by Stranded »
14 Oct 2019 15:12
Marcus Crassus Stranded WestYorksRoyal 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.
Last edited by
Stranded on 14 Oct 2019 15:16, edited 1 time in total.