SIRB_72

I don't think anyone is in a rush to get Neilson or Robinson Rebrov or someone like Pedro Martins are a lot less of a risk than Gio was because of their track record and style of play. Pedro was just a fucking stupid appointment that made no sense. The Dynamo/Shaktar dynamic in Ukraine is extremely similar to the dynamic we and celtic have in Scotland. Foreign isn't always a huge risk if it is thought out and can be justified. Dyche has done a fantastic job up Burnley and has shown he can win a league to with a budget that probably wasnt the biggest in the Championship either.

I don't mind Dyche at all but you do know we play in a backwater? It's not just winning trophies. It's taking historically rich clubs (especially Dynamo) and bringing back pride and success domestically and abroad that they've been starved of so long.

It really would be embarressing woukdn't it? It'd be like poaching a manager from like Japan or something...

Also the mexican system is so fucked up because it's the play-offs. Pretty sure his team finished like 7th or 8th in the proper league campaign

His contract ends in the summer with Al Ain

He has a fantastic track record with Dynamo Kiev and Ferencvaros domestically and in Europe. With Dynamo, before last season, he was the only manager to win them any titles (two in a row) since 2009. In the league his win rate was 82% with both seasons combined and lost 1 game in 52. In his first full season he also took Dynamo to the QF of the Europa League and were level on aggregate before a sending off away to Fiorentina. In his second season he took Dynamo to the L16 in the CL getting knocked out by Man City. All this in a league that is arguably stronger than our own, in effectively a two horse and smashed the competition by winning consitently along with doing extremely well in Europe. From what I can tell it was with what he was given as well. In his three seasons with Ferencvaros there he won the league by 13 points, 13 points again and then 20 points. Similar to his time at Dynamo, Ferencvaros had won one league title in 15 years before his arrival. in Europe he was extremely impressive, like Gerrard. In his first season they were out of Europe before he joined, in his second they missed on the CL after losing to Dinamo Zagreb but got Ferencvaros to their first European group stage in 15 years. In his third and final season we know what he did do to a certain team but more importantly got Ferencvaros to the CL group stages for the first time in their history. In between Dynamo and Ferencvaros he took a spell in Saudi Arabia, presumably for the pay day, and has now taken a job in the UAE, no doubt for the same reasons. However, his pedigree domestically and in Europe is too good to ignore. I also suspect due to his 4/5 years in England he has a decent grasp of the language along with how British football works. He also plays a high pressing game and his teams are fit as well, something we're lacking just now.

If not Rebrov my second choice would be Pedro Martins who was obviously linked with Wolves Another manager who had an excellent record with a club similar to us and in a league similar to ours in Olympiakos. Joined the club the season after finishing 13 points behind PAOK. Failed to win anything in the first season despite an 80% win record and getting to the EL last 32 knocking out AC Milan head to head in the groups. Went onto win the next three leagues by 18, 26 and 19 points with a win percentage of 77% x2 and 69%. The win percentage was always higher in the first 26 games and would then drop off in Greeks version of the split when the league would already be secured. For example in his final season 21/22 their win rate was 80% in the first 26 games but then dropped down to 69% post play-off. Domestically he only won the greek cup once in four attempts which isn't too great. In Europe in season 19/20 they qualified for the CL and finished 3rd in a group with Tottenham, Bayern and Red Star. In the EL they got to the last 16 knocking Arsenal out in the L32. In 20/21 they again got to the CL finishing 3rd in a group with Man City, Porto and Marseille and got to the EL last 16 this time getting knocked out by Arsenal. In 21/22 they did lose on penalties to Ludogorets in the CL QF but got to the L32 of the EL losing to Atalanta after getting through a group with Frankfurt, Fenerbahce and Antwerp. He also had a good track record in Portugal before joining Olympiakos with Maritimo, Rio Ave and Victoria Guimaraes. He got Maritimo to the EL group stage for the first time in their history and finished 3rd in a group with Newcastle, Bordeaux and Club Brugge. With Rio Ave he qualified them for the EL group stages but left for Victoria before competing in them. With Victoria he took them to a 4th place finish equalling their highest points tally in club history, runner up in the national cup and knocked out of their EL group that contained RB Salzburg, Marseille and Konyaspor. His Olympiakos team played a high pressing 4-2-3-1 with plenty of movement and creation. Clearly matching how our squad has been built with elements it's needing worked on.

Well the thing is he has won a league. You have to have some sort attacking intent during games or throughout a season to be successful in a 46 game campaign. I think you're right, just working within his clubs limitations, surprised nobody in the EPL snapped him up sooner.

He certainly wouldnt be my first choise but I actually really like Sean Dyche and the job he did at Burnley was fantastic. His football isn't exactly easy on the eye but there is a structure and everyone is coached well and knows their role in attack and defence. There's a hell of a lot worse than Sean Dyche out there.

I actually think it's part of the clubs DNA. This thing of being loyal to managers and we've only had so many in 150 years. It's part of the DNA that has to be gone with though especially if we want to be running with this DoF/Sporting Director type model. As you say we really need to be more proactive with these types of things and look at similar sized clubs in "smaller leagues" around Europe and how they handle this. I think of clubs like Porto, Benfica, Red Star etc.

Serhiy Rebrov for me still. His record domestically and in Europe with both Dynamo Kiev and Ferencvaros is superb, in fact pretty much flawless out with his final year with Dynamo. Manages a high pressing structured game and has his teams extremely fit. Most of what was the good bits about the previous management team with trophies to back it up.

Can we forfeit?

Only manager I can think of was McLeish in 04/05. After 11 games we were 4 points off and then we beat them twice in November and kicked on. However that squad was also full of character and we were playing with a lot more structure with the likes of Khizanishvili, Bob Malcom, Chris Burke, Hamed Namouchi and Marvin Andrews.

