Mike Dodds
Surprised no-one has already started a thread.
Mike Dodds will be announced as Wycombe Wanderers head coach this week.
He’s 38, started coaching at Coventry City, aged 18.
Joined Birmingham City in 2009.
Joined Sunderland in August 2021 as head of individual player development.
He’s had three separate spells as interim head coach of Sunderland.
He has a 22% win percentage.
Full record: P18 W4 D3 L11
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Comments
that is an impressive win record for a proven coach !!
@Konetheming Now don't start.......
Let the negative remarks start!
We were never going to appoint someone everyone would be happy with.
I have no idea whether this is a good move or not but we need to give him a chance.
I saw the words Mike and Dodds https://youtu.be/_6O0P74ALLM?feature=shared
I always expected us to go for someone we'd never really heard of, but half expected it to be a foreign coach. Reading between the lines online he is an excellent coach and very popular with the players. We have to give him a chance people !
Gaz and Blooms didn't exactly have a lot of experience when they were appointed.
Also, he's not Ian Evatt or Lee Johnson !!
Certainly no doubt about his coaching ability, and probably harsh to judge him on a handful of games as caretaker/interim.
Also believe Sunderland play a very similar formation to ourselves which will help
The majority of successful managers began their careers as a coach, the list is endless. They start with youth teams, acquire the necessary coaching qualifications and gradually get experience in senior football. I have no idea if Dodds is joining us or whether or not he’s the right fit, but anyone entrusted with leading the first team at a huge club like Sunderland is clearly a man to be respected.
Has to be the most ‘underwhelming’ Manager / Head Coach appointment for me having started watching Wycombe under MON.
But hey, If the AI says ‘yes’ for Data Dan then I’ll drink the Kool-Aid and see where it takes us.
I’d be more than happy with this type of appointment. A long way from the dreaded big names that worried me.
I was going to ask whether Smillie was more underwhelming, though I guess he had an extended run as caretaker to get his feet under the table.
Give me an up and coming young coach anytime over a 'name' manager who might want to change things that aren't broke so they can do things their way.
MO'N, Ainsworth and Blooms were all relatively untested. Sm*th had all the experience in the world.
Dodds fits the profile of a head coach (not manager) that will be judged on their ability to implement tactics defined by a Director of Football, and get the most out of players signed on criteria by the DoF as being suited to those tactics. My old man used the phrase "nodding dog", which may or may not be fair.
It's hard to imagine any established managers with a strong personality wanting to take a job like that, and Bloomfield's departure seemed inevitable if this is indeed the profile of head coach Dan Rice has in mind.
Correct. Good post
Jude Bellingham rates him!
I might add that Dodds was made interim manager at Sunderland when they were struggling which is why they sacked Beale, plus they were in the Championship so he’s coached at a higher level. Matt Bloomfield had a 33% win record at Colchester when he took over at Wycombe and he didn’t turn out too bad.
To be confirmed today according to Ian Baker.
I’m shocked by how poorly he comes across. Someone suggested the other day that he might be a bit of a yes man and that certainly comes across in that clip.
Aaah well, let’s all rally round and give the man a chance. Being called Mike (perhaps among other names) is clearly a positive.
What's surprising here? All of the mood music suggested we'd get someone just like Dodds' profile. Just because it isn't a big name like Ashley Cole, or Steven Schumacher?
…so does that mean you think that Dan Rice is the defacto ‘Director of Football’ in all but name or would we look to bring someone into that role?
Ah, I assume you haven't seen 'Mike Bassett: England Manager', the classic spoof that clip is from. That's Bradley Walsh playing Dave Dodds!
Can’t figure out if this is for real
Blimey!🙄. You don’t know me then.
Sunderland fans (from a brief scour of socials) seem to rate him in a first team coach role, but not as a head coach. For the record I don’t rate the opinions of most Sunderland fans particularly highly so I think we should form our own views after a few months of him being with us.
Also not sure it’s entirely fair to judge him on his results when they’ve all been in an interim capacity and likely in a period of relative instability for the club.
More than anything I want to see in the first few weeks some signs of how he can integrate with and enhance the culture we already have here - I think that’s mostly what the club and squad need in the second half push.
Let’s hope he turns out to be someone like McKenna. He certainly wasn’t high profile when Ipswich appointed him.
I wouldn't pay any attention to any Sunderland fan saying he's no good, remember, they thought Josh Scowen was rubbish as well
Spot on, @Jonny.
The win ratio means nothing out of context. Good job decisions aren’t always based on data alone.
As a side note I’d be interested to see what happens with Sam Grace over the coming months. I’m not sure he holds any ambitions to go into full time management but equally may be tricky for him to slot back into the development role he was in previously, given he’s had a taste of a much higher level of responsibility.
Whatever happens - I hope we can retain him as he’s a credit to the club and the kind of individual who epitomises the culture and everything we want to build on going forwards.
This is also my worry from viewing a few clips of him. He seems extremely uncomfortable on camera and not someone who'll instil much confidence in fans.
Hopefully the players will warm to him quickly and we can make a strong start to life under him.
Took this from a Sunderland fan video. The question is a different scale to the answer so I’m actually left none the wiser on what the majority opinion was.
in the light of @Wycombe85’s comment at 11.04 and @Jonny’s earlier difficulty in deciding whether I could be serious or not, I’ve reposted my comment on the Mike Basset/Dave Dodds 30 second clip in order to assure everyone that I have seen no video clips of the real Mike Dodds and to disclaim all responsibility for having unintentionally misled them.
I normally only have to explain myself on Facebook where humour tends to be in short supply.