I’d go for Pat Fenlon as technical director and interim manager to allow stability and a chance to take time in recruiting new manager ….. sounds like perfect succession planning ….. where could it go wrong ( Man U fans only may reply)
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I’d go for Pat Fenlon as technical director and interim manager to allow stability and a chance to take time in recruiting new manager ….. sounds like perfect succession planning ….. where could it go wrong ( Man U fans only may reply)
https://m.independent.ie/sport/socce...-41610031.html
Formal approach made for Bradley….
Would Fenlon take it? He seems to be enjoying life at Linfield.Quote:
Originally Posted by Calcio Jack
Can understand Bradley wanting to take the job to an extent, he's done all he can in Tallaght really, and won't be seen as 'progressing' unless he can get out of a European group stage, which is exceedingly difficult.
Conversely, I doubt it would pay all that much more than his current job, and it sounds like it's a tough enough gig, dragging a team up with near the bottom of the table, 31 points off the promotion playoff spot.
Does he have kids at all? Another thing to consider. I know Kenny didn't move his family over when he left Derry for Dunfermline, must have been a difficult call.
Would be a right pain in the arse for Shamrock Rovers if he was to go, but as mentioned, it's likely to be the way with the summer/winter differences. Wouldn't like to hope he wouldn't take a couple of the players with him as well.
He would need to get to a group stage first !!!! That would be a huge achievement in itself, only happened 3 times in Irish football.Quote:
Originally Posted by brendy_éire
No brainer for Bradley. Better money, and probably a long term deal. There is also 48 teams in his division and below. Plenty of other oportunites for him once he is there, and plus would be the front runner for any job here once there is an opening and he wants to come back to Ireland. For loyalty, dont think for one second Rovers would show him any loyalty if the results went arseways. They have proven that before with banners.
As for who would replace him ... who knows. The manager situation at Rovers was a super big mess before Bradley (After O'Neill). My guess is Rovers would appoint from inside (good luck with that says both Dundalk and Cork). If I was them, probably David Healy would have the same experience needed.
If they go with a 'rookie' manager, I'm not sure it would work. Patience is needed for someone to learn the job (like what Bradley got), it would be hard for the expectant champions to give that. Switching from a succesful manager is hard, like what Rovers experienced in 2012, or United in England (or Dundalk or Cork here). I wonder if ex-Internationals would be interested like Keith Andrews or John O'Shea (but personnally wouldnt go down that route).
Final point, the league has a lot to offer for upcoming managers. Paul Cook, Ian Baraclough, Micheal O'Neill, and Stephan Kenny have all forged decent careers thanks to LOI.
is he not on some kind of permanent number at rovers? was that not the talk before?Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiki Balboa
Assistant could often be in line for it (worked for years and years at UCD in terms of succession). So that's Glenn Cronin - would he be an option? (If he didn't move with Bradley of course)
Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
If UCD had to have been anyway competitive this year, I would have put my money on Andrew Myler if Rovers were to look for an Irish manager outside of their club.
You’d imagine it’s a win win for Bradley. If he goes and is successful then he’ll further his career in an even higher league either through promotion or getting plucked by a bigger team. If he fails well he’d still be in demand here or in a lower league in England as he now has a proven league winning pedigree.
I’m not fully in tune with Rovers set up but I’d imagine if McPhail went with him then that would be a real kicker. Maybe the rovers fans here can give a better opinion on his potential loss?
