McDermott confirmed

[Twiggster]

David Haigh at today's McDermott press conference. He never said a thing for the whole half hour!

[Dr.Leeds]

Brian McDermott meets the Leeds United squad for the first time...

[HarryofOz]

My neck hurts now

[Twiggster]

My neck hurts now

At least yours is ½ way there, being upside down in Oz...

[andywatson]

I quite like this appointment.

OK, it's not the stellar appointment it might have been with my personal favourite of Martin O Neil, but neither is it a short term flavour of the month appointment like Di Mateo. There were a number of good solid possibilities available- I suggest Adkins, Coyle or Allardyce and any of these would have been about as good- with favourites being a matter of personal opinion.

However, I have 2 concerns.

1) When (assumption) we reach the premier league we have a manager with no experience- or at least no experience of success. There have been a number of people saying we are "one manager away from what we want" or something similar. I am minded to agree- once we gain promotion the pressure will increase- and we fans will be as much a part of that as the finances. I wouldn't be surprised to see fans turn on McDermott very quickly if results don't go our way in the PL. I have only called for one Leeds manager to be sacked- that one being Dennis Wise who I felt should never have been appointed in the first place. I doubt many fans can claim the same patience. I would suggest O Neil (or Allardyce) would have avoided this potential problem of the future.

2) I posted recently it didn't matter who our manager was whilst the ownership issues still cast a shadow over the club. I hope fans realise this and treat the manager with kindness- not something we are reknown for. If McDermott is backed in the transfer market, and I think most people would agree that we need a significant investment , then fair enough. If he is made to feed on scraps then he cannot be held accountable for a lack of success on the field. Perhaps his background as a scout will allow him to make good use of what he is given, but he must be given the tools to do the job.

So well done GFH- you have done the first part reasonably well. Now lets see where we go from here.

[The Subhuman]

I see Brown is still there

[Twiggster]

Oh dear - insulting overseas Leeds fans already?

[weasel]

I'm hopeful about the appointment. Given some of the names banded about I feel we have got a manager that has the hunger to succeed and certainly one, given his tv interview, one that feels he has a point to prove.

Looking at the other candidates and the clamour for some managers was baffling.

O'Neill has done nothing since leaving Celtic, and let's face it he was only beating 1 team there. His Sunderland team were floundering after the initial winning run they got when he was first appointed last season. Wasted money at Villa and Sunderland on a scale only Warnock could dream of. Warnock bought crap but paid less.

DiMatteo has done okay but his cv is greatly inflated by the Champions League win. At Chelsea he got an underperforming squad and because of his player relationship there got the best out of them, but only for a while. This season's performance, especially in Europe, made his triumph appear to be lucky rather than him being some tactically astute genius. Many great players have failed as managers when charged with managing lesser players.

Coyle did well at Burnley but left them as soon as he was offered another job. At Bolton he inherited a consistenly mid table premiership team and got them relegated. This season they were floundering under him and were closer to relegation than promotion. They have done considerably better since he left.

Adkins was my early favourite for the role given his successes on a shoestring at Scunthorpe and then getting much more out of Southampton than Pardew had. Unfairly sacked in my opinion but can't knock how well his successor is doing. Sadly by the time we got rid of Kieran Clown (another apt anagram of Colin W*nker) he was no longer an option.

Solsjkaar was an interesting one. Hard to judge how good he is given my limited knowledge of the Norwegian league. People in the past, such as Egil Olsen, had done well in Norway then failed over here. Would have been a big gamble. Maybe the one that got away, maybe a lucky escape for us - only time will tell.

Poyet is another interesting choice. He appeared to be the driving force of the successful league 1 start under the Wise/Poyet management team yet consistently avoids being blamed for the relegation from the championship. Left us for a better job and can't really be blamed for that as it would likely have been a huge pay rise and was to a club he had played for. Has done well at Brighton although has had a bigger budget than Leeds have had. Brighton fell away last season and remains to be seen if he has the capability of getting a team out of the championship (the right way). Would have been a bit of a gamble given his relatively short time in management and his only moderate level of success - add in the £2.5m compensation and it reaally is a huge thumbs down.

Other options such as Clough and Allardyce are interesting. For me the Clough one was always a non starter as he has had onlyy moderate success at Derby, not really thhreatening at all this season to get promoted and only 2 points better than us. Allardyce - well firstly no guarantee he would be available and certainly wouldn't be until summer, secondly would command a much higher wage than B McD given he has mainly managed in the prem and thirdly only scraped up via the play-offs with comfortably the best squad in the league last year. Yes has a great record for keeping sides up but seemed to struggle to get a team that should be winning every week to do that. Would he be able to turn an average squad into a team that can get promoted?

