Welcome back Stephen Glass

[WesthillWanderersFC]

1 hour ago, Ke1t said:

Unless it looks like we're getting relegated, give him the whole season.  Either he improves or he gets enough rope to hang himself, figuratively. 

In the meantime, however, I would recommend the club start identifying potential replacements. 

And by 'replacements' I mean people who have experience managing a football club, and have some degree of success in doing so, rather than, 'a mate of Dave Cormack'. 

 

Aye, succession planning, & looking ahead should be a given, with regard to players & a manager.

 

[NEM]

7 hours ago, Parklife said:

So clubs that get 40k+ through the door every week aren't big clubs? 

You must think AFC are a minuscule club. 

He's been employed by Nuno repeatedly and Rafa Benitez. He's also worked with and being employed by former international manager Craig Levein. 

The fact you think all these people have employed him and he continues to work at a very high level but isn't a good coach is baffling.

You're just ignoring all evidence in order to pig-headedly stick with your initial view. 

That's me done with this nonsense now 

Whilst I agree with the general sentiment the bit in bold - cmon now ?

[Ten Caat]

4 hours ago, Ke1t said:

Unless it looks like we're getting relegated, give him the whole season.  Either he improves or he gets enough rope to hang himself, figuratively. 

In the meantime, however, I would recommend the club start identifying potential replacements. 

And by 'replacements' I mean people who have experience managing a football club, and have some degree of success in doing so, rather than, 'a mate of Dave Cormack'. 

 

I suppose he might turn things round although October looks like it's going to be the football equivalent of getting a faceful of bilin' hait soup. Vey painfow, vey painfow.

But if he gets us to New Year in maybe 7th place and we let him continue on that basis.......if things really go downhill from then on then by the time we appoint a new boss, we face a relegation battle with the new guy hamstrung by being unable to bring new players to aid the dogfight as the January window will be gone. 

The experiment hasn't worked. Best all round that Cormack starts sounding out potential credible replacements now and get the preferred candidate in well before Xmas so he can see what he's got to work with and identify any glaring needs requiring addressing in January. By delaying we are only kicking the can down the proverbial road. 

 

[Ke1t]

9 minutes ago, Ten Caat said:

I suppose he might turn things round although October looks like it's going to be the football equivalent of getting a faceful of bilin' hait soup. Vey painfow, vey painfow.

But if he gets us to New Year in maybe 7th place and we let him continue on that basis.......if things really go downhill from then on then by the time we appoint a new boss, we face a relegation battle with the new guy hamstrung by being unable to bring new players to aid the dogfight as the January window will be gone. 

The experiment hasn't worked. Best all round that Cormack starts sounding out potential credible replacements now and get the preferred candidate in well before Xmas so he can see what he's got to work with and identify any glaring needs requiring addressing in January. By delaying we are only kicking the can down the proverbial road. 

 

Glass' appointment was idiotic in the first place, beyond idiotic, but it shouldn't take a genius to see what positions require addressing in January. 

If Glass shows no capacity to identify those positions then, sure, get rid as soon as possible. 

I'm assuming he can see the same weaknesses the rest of us can see, though, and would HOPE he has a shortlist of wide players, central defenders, attacking/creative midfielders, and perhaps a goalkeeper if he's feeling super-cheeky. 

But if he tells Cormack in December that he wants to sign one more central mid then that should be grounds for instant dismissal. 

[super_al]

Good interview with Graham Hunter.

[muttonhumper]

12 hours ago, Woody21 said:

Note that SG's win rate so far is 33%, which puts him in the same bracket as Pele Paterson, Pa Broon and the late Ebbe.

However if we continue our pish run through to the end of October he will be challenging the two pishest managers in our history, namely Alex Miller and Mark McGhee.

McGhee had a 24% win rate. Would DC let the Glass ceiling go even lower to save his pride?

Nice.

[Parklife]

7 hours ago, NEM said:

Whilst I agree with the general sentiment the bit in bold - cmon now ?

Haha ?

[ericblack4boss]

11 hours ago, WesthillWanderersFC said:

Aye, succession planning, & looking ahead should be a given, with regard to players & a manager.

 

When Ferguson was at Aberdeen he said as soon as he signed a player he immediately started looking for that players replacement

[ericblack4boss]

10 hours ago, NEM said:

Whilst I agree with the general sentiment the bit in bold - cmon now ?

Thats Craig Levien who took the Scotland training sessions reeking with drink

[Simply Red]

13 hours ago, Ke1t said:

Unless it looks like we're getting relegated, give him the whole season.  Either he improves or he gets enough rope to hang himself, figuratively. 

