Both managers sacked after a match!

[Romanis]

If anyone needs further justification to say football has gone crazy - look no further to last Saturday's match at The Riverside Stadium. Gary Monk's Middlesbrough actually won defeating The Owls 2-1, yet he got the sack. And if Boro are gonna sack their manager after a win, then there's little option for the Sheff Wed's owner Dejphon Chansiri. He duly dispatched his manager Carlos Carvalhal.

Both managers sacked after the same game, is this a first? Though I have a sneaky feeling it might not be, given how 'loco' the game can be.

Incidentally Monk is now favoured to go back to old club Swansea. Another funny thing about our game, a lower division manger gets the sack, but gets a job in the top flight or manager managing a struggling side in a league then gets the sack, only to take over a club in a better position than his former team in the same league. Dortmund's latest manager is a case in point. Paul Clement in the former scenario.

Tony Pullis is favoured for Boro. This could be dangerous for other play-off chasing clubs. Pullis is just the man that can pull this off - take an underperforming but good side on the fringes, to start grinding out results and eventually achieving promotion.

Yes Wednesday are rather ****ty this season, but Carvahal took a leaky error prone team, made them defensively stout and into successive play-offs. Play-off were a pipe dream for the Owls before he took charge, staying in the division was goal every prevailing season. Yes the football was dire, but in this division we don't pay managers to entertain, we pay them to succeed or at the very least give us a chance of succeeding. Just because it came a bit awry this season, doesn't seem to be a good reason to dismiss the 1 man that made your team the best they have been, in over a decade.

Your 'temporary manager' Paul Lambert heads the early list as Carvahal's replacement, although Aitor Karanka and Nigel Pearson might be good fits too. The same trio could also join the list with Pullis to take over at Boro.

I think it might quite safe to say that 1 of those mentioned, will take charge at 1 of these 2 'suddenly strange sackings' football clubs.

Pullis
Pearson
Lambert
Karanka

Maybe we can also add

Clement
Slaven Bilic or
either O'Neill at the 2 Irish teams if they want to return to club footy, both would be quite a coup for either club

[MadAmster]

No idea if this is a first but I have never heard of it before so it could well be.

[Romanis]

Btw who you guys think will be the next Championship manager to get the sack? I'm pretty sure there's gonna be one before the 12 days of Christmas are over. Perhaps even 1 before/or on New Year's Day. The 'favourites' I suppose are:

1) Phil Parkinson (Bolton). Despite a fantastic achievement of getting he Trotters back up, results thus far indicate an immediate return. Owners get anxious at the sight of their club near the foot of the table, despite and forgetting what the manager did in the preceding season(s) - Carlos Carvahal the latest example.

2) Daniel Farke (Norwich) - Despite being in the job since May, Farke remains on shaky ground if the owners feel he must or should have guided his team nearer the top 6 with a chance for promotion. Instead of being in 16th place 12 points off 6 place with hopes of reaching the play-offs diminishing with each passing week.

3) Ian Holloway (QPR) - the same scenario here, QPR are in exactly the same position as Norwich. Given that they have already tasted Premiership football twice over the past 10 years, and with little hope of that happening after Holloway marked 1 year at the helm, it now falls on Malaysian Air Asia tycoon Tony Fernandes to make a decision. He has a reputation of being loyal and supportive to staff at all his previous and present companies. But a football club that's bleeding like QPR, now that's something altogether different. If he spares Holloway and results don't improve in the 2nd half, then we won't be seeing Mr Holloway at Loftus Road next season.

4) Dean Smith / Neil Harris (Brentford and Millwall) - 2 managers that have been at the same club for over 2 years, quite a rarity these days, on that basis they are in the list. There seems some protocol in English football's top tiers that you dispense with managers after a couple of seasons at the very most.

But no, I don't think they can, will or should be sacked. Despite poor initial results, both managers have guided their teams to mid-table security. Both seem to know their club's strength and weaknesses rather well too. They may cave in to 'better top 6 or 8' clubs, but when they face' lesser clubs,' know how to make home advantage count. Unless disaster strikes and they go on a downwards spiral, for which there is nothing to justify such a claim, mid-table is where they should finish, giving both managers a chance to rebuild and pose a greater threat next season. Getting the sack? Nah, both are safe.

which brings me to Number

5) Mark Warburton - Nottingham Forest - Your friendly 'enemies' down the A52. A topic we have discussed much, and many of you have rung his praises and there is a good portion of Forest fans who feel the same way. He saved the club from relegation and is rebuilding after sorting out the mess.