So we come to B McD. At first glance it seemed like he'd done an okay job. He'd taken over a squad not long out of the prem and as such would havve been expected to be challenging at the top end of the championship. However the team were hugely underperforming when he took over and his first job was to steady the ship - which he did. With the squad being brokeen up with the better players leaving he managed to guide them to the play-off final, losing out to a very good Swansea side. The season after he got them up as Champions. A good trend that he improved their finishing position every year despite losing players. The fact that his team finished comfortably ahead of the star studded West Ham side says a lot. Definitely a good track record up to that point.
On to the premiership and realistically they were always going to struggle. Yes teams in recent years have done well and stayed up but they have always got off to good starts. Reading were in the sh*t from the start. However a lot of credit must go to B McD for keeping their morale up and keeping them believing so much so that he won manaager of the month in January. They had slumped dramatically again after that but still seemed a harsh and surprising decision for him to be sacked. After all with relegation almost a certainty why not stick with the manager who has been able to get you promoted in the past.
So all in all we have a manager that has done extremely well in the championship in recent times. A manager who haas the desire to do well (and not just for the personal glory that NW sought). A manager that has been flexible in the past with his formations to suit the players he has at his disposal and that wants to play good football but put results first.

The plusses for me definitely outweigh the negatives (of this season). Don't forget that even the likes of Fergie struggled in his first season in the prem (or Division 1 as it then was). The likes of Hodgson (Liverpool) and Venables (Leeds) have both hugely underperformed in the prem too. He will be better for the experience of being in the prem and if he gets us up there will hopefully be able to establish us there.

[Charity Shield 69]

Gino 1959 on Fri Apr 12, 2013 5:26 pm
"Feel better about this appointment than when colin came to ER. He gets my backing - and not just as a fellow Irishman - from right now."

Am struggling to pick his Irish background based on his accent.

Cheers,
CS69

PS - a sensible appointment as manager

[dezzy]

Gino 1959 on Fri Apr 12, 2013 5:26 pm
"Feel better about this appointment than when colin came to ER. He gets my backing - and not just as a fellow Irishman - from right now."

Am struggling to pick his Irish background based on his accent.

Cheers,
CS69

PS - a sensible appointment as manager

Born to Irish parents, one of his big regrets was not playing For Ireland, but no I wouldnt consider him Irish.
Very happy with this, experinced manager, who isnt too old. Seemed to light a fire under that Reading team to get them promoted winning 15 out of 17 games! Then pulled out some decent performances in the premiership, with a team that had little investment. Lets focus on the positives guys! MOT

[Gino 1959]

Am struggling to pick his Irish background based on his accent.

Born to Irish parents

Country of birth totally irrelevant. Your mum and dad are Irish - you are Irish. End of.

As I'm sure he will be to many if he fecks up :mrgreen:

[Dr.Leeds]

I'm hopeful about the appointment. Given some of the names banded about I feel we have got a manager that has the hunger to succeed and certainly one, given his tv interview, one that feels he has a point to prove.

Looking at the other candidates and the clamour for some managers was baffling.

O'Neill has done nothing since leaving Celtic, and let's face it he was only beating 1 team there. His Sunderland team were floundering after the initial winning run they got when he was first appointed last season. Wasted money at Villa and Sunderland on a scale only Warnock could dream of. Warnock bought crap but paid less.

DiMatteo has done okay but his cv is greatly inflated by the Champions League win. At Chelsea he got an underperforming squad and because of his player relationship there got the best out of them, but only for a while. This season's performance, especially in Europe, made his triumph appear to be lucky rather than him being some tactically astute genius. Many great players have failed as managers when charged with managing lesser players.

Coyle did well at Burnley but left them as soon as he was offered another job. At Bolton he inherited a consistenly mid table premiership team and got them relegated. This season they were floundering under him and were closer to relegation than promotion. They have done considerably better since he left.

Adkins was my early favourite for the role given his successes on a shoestring at Scunthorpe and then getting much more out of Southampton than Pardew had. Unfairly sacked in my opinion but can't knock how well his successor is doing. Sadly by the time we got rid of Kieran Clown (another apt anagram of Colin W*nker) he was no longer an option.

Solsjkaar was an interesting one. Hard to judge how good he is given my limited knowledge of the Norwegian league. People in the past, such as Egil Olsen, had done well in Norway then failed over here. Would have been a big gamble. Maybe the one that got away, maybe a lucky escape for us - only time will tell.

