📝 New Manager [Luke Williams Appointed]

[Big Bob]

Quite a few comments on twitter that his football is boring.

[kill_the_drum]

The guy is the Head coach NOT the manager, he will be given the tools to work with. He cant be be blamed for failure if the player he is given are not up to the job...We just need to get behind him and give him the confidence going into the new season.. All of this rubbish about him being not up to it , the guy is a very experienced coach, more so than the PE teacher..

Somebody tell Durham his accounts been hacked.

[AllNottsAreWe]

Having slept on this, I woke this morning with the same feeling - meh.
Very little managerial success of his own.
I still haven't renewed my ST and need to think about spending £350 when I have other things to pay for.
We don't really know what the owners look for but it seems to be pretty unique.
Managers under contract elsewhere cost money so that may be a factor ?
After weeks of checking social media, we can finally relax and get on with our lives.
The new signings are going to be very interesting.

[nw6pie]

Having slept on this, I woke this morning with the same feeling - meh.
Very little managerial success of his own.
I still haven't renewed my ST and need to think about spending £350 when I have other things to pay for.
We don't really know what the owners look for but it seems to be pretty unique.
Managers under contract elsewhere cost money so that may be a factor ?
After weeks of checking social media, we can finally relax and get on with our lives.
The new signings are going to be very interesting.

Luke Williams has had some good jobs, but he seems most popular at clubs where he was the assistant. This is his opportunity to shine, so let’s hope he takes it. I probably feel the same as when IB was appointed, though - more possession-based football in store.

Most interesting thing for me yesterday was the language used in the press release - which could have been lifted from fears voiced on this website about a lack of ambition…

“Between them they have the right management skills and experience of all EFL divisions, as well as the National League, which we believe will help us achieve our goal of promotion and getting back to where we feel we belong”

“Luke has already met with our recruitment team to discuss our current squad and ongoing transfer targets and we look forward to working closely with him to build a team which will give us the best possible chance of earning the promotion we all crave in 2022-23.”

[queenslandpie]

that's the problem, the Bros fixation.

They have a plan and they are sticking to it. The lack of a plan for the previous 25 years is why we are where we are. At least they have stopped the rot and we are looking up and not looking at stagnation or survival lurching from crisis to crisis. I think that is the problem with many fans. They kind of enjoy that. We are Notts County we move on!

[KintoreMagpie]

Their having a plan and they are sticking to it. The lack of a plan for the previous 25 years is why we are where we are. At least they have stopped the rot and we are looking up and not looking at stagnation or survival lurching from crisis to crisis. I think that is the problem with many fans. They kind of enjoy that. We are Notts County we move on!

Spot on and I speak as one of those fans with a masochistic streak. However the reality of facing up to potential extinction more than once this century has made me re-evaluate matters.

Good luck to Williams and I was only two letters out with whom I thought would be appointed! My son is particularly vengeful towards IB for his bail out and is hoping that Notts and FGR meet up in the same league in two seasons. Only problem with that sentiment is if IB oversees relegation at FGR he will no longer be their manager.

[slack_pie]

Their having a plan and they are sticking to it. The lack of a plan for the previous 25 years is why we are where we are. At least they have stopped the rot and we are looking up and not looking at stagnation or survival lurching from crisis to crisis. I think that is the problem with many fans. They kind of enjoy that. We are Notts County we move on!

Haha I have thought the same thing. We are so used to disasters and crises and turmoil that when we have a period of relative stability or normality, we don't know what to do with it. So we rock the boat until it capsizes again.

[PedroTheFisherman66]

Somebody tell Durham his accounts been hacked.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[countygump]

Quite a few comments on twitter that his football is boring.

I read a few of those.

''More interested in style than points'' and once said ''3 draws were the same as a win as you get the same points''.

[Oldstripy]

We sat down with our new head coach to learn more about him and his thoughts on the job.

Luke, welcome to Meadow Lane. What are your initial impressions?

First and foremost, I’ve been really impressed with the ownership, the staff and how well things are run behind the scenes.

On top of that, I’m really impressed with the foundations laid by the previous head coach who developed a style of play and coaching environment that I respect.

All those factors make it a really appealing proposition and I feel like the club fits me as a coach. I see this as a really exciting opportunity.

Can we expect a similar style of play to what we have been used to in previous seasons?

Absolutely. I think Ian Burchnall did a fantastic job here and has developed a style that I’ve really enjoyed watching in the games I’ve reviewed.

