So, you think that a club lying second in the table with the possibility of being in the Championship next season, with an excellent squad of players that could have further additions by the end of the month, with superb training facilities and a billionaire owner with ambition, is an unattractive prospect for a (possibly) out of work manager? I don’t know what world you’re living in but it’s not the real one.
@glasshalfempty I reckon you just sit there some mornings and decide that you are going to drop a negative bombshell on the gasroom. You can be very measured at times but this is certainly an off the wall statement.
I would have said that this was the maddest thing I've read all day but somebody on TwitterX has declared that the recent spending spree is because the club have secretly sold Kone and are using the money to avoid the backlash.
Given you are likely to have far greater knowledge of the behaviours behind-the-scenes which led to Matt Bloomfield choosing to leave Wycombe Wanderers (Yes, Matt Bloomfield "chose" to leave), this response is rather disingenuous.
I wonder if we'll soon see whether current league position and superb training facilities are deciding factors when a manager weighs up a vacancy (cf. Steven Schumacher and Bolton Wanderers).
The excellent squad of players are also likely to have a greater knowledge of the behaviours mentioned above, and they will cover the entire spectrum from delight to disgust.
The billionaire owner and appointed CFO are playing Championship Manager with our football club. We have seen how this one ends with other football clubs several times over, and it rarely ends well.
If the candidates do their due diligence (a quick call to Matt Bloomfield should suffice) they're likely to decide they'd be better off avoiding this circus.
That's fine. I suspect we're looking for a head coach, not a manager. Any head coach with aspirations of head coaching any higher than League One will be aware that their career will consist of being employed in a specialist role rather than as an all-rounder.
If Schumacher chooses Bolton over us (and to be clear, I have no idea if we are interested in him, or if Bolton are), do you not think the fact that he’s from the north west might have a part to play? Would be disingenuous to blame our ownership for that
The persistance of Norgaard links are odd, for me. The fact he stormed to immediate favourite suggested it was already a done deal... the fact we've heard nothing in a week implies it isn't.
The longer it goes on the more likely I think it is we'll hire an academy coach that we've never heard of.
Maybe Norgaard was approached at the start of the season on the basis that Matt would be sacked during an early run of bad form but when we were expecting to spend a few years building the squad in League One. But given Matt's unexpected success, Dan Rice finds himself advertising a job with strong prospects of taking the club up first time. I can imagine a world in which he tests whether bigger names (Ashley Cole?) might be tempted to come to us now - if not Norgaard remains available.
English football is changing and our owners put in place a senior management team who have clearly adopted the concept of a first team coach working alongside a director of football. It’s a model that has been in place for many years in most European leagues and to a lesser extent in this country. It might not suit every prospective candidate and that is their prerogative, but to suggest that any ‘half decent’ candidate wouldn’t touch the job with a barge pole is just crazy.
Matt Bloomfield works for Mick Harford, one of the most respected directors of football in English football. Matt Bloomfield is considered one of the brightest, progressive young managers in English football. He boasts a 48 win percentage as Wycombe Wanderers manager. Why isn't he the best fit for the role?
I might add that in the past we received dozens of applications from what I would consider to be half decent managers when the club was in a much worse position both on and off the field than it is now.
A week on from the shock of Matt departing, I've taken some stock of all the comments and information. For me, Matt was used to one way of working, with a family feel, being loved the whole time and effectively been given the freedom of the club to do what he pleased. He was effectively 3rd in charge of the whole club after Rob & Pete. When he walked into a room, all the staff, fans, customers, sponsors etc couldn;t help but smile and be excited to see Blooms.
The new ownership have come in, have introduced multiple new departments and MB was now just a head of one of the departments. Transfers were taken away from him and probably other perks were unwittingly removed by the owners. Maybe small things to the owners but they might have been big things for Matt and hugely important to him.
Those differences were irreconcilable, to Matt's mind and he's gone somewhere where he has that love and autonomy.
What I am gutted about is that the new ownership were not able to find a way to show MB that love he wanted, allow him to have some of those perks and controls over transfers, given he appears to be an exceptional coach and he is Mr Wycombe.
Perhaps they just thought he'd never leave as he's been here 20+ years. Sometimes when all the focus is on the new stuff, leadership teams forget to look after the things that don't need fixing. They forget they need to show the same attention/appreciation to the really reliable members of staff who can stand alone and get on with it, as they do the new shiny stuff.
