Had Alex Neil stayed on...

[Michael Starr 519]

...How would the squad have looked today?

I don't think we would have signed the likes of Pukki, Steiperman, Leitner, Hernandez.

We would perhaps have Oliveira, Matthews, Naismith and Martin in or around the first team? Perhaps Ivo Pinto would have been more involved too? Would the youngsters have been given the chance or would they be playing lower league football out on loan?

I think we would have been struggling near the foot of the Championship with a much higher wage bill, worrying about the immediate future. The squad would have been aging and inconsistent with form.

Preston signings this season. Would he have signed any of these for us?

Date from	Position	Nationality	Name	From	Fee	Ref.
1 July 2018	SS		Graham Burke	Shamrock Rovers	Undisclosed	[8]
1 July 2018	GK		Jimmy Corcoran	Cherry Orchard	Undisclosed	[9]
1 July 2018	GK		Michael Crowe	Ipswich Town	Free transfer	[10]
1 July 2018	LB		Andrew Hughes	Peterborough United	Undisclosed	[11]
1 July 2018	CM		Ryan Ledson	Oxford United	Undisclosed	[12]
1 July 2018	CM		Brian McManus	St Kevin Boys	Undisclosed	[13]
1 July 2018	CB		Jordan Storey	Exeter City	Undisclosed	[14]
1 January 2019	LW		Josh Ginnelly	Walsall	Undisclosed	[15]
3 January 2019	CM		Brad Potts	Barnsley	Undisclosed	[16]
3 January 2019	CF		Jayden Stockley	Exeter City	Undisclosed	[17]
9 January 2019	GK		Connor Ripley	Middlesbrough	Undisclosed	[18]
23 January 2019	RB		Joe Rafferty	Rochdale	Undisclosed

Edited February 20, 2019 by Michael Starr

[BroadstairsR 2,138]

He might have been ok, but nothing compared to what we have now.

 

I feel guilty about being the one who  labelled  him the "tinkerman" in the first place because clearly as a manager he has a lot to offer. PNE fans love him, with good reason.

Am I right in thinking that the awful Hooper (ref) put a major nail in Alex's coffin early days?

 

I actually like the Wee one and wish him well. The opposite is the case with that nutter Lambert.

[king canary 7,578]

12 minutes ago, BroadstairsR said:

He might have been ok, but nothing compared to what we have now.

 

I feel guilty about being the one who  labelled  him the "tinkerman" in the first place because clearly as a manager he has a lot to offer. PNE fans love him, with good reason.

Am I right in thinking that the awful Hooper (ref) put a major nail in Alex's coffin early days?

 

I actually like the Wee one and wish him well. The opposite is the case with that nutter Lambert.

He seems like one of those managers that works best with a small budget. He seemed to be good at motivation but awful at transfers and at times pretty naive tactically. He's young though and it seems like he's learned but no doubt his time was up here.

[BobLoz3 492]

I'm actually surprised that he hasn't signed any Scots for them this season!

[Nuff Said 5,089]

I’m loving the names of some of the Irish clubs, although St Kevin Boys sounds like the start of a story about a priest being arrested.

[Peanuts 150]

Interesting that their recruitment has been exclusively UK and Irish players, and quite a few youngsters too.

I always liked Neil and I think he'd have probably done better with us now under the present structure. It was tough for him with very little experience coming into a team with high expectations that were chasing promotion and then having to manage in the premier league with limited finances and then again after relegation there was the pressure to bounce straight back up.

In contrast it feels like Farke has benefited from lower expectations and has had more time to bring in players and get them organised into his style of play.

Edited February 20, 2019 by Peanuts

[Woodman 92]

In my opinion, Alex couldn't cope with the man management side of things - he struggled with big characters, or those who thought they were 'big' players. He seemed to ostracise players rather than building his squad around them.  I suspect some of the senior players stopped playing for him towards the end.  Players like Maddison (who it turns out was actually quite good!) weren't given a chance.

As has been said, his transfer / scouting left a lot to be desired but is no doubt doing a good job at Preston.  Without offence to Preston, the expectations here are that we should be challenging for promotion every year.

[wcorkcanary 4,329]

2 hours ago, Nuff Said said:

I’m loving the names of some of the Irish clubs, although St Kevin Boys sounds like the start of a story about a priest being arrested.

There are some crackers over here...Bellgooly &Riverstick, Kingdom? , Cobh Ramblers. 

PS cherry orchard and at Kevin's boys are two of the top schoolboy outfits in the country. There is also  Corinthians in the mighty city of Cork, early learning ground of our very own Adam Idah.

Irrelevant Irish footy stat. Cork city home ground has a capacity of around 8000, usual crowd around 6000, for the opening game of this season 1300 travelled to Dublin, nearly a quarter of the home gate! That would equate to roughly 6000 Norwich fans travelling!! 

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

I never really thought that AN had a definitive style to his coaching. Obviously DF has. AN was quite happy for players to play it long from the back and for the moment, that style is not working.

