January Transfer Window Thread

[bob_the_builder]

On the signing front i'm giving him the benefit of the doubt just now seeing as the Premiership teams are on their winter break, with some overseas on training camps.  I'd imagine this would make loan signings slightly more difficult as managers will be wanting to see who they keep in their squads for the rest of the season and who they want to ship out.

 

Most of these teams will be back for cup games this weekend so things really should start happening next week!

[SuperTonic]

Since you’re getting so arsey about it…

 

Pretty much every January we bring in a couple of players - usually loan ones - as does the rest of the league, so it'd be unprecedented if we didn’t do this this time around and therefore we can safely assume it’s likely to happen whether we know the wage structures or not. If nothing else, we already know that Johansson and the club are working to make some things happen, so presumably they’re not just doing that for a laugh.

 

Even if we were paying “going rate of salary for a Scottish Championship Player” for loan players, something which is unlikely, we’ve lost MacLean and Tiffoney (as it stands), which means those wages are available. We also knew that at least the latter was probably going to return to his parent club in January and it seems it was known for a while that MacLean was off too, so it’s not unreasonable to expect a manager to be aware of that and have targets in mind. Admittedly it’s a relatively favourable draw, but we could be 3 points down and out the Scottish Cup as a result of having no wide options, so again, it’s not outlandish to suggest the manager should have targets in mind ready to come in quickly to replace Tiffoney.

 

Again though, there’s no reason why Johansson should be given money to actually sign/buy players as he has a perfectly serviceable if incomplete squad that should be performing much better than it is. If he can’t make a decent fist of the rest of the season with a few adroit loan acquisition then there’s no hope for him.

 

“It would not however be unreasonable in this transfer window, in view of the Partick/Falkirk Rebuilds(again) & faltering Dundee Utd/Ross County that even loan players may cost more than what we have let go” doesn’t really mean anything at all. It’s the manager’s job to source players/

 

You’ve not been able to make a case for his tactics (apart from a spurious claim that Michael Tidser should be playing high up the park despite a flat back with two sitting midfielders (your description), i.e. seven (7) defensive players who the manager himself has told us were instructed to “sit deep”) nor have you been able to explain what exactly people hold against Johansson, so what exactly is it you think he’s doing right?

 

As for the bit about 100 caps and a decent playing career, that’s just nonsense. Does the name Dave McPherson, who appeared at two major tournaments for Scotland and won and multiple trophies mean anything? He was binned after 13 (if memory serves) games and nobody would say that was at all harsh, or to no avail. Allan Evans, European Cup winner? Or what about John Barnes, an all-time English great who lasted all of 29 games at Celtic?

 

What did Brendan Rodgers do as a player? Or Jack Ross? Jose Mourinho?

 

It matters not a jot what kind of player somebody was.  I don’t care what reputation anybody has, if they do a bad job at Morton they’re not good enough for us.

 

PS: The "enter" button is the really big one with an arrow round about the middle of the keyboard. There's another one at the bottom right.

Your ability to do selective editorial on other posters opinions to fit your responses is very impressive I have to say.You have in a variety of posts intimated that the fairly new & current coaching team do not know anything about tactics.I am merely highlighting in view of playing and COACHING experience alone i do not accept this as the rock solid truth you have been campaigning on with regularity.You post alot and you are clearly passionate for the club which i admire but the challenge and negativity you inject into many of your posts(+5k Well Done) you should perhaps consider as we are all wanting what is best for Morton.If i appeared arsey then apologies but the written word can be construed in so many ways. CMON THE TON.

[bob_the_builder]

I don’t hold anything against the board over JJ’s appintment other than not giving him a shorter deal. We needed to look outside the box and we did, and as we’ve seen from his interviews he’s capable of talking well about the game without really showing it.

 

Here's the thing though, they gave the snake a rolling one year and he slithered off after only a couple of months so the chances are any compensation awarded from Falkirk will be for that one year.  So not much.

 

Morton are damned if they do damned if they don't! Lets say they gave JJ until the end of the season with a target of say make the play offs and a decent showing in them and be rewarded with a 2 year deal. He then achieves this and more, whats to stop another team looking at him and nicking him at the end of the season?

[vikingTON]

He's got a good background and comes across well so probably was the best candidate at the time and was a welcome change but as with anything, there's no certainties.

If having no positive management experience and being a gobshite counts towards being ‘the best candidate’ for managing a professional full time football club then half of this forum should’ve been on the shortlist as well.

