Rival Watch

[Snowflake Royal]

No age at all.

[URZZZZ]

Swansea. Close to getting a new manager. Steve Cooper

For those like myself who hadn't heard of him, some basic info:

39 years old, worked as Liverpool academy manager, before joining the FA in 2013. Won the U17 World Cup with England in 2017 including the likes of Foden and Sancho. Also worked with the likes of Trent, Sterling, Woodburn at Liverpool. Likes to play possession football. Likely to be joined by Mike Marsh as assistant

Verdict : Think that could be an OK appointment. Fits the ethos of Swansea (working with youngsters, possession football, young manager). Saw off the likes of Michael Appleton and Lee Bowyer in the interviews so must have impressed

[Sutekh]

Swansea. Close to getting a new manager. Steve Cooper

For those like myself who hadn't heard of him, some basic info:

39 years old, worked as Liverpool academy manager, before joining the FA in 2013. Won the U17 World Cup with England in 2017 including the likes of Foden and Sancho. Also worked with the likes of Trent, Sterling, Woodburn at Liverpool. Likes to play possession football. Likely to be joined by Mike Marsh as assistant

Verdict : Think that could be an OK appointment. Fits the ethos of Swansea (working with youngsters, possession football, young manager). Saw off the likes of Michael Appleton and Lee Bowyer in the interviews so must have impressed

It's John Toshack all over again. Did well for them though and there was a heavy trail of ex-Liverpool players joining.

[URZZZZ]

Another one set for a move. Jonathan Woodgate to Boro. Seems like teams are now going for the "younger, less experienced types" after the likes of Farke, Wagner etc

[URZZZZ]

Slaven Bilic on his way to West Brom - very good appointment

Garry Monk on his way out of Birmingham if reports are to be believed

[Hendo]

Slaven Bilic on his way to West Brom - very good appointment

Garry Monk on his way out of Birmingham if reports are to be believed

Houghton to Birmingham would be the most sensible bet if Monk is leaving.

[Hound]

thought Monk did a decent job there - little surprised tbh

[Hendo]

Could be down to their financial issues and him having his head turned by another club?

Back to Swansea?

[Hound]

Could be down to their financial issues and him having his head turned by another club?

Back to Swansea?

Nope. Handsome Steve Cooper has just got that gig

[Snowflake Royal]

Slaven Bilic on his way to West Brom - very good appointment

Garry Monk on his way out of Birmingham if reports are to be believed

Houghton to Birmingham would be the most sensible bet if Monk is leaving.

Hughton can surely do better than brum?

[Hound]

Would expect him to hold on until the likes of Fulham/Stoke/Boro or whoever implode early season

[Denver Royal]

Slaven Bilic on his way to West Brom - very good appointment

Garry Monk on his way out of Birmingham if reports are to be believed

Houghton to Birmingham would be the most sensible bet if Monk is leaving.

Monk never seems too stay in one place very long? Can’t make my mind up on him...

[URZZZZ]

Well, there are conflicting reports on it. We now have some saying he may well stay (including the BBC - very reliable) so I expect this may rumble on

Apparently Birmingham have the third least home wins in the division which hasn't pleased the board

But I agree with you, Monk is a difficult manager to judge. Dissecting his roles as manager, at Swansea in his first full season he took them to their highest position. Then in his next season, results were poor and he was sacked. At Leeds, they were in the PO pretty much the entire season up until the last few weeks. He then resigned at the end. At Boro, he was doing OK, he left them just outside PO's, bit of a strange sacking at the time. But results were inconsistent. At Birmingham, he kept them up last season and was pushing for top 6 until a horrific run in March (followed by points deduction) had them looking over his shoulder

Seems to me he never does a bad job anywhere but he doesn't have the tactical nous/experience to take things onto the next level (hence Leeds faltering etc). But he's only 40 which is young for a manager. Add to the fact he's managed a couple of dodgy run clubs and overall I'd say he's a competent manager but too inexperienced at this time to push for the big league

[URZZZZ]

Slaven Bilic on his way to West Brom - very good appointment

Garry Monk on his way out of Birmingham if reports are to be believed

Houghton to Birmingham would be the most sensible bet if Monk is leaving.

Hughton can surely do better than brum?

I think he’d go back there again. At the time he said it was a really difficult decision to leave them and in his one and only season he came 4th. Then again, returning managers/players don’t always work and can often ruin a legacy

[NewCorkSeth]

Slaven Bilic on his way to West Brom - very good appointment

Garry Monk on his way out of Birmingham if reports are to be believed

I hope Bilic does well. When we sacked Clement (actually I think even before we hired Clement) I said I wanted Bilic as our manager. I still feel bad for Darren Moore though. I hope he gets another chance to prove himself soon.

[Ascotexgunner]

Slaven Bilic on his way to West Brom - very good appointment

Garry Monk on his way out of Birmingham if reports are to be believed

I hope Bilic does well. When we sacked Clement (actually I think even before we hired Clement) I said I wanted Bilic as our manager. I still feel bad for Darren Moore though. I hope he gets another chance to prove himself soon.

I was desperate for Graham Potter to come here before Clement arrived. Probably for the best we didn't have him now, didn't take a PL club long to snap him up.
No managers seem to stay long at clubs nowadays in the EFL. Gary Monk surprises me. Good manager but never seems to be at a club with stability.

[URZZZZ]

Few more transfer dealings in the Champ

Liam Kelly gone to QPR (fortunately not our one )
Lee Wallace (from Rangers) gone to QPR - previously worked with Warburton at Rangers
Luke Thomas - Derby to Barnsley (spent the season at Coventry, Derby fans slightly disappointed with that one)
Daniel James gone to United for 15 million (new Zaha?)
Elphick - Villa to Huddersfield

Never really understood the clamour from our fans for Elphick...played 3/4 games max and in one of them we conceded 4 goals at home to a bang average Ipswich team (not forgetting all 4 went in on the half Elphick played). Again, this season for Villa, Elphick was part of Villa's worst run. As soon as he got injured, they went on a 8/9 match winning run

[From Despair To Where?]

Never really understood the clamour from our fans for Elphick...played 3/4 games max and in one of them we conceded 4 goals at home to a bang average Ipswich team (not forgetting all 4 went in on the half Elphick played)

Have you forgotten how bad we were that season? I think it was a mixture of wishful thinking and desperation.

[Snowflake Royal]

Yep, deeply unimpressed with what I saw of Elphick. Very much a case of the grass must be greener from some of our fans. See it all the time with the likes of Popa, Sims etc.... they must be better than who is playing, until they get a run of games that is.

[URZZZZ]

Never really understood the clamour from our fans for Elphick...played 3/4 games max and in one of them we conceded 4 goals at home to a bang average Ipswich team (not forgetting all 4 went in on the half Elphick played)

Have you forgotten how bad we were that season? I think it was a mixture of wishful thinking and desperation.

Possibly but a lot of the calls were made when the season ended and we had a whole summer to identify targets who weren't permanently crocked and when fit, concede 4 goals to Ipswich's reserves in 40 minutes

But it's OK because we brought O'Shea in to continue that role Although saying that O'Shea was better than Elphick ever was