Lampard was sacked but the players’ lobbied Marina Granovskaia to keep Barry, as they valued not only his coaching but also his personality, as he proved a valuable bridge between the players and Lampard. Thomas Tuchel retained him on his staff, allowing him to continue running set-pieces.
https://www.the42.ie/anthony-barry-i...73515-Feb2022/
Who was it that said our set pieces
were poor under Kenny particularly with regard to scoring goals?
Last edited by paul_oshea; 05/02/2022 at 11:50 AM.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
It's not binary. Kenny hired Barry to make improvements and he did. People seem to ignore that bit as if Barry was thrust on Kenny to fix things. It was a brilliant appointment that wasn't exactly praised at the time. Go back on this thread and the appt was greeted with a lot of "no idea who he is but sounds promising" before the talk quickly went back to how ****ed we were with no strikers. Kenny has presumably learned from Barry now and I'd imagine will look for a similar type of coach to fill the void. It's a big blow but maybe the man who brought in the man everyone rates deserves a chance to bring in another?
Barry looks destined for much bigger things than the Ireland job anyway, that is if he wants to be a manager. I think he's already turned down a few jobs. Might enjoy coaching and the flexibility of doing it for multiple set ups at once. Chelsea were happy for him to get the Ireland gig to broaden his horizons so I'd assume he sees the belgium one similarly and might not be at the stage where he wants to settle in to one club/team.
Well, if we're looking for a recruitment manager, Kenny might be a good candidate. That's not his role now though. If we have to bring in people to set up the team, tactics etc because Kenny can't do it, then wouldn't it make sense just to appoint them as manager?
That's absolutely part of his role. Why do you think every single team at basically every single level of football has at least one coach, usually appointed by the manager? He'd be a really **** manager if he appointed **** coaches. Going for Barry was one of his best moves so far.
But yeah I'd agree that it would make sense if your version of the scenario was real. It would be foolish for the people who know whats going on with the team not to appoint the man who was running the show if he was interested. Sadly, you and I only know that Kenny hired Barry to help him, Barry did the job asked and has moved on to a bigger job now. Unless you're involved in the setup and know that Barry was doing everything? Then you'd still have to convince him to take the job over joining a team that could potentially win a trophy rather than just hope for qualification.
I think it's encouraging that Kenny seems to be (a) ambitious and proactive when it comes to selecting his backroom staff, and not just choosing a 'big name' or one of his mates, and (b) actually humble enough to listen to and act on suggestions and advice from his coaches (e.g. changing to a back 3).
McCarthy just picked his mates, Ian Evans and then Robbie Keane/Terry Connor, who wouldn't have challenged him on anything or made him think outside the box. Trap picked Tardelli and Brady, who were possibly too in awe of him to challenge him and talk him out of his more bizarre, egotistical decisions (I can't see how Brady would have agreed with Andy Reid's banishment). MON picked Roy, which was always going to end badly. Staunton, in his wisdom, picked Kevin McDonald, who was known for bullying young players when he was at Villa.
Kerr's choice of Chris Hughton would have seemed like the outlier, but I've often thought that Hughton may have brought too much old-school British conservatism into the setup, which reflected in some of the more regressive selections and tactics.
Last edited by Supreme feet; 09/02/2022 at 9:52 AM.
I think that's quite unfair. Lots of managers have an assistant they regularly work with, and the partnerships work exactly because the two challenge each other and are comfortable doing so. Brian Clough and Peter Taylor would be probably the most famous example.
I don't think you can throw out the accusation that Evans/Keane/Connor were effectively yes-men without some sort of back-up.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 09/02/2022 at 10:05 AM.
We had thirteen good months (Oct 2015 to Nov 2016) sandwiched in between the first two years of maddening inconsistency and poor results, and the entirety of 2017/18, which was just appalling to watch.
A tactical coach with a better handle on 21st century football (a Barry type) would have been an ideal foil for an old-school motivator like MON. He'd worked well with John Robertson before, it would have made sense to appoint someone in that mould - not a tactically-inept loose cannon like Roy.
The general point is that the choice of assistant is a huge decision. Barry is arguably the only assistant we've had who's clearly made a positive difference to the setup.
Well Evans is 70 now so he's probably happily retired. Connor has worked with McCarthy for the last 13 years and they were only sacked at Cardiff three months ago. There's talk that might have been Mick's last job and maybe Connor (who's 60 this year) may retire too. Keane as noted was pushed on McCarthy by Delaney, but was also assistant manager as Middlesbrough at the same time.
Put it this way, if Kenny decided to get one of his old Dundalk/Derry City/Dunfermline buddies in to replace Barry, or another 'old-school' ex-international player, I'd have major misgivings. The 'Jobs for the Boys' policy should be consigned to the rubbish bin of Irish football history.
Kenny needs to look far and wide for the best possible coach - someone up-and-coming, progressive, with a track record, who has worked with current, elite-level players. i.e. the type of assistant we didn't tend to appoint before Barry.
I don't think we have the profile or budget to consistently attract that type of coach. It's like Hull trying to hire a coach like that. We got lucky with Barry because of a personal link.
Well that's fine - but maybe the "best possible coach" is someone he already knows and has a good working relationship with, to the extent that they're comfortable enough working with each other to challenge each other, and to recognise each other's strengths and weaknesses. I think to describe that as "Jobs for the Boys" is again to miss the point of why managers often work with the same assistants.
I'll acknowledge of course that Kenny's CV to date means he probably has worked with fewer top-quality coaches than someone like, say, Mick.
Had Kenny worked with Stephen Rice before he was appointed as opposition analyst?
I've no problem who someone has worked with previously, as long as they're the right person for the job
Was in with Kenny for the summer friendlies but that's about it as far as them working together since Rice retired from playing.
Kenny did sign him for Bohs in 2003 but he left to manage Derry in 2004, and Rice was captain I believe at Shams when Kenny took over as manager.
Think the only work he did before going to Crystal Palace was as a development officer with the FAI and worked with Rovers underage teams.
Steven Reid, Brian Barry-Murphy....?
Lee Carsley...?
(OK, that's probably a bit ambitious, sadly)
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