The bit that always grates with me, is how does someone in Dan's position not see this coming or not have the forethought to look after his prized asset and show some love and care. For me, it's perhaps that Dan never viewed him as a prized asset and MB never felt like one. Maybe Dan thought MB will never leave. On reflection, I hope Dan would manage this better if he goes through the same situation again, if he is unable to reflect and adjust then perhaps he is as ruthless as some of alluded to.
I would hope with all the data, we have a number of targets already in place, as we should always have a succession plan. It might just be taking longer to complete those negotiations due to availability, adjustments in what we might need today etc, etc.
On the new manager, I'm not sure I've ever been a fan of good assistant coaches/assistant managers being appointed as Managers/Head Coaches. I feel they are more hit than miss. My gut says Norgaard will not be a success and I'd like to go for someone else. No rationale to it, just how I feel. I'm not that enthused about Schumacher, Buckingham or Russell Martin either.
Whilst he's not been that successful, I do like how Gary Caldwell has got Exeter playing on a small budget and with our squad I could seem him being very successful. Skubala would also be another I'd be happy to see join, if we're going to be paying compensation fees to current managers. As an outside shot, Dean Brennan at Barnet may also be a good shout but not sure the ownership want someone from non league.
Oh i have to disagree with the "it's boring when teams do it against us" part of that. I smile to myself every time a team starts to play like that, remembering the likes of Rochdale, Doncaster and Peterborough and look forwards to the inevitable gifts that come our way. (Although if they are good at it I will concede your point)
Andy Whing still 8/1 even though he’s just moved to Barrow.
It does feel quite strange that the market hasn’t really moved much. Does play into the narrative of getting an elite academy coach or premier league assistant in which is personally the route I think we will go down.
Comments
Really?
Bargepole sues.....
This is a crazy take.
I’d argue that this must be one of the most exciting roles available in the EFL at the moment.
Dortmund sack their Turkish manager Nuri Sahin.
Young, useful Champions League experience for 2027, Lommy's looking to bring his app to the Turkish market.
Win-win!!!
So, you think that a club lying second in the table with the possibility of being in the Championship next season, with an excellent squad of players that could have further additions by the end of the month, with superb training facilities and a billionaire owner with ambition, is an unattractive prospect for a (possibly) out of work manager? I don’t know what world you’re living in but it’s not the real one.
@glasshalfempty I reckon you just sit there some mornings and decide that you are going to drop a negative bombshell on the gasroom. You can be very measured at times but this is certainly an off the wall statement.
I would have said that this was the maddest thing I've read all day but somebody on TwitterX has declared that the recent spending spree is because the club have secretly sold Kone and are using the money to avoid the backlash.
@bargepole against Dan would be an interesting confrontation!
People still don’t seem to get the point that we simply don’t need to sell our best players any more.
I think it will be hard to find a “progressive, methodical, adventurous young coach”, especially one with an impressive win record.
Maybe we could learn some lessons from Luton on how to find one.
Given you are likely to have far greater knowledge of the behaviours behind-the-scenes which led to Matt Bloomfield choosing to leave Wycombe Wanderers (Yes, Matt Bloomfield "chose" to leave), this response is rather disingenuous.
I wonder if we'll soon see whether current league position and superb training facilities are deciding factors when a manager weighs up a vacancy (cf. Steven Schumacher and Bolton Wanderers).
The excellent squad of players are also likely to have a greater knowledge of the behaviours mentioned above, and they will cover the entire spectrum from delight to disgust.
The billionaire owner and appointed CFO are playing Championship Manager with our football club. We have seen how this one ends with other football clubs several times over, and it rarely ends well.
If the candidates do their due diligence (a quick call to Matt Bloomfield should suffice) they're likely to decide they'd be better off avoiding this circus.
I think some are choosing at the moment to adopt the three wise monkeys pose.
That's fine. I suspect we're looking for a head coach, not a manager. Any head coach with aspirations of head coaching any higher than League One will be aware that their career will consist of being employed in a specialist role rather than as an all-rounder.
If Schumacher chooses Bolton over us (and to be clear, I have no idea if we are interested in him, or if Bolton are), do you not think the fact that he’s from the north west might have a part to play? Would be disingenuous to blame our ownership for that
The persistance of Norgaard links are odd, for me. The fact he stormed to immediate favourite suggested it was already a done deal... the fact we've heard nothing in a week implies it isn't.
The longer it goes on the more likely I think it is we'll hire an academy coach that we've never heard of.
That's the spirit!
