Who should be the next manager?June 15th, 2007

Below are profiles of the current favourites for the job at Oddschecker. I’ve excluded Juande Ramos from the list as his agent’s recent comments appear to rule him out.

Profiles of other possible candidates that I compiled in March can be found here, while The Sun today claims that Alistair Mackintosh has been in talks with Didier Deschamps.

Sven Goran Eriksson (5/2)

Is this some sort of bad dream? No takeover, no money, half a squad - and this managerial disaster favourite to take charge.

In Sept 2005 I wrote this profile of Sven, which shows that he only really had one impressive season in his 14 years in Seria A.

Chris Coleman (3/1)
~ Wikipedia; 4thegame profile

April was not a good month for the former City youth player. Not only was he sacked by Fulham, but he found out his wife had hired private detectives to bug his car.

He hasn’t been linked with another job since, and a look at his record suggests there may be a good reason for that. Coleman took over at Fulham towards the end of the 2002-03 season where they finished 14th. Here’s how they fared in his four seasons in charge:

03-04: 9th / 52pts / +6 GD
04-05: 13th / 44 / -8
05-06: 12th / 48 / -10
06-07: 16th / 39 / -22

Overall it’s not exactly a record to inspire much optimism, though to be fair, neither is it disastrous. Certainly it has to be viewed in the context of the resources that were available to him. A look at the transfer spending table shows Fulham have made an £8.29m profit from transfers since he took over. During his time there, Steve Finnan, Louis Saha and Luis Boa Morte were sold while the most he’s paid for anyone is £2.5m for Wigan’s Jimmy Bullard.

How wisely he would spend money is open to doubt though. According to The Sun, Coleman was hoping to sign Titus Bramble this summer.

Co Adriaanse (4/1)
~ Wikipedia

The 59-year-old resigned from Ukrainian Premier League side FC Metalurh Donetsk after failing to make progress in his only season there.

The previous year he won the league and cup double in his only season at Porto (they’d finished 2nd and 1st the previous two seasons) but his time at AZ Alkmaar in the Dutch top division is probably the best indication of his abilities.

Here’s how his record compares to their other managers (Adriaanse’s seasons in charge are in bold):

99-00: 7th / 55 /+10
00-01: 13th /35 / -17
01-02: 10th /43 /-2
02-03: 10th / 44 / -19
03-04: 5th / 57 / +23
04-05: 3rd / 64 /+30
05-06: 2nd / 74 / +46
2006-07: 3rd / 72 / +52

Gerard Houllier (6/1)
~ Wikipedia

Another 59-year-old who recently quit his job, but his knowledge of the Premiership probably makes him a better option than Adriaanse.

His recent success at Lyon, where they won the league and cup double in both his seasons in charge, does have to be put into perspective though, as Lyon also won the double in each of the four seasons before he took over.

Here’s how his record at Lyon and Liverpool compare:

Lyon
03-04: 1st / 79 / +38 (Cup)
04-05: 1st /79 / +34 (Cup)
05-06: 1st / 84 / +42 (Cup)
06-07: 1st / 81 / +37 (Cup)

Liverpool
96-97: 4th / 68 / +25
97-98: 3rd / 65 / +26
98-99: 7th / 54 / +19
99-00: 4th / 67 / +21
00-01: 3rd / 69 / +32 (League Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Cup)
01-02: 2nd / 80 / +37
02-03: 5th /64 / +20 (League Cup)
03-04: 4th /60 / +18
04-05: 5th / 58 /+11 (Champions League)
05-06: 3rd /82 /+32 (FA Cup)
06-07: 3rd / 68 /+30

Did we sell Barton too cheaply?

The reason I ask is that it strikes me as a bit odd that Sam Allardyce has offloaded a central midfielder he doesn’t rate for £7m and bought one he does for £5.8m.

According to one of the writers at Newcastle-online, Parker’s form last season was “woeful at times, most of the time in fact”, while Barton’s performances won him an England cap and third place in the season’s player ratings.

Barton is also ranked 61st in last season’s Actim stats, while Parker doesn’t figure in the top 100.

Maybe West Ham paid too much for Parker, but the valuation they’ve put on Reo-Coker suggests otherwise. Reo-Coker also doesn’t figure in the Actim 100, yet West Ham have already turned down a £7m bid for him and appear to be holding out for around £8m.

It’s possible that Barton’s contract stated that he had to be sold for £5.5m. But if that was the case, you would have ask whether it was wise for the club to agree to such a clause.

Staying on the subject of puzzling transfers involving City and Newcastle, did we really get £2m for Sibierski? Soccerbase claims we did, though I can’t remember a figure being disclosed at the time, and the fact he only got a one-year contract at Newcastle would suggest nothing more than a nominal fee was paid.

~ The row over Barton’s £300,000 bonus reminded me of the acrimonious dispute between the club and Joe Royle a few years back.

When Royle was sacked two days after the final game of the 2000-01 season, his contract stated he was due a £423,000 pay-off if he was dismissed while City were in the Premier League, but only £150,000 if they were in Division 1. The fact that it took two court cases to decide what exactly City’s league status was at the time, suggests that something was clearly wrong with the contract’s wording.

In his autobiography, Royle was furious about the way he’d been treated. Although a change of league status is not normally officially confirmed until June, Royle claimed that the club had officially logged their relegation with the Premier League in the two days between the final game and Royle’s dismissal - a move later described in court by Bernstein as a ‘belt-and-braces exercise’, and one that was called ‘embarrassing’ by the judge.

All of which makes you wonder why this type of dispute tends to crop up at City and not other clubs. Maybe it’s just another symptom of what Royle called Cityitis - the talent for making life as difficult as possible for ourselves.

~ With Barton’s departure leaving us with just four midfielders, Mancityfans posters have been having fun with the BBC’s squad selector.

A financial declaration

I would like to reaffirm my desire to buy the Bugatti Veyron 16.4.

An indicative offer has already been lodged with the dealer and I have assured him that the freezing of my Barclaycard does not singly affect my intention to buy.

Obviously, in the light of a recent snotty letter from Barclaycard’s head office, some restructuring of my finances may be necessary. But I am confident that adequate funds will soon be available for me to complete the purchase.

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