[vikingTON]

Here's the thing though, they gave the snake a rolling one year and he slithered off after only a couple of months so the chances are any compensation awarded from Falkirk will be for that one year. So not much.

 

Morton are damned if they do damned if they don't! Lets say they gave JJ until the end of the season with a target of say make the play offs and a decent showing in them and be rewarded with a 2 year deal. He then achieves this and more, whats to stop another team looking at him and nicking him at the end of the season?

The chances of failure are fairly high with any novice manager and any competent football club adjusts its contract to reduce its potential costs to punt them accordingly. The risk of losing the next Arrigo Sacchi is not the cost that the board should prioritising in that negotiation.

 

Handing out a 21 month deal to any manager brought in after a scrambled, midseason recruitment process is sketchy enough; doing so for a first time manager who - surprise! - turns out to be a dud after three months can be added to our extensive ‘banter years’ file.

[EanieMeany]

 i admire but the challenge and negativity you inject into many of your posts(+5k Well Done) you should perhaps consider as we are all wanting what is best for Morton

 

     Aye, right you are mate. All's rosey in the Morton garden and my post count averages about 1 a day since I signed up.

[vikingTON]

He's not waited to be parachuted straight into management, but rather has worked with youth and climbed the ladder from there.

He hasn’t climbed the ladder at all: he was parachuted in at a second tier, full time club without ever managing in the leagues below. I’m not going to claim that JJ felt the lower tiers of the game beneath him, but it certainly isn’t doing Jim Goodwin or (starting recently) Kevin Rutkiewicz any harm to learn their ropes at those levels and work their way up based on merit i.e. performances, results, accomplishments.

 

Being a youth coach is not a condescension that should land you a job managing a club of Morton’s standing within the Scottish game. The sooner that our board automatically file those sort of bullshit, ex-footballer ‘youth coach’ applications in a massive fucking shredder the sooner we can get back to being a competent football club.

[irnbru]

He hasn’t climbed the ladder at all: he was parachuted in at a second tier, full time club without ever managing in the leagues below. I’m not going to claim that JJ felt the lower tiers of the game beneath him, but it certainly isn’t doing Jim Goodwin or (starting recently) Kevin Rutkiewicz any harm to learn their ropes at those levels and work their way up based on merit i.e. performances, results, accomplishments.

 

Being a youth coach is not a condescension that should land you a job managing a club of Morton’s standing within the Scottish game. The sooner that our board automatically file those sort of bulls***, ex-footballer ‘youth coach’ applications in a massive ****ing shredder the sooner we can get back to being a competent football club.

He was assistant manager for Finland and Rangers. Both arguably bigger jobs than being manager at a lot of teams in Scotland.

[Jamie_M]

He was assistant manager for Finland and Rangers. Both arguably bigger jobs than being manager at a lot of teams in Scotland.

So is director of the next Jurassic Park movie, doesn't mean he is automatically suitable for a managers job with no direct experience.

[EanieMeany]

So is director of the next Jurassic Park movie, doesn't mean he is automatically suitable for a managers job with no direct experience.

He was also the assistant to mad Pedro, so not exactly a dream team. Also, not to dismiss the Finnish national team but as perhaps their most prominent player over the last decade it was probably a certainty that he'd get that gig. 

[irnbru]

So is director of the next Jurassic Park movie, doesn't mean he is automatically suitable for a managers job with no direct experience.

I think being assistant at a big club and a fairly successful national team can be classed as direct experience of management.

 

He may turn out to be a failure (and there are worrying signs he will) but its being facetious to suggest he doesn't have the type of CV that should be considered by a club like Morton.

[Jamie_M]

I think being assistant at a big club and a fairly successful national team can be classed as direct experience of management.

 

He may turn out to be a failure (and there are worrying signs he will) but its being facetious to suggest he doesn't have the type of CV that should be considered by a club like Morton.

The point being made is that Assistant Manager and Manager are very different roles. It's not a given that it is a progression route or the type of person in one role is suitably interchangeable into the other ml. Some will be directly involved, others not.

 

You are making assumptions about his responsibility in those roles. He is just as likely to have been the guy that hands out bibs and puts the cones out as he is to have been directly involved in the management.

 

Same goes for someone who has only had a job coaching youth regens. No definite experience in actual team management at a first team level which is why JJ was seen as a risk, as were potentials like John Kennedy looked on unfavourably by many.

 

Actual management, steady progression, experience built even at a lower level was being suggested here as a more guaranteed experience build ahead of a managers job at this level.

[irnbru]

The point being made is that Assistant Manager and Manager are very different roles. It's not a given that it is a progression route or the type of person in one role is suitably interchangeable into the other ml. Some will be directly involved, others not.

