd be able to inspire and organise our squad of overpaid, under-motivated, mentally fragile players. He may turn out to be a fine coach or even a decent manager, but we don't yet know he'll be either. Trusting him over a candidate who has already proven that he can organise and motivate teams in this division would be an act of extraordinary self-sabotage—so extraordinary, in fact, that we are probably the only club around that would do something so ridiculous.

Based on what?!

Why would they go for McClaren?

It will be a disciplinarian with experience of the Championship and currently out of work. So Rowett or Mowbray.

We’re a far less attractive proposition now for any potential manager than at any point since the Thais took over. Of course it could be someone worse.

My word that is grim reading.

I’m a sucker for a redemption story but I can’t buy into this one. It would reinforce the impression that the club has no discipline or accountability, and would risk immediately diminishing any good will towards the new manager. Please let’s not.

It has been suggested that Top is in the country because we are expecting the decision imminently—sacking Marti wasn’t on the agenda until yesterday. Although I’m not sure how having Top around when the verdict is announced will be of much benefit when the inevitable appeal can just be arranged with the lawyers on the phone.

Maresca wasn’t thrown into the middle of a relegation scrap—he had the whole of preseason and the best squad in the division to work with. He was also a very experienced and charismatic coach who had worked at the highest level. We don’t have anybody remotely like him at the club at the moment.

We will bring in an outsider—just probably not one currently in a job. This will limit the field considerably, but will still be preferable to handing responsibility over to someone with zero managerial experience.

Why would you want to hand the task of keeping us up to someone who has never managed?

But none of being a manager, which may be an issue given our highly precarious predicament.

To focus back on the title of this thread, all the ‘realistic’ names are going to be utterly depressing. We may as well get used to it.

Yeah I kind of realised that after I’d posted