Having spoken to various people, I can understand the work that Ian did and I’ve got a lot of respect for that. I’m hoping I can build on that, so it won’t be a wholesale change or a shock to everyone. Continuity will be key to our progress.

What is your view of the club’s recruitment method?

The process of bringing a player to this football club is thorough. Many different aspects need to be considered and here it’s done in an intelligent way and one which I agree with.

I’ve already had a brilliant meeting with the recruitment team and it’s clear to me that a huge amount of work goes into selecting the right players. We have an environment where everybody is able to give an input which, in my experience, is not always the case.

But there’s a joint approach here, with several people bringing ideas to the table. Those ideas are respected and looked at in detail before a final decision is made as a group. I think that’s a healthy way to recruit players.

Tell us about your assistant, Ryan Harley…

Ryan has had lots of experience in the National League and EFL – he’s had promotions at those levels and is someone who’s very knowledgeable about players and other teams.

He’s a fantastic footballer who relished playing in attacking, possession-based teams and would have been outstanding in the environment we have here. He’s someone who’s played in teams I’ve coached, and he’s also coached with me.

Ryan’s got a very strong personality, which is perfect for this environment, and he will be able to do specific work on the training pitch extremely well.

He’ll also have really useful input in team selection, recruitment and our tactical approach.

He’ll be able to help me and others in a lot of aspects and will be a great addition to the club.

It’s fair to say that this role comes with pressure to secure promotion at the earliest opportunity. Is that a motivating factor?

Absolutely. Everyone coaching and managing across the leagues is under pressure because they’re expected to achieve within their own remit, be it Premier League survival or finishing in a play-off spot.

Often the bar is set slightly higher than what’s comfortable for everyone, but what you want is to know the club are trying to help you achieve the goal they have set for you. That’s the big bit.

I’ve been in situations when the target has been set very high, but the level of support has been very low. That’s an awful combination that leaves you feeling like there’s nowhere left to turn.

There’s pressure here, but there’s support – and that’s all you can ask for.

What excites you most about coaching?

It all relates to performance. I love identifying things we can do better, finding the right solution and seeing the benefit out on the pitch. It can be frustrating and hard – it can keep you up at night - but it’s so rewarding when you get it right.

Can you tell us about some of your best coaching experiences to date?

I worked with Gus Poyet, who’s now a friend of mine, at Brighton when I was leading the Under 21s group. It was a very close-knit club and I shared an office with Gus, Mauricio Tarrico and Charlie Oatway which, for me, was life-changing.

I don’t need to speak about Gus’ achievements as a player, coach or manager – he’s an incredible person. Mauricio had a top player’s mentality – his standards on everything were so high and he couldn’t tolerate things that didn’t match his levels - and Charlie was someone I’d known for a long time as he had been a brilliant captain for the club. To be involved in that set-up was mind-blowing – they won promotion from League One with four games to spare, so it was an incredible experience.

After Brighton I went to Swindon Town, which was very much a case of being thrown in at the deep end. Seeing many players from that group go on to play international, Premier League and Championship football has been a source of joy to me for years, even long after I’ve left the club. We made the League One play-off final with the 18th lowest budget in the league and the youngest group in the EFL. To get all the way to Wembley, and seeing the players put in some astonishing performances along the way, was amazing.

Going to Bristol City to work with the Under 23s then gave me the opportunity to see Lee Johnson work and witness how driven and thorough he is. Working with him, Dean Holden and Jamie McAllister was brilliant and being able to watch a really experienced goalkeeper coach in David Coles taught me a lot. He’s an incredible guy.

I then went to MK Dons and worked with Russell Martin, who has an amazing capacity for keeping a number of things spinning around in his mind and is brilliant at making staff and players feel valued. Going across to Swansea with him was a great opportunity to work at what was, for all intents and purposes, a Premier League outfit with outstanding facilities, high expectations and players with many top-flight appearances under their belt. It truly was an honour.

Overall I feel I’ve had a good mixture of experiences and have worked with some top people.

You suffered the pain of relegation with Swindon in your last role as a head coach. Can you summarise what happened?

I feel I shouldered the blame for lots of people’s mistakes and I was happy to do that because I felt I was strong enough. It was a very challenging time because I wasn’t fully in control of a lot of things that happened.

But experiencing that pain and struggle was a valuable lesson, and to be able to do that without blaming others was a useful experience for me.

I don’t regret it, even though it’s caused problems for me in my career, but underneath the surface the reality was quite different.

Thankfully, the owners of this club are very good at extracting information and were able to see more clearly the positive influence I had there.

https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/news...quotes-140622/