In the meantime, however, I would recommend the club start identifying potential replacements. 

And by 'replacements' I mean people who have experience managing a football club, and have some degree of success in doing so, rather than, 'a mate of Dave Cormack'. 

 

Agreed. 

[DD1903]

5 hours ago, super_al said:

Good interview with Graham Hunter.

The problem is, he speaks well most of the time. I work with plenty of people who speak well and talk a good game, but can't actually do what they're paid to do

[afc1903mad]

1 hour ago, ericblack4boss said:

When Ferguson was at Aberdeen he said as soon as he signed a player he immediately started looking for that players replacement

That seems such common sense to me.

You could sign a superstar, but eventually that player needs replacing and its unknown when that is required i.e. could be at the end of a long contract, sold or even injured).

The club should always plan for the what if scenario and what options they have to adapt.

[Parklife]

Any well run football club should succession plan. Both in terms of the management team and the first team squad. 

The ability to do that effectively is far better served under a director of football type set-up, than the more traditional manager-led set-up. I know many people in this country don't like it but it allows the DoF to develop an entire footballing strategy, a style of play, sign players who fit that system (or have attributes that do) and we'd get the best out of & hire a coach that'll play that way and develop the players. 

That's what the football strategy document AFC published intimated we'd be bringing in. I'm not convinced that's legitimately what we have at present. Is Steven Gunn running the show? Does Glass answer to him? I would be surprised if so. 

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

15 hours ago, 1983 said:

? 

Why are you quoting me 4 months later for saying Ian Cathro to Pep Guardiola is one hell of a spectrum? 

[NEM]

We've got a DoF - just a pity it's a jobs for the boys work experience laddie with no real footballing experience

 

 

[Parklife]

24 minutes ago, NEM said:

We've got a DoF - just a pity it's a jobs for the boys work experience laddie with no real footballing experience

 

 

Yeah. I mentioned Steven Gunn in my post. We've half-arsed it. 

The DoF should've been the primary appointment, with the manager secondary. Instead we've done it arse about tit, promoted someone unqualified to DoF and got a guy in a subordinate position (head coach) in charge. 

 

[Donmacca]

15 hours ago, Ke1t said:

Unless it looks like we're getting relegated, give him the whole season.  Either he improves or he gets enough rope to hang himself, figuratively. 

In the meantime, however, I would recommend the club start identifying potential replacements. 

And by 'replacements' I mean people who have experience managing a football club, and have some degree of success in doing so, rather than, 'a mate of Dave Cormack'. 

 

Why would you give him until the end of the season? Minimum standard was set by McInnes of European qualification through the league, which ultimately it looked like even he wouldn't achieve last season and it rightly cost him his job. Glass has the same standards to maintain. He had a major rebuild in the summer but looks like he's failing to deliver. He's out of his depth and needs gone if Aberdeen are going to achieve anything this season. 

[thurso]

6 hours ago, super_al said:

Good interview with Graham Hunter.

Where can you find it to get a listen 

[Tommy]

8 minutes ago, thurso said:

Where can you find it to get a listen 

On Hunters Twitter page- @BumperGraham

[thurso]

7 minutes ago, Tommy said:

On Hunters Twitter page- @BumperGraham

Thanks for that 

[afc1903mad]

2 hours ago, Donmacca said:

Why would you give him until the end of the season? Minimum standard was set by McInnes of European qualification through the league, which ultimately it looked like even he wouldn't achieve last season and it rightly cost him his job. Glass has the same standards to maintain. He had a major rebuild in the summer but looks like he's failing to deliver. He's out of his depth and needs gone if Aberdeen are going to achieve anything this season. 

I would not want us to get into a managerial merry-go-round of constant change, turmoil and ultimate failure.

As you rightly said, there was a massive rebuilding job this summer. A whole new defence, whole new strikeforce, the midfield of which is essentially pretty new as well, Ferguson and Hedges aside, the rest are either new or relegated to bit part.

Someof the signings are clearly stop gaps in a longer turnaround plan.

Its ludicrous to think a new manager can turn things around in one window. What's the alternative? Get rid, in Nov, get a new man in to have one window in January and most likely be looking to bin again come March / April.

We have a very tough October and already there are plenty of vultures circling calling for him to go, licking their beaks in anticipation of more negative results.