Poyet is another interesting choice. He appeared to be the driving force of the successful league 1 start under the Wise/Poyet management team yet consistently avoids being blamed for the relegation from the championship. Left us for a better job and can't really be blamed for that as it would likely have been a huge pay rise and was to a club he had played for. Has done well at Brighton although has had a bigger budget than Leeds have had. Brighton fell away last season and remains to be seen if he has the capability of getting a team out of the championship (the right way). Would have been a bit of a gamble given his relatively short time in management and his only moderate level of success - add in the £2.5m compensation and it reaally is a huge thumbs down.

Other options such as Clough and Allardyce are interesting. For me the Clough one was always a non starter as he has had onlyy moderate success at Derby, not really thhreatening at all this season to get promoted and only 2 points better than us. Allardyce - well firstly no guarantee he would be available and certainly wouldn't be until summer, secondly would command a much higher wage than B McD given he has mainly managed in the prem and thirdly only scraped up via the play-offs with comfortably the best squad in the league last year. Yes has a great record for keeping sides up but seemed to struggle to get a team that should be winning every week to do that. Would he be able to turn an average squad into a team that can get promoted?

So we come to B McD. At first glance it seemed like he'd done an okay job. He'd taken over a squad not long out of the prem and as such would havve been expected to be challenging at the top end of the championship. However the team were hugely underperforming when he took over and his first job was to steady the ship - which he did. With the squad being brokeen up with the better players leaving he managed to guide them to the play-off final, losing out to a very good Swansea side. The season after he got them up as Champions. A good trend that he improved their finishing position every year despite losing players. The fact that his team finished comfortably ahead of the star studded West Ham side says a lot. Definitely a good track record up to that point.
On to the premiership and realistically they were always going to struggle. Yes teams in recent years have done well and stayed up but they have always got off to good starts. Reading were in the sh*t from the start. However a lot of credit must go to B McD for keeping their morale up and keeping them believing so much so that he won manaager of the month in January. They had slumped dramatically again after that but still seemed a harsh and surprising decision for him to be sacked. After all with relegation almost a certainty why not stick with the manager who has been able to get you promoted in the past.
So all in all we have a manager that has done extremely well in the championship in recent times. A manager who haas the desire to do well (and not just for the personal glory that NW sought). A manager that has been flexible in the past with his formations to suit the players he has at his disposal and that wants to play good football but put results first.

The plusses for me definitely outweigh the negatives (of this season). Don't forget that even the likes of Fergie struggled in his first season in the prem (or Division 1 as it then was). The likes of Hodgson (Liverpool) and Venables (Leeds) have both hugely underperformed in the prem too. He will be better for the experience of being in the prem and if he gets us up there will hopefully be able to establish us there.

Excellent post Weasel.

[Martyn]

I'm hopeful about the appointment. Given some of the names banded about I feel we have got a manager that has the hunger to succeed and certainly one, given his tv interview, one that feels he has a point to prove.

Looking at the other candidates and the clamour for some managers was baffling.

O'Neill has done nothing since leaving Celtic, and let's face it he was only beating 1 team there. His Sunderland team were floundering after the initial winning run they got when he was first appointed last season. Wasted money at Villa and Sunderland on a scale only Warnock could dream of. Warnock bought crap but paid less.

DiMatteo has done okay but his cv is greatly inflated by the Champions League win. At Chelsea he got an underperforming squad and because of his player relationship there got the best out of them, but only for a while. This season's performance, especially in Europe, made his triumph appear to be lucky rather than him being some tactically astute genius. Many great players have failed as managers when charged with managing lesser players.

Coyle did well at Burnley but left them as soon as he was offered another job. At Bolton he inherited a consistenly mid table premiership team and got them relegated. This season they were floundering under him and were closer to relegation than promotion. They have done considerably better since he left.

Adkins was my early favourite for the role given his successes on a shoestring at Scunthorpe and then getting much more out of Southampton than Pardew had. Unfairly sacked in my opinion but can't knock how well his successor is doing. Sadly by the time we got rid of Kieran Clown (another apt anagram of Colin W*nker) he was no longer an option.

Solsjkaar was an interesting one. Hard to judge how good he is given my limited knowledge of the Norwegian league. People in the past, such as Egil Olsen, had done well in Norway then failed over here. Would have been a big gamble. Maybe the one that got away, maybe a lucky escape for us - only time will tell.

Poyet is another interesting choice. He appeared to be the driving force of the successful league 1 start under the Wise/Poyet management team yet consistently avoids being blamed for the relegation from the championship. Left us for a better job and can't really be blamed for that as it would likely have been a huge pay rise and was to a club he had played for. Has done well at Brighton although has had a bigger budget than Leeds have had. Brighton fell away last season and remains to be seen if he has the capability of getting a team out of the championship (the right way). Would have been a bit of a gamble given his relatively short time in management and his only moderate level of success - add in the £2.5m compensation and it reaally is a huge thumbs down.