Don't confuse a section (albeit a very vocal section!) of the support with the board or the entire support base. Plenty of us supported him all the way through and that includes the board. But it wasn't about loyalty. It was about believing in what he and the team were building even when results were going arseways. It was also about not wanting to cut and run early as we had multiple times previous with Fenlon, Crolly and Kenny to be fair! Either way he's been here plenty long to have repaid the patience he rightly got.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiki Balboa
Yeah I'd imagine all 3 will go and all 3 will be huge losses. I don't know all the details obviously but if you look at what we've done with transfers I think a lot of that is down to McPhail. He's well connected for a start so that helped in bringing in players but I get the sense he really wanted to make a mark on how irish players are viewed when clubs come calling for them. There was a good interview with Bradley and McPahil (I think it was LoI central) back in 2019 after the cup final. McPhail spoke a lot about how they showed Man City around the training ground, went into detail about Bazunu's schedule etc and were able to get the valuation they wanted.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yossarian
I see wesso has left Cambridge, wonder does he fancy a swansong at Damien duffs shelbourne
Thats what Game on was saying earlier on! I am surprised he left Cambridge as he had a crackin two yrs with Cambridge!Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
In fairness hes 40 and didnt play as much this season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
Lincoln City, to my knowledge have never been above L1 / Div 3 in England, apart from when they first joined the league & there were only two divisions at that time, (talking 1800s here). They have fallen out of the league plenty, and were non league again as recently as 2017.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yossarian
So Championship promotion isn't the job description here IMO & if it is, Bradley is a strange appointment, the overperforming underdog tight budget provincial club skillset required wouldn't be comparable to his Rovers number.
They are clever in the loan market recently, which can be contacts led, so he won't have that in England to offer them.
It does give rise to the question though, what would success at Lincoln City be ? Because keeping them comfortably in L1 wasn't enough to keep their most recent manager. So what are they expecting of Bradley ?
Its will be a step down in relative terms imo, certainly initially. Rovers are well down the road of implementing a long term plan and are more developed as a club. Its makes sense that Lincoln are looking at a team of key people that implemented the so far so good strategy at Rovers, rather than just a manager. There are examples above where clubs have changed managers multiple times with endless resources but failed, didnt see that often success is due to a group of people at a club, a coherent plan and not all about an individual.
It doesnt make it unattractive for Bradley and co, just that they would be starting over again and does Lincoln have the patience to stick with it - I dont think Bradley's stock as a manager is high enough yet to ride out a storm if very possible relegation battles happen.
I think the key to this for Lincoln is who Bradley can take with them and its a lot harder to turn the heads of others than it is for an ambitious young manager. If Bradley has real self belief then he wont be thinking that if he doesnt take this job he may not get another chance. Having said that, he doesnt seem to be a risk taker, plays the percentages rather than force things, so he could stick safely where he is. He is replaceable, other may not be easily and the real worry for Rovers is whether he goes after players he knows and trusts. They can be under contract but if they want to follow him they can force a move - player being made stay at a club can really derail things. Whether Lincoln have the money to target Rover's top players is another thing. They could pivot away from loan deals and toward cheaper (wages) imports which gets over the lack of contacts in England.
Bradley has charisma akin to Steve Staunton minus the accents so may not convince regardless of CV, which is daft in football terms, but the car salesman type with no CV worth talking about do get jobs.
The trouble for Bradley is that English football fans wont give him an ounce of credit for his achievements here. The moment anything goes slightly pear shaped the board of Lincoln will be accused of hiring an Irish no-mark. The average English person has no idea or interest to what goes on in the shores. That's from years of experience going to the UK watching a club in the lower leagues ranging from national league to League 1.
Will it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
Bigger average crowds than Rovers. More money (wage bill about £5m a year, which is way more than anything here). A better league. No Europe, but the FA Cup always offers the chance of a big game (like Arsenal in the quarters a few years back - and they'd beaten Ipswich, Burnley and Brighton to get that far). He mayn't be going for the title, but I don't think that makes it a step down. And I'm sure he'll be thinking if he does a good job as a young manager, then he could have clubs from a higher league interested.
It's hard to see it as anything other than a perfectly logical career step to be honest. Maybe it won't work, and English football management is a notoriously basket-case career option, but he's earned the right to give it a go.
league 1 is miles ahead of loi , can we stop pretending its a step down even from rovers.
Totally agree, and 100 percent do not understand people who hold this few. League of Ireland has definitly imporved in the last 20 years, but so has argubly the English leagues have imporved the most in the world in the same time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jd2793
The money in English football in phenomenal. Villareal, a champions league semi-finalist, have a smaller budget than Burnley. The amount of foreign talent that brings into the leagues, pushes English talent down, meaning a player who has the same relative talent in 2002 might be a playing at a top-level champioship team, would be now a League 1 player.
