Who Is Next?

[TONofmemories]

So we're now heading into the 3rd week after the statement within the telegraph. Time is of the essence here. 

 

Get a fucking move on, Morton. 

[rex manning]

I can't see Hopkin taking the St Mirren job. If he wanted to manage a team in the top division here, why not just stay with Livi? Proabably both teams going to be struggling near the bottom. He's a Morton man through and through and a shareholder to boot. Be surprised if he would go for St Mirren given his strong Morton lconnections past and current.

The St.Mirren job is by far the most appealing if the only other choices are ourselves and Livy. I wouldn't be too surprised to see him holding a black and white scarf aloft to be honest.

[cornbeef]

If the board managed to attract Hopkin it would be a positive sign that they had convinced him of their newfound/resurrected desire to achieve success.  As we know , there's been an apparent lack of that in the past decade +

 

If Duffy declined to name his targets for the season - it wasn't down to his own lack of ambition I believe. If the board had been clear that he was to 'get us up ( in 3 seasons, say)
 he certainly  would've had the fire in his belly  (which Jamie M believes was lacking)  I'm not excusing his bewildering tactics at crucial points. But I firmly believe that the Morton managers took  their lead very much so, from Dougie et al

 

Crawford is off to a good start with the Season tickets and biting the bullet with JD's removal  ( he had to take action after the PR disaster that was last season)  Contrary to some - I believe that the chance to take Morton up should be as attractive to Hoppy as the inevitable struggle with Livi in the premier.  McKinnon wouldn't be on my wish list at all  to tell the truth - I'd prefer to take a chance with somebody else.

 

Hoppy is still the great ginger hope for me

[big B]

We are roughly 3 weeks now without a manager and 50 day away from the first Bet Fred game time to get this sorted.

[OneCornetto]

The longer this goes on the more I just hope it's Hoppy. I think he's not meant to be speaking to the Livi board until Monday at least.

 

Would be pretty heartbreaking to see him anywhere near st mirren, but what a show of loyalty if he were to come to us.

[Jamie_M]

he certainly would've had the fire in his belly (which Jamie M believes was lacking)

The belief that the winning mentality was lacking is not just based on the fact that there was never a clear, discernible target but also the evidence from the entire rhetoric during his tenure.

 

There was never a 'we are going all out to win', 'we should be winning', 'we want a win'. It was always a 'do the best we can', 'try to compete', 'see how it goes', 'really difficult'.

 

After a loss it was always 'we were unlucky', 'we did well', 'could have gone either way' and rarely a 'we weren't good enough', 'we should be doing better', 'that's not acceptable', 'not happy with that'.

 

Everything about it could be read as the lack of a winning mentality.

 

He did better than expected getting us to a relative comfort zone, but the glass ceiling is there and I don't think he has the fight in him, nowadays, to push for success at this level, board expectations or not.

[Mr Toon]

While it would be unrealistic to expect the club to give a blow by blow account of the interviewing process, it would not be unreasonable for them to update the supporters regarding where we are and when we expect an appointment.

[cornbeef]

The belief that the winning mentality was lacking is not just based on the fact that there was never a clear, discernible target but also the evidence from the entire rhetoric during his tenure.

 

There was never a 'we are going all out to win', 'we should be winning', 'we want a win'. It was always a 'do the best we can', 'try to compete', 'see how it goes', 'really difficult'.

 

After a loss it was always 'we were unlucky', 'we did well', 'could have gone either way' and rarely a 'we weren't good enough', 'we should be doing better', 'that's not acceptable', 'not happy with that'.

 

Everything about it could be read as the lack of a winning mentality.

 

He did better than expected getting us to a relative comfort zone, but the glass ceiling is there and I don't think he has the fight in him, nowadays, to push for success at this level, board expectations or not.

 

I think the board were content coasting in a the comfort zone and were happy to accept JD peddling the 'plucky competitors in a hard league' line. Unfortunately, it all went belly up for the second season in a row and forced their hand to make changes. Hopefully  ,we'll find out soon enough if there's a genuine desire to take the club forward

 

[irnbru]

While it would be unrealistic to expect the club to give a blow by blow account of the interviewing process, it would not be unreasonable for them to update the supporters regarding where we are and when we expect an appointment.

I dunno, they can't really come out and say we have a preferred choice but waiting on him before going for a backup. I'd rather they took their time and got it right rather than rushing in.

 

Someone mentioned Reagan and the Scotland job which was a disaster so the board have done well not to get into that situation. All considered I'd be comfortable with whoever gets it because there seems to be a proper recruitment process with interviews this time rather than just who Dougie wants.

[Jamie_M]

I dunno, they can't really come out and say we have a preferred choice but waiting on him before going for a backup.

No, especially not if it was a playoff participant when Warren said we wouldn't wait for that.

 

But there had been nothing since 'we had x number of applicants and are whittling it down to a shortlist.' Updates could be given along the lines of 'interviews next week', '2ND interviews if necessary', 'interviews going well'. No substance in them but could have been enough to lessen the frustrations.

[Clydeview]

You're a moron if you don't in any case. £200 (£11 a game) is stupid value. 

 

Tbh, your continuous "look at me, i'm no gawn to the fitbaw" is boring as ****. 