Other options such as Clough and Allardyce are interesting. For me the Clough one was always a non starter as he has had onlyy moderate success at Derby, not really thhreatening at all this season to get promoted and only 2 points better than us. Allardyce - well firstly no guarantee he would be available and certainly wouldn't be until summer, secondly would command a much higher wage than B McD given he has mainly managed in the prem and thirdly only scraped up via the play-offs with comfortably the best squad in the league last year. Yes has a great record for keeping sides up but seemed to struggle to get a team that should be winning every week to do that. Would he be able to turn an average squad into a team that can get promoted?

So we come to B McD. At first glance it seemed like he'd done an okay job. He'd taken over a squad not long out of the prem and as such would havve been expected to be challenging at the top end of the championship. However the team were hugely underperforming when he took over and his first job was to steady the ship - which he did. With the squad being brokeen up with the better players leaving he managed to guide them to the play-off final, losing out to a very good Swansea side. The season after he got them up as Champions. A good trend that he improved their finishing position every year despite losing players. The fact that his team finished comfortably ahead of the star studded West Ham side says a lot. Definitely a good track record up to that point.
On to the premiership and realistically they were always going to struggle. Yes teams in recent years have done well and stayed up but they have always got off to good starts. Reading were in the sh*t from the start. However a lot of credit must go to B McD for keeping their morale up and keeping them believing so much so that he won manaager of the month in January. They had slumped dramatically again after that but still seemed a harsh and surprising decision for him to be sacked. After all with relegation almost a certainty why not stick with the manager who has been able to get you promoted in the past.
So all in all we have a manager that has done extremely well in the championship in recent times. A manager who haas the desire to do well (and not just for the personal glory that NW sought). A manager that has been flexible in the past with his formations to suit the players he has at his disposal and that wants to play good football but put results first.

The plusses for me definitely outweigh the negatives (of this season). Don't forget that even the likes of Fergie struggled in his first season in the prem (or Division 1 as it then was). The likes of Hodgson (Liverpool) and Venables (Leeds) have both hugely underperformed in the prem too. He will be better for the experience of being in the prem and if he gets us up there will hopefully be able to establish us there.

Top post weasel, I'm in full agreement.

I'm really quite excited about the new era at Leeds in a way I haven't been since the heady days of O'Leary's babies. It won't be straightforward, there will be some grim days too, particularly over the next 5 games but I do think that we have found a very promising manager who has the capacity to become a very good one.

On on on!

[dezzy]

Country of birth totally irrelevant. Your mum and dad are Irish - you are Irish. End of.

As I'm sure he will be to many if he fecks up :mrgreen:

Country of birth and where he was raised? He aint Irish

[weasel]

I had a friend at school who's parents were of asian descent but had lived in England a good few years. He was born in Denmark whilst his parents were there on a trip but lived all his life in England. Yet somehow Jack Charlton managed to get him to play for Eire.

The last sentence is not true.

[Phil]

absolutely excellent post Weasel, couldn't agree more. I was unsure of McD's appointment at first, but he has completely won me over with the presser yesterday. He's cool, calm and collected, and will no doubt get into the player's heads immediately. Let's face it, we're not world beaters, but we're certainly not relegation fodder, a win today should keep us out of harm's way for this season, and who knows what will happen next season. We've got a half decent side, and i think with the right mentality instilled in the players' minds, and perhaps one or 2 signings during the summer, or even with McD's experience in scouting, introduce a couple of young lads in pre season, we can go up automatically, why not? there have been games this season when the team was up for it where we looked like we could actually fight for top spot. That has to be majorly down to mentality and confidence. We've seen Ross talking on Twitter about his frustration at the tactics NW used, and his passion and aggression aimed at the bench when he scored last week, and you can bet he wasn't the only player thinking the same. A healthy mindset will show on the pitch, and I'm sure McD will make that a priority from the off.

[oneshortplanck]

Brian McDermott meets the Leeds United squad for the first time...

That's some inconsistent toasting Dr.Leeds...

[Martyn]

Welcome oneshortplanck - always good to see a good physics pun

[MikeLUFC7]

I'm cautiously optimistic. McDermott is a good manager, with a promotion to the prem on his cv, so fingers crossed he takes us up. Problem is without serious financial backing he could find himself in a similar position to another manager with three promotions to the top flight on his CV in Warnock.

If our owners back him with decent funds then he'll have a chance. But I'm unsure that 2 or 3 signings will make us a contender for automatic promotion. Play offs is more likely.

[Dr.Leeds]

That's some inconsistent toasting Dr.Leeds...

Entirely deliberate.