King Luke to Swansea

[optipez]

I had a look through the managers the bookies are touting us for and there's a strange mixture of the usual suspects like Ince and Bowyer, ex notts players and random people involved in the world of football.

Of the ones I'd never heard of:

Rhys McCabe is player manager of Airdrieonians.

Charlie Trout was born in Nottingham, became a postman and is now managing the Puerto Rican national team.

Billy Magnusson is manager of Swedish second tier side Landskrona.

Travis Binnion is a Manchester United academy coach and an ex cricketer.

Matt Craddock is a first team coach at Bolton.

Chris Hogg is assistant manager at Bristol City.

Bjorn Hamberg was a coach at Brighton.

Morten Dahm Kjærgaard is manager of Aarhus Fremad in Denmark.

Harry Watling is a first team coach at Rangers.

I did chuckle when I saw Keith Hill at 25/1.

Those unheard of names have come from Tom Williams Twitter ( sorry Old Pie,) X feed. It's an interesting read and it wouldn't surprise me if one of his recommends ends up as head coach.
Whoever comes in needs a new keeper, upgrade on Brindley a Matt Palmer replacement and cover at centre forward. Our form is poor, even super Luke couldn't get a top end L2 team from our thin squad in the end, losing 8 from the last 12 including cups only beating lower end Morecambe, Doncaster, Crawley and a Bradford team at a low ebb when we played them.

[Chicken Balti Pie]

If you're still in the Championship three seasons from now LW will have been sacked. Very few clubs don't sack managers if they haven't moved forwards after three seasons.

Especially those owned by hedge funds

[WarsopPie]

I had a look through the managers the bookies are touting us for and there's a strange mixture of the usual suspects like Ince and Bowyer, ex notts players and random people involved in the world of football.

Of the ones I'd never heard of:

Rhys McCabe is player manager of Airdrieonians.

Charlie Trout was born in Nottingham, became a postman and is now managing the Puerto Rican national team.

Billy Magnusson is manager of Swedish second tier side Landskrona.

Travis Binnion is a Manchester United academy coach and an ex cricketer.

Matt Craddock is a first team coach at Bolton.

Chris Hogg is assistant manager at Bristol City.

Bjorn Hamberg was a coach at Brighton.

Morten Dahm Kjærgaard is manager of Aarhus Fremad in Denmark.

Harry Watling is a first team coach at Rangers.

I did chuckle when I saw Keith Hill at 25/1.

Harry Watling is unemployed he left Rangers in October

[Notts78]

If you're still in the Championship three seasons from now LW will have been sacked. Very few clubs don't sack managers if they haven't moved forwards after three seasons.

.

Even if this happens LW will be richer… his stock (especially if he can implement the style of football he created at Notts) will rise. My gut feeling is in 3 years LW will be a Premier League coach with or without Swansea.

[WarsopPie]

Those unheard of names have come from Tom Williams Twitter ( sorry Old Pie,) X feed. It's an interesting read and it wouldn't surprise me if one of his recommends ends up as head coach.
Whoever comes in needs a new keeper, upgrade on Brindley a Matt Palmer replacement and cover at centre forward. Our form is poor, even super Luke couldn't get a top end L2 team from our thin squad in the end, losing 8 from the last 12 including cups only beating lower end Morecambe, Doncaster, Crawley and a Bradford team at a low ebb when we played them.

I’m surprised Carl Martin hasn’t appeared on there. Learning his trade off his Brother at Southampton like LW did both play the same style etc.

[Notts78]

I’m surprised Carl Martin hasn’t appeared on there. Learning his trade off his Brother at Southampton like LW did both play the same style etc.

They are not brothers.

[1955pie]

Apologies if this has been posted before
LW statement to the Swansea site. Many references to Notts.
I want to bring goals, a lot of goals, and I have a fairly good track record with that.

“We need to be mean as well. A one-dimensional team is okay, but a real team is a team that attacks with the same vigour with which they defend.

“It’s going to be a tall order; we have to strive for something fantastic, and we begin that task now.

“At Notts County we managed to score the most goals in the country last season, and we conceded the fourth least.


“I like my teams to try to attack a lot and to try to score a lot. At my previous club, we had a great season and managed to get over the line somehow in the play-offs.

“I think the play-off campaign showed a side to the team that I love, which is the character, the relentless feeling that you won’t lose.

“This is something I want to bring here to try to create plenty of chances to score and try to be mean defensively as well.

“The only thing I can promise is that I’m going to work very, very hard. There’s no way that I’m going to take for granted the position I have at a club like this.


“I’m going to work and I’m going to give all the energy I have – that’s the promise to the supporters.

“Only a club of this magnitude with this quality could pull me away from an amazing job.

“I am in a place now that is so incredible, it was irresistible.”

[jackal2]

I think we'll be fine, because the structure and identity of our club is far better now than it has been in the past. I think the owners will pick a manager to continue the style the Ardley, Burchnall and Williams all played their part in developing, and that our player recruitment is based upon.

Essentially what we need is a Head Coach who can maintain the principle of playing attractive passing football, but with a bit more defensive steel, which will boil down to a mixture of coaching style and the type of player we bring in during this and the next transfer window. To date we've focused heavily on signing creative players and goal scorers, which gives us the ability to win plenty of games, especially at home. Now we need to balance that out with a few defender/destroyer types who can take charge on those occasions when we're not in complete control of games.

Maybe we should have done this last summer.

Sometimes the signings we make will be dictated by availability. The opportunity was clearly there last summer to sign David McGoldrick and Dan Crowley, and I think most Notts fans would agree it was one we were right to take while it was there, but those two will probably have accounted for much of the 'free' wage budget at the time.

Thanks to those two players and others like Jodi Jones, we've got a team that rarely struggles to create and score goals, which is the most difficult thing to achieve in football, and a virtual guarantee that you'll win some games even if you're a bit leaky at the back too. The task now is to address that defensive weakness and turn what's already proving to be a good side in this division into a great one.

Of course, a small minority of clubs can sign all the types of players they need in one go, but most clubs, including Notts, need to do it in phases, because there's only so much budget to play with. It's maybe not realistic to expect that we can make all the necessary changes required to the squad in one summer, but I'll be interested to see if the players coming in this winter and next summer reflect an awareness of the need for some defensive steel and ball-winners to complement the undoubted creative talent we've got.

Add some defensive solidity and nastiness to what we've already got, and we'll be a very good team at this level.

[Magic_Michu]

Any idea what the compo package was?

I’d heard £350k

[1955pie]

My take on LWs’ Swansea statement is either he has had a Damascene conversion to the idea of a mean defence or he wasn’t confident that Notts were going to come up with the goods.