You could also say he has unfinished business.
I don’t want to attach myself to the idea in case it doesn’t happen mind. We might get him for 3-4 years only but I think we have to accept that now if he’s winning trophies then I don’t much care.
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I am not going to read anything on Xabi until we know if he is the next manager. We have another 4 months left, anything can happen.
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You could easily watch that 8 minute clip Balague did and learn absolutely nothing anyhow.
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It is to be remembered… we are not that sleeping giant anymore… Jurgen seen to that.
For that was one of the traits that attracted Jurgen to us in the first place… It was the opportunity to re-ignite a disillusioned fanbase once more. Would Alonso feel like taking on the added burden of expectation, that Jurgen has spoilt us with, or would he like to find his own learning curve somewhere else for a while longer yet…!
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Comes across as an absolute blert on the touchline. Couldn’t be arsed watching his dour, pragmatic style of play either. Would be a monumental shift from what Jurgen has provided us with. Would have to be a significant change in playing personnel to fit his style as anybody with any sort of flair or creativity is usually completely wasted and inevitably bombed out by him.
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He’s the polar opposite of Jurgen. Defensive, cynical, joyless, win at all costs football
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Soft spot for Lucien Favre, did a great job at Dortmund and Nice
Thats FSG fault according to a numpty i made the cardinal sin of communicating with. They are too short sighted.
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I was just looking through previous managerial appointments and suddenly remembered Souness. I think that was the only appointment that I absolutely despaired at. We went from being a football team to a byword for thuggery.
At the time it seemed like a good idea because he had done OK at Rangers and was a former player. I think it was signing Julian Dicks I really despaired at: a lard-arsed thug that displaced more talented players in the team.
So yes. Whoever we get, I don’t want to see gamesmanship and shithousery as the primary tactic.
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Souness made perfect sense at the time.
It’s only in hindsight that it is so horrific.
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yeah…good call…maybe thats why hes on everyones radar right now despite having really no great track record…
if we need anyone right now, james Bond would see us OK, he’d find a way…
I am in denial right now @mattyhurst , i need time, like 1 year:see_no_evil:. Jürgen changed my life with his philosophy on life. I know Xabi looks good in a suit, I am not ready yet.
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hed won about five on the trot at that stage hadnt he?..and celtic werent a shit show either…
make no mistake, Souness was a great choice at the time , it just didnt play out perfectlty…id even suggest his time at the helm wasnt the shit show everyone makes out it was, interview aside, the landscape change significantly at that period…
i still remember him putting jimmy carter on and dragging him shortly after…i remember fowler scoring 5 in a league cup game…
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I think he is on the radar because he is doing a decent job, is respected and seems to fit how we would carry ourselves.
Also being a former player.
There isn’t a lot around frankly. You can count top tier ones on one hand and they all feel a bit over the hill.
I do think Alonso is vastly ahead of anyone in the PL (bar Pep) And generally I think he is willing to work in a FSG set up.
A lot of the next generation failed so a lot of choices seem a risk.
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He’d won 3 non-consecutively and Celtic were on a downward trajectory. Aberdeen were the closest rivals in the end and narrowly missed out on the title in Souness’s last season at Rangers.
At the time, Souness felt like an obvious choice. If we had taken a closer look, we should have signed Walter Smith.
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Yep. He was seen as a ruthless winner and exactly what we needed after the Moran debacle. Remember reading in Shoot at the time how Greaves thought we may have ‘a spell in the wildness’ after Kenny left but not now that Souness had been signed. That was the common wisdom of the time and on paper he had everything needed to be a huge success.
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The other thing to consider is that he’s been a winner as a player wherever he went. He knows how to win trophies. Ideally, you want to see that as a manager. But if there aren’t a lot of those around, then having that is a player is important.
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TBH i think he was only guilty of doing too much too quickly…throwing the baby out with the bathwater…
at the time we probably needed revolution…and he was about the only human able to do so…remember this was a club still reeling from Hillsborough, still used to dominating from a platform of promotion within, but desperate to keep up with the changing of the tide which was obviously coming…
replacing jurgen feels similar i someways…you need to be nothing like the guy, becuase lets face it, who could possibly compete…but you need to continue his great work, with a bunch of footballers designed to play is style
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I’ve also been super impressed by how Arteta has done. This is a guy who had no management experience other than as an assistant, was a former player for his club, went into a club under malaise with a toxic dressing room and indifferent ownership, cleaned the place up and nearly made Arsenal champions. So why not Alonso? Liverpool are in a way better spot than Arsenal were a few years ago.
The other trend that most non-Americans on the board may not be aware of that FSG certainly are is that the trend in the NFL has been to hire young progressive thinking offensive coordinators with no head coaching experience as head coaches. Many NFL teams have head coaches in their early forties or even their thirties. Given that Xavi checks so many other boxes for the club, his relative lack of experience may not be an issue with FSG.
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