Be that as it may, there is also a growing momentum amongst a section of Forest fans who think otherwise. Yes he saved us from relegation, but in the first place, we shouldn't have been there at all. The team we had then, was and should have been, good enough to achieve safety without the need for final day deliverance. He should have achieved it with a few games to spare. But okay, let's for arguments sake, state that he DID save the club and sorted the mess.

All the shambles under Fawaz is gone, a new owner and supporting one at that, one with extensive (even if questionable) football knowledge. Warburton has been supported and the structure around the club has been improved to assist him to do his job. Yet the results have been patchy. No real momentum is built, tactics remain static and predictable at times. The losses are staggering. More than half of the matches in the recently ended first half have been losses. Only Burton and Brum have lost more. The only saving grace has been the number of wins - 10, with the first draw occurring in game 23.

However if in the 2nd half, the run of losses continues unabated and if some of the wins turn to draws, then what improvement can be said to have occurred? Nobody really expects a play-off place after last season. However improvements on the field should be apparent and evolving. Instead we see the same shambolic defending. Almost every loss has occurred because of soft goals conceded. Basic defending from set-pieces is not followed through consistently. Positional play, reading of the game (of the attackers) and mistakes have been an ever-present. He can't or hasn't decided on his back 4 yet! The same 4-3-2-1 or 4-5-1 seems to be his favourites. Putting Darryl Murphy upfront alone has been his trade-mark and he only has 7 goals to show thus far.

Insisting players run themselves ragged from the get go doesn't work much anymore. Opponents also know this. Let's wait for Forest to tire at the ending bit of each half, and that's where we strike, or strike early before the get in the groove and give them a mountain to climb, eventually running out of gas.. I don't think Forest have won any game after falling behind. Finally, we hear the same old excuses after each and every defeat. And then strange tinkering for the next game.

I've had enough, I hope perhaps things change in the 2nd half and we finally play to our full potential. However, our owner is known for being trigger happy with his Grecian club. It would be a complete surprise if this trend of win-lose-lose win-lose continues without intervention by him. Forest face managerless Owls today, followed by another home game against the Mackems, before we travel to 'dirty Leeds' on NY's Day. Failure to win a single one of these, or perhaps 2 losses, I don't think he'll be around for the games after the FA Cup 3rd fixtures.

[MadAmster]

Give him the rest of this season, I would say. Hopefully he will get a couple of defenders in, in January. That is where the problem lies down the A52.
They have a top 6 attack and a bottom 6 defence. Be careful you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[mistaram]

Hard to have any sympathy for Monk he took over a club who a spent a fortune have by a mile the best squad in the Championship They really should be in the automatic places Why he refuse to play George Friend the best left back in the league is criminal Pullis as the easiest of jobs to get them promoted Next Championship manager to go surely has to be Farke at Norwich they have so underachieved

[Romanis]

Hard to have any sympathy for Monk he took over a club who a spent a fortune have by a mile the best squad in the Championship They really should be in the automatic places Why he refuse to play George Friend the best left back in the league is criminal Pullis as the easiest of jobs to get them promoted Next Championship manager to go surely has to be Farke at Norwich they have so underachieved

Fully agree on all 3 counts. Friend has always been outstanding. Grabs a crucial goal or 2 now then too.

The Boro job is tailor made for Pullis. Everything's there, well almost everything anyway. All it requires, is the stability he brings to clubs in such situations. A tightening at the back, which is his hallmark and of course, grinding the results if and when needed. Promotion would be extremely possible.

Yep, Farke may well be asked to........Farke Off!
Hahaha, droll very droll, I know

[ManxRam]

I mentioned us signing George Friend on another post.

Also agree with Madamster that Forest great going forward but poor in defence.

On the next manager to be sacked in the Championship no mention of Steve Bruce. Lost again tonight. A side that has Grealish, Adomah, Jedinak, Lansbury, Kodija, Hourihane, Chester, Hutton and Snodgrass ought to be producing better than they are.

Might be a spare attacking midfielder in that lot too.

[ramAnag]

I mentioned us signing George Friend on another post.

Also agree with Madamster that Forest great going forward but poor in defence.

On the next manager to be sacked in the Championship no mention of Steve Bruce. Lost again tonight. A side that has Grealish, Adomah, Jedinak, Lansbury, Kodija, Hourihane, Chester, Hutton and Snodgrass ought to be producing better than they are.

Might be a spare attacking midfielder in that lot too.

Doubt Pulis will continue to overlook GF’s undoubted talent, Manx. No ‘You’ve Got A Friend’ for us.

Agree about Steve Bruce...given their players, wealth and expectation he has to be on shaky ground.