 

I went to 6 home games last year, as the club was a shambles... £200 isn't value if things aren't clearly going to get any better.

 

No evidence of it so far, manager selection dragging on, still a nightmare buying a season ticket on-line... lost our captain and Player of the Season. Yet to see a positive.

[irnbru]

No, especially not if it was a playoff participant when Warren said we wouldn't wait for that.

 

But there had been nothing since 'we had x number of applicants and are whittling it down to a shortlist.' Updates could be given along the lines of 'interviews next week', '2ND interviews if necessary', 'interviews going well'. No substance in them but could have been enough to lessen the frustrations.

I get that but it's a tough one and loads of people have made mistakes in a similar situation so keeping it in house isn't the worst thing.

[TRVMP]

I'm not worried about the lack of communication for one good reason - ambitious appointments probably have a lot of options and neither they nor their agents are going to want clubs flapping their gums about it.

 

If we shoot for the moon and fall short it's not a hanging offense as long as we've dealt with it professionally and ensure we have a non-gubbins backup. That would be disappointing to me. As long as we upgrade our manager and don't have to listen to a bunch of excuses, I'm happy.

[vikingTON]

What has McKinnon ever achieved in management that would make him a better option than Duffy? He would be a distinctly sideways choice.

 

McKinnon faced Duffy's Morton with both a much smaller budget and a comparable budget (at Brechin and Raith respectively) and owned him on the park in direct matches as well as in the league campaign of 2015/16. I am far from being the chairman of the Ray 'Ray' McKinnon fan club, but the idea that he needs to excel to be an upgrade on Duffy's truly mediocre skill set in management is laughable. If the club's ambition is to slither into the play-offs more often than not then either McKinnon or McIntyre are indeed upgrades on what we had. 

 

The only chance of the club getting a manager capable of achieving a higher ambition though - getting promotion and establishing the club in the top flight for some time at least - would be to gamble on someone outside the usual Scottish management merrygoround. That fact hasn't changed at all in the past four weeks, nor has the reality that the club can't actually end the current state of apathy in the fanbase by opting for another 'safe pair of hands' appointment. The only rightful candidate waits patiently across the North Sea for the call. 

 

[SpoonTon]

McKinnon faced Duffy's Morton with both a much smaller budget and a comparable budget (at Brechin and Raith respectively) and owned him on the park in direct matches as well as in the league campaign of 2015/16. I am far from being the chairman of the Ray 'Ray' McKinnon fan club, but the idea that he needs to excel to be an upgrade on Duffy's truly mediocre skill set in management is laughable. If the club's ambition is to slither into the play-offs more often than not then either McKinnon or McIntyre are indeed upgrades on what we had.

We all know that McKinnon had a great record against Duffy, but picking out particular head to head records doesn't exactly give a great overall picture. Duffy has edge in guys head to head record with Jack Ross - it doesn't make him a better manager.

[vikingTON]

We all know that McKinnon had a great record against Duffy, but picking out particular head to head records doesn't exactly give a great overall picture. Duffy has edge in guys head to head record with Jack Ross - it doesn't make him a better manager.

 

He also finished comfortably above Duffy in direct competition in the 2015/16 campaign, showing that he was in fact a better manager in that campaign. Being better than Duffy simply isn't a high enough benchmark to require a signature achievement on your CV. 

[jimbobton]

McKinnon faced Duffy's Morton with both a much smaller budget and a comparable budget (at Brechin and Raith respectively) and owned him on the park in direct matches as well as in the league campaign of 2015/16. I am far from being the chairman of the Ray 'Ray' McKinnon fan club, but the idea that he needs to excel to be an upgrade on Duffy's truly mediocre skill set in management is laughable. If the club's ambition is to slither into the play-offs more often than not then either McKinnon or McIntyre are indeed upgrades on what we had. 

 

The only chance of the club getting a manager capable of achieving a higher ambition though - getting promotion and establishing the club in the top flight for some time at least - would be to gamble on someone outside the usual Scottish management merrygoround. That fact hasn't changed at all in the past four weeks, nor has the reality that the club can't actually end the current state of apathy in the fanbase by opting for another 'safe pair of hands' appointment. The only rightful candidate waits patiently across the North Sea for the call. 

 

Yawn

[jimbobton]

Yawn

.....and stuck record

[EanieMeany]

It depends on whether Hopkin is being pursued; if so what signals he has given us; and if so, and he declines, why; what alternative plans we have in place etc. It's not like Stewart Regan publicly putting all of his eggs in one basket against the better judgement of his colleagues, for example.

There's a few big "ifs" here, but...

 

It should have been clear from about February (at least) that Duffy had to go, and should have been as clear then that Hopkin was the prime target, if that's what he is. There's been half a season to make this happen, even if it the club were waiting to see what happened in the play-offs we still knew months ago that Livingston were there with a manager who was out of contract.

 

If Hopkin (and it's a big if) rejects us this far down the line and we end up with the second or third choice then it's been an appalling recruitment process and the chief executive needs to offer a seriously good explanation.

 

The sacking of Duffy wasn't unexpected, this isn't a surprise vacancy. It's been coming for a long time, it really shouldn't be taking this long to sort it.

[big B]

If Hopkin does not come you can take it that there is no change in the ambition of the board and we will be a middle of the road team again next season.