Maybe Norgaard was approached at the start of the season on the basis that Matt would be sacked during an early run of bad form but when we were expecting to spend a few years building the squad in League One. But given Matt's unexpected success, Dan Rice finds himself advertising a job with strong prospects of taking the club up first time. I can imagine a world in which he tests whether bigger names (Ashley Cole?) might be tempted to come to us now - if not Norgaard remains available.
There are a multitude of factors in weighing up a vacancy for a manager. Those were two examples cited in the post I was replying to.
Bargepole is our new manager?
Decent coaches take jobs at genuine crisis clubs - we'll be just fine.
English football is changing and our owners put in place a senior management team who have clearly adopted the concept of a first team coach working alongside a director of football. It’s a model that has been in place for many years in most European leagues and to a lesser extent in this country. It might not suit every prospective candidate and that is their prerogative, but to suggest that any ‘half decent’ candidate wouldn’t touch the job with a barge pole is just crazy.
Matt Bloomfield works for Mick Harford, one of the most respected directors of football in English football. Matt Bloomfield is considered one of the brightest, progressive young managers in English football. He boasts a 48 win percentage as Wycombe Wanderers manager. Why isn't he the best fit for the role?
I might add that in the past we received dozens of applications from what I would consider to be half decent managers when the club was in a much worse position both on and off the field than it is now.
Because he has recently joined a club in the division above
A week on from the shock of Matt departing, I've taken some stock of all the comments and information. For me, Matt was used to one way of working, with a family feel, being loved the whole time and effectively been given the freedom of the club to do what he pleased. He was effectively 3rd in charge of the whole club after Rob & Pete. When he walked into a room, all the staff, fans, customers, sponsors etc couldn;t help but smile and be excited to see Blooms.
The new ownership have come in, have introduced multiple new departments and MB was now just a head of one of the departments. Transfers were taken away from him and probably other perks were unwittingly removed by the owners. Maybe small things to the owners but they might have been big things for Matt and hugely important to him.
Those differences were irreconcilable, to Matt's mind and he's gone somewhere where he has that love and autonomy.
What I am gutted about is that the new ownership were not able to find a way to show MB that love he wanted, allow him to have some of those perks and controls over transfers, given he appears to be an exceptional coach and he is Mr Wycombe.
Perhaps they just thought he'd never leave as he's been here 20+ years. Sometimes when all the focus is on the new stuff, leadership teams forget to look after the things that don't need fixing. They forget they need to show the same attention/appreciation to the really reliable members of staff who can stand alone and get on with it, as they do the new shiny stuff.
The bit that always grates with me, is how does someone in Dan's position not see this coming or not have the forethought to look after his prized asset and show some love and care. For me, it's perhaps that Dan never viewed him as a prized asset and MB never felt like one. Maybe Dan thought MB will never leave. On reflection, I hope Dan would manage this better if he goes through the same situation again, if he is unable to reflect and adjust then perhaps he is as ruthless as some of alluded to.
I would hope with all the data, we have a number of targets already in place, as we should always have a succession plan. It might just be taking longer to complete those negotiations due to availability, adjustments in what we might need today etc, etc.
On the new manager, I'm not sure I've ever been a fan of good assistant coaches/assistant managers being appointed as Managers/Head Coaches. I feel they are more hit than miss. My gut says Norgaard will not be a success and I'd like to go for someone else. No rationale to it, just how I feel. I'm not that enthused about Schumacher, Buckingham or Russell Martin either.
Whilst he's not been that successful, I do like how Gary Caldwell has got Exeter playing on a small budget and with our squad I could seem him being very successful. Skubala would also be another I'd be happy to see join, if we're going to be paying compensation fees to current managers. As an outside shot, Dean Brennan at Barnet may also be a good shout but not sure the ownership want someone from non league.
Why has he recently joined a club in the division above?
I see that Norgaard has now shortened to odds-on 4/5 in the betting, from 7/4 earlier.
Other main contenders are Schumacher and Richardson, both 5/1, and Buckingham at 8/1.
Oh i have to disagree with the "it's boring when teams do it against us" part of that. I smile to myself every time a team starts to play like that, remembering the likes of Rochdale, Doncaster and Peterborough and look forwards to the inevitable gifts that come our way. (Although if they are good at it I will concede your point)
Andy Whing still 8/1 even though he’s just moved to Barrow.
It does feel quite strange that the market hasn’t really moved much. Does play into the narrative of getting an elite academy coach or premier league assistant in which is personally the route I think we will go down.