Next Manager

[Old Man Andrews]

"Bowen is clearly experienced and knows what he is doing based on his resume. He is more successful then Gomes. "

A 55 year old who has held down not a single managerial position? And who was director of football from August onwards?

Whether Bowen succeeds, only time will tell, but be under no illusions, this is a high risk appointment

All managerial appointments are high risk.

[paddy20]

Or that following the shoddy process of hiring Gomes, the club decided to get some form of succession planning in place so brought Bowen in as a consultant initially to see how he works - they liked what they saw so created a new role for him to have more of a say in transfer dealings and all football related issues beyond those on the training ground.

Once it became clear to them that Gomes wasn't going to work out they had a successor ready to go, who knew the club at all levels - remember he will have had oversight of the Academy as well. So that once the players return from international duty the new manager is in place.

So the one thing that most are complaining about could well be something the club can be congratulated for as they saw a potential issue and resolved it.

I'd love you to be right. Thanks for the cheer up.

I like the narrative, but the gap is around who judged him to be a good appointment. Who at "the Club" did he impress? Howe is a businessman, as are Joorabchian and the Dai's. We had somebody from a footballing background to assess candidates and it was Bowen, but he can't objectively assess himself.

Hammond was involved in the Pardew and McDermott decisions; you need a footballing brain in there.

Very good point. I wonder who interviewed him?

[Marcus Crassus]

"Bowen is clearly experienced and knows what he is doing based on his resume. He is more successful then Gomes. "

A 55 year old who has held down not a single managerial position? And who was director of football from August onwards?

Whether Bowen succeeds, only time will tell, but be under no illusions, this is a high risk appointment

All managerial appointments are high risk.

It's all relative though, isn't it. Appointing someone with zero track record as manager is a much bigger risk than appointing someone like Hughton, who has a proven track record of success with clubs of broadly comparable stature.

[Stranded]

Or that following the shoddy process of hiring Gomes, the club decided to get some form of succession planning in place so brought Bowen in as a consultant initially to see how he works - they liked what they saw so created a new role for him to have more of a say in transfer dealings and all football related issues beyond those on the training ground.

Once it became clear to them that Gomes wasn't going to work out they had a successor ready to go, who knew the club at all levels - remember he will have had oversight of the Academy as well. So that once the players return from international duty the new manager is in place.

So the one thing that most are complaining about could well be something the club can be congratulated for as they saw a potential issue and resolved it.

I'd love you to be right. Thanks for the cheer up.

I like the narrative, but the gap is around who judged him to be a good appointment. Who at "the Club" did he impress? Howe is a businessman, as are Joorabchian and the Dai's. We had somebody from a footballing background to assess candidates and it was Bowen, but he can't objectively assess himself.

Hammond was involved in the Pardew and McDermott decisions; you need a footballing brain in there.

That's not the gap. The role was created by those at the club to bring him in - so you could question Howe or the owners in making that decision but the succession planning of hiring him set in stone that he would eventually be our manager.

Gomes only ever got an 18 month contract which is not a massive show of faith and the fact they brought Bowen in at all as a consultant shows that someone at the club thought he needed help in some aspect of the job. As soon as the club then decided to bring in a coach as Sporting Director then the pathway to today was set - this was a plan either at some point during the season if needed or Bowen would have taken over next summer when Gomes contract was up - he was only ever getting a new one if we were in the PL or possibly made the play-offs.

I could be well off of course but this feels the most likely sequence of events, hence why things have moved pretty quickly.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Twitter virgins losing their collective minds as if we announced Adolf Hitler as manager.

Agreed, utter embarrassment. Having a scroll now I see....

"protest march"
"booing on announcing his name"
"turning their backs upon his entrance"
"off to support a non league team"
"hope we get relegated"
"club deserve failure, love to witness it"

and on it goes...

Agreed. Pathetic.

However he got the job we all want him to succeed don't we?

FFS. Some people. This country.

[Marcus Crassus]

I'd love you to be right. Thanks for the cheer up.

I like the narrative, but the gap is around who judged him to be a good appointment. Who at "the Club" did he impress? Howe is a businessman, as are Joorabchian and the Dai's. We had somebody from a footballing background to assess candidates and it was Bowen, but he can't objectively assess himself.

Hammond was involved in the Pardew and McDermott decisions; you need a footballing brain in there.

That's not the gap. The role was created by those at the club to bring him in - so you could question Howe or the owners in making that decision but the succession planning of hiring him set in stone that he would eventually be our manager.

Gomes only ever got an 18 month contract which is not a massive show of faith and the fact they brought Bowen in at all as a consultant shows that someone at the club thought he needed help in some aspect of the job. As soon as the club then decided to bring in a coach as Sporting Director then the pathway to today was set - this was a plan either at some point during the season if needed or Bowen would have taken over next summer when Gomes contract was up - he was only ever getting a new one if we were in the PL or possibly made the play-offs.

I could be well off of course but this feels the most likely sequence of events, hence why things have moved pretty quickly.

That sounds plausible, but doesn't alter the fact that Bowen has zero experience as a manager.

[Stranded]

I like the narrative, but the gap is around who judged him to be a good appointment. Who at "the Club" did he impress? Howe is a businessman, as are Joorabchian and the Dai's. We had somebody from a footballing background to assess candidates and it was Bowen, but he can't objectively assess himself.

Hammond was involved in the Pardew and McDermott decisions; you need a footballing brain in there.

That's not the gap. The role was created by those at the club to bring him in - so you could question Howe or the owners in making that decision but the succession planning of hiring him set in stone that he would eventually be our manager.