[Lessingham Canary 99]

I think that drubbing at Newcastle destroyed his confidence, it is easy to forget he is still a young manager, finding his way in the game, timing was right for something to be done, i don't think he has been damaged by his experience and either have we as a club, so i thank him for Wembley and wish him well, i'm sure he will be around for many years to come.

[splendidrush 700]

In fairness,  Neil didn't operate with a SW to support him. Seems like it's the trend atm, what it shows is that the 1p5wich model of replacing a dinosaur (McCarthy) with another (Lambert) doesn't necessarily mean progress. We took a punt when he left and it took a Season to bare fruit. God only knows who we would be watching if he was still in charge. 

[AJ 1,218]

I liked Alex Neil, and still like him, but his time came to an end here. He simply failed to stick to his philosophy, then when it went wrong, he didn't get rid of an aging squad and tried to build a system around what he had, and then wasted far too much money on players that didn't fit in. Albeit, the football was entertaining though!

Farke and the new structure we have in place is by far a better combination, though, and so far has produced some absolutely stunning transfer business on very limited funds

[king canary 7,578]

20 hours ago, splendidrush said:

In fairness,  Neil didn't operate with a SW to support him. Seems like it's the trend atm, what it shows is that the 1p5wich model of replacing a dinosaur (McCarthy) with another (Lambert) doesn't necessarily mean progress. We took a punt when he left and it took a Season to bare fruit. God only knows who we would be watching if he was still in charge. 

I'd be intrigued to know if he got offered a job somewhere with a SD/DoF type set up if he'd take it. I think it could protect him from his worst attributes.

[East Rider 548]

22 hours ago, Lessingham Canary said:

I think that drubbing at Newcastle destroyed his confidence, it is easy to forget he is still a young manager, finding his way in the game, timing was right for something to be done, i don't think he has been damaged by his experience and either have we as a club, so i thank him for Wembley and wish him well, i'm sure he will be around for many years to come.

Spot on.

He has the makings of a good long term manager somewhere and it is obvious he is learning and adapting as he progresses.

He was excellent for us at that time.

Who knows for the future under a SW type individual.

[Darth Canary1 91]

2 hours ago, king canary said:

I'd be intrigued to know if he got offered a job somewhere with a SD/DoF type set up if he'd take it. I think it could protect him from his worst attributes.

That would be interesting. I think he would probably flourish under SD model.

[Creative Midfielder 1,985]

On 20/02/2019 at 12:52, Michael Starr said:

...How would the squad have looked today?

I don't think we would have signed the likes of Pukki, Steiperman, Leitner, Hernandez.

We would perhaps have Oliveira, Matthews, Naismith and Martin in or around the first team? Perhaps Ivo Pinto would have been more involved too? Would the youngsters have been given the chance or would they be playing lower league football out on loan?

I think we would have been struggling near the foot of the Championship with a much higher wage bill, worrying about the immediate future. The squad would have been aging and inconsistent with form.

Impossible to know of course, but I would say no to all of those. I seem to remember that on the very afternoon he was sacked he'd already given quite a lengthy press coference in which he talked about players letting down the club (which IMO they had, fair more so than AN himself) and that there would have to be big changes in the summer which he was already preparing for.

So I think for sure that a similar clear out that summer would have happened even if he'd stayed and that today we would have a younger, cheaper and more effective squad than the one that got him sacked. But I would agree it is highly unlikely that we would have brought in so many gems so economically as Webber and Farke managed - that has been really impressive.

[Creative Midfielder 1,985]

On 20/02/2019 at 19:40, Lessingham Canary said:

I think that drubbing at Newcastle destroyed his confidence, it is easy to forget he is still a young manager, finding his way in the game, timing was right for something to be done, i don't think he has been damaged by his experience and either have we as a club, so i thank him for Wembley and wish him well, i'm sure he will be around for many years to come.

Agree with all of that. Was at that game and in many ways we played really well and totally dominated that game, so to come away with that scoreline definitely seemed to impact his confidence and was definitely IMO the significant turning point in our season.

The second major mistake IMO (although most fans seemed to agree with AN's selection) was to field the weakened side at home to Man City in the cup - another confidence sapping drubbing which broke a good little run we had finally put together and by the time we eventually got another win (10 games was it?) we were effectively gone.

[Lessingham Canary 99]

2 hours ago, Creative Midfielder said:

Agree with all of that. Was at that game and in many ways we played really well and totally dominated that game, so to come away with that scoreline definitely seemed to impact his confidence and was definitely IMO the significant turning point in our season.

The second major mistake IMO (although most fans seemed to agree with AN's selection) was to field the weakened side at home to Man City in the cup - another confidence sapping drubbing which broke a good little run we had finally put together and by the time we eventually got another win (10 games was it?) we were effectively gone.

In hindsight i could agree with you Creative Midfielder, but at the time i accepted that we were not too concerned on the cup, strange how we can look back to a specific moment (Newcastle) and say "that's when it all changed". Was the same for me with Hughton, Southampton away made me feel it had gone on too long, the football was dire and he had to go.