Xabi is clearly a knock back, but I think his explanations are clear enough to not second guess - just like he did when he was a player, he is content to map out his own path for development and will turn down seemingly big opportunities if they are not aligned with that trajectory, confident that those opportunities will be there when he is ready for them.
Emery - treating every action by every manager out there as a statement of our attractiveness is the path to madness. I would be very surprised if a manager of Emery’s standing, someone who might hope to at least be under consideration, would make such a commitment without first understanding where he was in the Klopp replacement stakes. It seems incredibly unlikely yo me he’d have done that without getting the indication that we dont have genuine interest in him.
But these are also hardly big hitters. Both would come with enormous questions. The market now is not remotely comparable to 04 when it was seemingly between Jose (CL winner) and Rafa (two time La Liga winner) or 15 when Klopp and Carlo were available. I think the fact these two are at the top of a lot of people’s list is a great indication of how much less obvious the solution is in this market. And I think that’s a fascinating question to ask as to what has happened to the status of managers for the market for grade A manager candidates to collapse like that.
As long as the manager has the final say on who comes in, then I’m fine with that. Hughes presents the shortlist, and Slot picks from that shortlist, like what used to happen with Klopp and Edwards.
I think the difference may come with extending contracts. I don’t think Edwards wants the club to be in a situation we found ourselves in with Jordan Henderson again. That’s where it should be clarified with the new manager that if Slot wants to extend Salah’s contract for example, the final decision would fall on Hughes.
But we don´t know that the new coach will have the final say, I wish I could be sure about that. We can only assume that this is the case, nothing more.
I’m really not so sure about that anymore. Unfortunately, it looks to me as if we are consciously looking for someone who will take what is given to him and is happy that he has a chance to take the next step here in his coaching career.
That’s the model all of football is going down. Klopp/Guardiola are really the last generation of “managers” in the traditional sense. The job is too big for one person - you can even see that when Klopp won the battle with Edwards for control at Liverpool. While he has done a magnificent job it would also be lying to ourselves to deny that there is some fraying around the edges.
I think such phrasing of head coach and manager are not really accurate anymore. The transfer model will probably operate the same as it did for much of the time under Klopp. The important questions are really around how will the playing staff view the new manager and how effectively will he coach them.
It’s no different to what Klopp had when he first arrived.
We’ve already been through the mish-mash with Rodgers when he signed players he wanted, and we also pushed players he didn’t want onto him i.e. Firmino and Benteke.
What Klopp brought was a clarity to it all, accepting the players that were presented to him, as long as he had the final say on whether we went ahead with signing any of them or not. For example, Hughes presents Tosin, Inacio, and Diomande. Slot turns around and says, ‘none of them’. We don’t sign any of them.
I’d be horrified if we reverted to back to a Rodgers era style model where we just signed players the manager didn’t want i.e. using the example above, Slot says,‘I don’t want Tosin, Inacio, or Diomande,’ and we just go and sign Inacio anyway. That’d be a recipe for disaster.
They’re all still head coaches, but different levels of influence and engagement. Pep gave a lot of credit to Txiki over Doku last summer. Klopp gave a lot of credit to our team for pushing with the idea of Salah. There was talk of the end of managers even before the rise of Pep and Klopp. The job title is one thing. What’s the influence of a manager or a head coach is another thing and can be different at each club. Not every club has the same structure. The fact that it’s more than one person making decisions, well, good morning, that’s not saying anything new. And for a while now.
Or the Man Utd model where they say “We have absolutely no idea who to sign, can you have a scroll through your phone and see if you know anyone who fancies it?”
Benteke was a Rodgers signing though. He had been pushing for a big target man upfront but had been priced out of moves like that for Bony. Part of the issue with Rodgers was that he had found some success with our attacking line up and was trying to find his way back to the system he deployed at Swansea which was different. Klopp has a consistent idea as to what he is looking for - and I would expect so do the managers linked to us now.
Most of the reporting of the supposed breakdown between Edwards and Klopp was around non-playing personnel and the overall structure of the club - reporting structures, hierarchies, which department was subservient to whom. I think this points to what the likely scope of “coach not manager” really means. We have people in place whose job it is to build the medical department and develop a way to integrate them with the coaches so the manager does not and should not concern themselves with that. But it absolutely does not mean we expect that person to just take the players he’s given and limit his work to coaching them and picking the team.
The medical department is really the key area I was thinking of. We really need someone to oversee it, and I just don’t think it’s possible for “a Manager” to do it effectively. None of us have any idea how that part of the club is run but I think it’s fair to say that we get more injuries that most other teams and I do not buy that we play so much faster and harder than everyone else. That doesn’t pass the eye test. Having someone who can actually dedicate some time to working with the professional staff there and investigating potential issues, something someone like Klopp can’t do effectively, could potentially have big benefits. Do we need more staff? Do we need better equipment? Is the playing surface too hard? etc. are all questions that I think will be coming into Hughes’ new responsibilities as Sporting Director.
There are improvements to be made all over the club, even if it’s not working badly right now. I think scouting had become too reliant on Portugal while contract renewals have been a bit haphazard.
The only area that concerns me with a potential change of direction is the academy, as I think that is working well. I don’t see a wholesale change coming there, because Edwards was involved in making it what it is now, but I hope we don’t see a dramatic fall off in opportunities for the youth players. The likes of Quansah and Bradley are now established in the first team squad but we have a handful of others who could potentially get there like Luke Chambers, Bobby Clark and Jayden Danns. This part will certainly be the “Head Coach” responsibility so fingers crossed whoever gets the job believes in utilizing young talent.
Yes, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want a manager who does and decides everything alone. Of course that’s no longer possible these days, but I’ve also read which names have been thrown into the ring by some people here, managers who have already won a lot and have a lot of experience, etc. And that’s just not our requirement profile, as they probably have different ideas or have special wishes etc. We are looking for a bit of a “yes man”. And I find it depressing atm, but who knows , I will try and give it a chance.
Yeah, under the radar but Matos is also leaving. I don’t know how unusual it is, but it is relevant that in this era we have had two exceptional hires whose job it was to guide the development of the top kids through their integration with the first team. I am positive Edwards is well aware of what will be leaving, but it is a lot of change at one time.