Gomes only ever got an 18 month contract which is not a massive show of faith and the fact they brought Bowen in at all as a consultant shows that someone at the club thought he needed help in some aspect of the job. As soon as the club then decided to bring in a coach as Sporting Director then the pathway to today was set - this was a plan either at some point during the season if needed or Bowen would have taken over next summer when Gomes contract was up - he was only ever getting a new one if we were in the PL or possibly made the play-offs.

I could be well off of course but this feels the most likely sequence of events, hence why things have moved pretty quickly.

That sounds plausible, but doesn't alter the fact that Bowen has zero experience as a manager.

Yep, that is my only real concern at the moment but Stam didn't and that went well at least initially - Pardew didn't, McDermott didn't (and took over with us in a very similar position), McGhee didn't.

In fact looking at our history since McGhee joined, we have had a lot of our success with rookie managers

McGhee - success
Quinn/Gooding - success
Pardew - success
McDermott - success
Stam - success

So 5 rookies appointed since 1994 all successes to varying degress - all with promotions or play-off finals on their CV.

[Vision]

I'd love you to be right. Thanks for the cheer up.

I like the narrative, but the gap is around who judged him to be a good appointment. Who at "the Club" did he impress? Howe is a businessman, as are Joorabchian and the Dai's. We had somebody from a footballing background to assess candidates and it was Bowen, but he can't objectively assess himself.

Hammond was involved in the Pardew and McDermott decisions; you need a footballing brain in there.

That's not the gap. The role was created by those at the club to bring him in - so you could question Howe or the owners in making that decision but the succession planning of hiring him set in stone that he would eventually be our manager.

[size=150]Gomes only ever got an 18 month contract which is not a massive show of faith [/size]and the fact they brought Bowen in at all as a consultant shows that someone at the club thought he needed help in some aspect of the job. As soon as the club then decided to bring in a coach as Sporting Director then the pathway to today was set - this was a plan either at some point during the season if needed or Bowen would have taken over next summer when Gomes contract was up - he was only ever getting a new one if we were in the PL or possibly made the play-offs.

I could be well off of course but this feels the most likely sequence of events, hence why things have moved pretty quickly.

I've only skimmed through the club statement but I don't recall anywhere saying how long the length of contract is for Bowen? Does anyone know?

[Hound]

no, though rumoured to be to end of season

[Vision]

If Gomes' 18 month contract was "hardly an act of faith" as is claimed earlier then 6 months doesn't exactly scream "succession Plan" either to me.

To me it suggests more and more that Bowen has advised Howe/the owners that Gomes was the major issue.

[paultheroyal]

Genuinely surprised at the love for Gomes. For whatever reason, and I know its just throw away words, but he did appear to lose the dressing room. Something clearly unpopular was taking place. Maybe, key personnel within the club and I am talking players have got together and agreed what will work going forward...

4:50pm this Saturday we will have an idea.

[Vision]

Genuinely surprised at the love for Gomes. For whatever reason, and I know its just throw away words, but he did appear to lose the dressing room. Something clearly unpopular was taking place. Maybe, key personnel within the club and I am talking players have got together and agreed what will work going forward...

4:50pm this Saturday we will have an idea.

You don't have to have " love for Gomes" to raise an eyebrow about the man whose job by his own admission was to support the manager in any way possible to subsequently take his job. Things went south very very quickly (6 weeks or so from the optimism after Huddersfield away) to supposedly losing the dressing room. One sure fire way of losing a dressing room as a manager is if players see your authority being questioned from on high.

Still it is what it is. I found the Gomes appointment even more baffling than Bowen's tbh although I'd have given him more time (the aforementioned interference not withstanding).

Bowen could just be what we need. Time will tell .

Oh and a hearty LOL at any fans talking about sabotaging the team over this. Cretinous to say the least.

[bcubed]

The good news is he's bald!












But then so was Stam

[AthleticoSpizz]

(rather have Jim Bowen placeholder already emplaced elsewhere)

nah...good luck to him

[Snowflake Royal]

Or that following the shoddy process of hiring Gomes, the club decided to get some form of succession planning in place so brought Bowen in as a consultant initially to see how he works - they liked what they saw so created a new role for him to have more of a say in transfer dealings and all football related issues beyond those on the training ground.

Once it became clear to them that Gomes wasn't going to work out they had a successor ready to go, who knew the club at all levels - remember he will have had oversight of the Academy as well. So that once the players return from international duty the new manager is in place.

So the one thing that most are complaining about could well be something the club can be congratulated for as they saw a potential issue and resolved it.

I'd love you to be right. Thanks for the cheer up.

The above makes a lot more sense than man is a snake who magically got himself into a position at the club to fire the popular but failing manager just so he can take his job narrative that seems to have bedded in.

Unless you believe that Bowen went out and hired shoddy players this summer to undermine Gomes and then helped them to underperform to an extent that the manager could be fired after roughly the same number of games he usually gets fired (or leaves) after.

Oh god yes. Never bought that nonsense.

[Rea Ding]

Twitter virgins losing their collective minds as if we announced Adolf Hitler as manager.

This tickled me

[Sutekh]

Ian Holloway revealed on talksport that he applied for the job...

https://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/Footb ... ip/Reading

[The Enfield Royal71]

I would have liked to see him as the manager. Decent boss who knows his stuff in this league.

[paddy20]

I would have liked to see him as the manager. Decent boss who knows his stuff in this league.

Long had his day I think. Seeing Parky appointed at Sunderland makes you reflect on those that said he wasn't ready for Reading and then we appoint someone with no managerial experience. I think also worrying that a number of ex players who know him saying how surprised he's been appointed. Do they know something we don't?

[Hound]

Thought Holloway did well with qpr couple of years back

Obvs his 'schtick' wears a bit thin, but I think he's a decent manager