Dusic

His best defensive attributes are clever ability to win cheap free kicks and also when under the cosh to generally be relied upon to play a decent ball out of defence. Certainly this season his contributions going forward have far outweighed any defensive issues so for me he is a nailed starter and his brother @Manningo can sometimes be spotted amongst the travelling fans!

Seeing as most contracts have clauses which mean the manager isn't paid in full if fired, there seems little benefit to anyone to give a contract just until the end of the season which just promotes more uncertainty. A 2.5yr deal til end of 27/28 season seems sensible to me. I am more interested in make up of his backroom team, as @Neil Pearts Drumstick mentioned to me on Saturday. Would we stick with essentially the academy staff he has now or look to enhance that with more pro level experience? Usually best when the manager picks who he wants IMO.

You aren't wrong, he ended up out in Bulgaria for a few years working in a slaughterhouse and it didn't treat him especially well. He is doing much better now though, mostly based in Dubai and off the booze. He mentioned you actually and the trip to Dagenham with @PoacherJake and @joe botyov

@davefizzy14 who originally broke the D O'L interest has gone quiet on it so imagine its still bubbling away in the background. Last night bumped into @Slugger O'Toole who confirmed Strobl has been interviewed as recently as last week so I don't think its quite a done deal. Frandsen now out the frame which is good IMO as his record isnt up to much.

Worth trying to add a year to his contract already.

Downes and THB one yellow away from a ban. Resets after the Birmingham game I think. Pretty sure 3 of the 4 Downes has got have been dissent!

Find this a bit odd. QPR was a backs to the wall performance from a team totally devoid of confidence. We scored a couple of good goals then an individual error changed the pattern of the game. The players had been hugely criticised for not showing enough fight, passion, heart, pride etc. In the last 20mins they were technically poor but put bodies on the line and ground out a win that a few days earlier would have been a loss. That was massive IMO for what followed and he should take credit because if the players didnt respect him I don't think that uptick in commitment would have happened. It was a brilliant win in a game where the only thing that mattered was changing the momentum with a good result. Sheff Weds was our first comfortable win in 18 months. We started really well in possession and scored goals from a couple of fluid moves with players lile Azaz and Fellows showing up for pretty much the first time. No coincidence because he tweaked their positioning to get the best out of them. It was on track to be 3 or 4 nil at HT and then we conceded and were rocked for a bit, but held firm. We then scored another very well constructed goal before seeing the gane out with a minimum of fuss, very rare recently! Certainly not "pretty poor" in the context of the other league games this season. It was easy to see the improvements in those games, and Charlton was a level up from Sheff Wed with more training time. But there were clear signs from an attacking point of view vs SW that we were heading in the right direction. Easy to say Leciester his first real challenge but QPR was a huge challenge at the time and many on here were hyping up Charlton as being a really tough away game.

For me its more than just the results - its the evident indicators that he knows how to setup the team to play in a way that gets the most out of the talent, the players clearly enjoy and is effective. You mention beating 3 of the weakest sides (not sure Charlton and QPR are overly weak) with the likes of Fellows, Azaz, Scienza, AA but Still didnt get anything from Azaz and Fellows and AA just put in his best performance as a #9 since joining a few years ago. Not a coincidence. We might lose narrowly to Leicester because they have good players and you can't guarentee any result so I don't think the outcome of any one game past or future should make a huge difference, its what you can see that counts and what I see is someone who knows what they are doing.

Will be interesting to see the make up of his staff if he gets the gig full time. Currently its pretty much his U21 setup. There will obviously be calls for more senior experience e.g a Trollope type but I think overall I would just want him to be able to work with people he wants and has chosen, as most successful managers do. @J.cSHRIMP made a good point to me that perhaps the others we have been linked with like Strobl and Frandsen are more with a view to joining as an Assistant to Tonda than for the top job? Would imagine he knows Strobl at least from his work in Germany.

Can't believe people still mention Onuachu.

