Who knows what constitutes a good manager?

Several sackings in the Championship over the last month or so has left me wondering what owners really want from prospective managers. Derby claim that Clement was never on the same page as the owner because his planning was too far in the future and not short term thinking as they wanted. Do you think that during an interview these criteria are discussed or is it more a case of what can you do for us next week?

The messages surrounding the sport, and the requirements supposedly wanted by owners, get more confusing and thought provoking every time the chop falls on some unsuspecting flawed manager. At least the Derby owner had the decency, or did he, to tell the world the reason why his manager was sacked and yet his words ring somewhat hollow with me and I question as to whether those critical words needed to be aired in public.

Managers these days tread a very thin line between what is presumed to be correct and what is blatantly against corporate policy, presumably dreamed up in the nether world of boardroom waffling, and sometimes must have difficulty understanding what is required of them. Clement apparently had the audacity of targeting promotion, how dare he, which adds even more credence to the phrase " damned if you do and damned if you don't". Who the hell knows what is considered right anymore, so when I see smiling faces all around any new managerial signing, including ours, I wonder if both parties have discussed what is expected from each other?

P.S. Good luck Lee and I hope you know where you stand in the overall scheme and expectations departments.

 

The best managers are lucky ones - be lucky Lee!

 

Yes please. I just hope he has been given assurances that he will get whatever support he thinks he needs.

 

I don't know quite what to make of it.

Some would have LJ down as a yes man who'll just be a puppet to Lansdown and the other muppets in the hierarchy, while others say he'll stand his ground and be his own man.

Time will tell I guess, and the real truth will probably never be known as to how such relationships really work no matter who is in charge.

If he keeps us up that'll be a massive bonus and it will win some of the people over hopefully.

Some of the comments from Barnsley fans aren't exactly glowing about the standard and method of football deployed by LJ.

 

Neil Warnock is one of three candidates under consideration to become Rotherham manager, BBC Radio Sheffield reports.

If true, it seems that Rotherham maybe have more urgent and immediate view of the need and importance of staying in this division than we do.

 

I may be a minority but I'm glad we got Johnson over Warnock

 

I agree with you, I think he's too long in the tooth now, he didn't exactly pull up roses at QPR this season did he.

 

Warnock is a carnival clown and to be honest I didn't want him with us, but deep down I thought he could be the man for us and survival. My biggest fear in all our dealings with managers, and player transfers, is the elephant in the room, and although I think most of us can recognise one when we see one perhaps if it's dressed up in wolf's clothing then we can't recognise it's form. Somewhere along this ever increasing difficult road to where we want to be someone might have to confess to not getting it quite right in the past and commit themselves to a new future based on sound footballing, financial and business practices.

It would only take one person to change our currently weak formula, but I won't hold my breath for that to happen soon because total control is very difficult to release.

 

In answer the original question - given the fact that LJ is in place, for me this season it will be 3 things as far as we are concerned.

1). To keep us up (obviously) but I think that we have enough about us now to do that with maybe an extra loanee striker
2). To tweak (and not totally re-engineer) our current decent passing game into something more dynamic and most importantly, with threat from midfield as well
3). Get Jonathan Kodjia scoring again. The bloke has been ploughing an increasingly frustrated furrow and needs a decent partner to play with

This is the remit from me but most especially 3).

A few seasons ago, I had a decent wedge on Sam Baldock being top scorer at 25/1 and he didn't really start going until January and rewarded me nicely. This year, I have a few quid on JK being top scorer at decent odds for a tidy 4 figure sum so if you could achieve this, it would greatly help to win me over....

Thank you....!