100% correct, same for likes of Horgan and Boyle joining PNE after playing group stages, most over there would seen that as a once off, prob lots would never even heard of Dundalk. Probably same when Kenny got the Irish job, likes of most media in UK, would have had no interest in DFC progress, prob would just gone with 'the former Irish u21 manager got promoted'Quote:
Originally Posted by D24Saint
SPL miles bigger than LOI and so is L1, end of, ok Bradley (if he takes it) will never manage in Europe over there, but its an advancement in his career for sure.
I generally enjoy your posts Nesta but that last, lengthy one reads (to me at least) as a personal disdain for Stephen Bradley so developed as to be a fetish (or a fairly risible attempt at trolling) rather than anything grounded in cold logic.
I agree too with the point made by a few others that his accomplishments here won't hold much sway if gets off to a bad start (a la Fenlon/Kenny in Scotland) but why wouldn't he take a crack at it? It's probably with one eye on the job after Lincoln too - if he does well (and a vague push for the playoffs in second season after a midtable first year might constitute doing well) there's nothing to say that one of the big League 1 clubs wouldn't take a punt and if it goes badly he's young enough that he could find himself back in Tallaght (or maybe even the Brandywell or, perish the thought, Oriel) down the road.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I could probably have clearer in 'a step down in relative terms'. I was being club specific not L1/2 and not using the barometer of attendances, wage bills or standard of football (and I too have years of experience of games at L1/L2/National League, whatever about L1 there is a whole lot of overpaid muck below!), it is a step down in terms of ambition, planning, academy/player development. For a one club town and plenty of govt funding their facilities are comparatively poor. I believe there is whole lot more to football clubs than attendances and wage bills and as a Dundalk fan that chafes a bit!Quote:
Originally Posted by Jd2793
Maybe this is changing and why they seem to be looking for a 'team' that have been very hands on with football club and player development specific planning and implementation. But they are pitching for people with almost entirely LoI only experience, maybe that in itself is an indicator of their ambition, not English non league or L2 even?! Its not a career advancement for Bradley (and Im hardly one of his fans) unless he is a massive success at Lincoln and that would be stable in L1 (lol) and then playing at the highest level they have ever achieved ie championship. L1 currently has a clatter of clubs that are championship/EPL level clubs bar their performances on the pitch so in relative terms a tough task for a club that is lower L2/national league at best off the pitch.
I'm not blinded by the blistering football of LoI thinking that it is of x standard compared to y, its not as simple as that otherwise we could just reference UEFA ranking, for example, and thumb our noses. Lincoln are not at the level of Sunderland albeit in the same league and Rovers are further along in development plans so yes a step down - or a step backward if that has less pretense...
God forbid when UCD finally wise up to Myler the spoofer that they end with Willie OConnor in charge. Since Ian Ryan left students turned into Finn Harps, ball lumped.long every time a defender gets it. Massive mistake by UCD when they didn't promote Ryan when they sacked Collie O.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Back to this thread, I'd like to suggest that Rovers would thrive under a tactical genius like Myler, made for each other.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Bowler
wont ever happen but tactically, ian ryan is the best fit within the league to replace SB. agree on myler, lad gets away with murder. everyone fooled thinking ucd play like they did in 2019 "the right way" they are brutal under him.
Bar the last line, its more disdain with perpetual mediocrity of Lincoln (they are not alone mind). I genuinely dont think its a good or positive move for Bradley (or indeed a Higgins or O'Donnell ). Part of that could well be that I dont think he is the exceptionally good manager that could take a Lincoln City job on and make much more of them than what they are - not without them becoming a buying club and forking out one of their divisions top wage budgets. They wont have the patience and as others have pointed out he doesnt have credit in the bank to get through difficult patches. If he does go yeah he will get a pay rise and a long term contract, maybe they will make the appointment and stick but they always buckle and change tack every couple of years with the same result and same promises, rinse and repeat*. There will be better jobs than this one at some point, there are clubs a couple of divisions below that have more potential. Maybe the challenge is what he wants especially if he isnt the only one to move from Rovers. If he improved Lincoln significantly I'd give credit where its due and it'd prove that he s a better manager than I gave credit for. Ollie Horgan would be a better fit for Lincoln, he might scare them enough!Quote:
Originally Posted by sadloserkid
*just had a look there, 29 managers in 35 years, probably including caretakers but still, it predates the hire and fire culture of the EPL era.