I think the majority think that we may be able to do better than both Gio or Gerrard.

Simply not good enough today and up there with Hamilton that result. Plenty of times with Gio I've actually seen what he's trying to do game in a game and I actually appreaciate he's willing to change his team or approach depending on the opponent. However today, as with Motherwell and the second half, in particular, against Dundee there was no plan and no structure just like the structure fell on it's arse once Goldson went off against Liverpool. Tav has clearly lost a step or is injured and cant go one for one like he could a few months ago. Instead of accomadating and have him come inside we leave him out wide one on one with Arfield inside. I know Livi went down to 10 but there's no surprise we started to get a bit of joy with Sakala out right as he can go one on one. Instead we bring on Matondo who will always come inside on the right leaving us too narrow on that side. It's wee stupid things like this that are really pissing me off and that's just an example. Midfield makes no sense, we're using the likes of Davis and Jack as an 8. Weirdly enough the most balance we have is down the left but even then it's accomodating someone who is working his notice. Also going for the chuck all the strikers on routine is utter bollocks and indicates the lack of a plan tbh. Just as bad putting the centre half up top at the end.

Now please!

Aye I suppose it's really just a combination of both. Ultimately we didnt win enough games over the 38. Only reason I think the celtic results are more relevant is because Gio's record against the rest matches postecoglu's, Gio has picked up 1 point less. Compare that with the 6 points extra celtic picked up against Gio. Also looking at the league table and results a similar theme is present.

His record shows against the SPFL dross that he can handle that element pretty well despite the poor football so I have no fears in regards to that. I wouldn't be surprised if we won 8 or 9 of our next 9 league matches. The issue is domestically is these celtic games. From where I see it that's what cost us the league last year. Start picking points up in those games and we'll be lifting league titles. The issue is that its so long away I don't see much justification for not backing him, especially domestically as we've only dropped points outwith celtic when we had 9 men on the park. The first wrongly sent off.

Gio managed pretty much double the games Gerrard did in the league last year. Again Gerrard left us 4 points ahead when it should have been 8+. Gio should have done better in the league like Gerrard so yes that chance to get to the CL was wasted. How can you paint being runners up in the EL as some sort of failure?Getting to the EL final was an achievement alone, I wouldnt see us failing to win that as some sort of black mark. Compare that with your man who got knocked out against a workmanlike Slavia the year before. We have the same gripes. I have frustrations with Gio, the players, Ross Wilson and the board. I just don't feel the argument of "look what Gerrard did" is any kind of justification to discredit or make Gio look worse. Taking it from the summer of 2020 (season of 55) when they both had a similar strong squad the only thing Gio has done worse than Gerrard is head to heads with celtic. His points per game and win rate against the rest is higher than Gerrard's, Gio has won one more cup than Gerrard with less attempts, got us to the CL and the final of the Europa League.

McGregor, Tav, King, Davies, Barisic, Sands, Lundstram, Roofe, Tillman, Kent, Colak. Fed up of Borna but tbh if Roofe and Colak are playing he's the guy you want putting balls in. Him and Roofe always seemed to have a really good connection. Sands and Lundstram must seem pretty bizarre at home to Livi but I just don't trust Lundstram on his on as a 6. He's played his best football beside Ryan Jack and I think Sands could compliment Lundstram. Gets him further forward and lets him get involved in the press much more than he has been in recent weeks and could set the tempo for us.

He got knocked out the cups by Aberdeen twice (failed to beat 3 times) and Hearts in his first two season. Teams that we had a huge budget advantage over. I can accept we didnt have all the peices to win the league the first two years but its a cup. St Johnstone won two of them in the same season. Trebles arent that easy to win but celtic managed to take advantage of us 4 seasons in a row. It's as easy a chance any Rangers manager will ever get. When we get the chance our manager makes a total cunt of it. He signed Bassey but he didnt develop him into a 20 million pound player like you were suggesting originally as if Bassey was a 20 million player we happened to pick up for pennies. He did brilliant in Europe, no argument there. However you were throwing shit at Gio for not winning the league and not getting the automatic CL spot. Gio then rectified it by qualifying for the same competition 3 months later. Something Gerrard failed to do.

It was 4 points which should have been 8 but he was dropping points like hot cakes to Hearts, Aberdeen, Motherwell and Dundee United. We were fucking howling, just as much as we are this season. We never put in a decent performance until Halloween, were giving teams a goal start and if it wasn't for Tav bailing us out god knows how bad our start would have been. Gio did his part in costing us the league but painting Gerrard as some magnificent manager is just wrong. Gerrard failed to get us into the "big competition" as well which the current manager didn't against stronger opponents. I see you mention the record breaking league campaign which was great. He's also the first manager to lose back to back trebles to celtic. When he had our squad at is very best for 12/13 years he won the league but also failed to wrap up what looked as easy a treble as you could possibly win. Also Slavia was piss poor as well, suppose he completed his "remit" by that point? Bassey as well and Gerrard signing him. There was no chance Bassey was going anywhere for 20 million in January. The lad put the work in but it was Gio who took the raw marerials and developed him into a 20 million player especially over the EL run.

He doesn't count the start of last season either it seems. Between July and the start of November just never happened.

Yep not the board, not Ross Wilson, not the players, just Gio on his own

Gerrard left us 4 points ahead when it really should have been at least 8. Was dropping points to shite here there and everywhere and it took us until Halloween to pull out a decent performance. His win rate was slightly lower than Gio's and despite beating celtic would have cost us the league with spilt milk against the rest. Both managers failed us last season in the league. As did the same core of players that have time and time again.