Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
andyc24_uk

Alex Neil needs a mentor...

Recommended Posts

I like Alex Neil, I really do. I think he has the makings of an absolutely top manager and I think we would be foolish to part company with him. HOWEVER - it''s very clear at the moment that he just doesn''t have the experience needed to get us out of this relegation scrap. It''s not necessarily fair to blame him for that - He''s still young and somewhat inexperienced, It''s not a situation he''s been in before and for whatever reason, he cannot get the squad (who should have the quality now) to perform. He''s the long-term manager we need, but he clearly can''t cut it in the short term.

So - Here''s a suggestion. The board need to bring in an experienced manager to work alongside him for the rest of the season - someone like a Redknapp or Warnock, who''s been there and done it all before and knows how to fight their way out of a relegation battle. I''m not suggesting AN be sacked - just that he needs to learn from someone who knows how to get out of the current mess we''re in.

So, bring in an experienced manager and have AN either temporarily step down to become Assistant Manager until the end of the season before resuming his role next year; or work in partnership as a management team. Given the importance of staying up, offer the experienced manager a huge win bonus if necessary - a few hundred thousand spent on that now will be peanuts if we stay up next season.

Neil seems like a genuinely honest guy, someone who would probably accept his current weaknesses and be willing to go along with something like this as he would realise that being mentored by someone who''s been through this before would benefit his own development in the long term.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I certainly agree that he could do with a hand in his coaching staff......at very least a defensive coach, as would have my doubts about Holt and McAvoy''s suitability to be coachig multi million pound international premier league footballers.

.

however , he doesn''t surely need "mentoring" in picking a side containing our best players in their best positions?

that''s basic..

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Similar thoughts crossed my mind, wondering if a thing like loaning out a manager exists. (Hamilton for the rest of the season?) I doubt that such would work or it is possible. Clashing of egos, conecpts, etc. comes to mind as potential stumbling blocks. When AN arrived, nobody said Phelan to leave, but he left within a fortnight.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

[quote user="andyc24_uk"]I like Alex Neil, I really do. I think he has the makings of an absolutely top manager and I think we would be foolish to part company with him. HOWEVER - it''s very clear at the moment that he just doesn''t have the experience needed to get us out of this relegation scrap. It''s not necessarily fair to blame him for that - He''s still young and somewhat inexperienced, It''s not a situation he''s been in before and for whatever reason, he cannot get the squad (who should have the quality now) to perform. He''s the long-term manager we need, but he clearly can''t cut it in the short term. So - Here''s a suggestion. The board need to bring in an experienced manager to work alongside him for the rest of the season - someone like a Redknapp or Warnock, who''s been there and done it all before and knows how to fight their way out of a relegation battle. I''m not suggesting AN be sacked - just that he needs to learn from someone who knows how to get out of the current mess we''re in. So, bring in an experienced manager and have AN either temporarily step down to become Assistant Manager until the end of the season before resuming his role next year; or work in partnership as a management team. Given the importance of staying up, offer the experienced manager a huge win bonus if necessary - a few hundred thousand spent on that now will be peanuts if we stay up next season. Neil seems like a genuinely honest guy, someone who would probably accept his current weaknesses and be willing to go along with something like this as he would realise that being mentored by someone who''s been through this before would benefit his own development in the long term.[/quote]

 

 

To add to this, the whole concept of the football committee that was talked about, and to a large extent implemented, when we were relegated last time. The theory was to put rookie manager in place and support him with all sorts of resource so that he could concentrate on coaching. The bit that never happened was the "wise old head" - or specifically at the time Joe Royle .

 

The committee is apparently now defunct - with only the vague nod to the slightly uncertain role of Ricky Martin , who can be seen wandering around in the Directors area in a suit before games looking for someone to talk to.

 

But the role of the "Technical Director (a proper one as per the European model- not the odd unqualified version we ended up with)  that was flavour of the month a few years back may still have  a part to play, and was much discussed on here.

 

Would this help? ~(I''m not sure - but the views of the posters would be interesting . )

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I have twice suggested this as the season has progressed ,, Moyes is available and being Scottish might just have enough of an affinity with AN for it to work .

Dismissing it out of hand is as bad as thinking AN will suddenly turn this around ,, he will have tried everything he knows , with his extremely limited experience in any respect , let alone EPL , I don''t think anything but luck will see us in the EPL next season if nothing is done to address the problem with management and coaching staff .