Stephen Rice will probably be the choice for Rovers, if Bradley leaves. I think he has the same job in the Irish setup as Higgins had before he moved to Derry
Is it though? Or is there an element of comparing big fish in a small pond (Rovers) with small fish in a big pond (Lincoln)? How are Rovers further ahead in development plans? Has the Rovers academy really produced a huge amount so far, Bazunu aside, for example? Moving to a bigger league absolutely is career advancement - especially as doing well in it gives the option of moving up to a higher league again. Rovers is the ceiling of things here, by comparison.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
I don't think you can say Lincoln's ambition is low because they're chasing an LoI manager either. The outgoing manager's two previous jobs were caretaker at Leicester (Premier League) and taking Oxford from mid-table L2 to mid-table L1 in three seasons, plus two Wembley Cup finals. Do you redefine a club's ambition each time they change manager?
Nesta, how can it simultaeously be true that Lincoln has low ambitions because they're chasing Bradley, and Bradley is taking a step down if he moves to Lincoln? If he were to move back to Rovers, would that be a step down again?
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7b/84...f0d5022bbd.jpg
People keep talking about Bazunu as he is a headline maker but Rovers have a batch of outstanding kids coming through most of whom are only 14/15 years old as our Academy really only started properly in 2016. Our under 13's were over in Arsenal a couple of weeks ago and beat their Academy team, 14's and 15s are superb The under 15 Irish team has consistently 5-7 Rovers players in the squad.....it takes time but i am confident of the pipeline to the first team.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Hopefully with the B team coming back next year as part of a third tier (i hope anyway) we can hold onto them and give them game time as they develop.
On Lincoln step up step down......probably 3 or 4 times our Budget , twice as many fans despite being 17th in the league and we are double Champions...........even with my green and white blinkers on its a step up.
Not to mention he has a young family and i assume the money will be way better.
Don't know anyone at Rovers who thinks Lincoln is a step down. That seems to be a media narrative. Can't speak for an entire fanbase but if Bradley goes, he'll go with my thanks and best wishes. Incredibly under-rated by the LOI cognoscenti but not by Rovers fans, players and staff.
If we end up with the coaching ticket I suspect we will I'll be happy. The structure is there for a reason and it works.
So care to say who you think will remain and take over if SB leaves ?Quote:
Originally Posted by WeAreRovers
Not on here but the names are going around and you don't have to be Poirot to guess. One of the names is in the national press today too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Calcio Jack
Fair enoughQuote:
Originally Posted by WeAreRovers
Check your PMs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Calcio Jack
Putin?Quote:
Originally Posted by WeAreRovers
Lincoln would be some job to get, huge step up though!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by John83
https://c.tenor.com/CUKos6wabgAAAAAd...sons-homer.gif
(*^$%e snookered by my own argument and you are going on my ignore list John)
We do have a horse here for him.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcgonigle
https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...-41618661.html
Multiple sources saying it will be Stephen Rices job. Rovers to lose all 3 backroom staff according to Dan. You could imagine McPhail in particular would be a loss.
Intresting that if it is Rice, he will have had the exact same job as his biggest challenger. Higgins came in with a pretty good reputation and around Dundalk, it was said he was a key figure in the post-Kenny success. Higgins was around the first team and had that experience before going to Ireland. Rovers will be hoping Rice will be something similar (sorry, assuming now the Bradley gone is a done deal).
If Bradley takes Mandroiu over (who from what I seen has been super and probably deserves a chance at a higher league) and/or Byrne (who I still think has the talent), suddenly it leaves a lot of gaps to be filled quickly for Rovers. No idea the contract situation for Rovers if its possible.
I wouldnt be surprised to see if Stephen Rice takes the Rovers job he would ask Tony Cousins to come up from Rovers underage structure to assist him. Cousins signed Rice for us in 2014 and stayed for two seasons under him.