Wee Alex

[FenwayFrank 2,457]

I don’t remember anyone complaining at the time when we signed Oliveira and Pritchard.

7 hours ago, All the Germans said:

Anecdotal but I also spoke to him briefly at "an evening with Alex Neil" and he was very rude and not a particularly nice bloke.

I met him a couple of times too and found him to be a nice down to earth normal bloke, he almost came across as a bit shy when he was away from football. 

[Capt. Pants 4,201]

Since we have stumbled across a very decent coach in Farke we seem to have become very adept at slacking off our previous managers. I'd be extremely nervous if we met Alex Neil's WBA in the playoffs as we all know how that would end.

[king canary 7,580]

55 minutes ago, Capt. Pants said:

Since we have stumbled across a very decent coach in Farke we seem to have become very adept at slacking off our previous managers. I'd be extremely nervous if we met Alex Neil's WBA in the playoffs as we all know how that would end.

I'll say I always slagged him off...

[king canary 7,580]

1 hour ago, FenwayFrank said:

I don’t remember anyone complaining at the time when we signed Oliveira and Pritchard.

 

[All the Germans 1,075]

3 hours ago, FenwayFrank said:

I don’t remember anyone complaining at the time when we signed Oliveira and Pritchard.

I met him a couple of times too and found him to be a nice down to earth normal bloke, he almost came across as a bit shy when he was away from football. 

I wasn't entirely sober(!) but he didn't come across well to me. He was sat with three lungs, who was friendly.

[Midlands Yellow 3,941]

Half decent manager just don’t give him much to spend . 

[Ross1 1]

7 hours ago, Feedthewolf said:

While you're here, what are your thoughts on Darren Moore? I know you were on a very poor run at home when he got the chop, but on the whole he seemed to be doing a really good job. Not sure Neil is any kind of upgrade on Moore, personally.

I have followed the Albion for 50 years and I thought I had seen it all but no this is a new level of odd. We sacked a manager when we were 4th in the Championship, that manager is one of the most popular figures at the club in the last 20 years and I think still has the highest win ratio of any manager in the last 30 years. Yet at least half the fanbase seems totally okay with that and their only concern is that we don't have a replacement lined up.

By way of explanation.

1. Modern football nobody gives anybody time and head coaches carry the can for over paid and over entitled footballers who need to look at themselves a little bit more often.   

2. Specifically at the Albion the expectations at the club with a hefty wage bill and a talented squad were high and there is a very obvious financial imperative on getting promoted at the first time of asking.

3. Moore made mistakes ( he is a relative rookie after all) and at times seemed not to learn from them.

4. The board was roundly and rightly criticised for hanging onto Pulis and Pardew for too long and there is an element of fighting the last war here.

I continue to hold Darren Moore in the highest possible regard as a man and a coach. Someone will get an absolute gem. Albion may have over promoted him and this is what I feared when we made the appointment it just wasn't a job for a rookie.

The squad is nowhere near as good as it would  first appear on paper it has are some major imbalances and the Pulis legacy is crippling us.

If we appoint Alex Neil as seems likely this will be his toughest managerial task by a long way. If we get promotion I wouldn't back the current squad to break 20 points in the Premier League and we can't afford to keep it together in the Championship this was a onetime shot at promotion, it is a total rebuild in the summer.

Thanks for the insight. Good luck with the rest of the season and for what it's worth I wish you well in the Premier League next year and if you can just see your way clear to handing out a sound thrashing to the Villa on the last day of the season as a parting gift it would be much appreciated. 

    

  

 

 

 

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

16 hours ago, Grant Holts Moustache said:

The only person I have ever seen suggest that Maddison would have been sold by him is you. I also see plenty of criticism about sending him to Aberdeen but ultimately he needed regular football as he wasn't yet ready for that here/ there were players ahead of him. 

There was nothing wrong with the signing of Pritchard either. It was widely considered that Hoolahan was nearing the end of his career and it was time to bring in a successor. The problem here was not playing him often enough but we still sold him at a profit. 

He also signed Brady who was decent and sold him for twice the price. 

There were problems with recruitment and some certainly didn't work out but a disaster is a huge over reaction. 

Neil and Maddison had a big falling out.

When Maddison arrived at Norwich he had a big ego and felt he should go straight into the first team. Neil felt Maddison needed to earn his place. Wes, Pritchard and Naismith were all ahead of Maddison. Words were exchanged and Neil gave Maddison a very public dressing down in training, telling him he needed to ‘grow up’. 

The loan move to Aberdeen had been arranged but Maddison originally refused to go. But was eventually convinced it was best. Come January Maddison refused to extend his loan, against Neil’s wishes and advice and came back to Norwich. Neil said that Maddison wouldn’t be part of the first team. Maddison said he wanted first team football. An impasse was reached. Had Neil stayed I’m sure Maddison would have pushed for a move away and I doubt Neil would refuse. 

As we know, Neil got sacked, Alan Irvine gave Maddison a game and the rest is history. 

Norwich seemingly ran a very disjointed transfer strategy when Neil was around. Ricky Martin and his team would sign young players with no real idea how and when they’d get in the team. Neil ran a totally separate transfer strategy buying players he liked for the team immediately. Webber pointed this out very early on in his Norwich career. 

I’ve heard the same story from a couple of different people so believe it to be true. Some of the details may be embellishments, but the general story seems to fit in with what came out in public at the time. 

I don’t place all the blame on Neil for this, I think most managers would have treat Maddison the same. What is the issue though is Neil buying Pritchard when he really wasn’t needed - it is just poor squad and budget management. If Norwich had used the £10m spend on Pritchard on two defenders Norwich may have bounced straight back up. 

 

[Alfie54 76]

18 hours ago, keelansgrandad said:

Bad on transfers? I think there is too much focus on Naismith here. He was also responsible for Timm Klose, James Maddison and Ben Godfrey. 

And he only played Klose. What a season we missed sending Maddison to Aberdeen.

He had also said that Maddison wasn’t going out on loan, then promptly sent him off to Aberdeen

[Surfer 1,547]

Now that Wee Alex has had his audition at WBA, maybe you guys might want to take a look at Paul Lambert?

He's available, and has the PL experience you are looking for from seasons with Villa and Stoke. Would be a masterstroke to appoint him now and put one over Villa in the playoffs.