Europe is more than ever really important to the business plan, especially this year. As a club we should be competing for the European spots every year and it will be gutting if we are not up there challenging this season.

any new manager needs time though

 

[Don_Corleone]

3 hours ago, afc1903mad said:

That seems such common sense to me.

You could sign a superstar, but eventually that player needs replacing and its unknown when that is required i.e. could be at the end of a long contract, sold or even injured).

The club should always plan for the what if scenario and what options they have to adapt.

Surely the "head of recruitment" has a list of potential players in every position that fit the requirements outlined by the manager... that's their job is it not? So there should be a list of goalkeepers who are decent with their feet, a list of defenders who can play out from the back, a list of full backs who can get forward and cross the ball etc. So that when Glass eventually realises Lewis is a mess, he has a shortlist of options to consider to replace him, and when Ramsay goes for X million, he's got a list of right backs he can go through.

These lists should be getting added to and updated constantly. I can't really think of what else a Head of Recruitment would be doing in a full time job given that the transfer window is actually closed most of the year.

[Don_Corleone]

1 minute ago, afc1903mad said:

Someof the signings are clearly stop gaps in a longer turnaround plan.

I take it you're meaning the likes of Woods, Devlin, Gurr, Longstaff, Watkins, JET, Samuels, McGinn (if we're including players he's re-signed)? 8 players.

Those who he's signed that are likely to be part of the long term plan... Bates, Gallagher, Brown (although more in a coaching capacity), Ramirez - 4 players, and only one of them is under the age of 30. Only Bates will still be playing for us in a couple seasons time.

Most of the stop-gap signings are utterly pointless as they're just bulking up the squad and are bit part players at best. We'd have been better forgetting about those 8, giving another 4 youngsters places on the bench and the odd game here and there to develop them, and concentrating on bringing in another 3 or 4 players who actually were part of the longer term plan.

[afc1903mad]

2 minutes ago, Don_Corleone said:

Surely the "head of recruitment" has a list of potential players in every position that fit the requirements outlined by the manager... that's their job is it not? So there should be a list of goalkeepers who are decent with their feet, a list of defenders who can play out from the back, a list of full backs who can get forward and cross the ball etc. So that when Glass eventually realises Lewis is a mess, he has a shortlist of options to consider to replace him, and when Ramsay goes for X million, he's got a list of right backs he can go through.

These lists should be getting added to and updated constantly. I can't really think of what else a Head of Recruitment would be doing in a full time job given that the transfer window is actually closed most of the year.

Agreed, the only thing I'd add is that the timing needs to be added as a factor as well.

As an example. It seems clear that Ramsay was thought of as a kid who had the potential to breakthrough (He's been phenominal), yet we needed to have a short term cover to allow him to develop this season, hence we signed Gurr on a 1 year deal. We need cover for Ramsay as he's still showing on occasions where he's cramping up in the last 20 minutes like he was against St Johnstone.

Gurr may not be seen as a long term solution but other than his two brain fart moments in the LC, I though he was decent enough (I know some will want to jump all over that)

So there might have been better RB's out there we could have targetted, but its a managed approach to allow Ramsey to develop 

[SDY]

Cormack and Gunn did an entire interview on succession planning before signing a 7th similar central midfielder on loan. I don't think any of them have a clue what's going on. 

[StandFree1982]

5 minutes ago, SDY said:

Cormack and Gunn did an entire interview on succession planning before signing a 7th similar central midfielder on loan. I don't think any of them have a clue what's going on. 

Presumably it was expected that a few midfielders were due to leave in the summer, and this then failed to materialise. 

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

12 minutes ago, afc1903mad said:

I would not want us to get into a managerial merry-go-round of constant change, turmoil and ultimate failure.

As you rightly said, there was a massive rebuilding job this summer. A whole new defence, whole new strikeforce, the midfield of which is essentially pretty new as well, Ferguson and Hedges aside, the rest are either new or relegated to bit part.

Someof the signings are clearly stop gaps in a longer turnaround plan.

Its ludicrous to think a new manager can turn things around in one window. What's the alternative? Get rid, in Nov, get a new man in to have one window in January and most likely be looking to bin again come March / April.

We have a very tough October and already there are plenty of vultures circling calling for him to go, licking their beaks in anticipation of more negative results.

Europe is more than ever really important to the business plan, especially this year. As a club we should be competing for the European spots every year and it will be gutting if we are not up there challenging this season.

any new manager needs time though

 

I'm all for giving him time. But should it really be viewed as a case of turning things around?