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
The club seemed to think the role of the ''wise old head'' was important enough to appoint Royle and to champion the role, him and what he and it would bring to the club.Royle then swiftly moved on and they''ve never bothered to replace him. So isn''t it important any more?Not long after Hughton was appointed and the first noises about Culverhouse going to Villa were being heard, the clubs stance was that they not only wanted Culverhouse to stay but were hoping to add further coaching personnel to the team.Culverhouse went but no-one extra was appointed.Mark Robson went, Phelan went soon after Neil was appointed.We now have Frankie McAvoy, Gary Holt and Ricky Martin as the integral/high profile members of the coaching team, with the latter now seemingly more comfortable in a suit than a tracksuit. It doesn''t seem the sort of high calibre coaching team you would expect at a Premier League football club where most of the players have already played at a higher level of the game than the people that coach them every day. People who went to the game yesterday were commenting that the players don''t seem to be playing for the Manager at the moment. That''s not the same as saying he''s "lost" the dressing room. But it does suggest a shadow of them going out there and either be unclear as to what it it is they are meant to be doing or that they have, a''la Hughton, decided to adopt a ''suck it and see'' policy on the pitch and pretty much disregard, thats if they ever took it onboard in the first place, whatever instructions they have been given. Neil has alluded to this in a few post match interviews with suggestions that people don''t listen, do as they''re told, or focus on what they were supposed to be doing.Maybe I''m just seeing what I want to see but you look at Leicester yesterday and this season as a whole. They have a system, they stick to it. Every player knows exactly what his role in the side is, every player who comes in for one who is suspended/injured etc knows what is expected of him in that position. They also defend well. Basics, no fussing, in your face, clear your lines, Row Z if neccessary. If one of their players had been in the position Russ was against Liverpool, he wouldn''t have passed back to the keeper, he''d have hoofed the ball out of the ground.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
So we spend a fortune to get someone in like Moyes to be a mentor. Would''t it just be better to get him in as a replacement?Unless Alex specifically requests a mentor then I feel it could be something that could undermine his already shaky position.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Several times AN has gone on record that he never phones anyone for advice so why would he change. When things were going well last season i was worried by these comments now the wheel has come off. I agree about the coaching staff but as far as a manager goes if they need a mentor then they need moving on

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="Old Shuck"]The club seemed to think the role of the ''wise old head'' was important enough to appoint Royle and to champion the role, him and what he and it would bring to the club.Royle then swiftly moved on and they''ve never bothered to replace him. So isn''t it important any more?Not long after Hughton was appointed and the first noises about Culverhouse going to Villa were being heard, the clubs stance was that they not only wanted Culverhouse to stay but were hoping to add further coaching personnel to the team.Culverhouse went but no-one extra was appointed.Mark Robson went, Phelan went soon after Neil was appointed.[/quote]The need for an experienced mentor or replacement does beg the question as to why one wasn''t appointed in place of Alex Neil, or why Alex Neil wasn''t replaced with one when we were promoted.I''m not saying that either scenario would have been the best idea, but the above does suggest a lack of long term planning given that the plans keep being chopped and changed at the whim of the Chief Exec at the first sign of trouble.The apparent need to keep Culverhouse and expand our coaching staff was more likely to have been a ruse to extract compo from Aston Villa. However there has been a huge turnover of staff at Colney since then. In addition to those mentioned we''ve lost a couple of U18/U21 coaches (Jerry Gill and Paul Wilkinson), a couple of Chief Scouts (Ewan Chester and Barry Simmonds) and a Director of Coaching (Paul Nevin). I''m probably missing a few more.It seems that the long term plan to have a board of knowledgable

football heads to assist the manager on transfers and the club on

general footballing matters was quietly dropped. It was a good idea, and a big strategic change, but like many aspects of the running of the club it seemed like a half-measure that was poorly implemented. I''d have liked to have seen the club tap into the knowledge and experience of former managers and players, and have them sat on a proper footballing board.Instead we get someone like our former Chief Scout Barry Simmonds, who hardly had a glittering CV having not long arrived from that footballing hotbed called New Zealand. He possibly got the job after being known to Paul Nevin and maybe through McNally''s Fulham connection. But was he really ideal for being one of the few who decided on footballing matters, let alone suitable to be our Head of Football Recruitment?Something''s not right when so many of our scouts and coaches seem to lack experience and so many have left in such a short space of time. Our ''long term plans'' appear to be pipe dreams which last all of five minutes.The above and our need to recruit a recruitment team during the transfer window suggest that we need someone with a personel/recruitment background sat on the board or working full time for the club.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Agree with a lot of that 93Vintage, something somewhere clearly went wrong in the recruitment department. Having said that, I''m a lot more convinced by the scouting team today than I was 6 weeks ago - they''ve brought in good players in the window, and got the job done early as well instead of last-minute panic buys like previous seasons. It does look like Bowkett''s overly-tight grip on the purse strings my have had a lot to do with our previous transfer policy failings. On the coaching side, we clearly need to add more experience in the long term - I''d much rather see both Adams and Martin back on the training ground developing youngsters, where they''ve shown they have plenty of skill in the past, and bring in a couple of experienced people to work with the first teamers. That''s probably a longer term project for the summer though - what we need right now is someone to show AN how to do the bits of his job that he''s struggling with and, if necessary, to lay down the law to any players who aren''t performing or who think they''re bigger than the team.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I think getting in an experienced coach is a fair thing to suggest Andy, and I see it as a mistake to spend £m''s on players if we don''t have enough experience in our coaching team. Saving on one to spend on another, or ending up spending more later when it goes wrong.It was probably a similar story with our PL recruitment team, trying to save money and ending up worse off than if we had invested earlier.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...