Interestingly Verl matched us with a 5-1 away win yesterday masterminded by Tobias Strobl. That has put them up to third. Of course its Eckert's to lose now you would think but highly likely Strobl spoken to this week. In fact, some info from a chat with @trevor.journalist suggests there was a Saints representative at Sportspark Höhenberg yesterday to see it in person. Strobl only finished playing for Augsberg in 2023 but has taken to management extremely well. This one rumbles on...

IMO now it makes complete sense - on paper and on the pitch. We have seen that he knows how to setup the team to play in a fluid way that creates lots of good chances from open play by getting the best out of the creative players we spent a lot of money on. Today he adapted nicely to specifically take down Charlton with a clear gameplan - showing the flexibility people crave. We have seen that clearly the players like playing under him and thst he isnt afraid to make bold decisions when needed. He had worked in the Championship for over a year before so knows what is needed at this level and isnt totally naive to it like people initially suggested. Seemingly the only thing not going for him is that he hasn't managed at first team level until now and isnt famous. Personally having seen how he has done turning round a team that looked on its last legs then I am willing to overlook that because neither of those things guarentee anything anyway. Usually you can tell a proper manager in a few games and we have had the luxury of testing that without needing to commit - a portion of the risk has been mitigated by seeing him in action. At this point with most agreeing its a the best we have played for a number of years it would be bizarre not to appoint him - he has earned a crack at IMO, regardless of Leicester result.

Could still bring Frandsen in as an assistant?

According to @Ya Barrrrrrr'd its only a bit of fun, which is clear to 99% of people here I am sure 😀 Although will be interesting to see if Strobl is on the touchline for the Verl game today...

Just had an interesting chat with @ubiquitousdave - lets just say it might be worth reading up on Tobias Strobl a little more 👀 Only been at Verl since May but from the sounds of it is very much in the frame.

Actually just had clarification via @Edward Tattsyrup that Bergsson would be brought in to a kind of general manager role (unclear how would differ from Bitcon and Spors tbh) with Frandsen as Head Coach. Seems like a different model rather than traditional manager setup.

Seems Rasmus doing as Rasmus does. First called by @shurlock - understand Gudni Bergsson has been approached in addition to Per Frandsen and talks are fairly advanced. Odds on a Scandinavian gaffer dropping by the minute.

Lot of cash coming in for McClaren - definitely the main rival to Tonda now from what I am hearing from @Jeff Le Taxi

Per @MB : O'Leary situation hasn't progressed afrer initial contact. Steve McClaren has big support in the boadroom and keen on the role so one to watch now for sure. Per Frandsen also been spoken to this week.

Not overly convinced that players instantly don't respect managers who haven't played - there are plenty who have done very well with limited or non existant playing careers. Heard Lampard say recently he was shocked when speaking to Luke Shaw when away with England and Shaw didn't know who Tony Adams was - I don't think its a big deal to have someone who players would see as a being experienced. Far more likely is players just get a sense of whether the training is good, whether they feel like they are learning something new and whether they like the way the manager wants them to play. That stuff they work out pretty quickly which is why a lot of managers just never get going and most of the good ones get off to a decent start from the beginning. Almoat certain none of our players had heard of Pochettino when he joined and he has no management record to speak of but they loved him straight away and pretty instantly did exactly what he asked - presumably because they enjoyed it and believed in it.

Clever ploy to wait for Intls to be concluded...new name to the fore and increasingly seen as front runner. Will need to upgrade the club-issued umbrellas.

@davefizzy14 any update on DO'L?

Come on! If a new manager who most on here liked the name of had got those results people would have said it was an excellent start bearing in mind we had won 2 of 13 league games before that! Personally not a huge fan of him being given the role but even as a caretaker he couldn't really have done more than two wins - one where we showed some actual fight when clearly very low on confidence to get over the line away from home and another with our best in possession performance of the season and the most comfortable home win for about 18 months! What did you expect from those two games?!

Would love to because I know quite a bit about this one but ita not my info to share out of respect for Fizz. Pretty sure Crook will start bleating about it today though.

From what I've heard I wouldn't discount David O'Leary being involved in the new setup. Had a couple of interesting PMs from @davefizzy14 on it.