 

You are making assumptions about his responsibility in those roles. He is just as likely to have been the guy that hands out bibs and puts the cones out as he is to have been directly involved in the management.

 

Same goes for someone who has only had a job coaching youth regens. No definite experience in actual team management at a first team level which is why JJ was seen as a risk, as were potentials like John Kennedy looked on unfavourably by many.

 

Actual management, steady progression, experience built even at a lower level was being suggested here as a more guaranteed experience build ahead of a managers job at this level.

He's got a good background in football at a higher level than ours and speaks quite well about the game. We're not exactly a massive team and going for people like that is a risk worth taking.

 

There's absolutely no guarantee when appointing a manager and if someone looked outstanding at a level below us then it's more likely they'd skip our level on our way up the ladder.

 

As I said, it might turn out to be a bad appointment but it wasn't a bad decision to go for someone like that. If things keep going the way they did on Saturday then and it's dealt with appropriately then I think we just need to write the season off as one that had exception circumstances that were followed by something that didn't quite pay off.

[TheGoon]

Someone could win the World Cup/Champions League as a player and utterly flop in management at all sorts of levels. Completely different animals.

[port-ton]

We should have got big Mixu in as he actually managed Finland so that means we'd have romped this league.

[Scott]

Still can't believe we haven't signed a forward yet. Crying out for one. 

[irnbru]

So we want someone that has has experience of being a relievely successful manager in the Scottish lower leagues but not quite successful enough to attract bigger clubs? In other words, our recruitment strategy for most of the last 20 odd years.

 

I'd much rather move away from that and take a calculated risk on someone that has taken time to study the game in a number of different roles after a hugely successful playing career. A risk that's also mitigated by bringing a very experienced assistant.

 

I'll say it again, there's no guarantee that any manager will be a success but looking at the appointment objectively, it's not that difficult to see why it was made. Suggesting otherwise is facetious and based on results and hindsight.

[EanieMeany]

I didn't mind appointing somebody different, but not just for the sake of it which increasingly seems to be what happened here. Surely there had to be some kind of technical element to the process? How do you envisage your team playing? What's your approach? I dunno what goes on, but if he's managed to produce a genuinely impressive interview that marked him out as the man we needed, then we can only surmise that he's failing to deliver what he promised.

 

 

This here. It doesn't matter what his previous qualifications or experience is (which certainly isn't enough on its own, although it's undoubtedly enough to make him worthy of consideration), it's really hard to see how he managed to get through a recruitment process from what we've seen and heard so far. He must be failing to achieve whatever it is he's told the board he can do.

 

Someone could win the World Cup/Champions League as a player and utterly flop in management at all sorts of levels. Completely different animals.

 

Should have went back to Pierre Littbarski, if we're taking a punt based on playing records we'd have been as well with a World Cup winner for the novelty value.

[irnbru]

This here. It doesn't matter what his previous qualifications or experience is (which certainly isn't enough on its own, although it's undoubtedly enough to make him worthy of consideration), it's really hard to see how he managed to get through a recruitment process from what we've seen and heard so far. He must be failing to achieve whatever it is he's told the board he can do.

 

It's not though. His initial interviews were all impressive and following that have all been quite insightful. The weekends game where he thought we were OK is an exception to that.

 

He comes across well, has good experience in different coaching roles and has a better playing career than 99% of players will so it's obvious to see how he got the job. Especially, when an experienced assistant was being brought in as a mentor of sorts.

 

Failing to achieve what he was brought in for is different from getting the job. We could have brought in Guardiola and failed - nothing is guaranteed and for our level I think it was a fairly bold move and one that might well have paid off.

 

If we want to stick to usual Moore's and Duffy's of the world we're unlikely to go anywhere fast.

[LargsTON]

It's not though. His initial interviews were all impressive and following that have all been quite insightful. The weekends game where he thought we were OK is an exception to that.

 

He comes across well, has good experience in different coaching roles and has a better playing career than 99% of players will so it's obvious to see how he got the job. Especially, when an experienced assistant was being brought in as a mentor of sorts.

 

Failing to achieve what he was brought in for is different from getting the job. We could have brought in Guardiola and failed - nothing is guaranteed and for our level I think it was a fairly bold move and one that might well have paid off.

 

If we want to stick to usual Moore's and Duffy's of the world we're unlikely to go anywhere fast.

Can't believe I'm saying this but I'd take Duffy or Moore over JJ based on what I've seen thus far.