For me he inherited a team that were 4th and who had never finished below 4th for 8 years. The only players leaving at the end of the season weren't great. He had a VERY good budget compared to the majority of the league to bring in players. So far it looks like we'll do well to end the season 4th

Hopefully he just needs to take a quick step back in order to take some steps forward...

[afc1903mad]

7 minutes ago, Don_Corleone said:

I take it you're meaning the likes of Woods, Devlin, Gurr, Longstaff, Watkins, JET, Samuels, McGinn (if we're including players he's re-signed)? 8 players.

Those who he's signed that are likely to be part of the long term plan... Bates, Gallagher, Brown (although more in a coaching capacity), Ramirez - 4 players, and only one of them is under the age of 30. Only Bates will still be playing for us in a couple seasons time.

Most of the stop-gap signings are utterly pointless as they're just bulking up the squad and are bit part players at best. We'd have been better forgetting about those 8, giving another 4 youngsters places on the bench and the odd game here and there to develop them, and concentrating on bringing in another 3 or 4 players who actually were part of the longer term plan.

Not quite

Woods - Not a stop gap, we need a back up goalkeeper and Woods is fine for that without spending unnecessary budget

Devlin - It seems a crazy extension. Can only think he was advised he was close to returning and wanted to see for himself if it was an option. How long did he get? Hopefully just 6 months and he's gone soon as we should waste even more money on a player who cannot play for the team

Gurr - Yes, definitely a stop gap signing to provide cover whilst Ramsay developed.

Longstaff - Yes. Signed with the thought that Ferguson was gone (We had accepted an offer). I wonder if  this stop gap was also to allow time to maybe get McGrath in on a pre-contract for next season

Watkins - Yes (was decent for us until injured) and probably seen as a stop gap cover for Ramirez (we have no other real takers for that role)

JET - Undecided. All the skill in the world (at our level) but just doesn't apply the workrate applied needed in the SPFL

Samuels - No. He's been signed on a punt to add pace and see if he's worth signing permanently next season

McGinn - Yes and not doing enough when he comes on. I'd rather play another youngster

Bates - No, He's not a stop gap signing with a 3 year deal and young enough to extend for longer

Gallagher - I'm going to say yes. Thought he would bring in some much needed experience and composure for a couple of years. We will need to replace.

Brown - Yes. No doubt he was brought in on an initial plan to instill experience, will, determination, desire etc to the middle of the team. We've lacked that since Shinnie left. Can see him doing a decent job for his two year, but beyond that????

Ramirez - Yes. Signing a 30 year old striker has to be considered as coverage for a couple of years

 

So of those listed above,

1. Woods, Samuels and Bates have the potential for longer deals
2. Gurr, Watkins, Longstaff, Gallagher, JET and Brown give short term 1 to 2 year cover
3. McGinn (potentially add in Hayes in a year time) sadly should be thanked for their services but allowed to let others get their chance. Also add in Jenks who has not grabbed the opportunity we were all hoping he would

 

[afc1903mad]

11 minutes ago, Byrne Baby Byrne said:

I'm all for giving him time. But should it really be viewed as a case of turning things around?

For me he inherited a team that were 4th and who had never finished below 4th for 8 years. The only players leaving at the end of the season weren't great. He had a VERY good budget compared to the majority of the league to bring in players. So far it looks like we'll do well to end the season 4th

Hopefully he just needs to take a quick step back in order to take some steps forward...

He inherited a team that were massively on the decline and harm relegation form. The players that we had and gained 4th were not with us (Wright sold, Watkins and Hedges injured)

The whole defence have been replaced (not counting the goalkeeper for any pedants out there)

I certainly don't think that McInnes would have had us up any higher. He was done.

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

6 minutes ago, afc1903mad said:

He inherited a team that were massively on the decline and harm relegation form. The players that we had and gained 4th were not with us (Wright sold, Watkins and Hedges injured)

The whole defence have been replaced (not counting the goalkeeper for any pedants out there)

I certainly don't think that McInnes would have had us up any higher. He was done.

Still sitting 4th and would have finished 4th regardless.

Watkins is back and Hedges is still here. Scott Wright played about 14 times. Lets not pretend Glass has a difficult rebuilding job with his hands tied. He inherited a decent enough squad with scope to add players and plenty money to do so. Didn't have to clear many out, wasn't stuck with a huge squad of players he didn't want, wasn't short of money, no debt at the club anymore. Really good opportunity to drive forward. I'll be disappointed if we fail to even match the last few seasons which weren't good enough.

Agree, I don't think McInnes would have had us any higher either.