THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Poch is the epitome of Tottenham.

The others aren't. Tottenham failed them, not the other way around. Poch was content with being a loser at Tottenham. And he took that mentality to Stanford Bridge, whilst swooning for his former employers who happe to be Chelsea's biggest rivals.

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"It's not about hoping this little moment will change our momentum, its about our daily actions and courage in everything we do.. We've got to stop believing in fairytales"

- Graham Alexander, October 2023

He's not in the same league as Mourinho or Conte, but I wouldn't have sacked him (presumably it's more Chelsea than Poch) to go and appoint a manager with even less credentials or pedigree.

Rumours swirling about de Zerbi’s compensation having been paid by United. Think he would be a better fit, but the club is really on its arse and it is sad.

The whole managerial world right now is quite bizarre.

A culture of managers jumping ship too quickly, trigger happy owners, 'projects' and massive shift in managerial styles and players attitudes, plus whatever else has resulted in very few elite coaches around. Right now it could be argued that there's only really Pep, Ancelotti and Klopp at the highest level who could walk into any job they wanted.

Man United is a curious job right now. In some ways they may need someone to turn up, bring in some senior pros and sort them out. An Ancelotti type? But Mourinho and Van Gaal haven't exactly set the world alight there. A younger modern manager in Ten Haag also hasn't really worked. The media pressure and attention at United is massive. Weirdly the rumours of Southgate going there kind of makes sense. He's very good, despite being boring as hell, when dealing with press. He's largely got the best out of players both younger and senior pros. But his football is also boring as hell. Maybe he is the calming influence they need there.

The fact recently relegated Kompany has been linked with Bayern and De Zerbi who has seen Brighton drop off considerably has also been heavily linked with top jobs tells you a lot about the market. Slightly off topic, I see De Zerbi's influence at Brighton a bit similar to Manning and Russ. Potter developed the fundamentals and provided the seriously better coaching, then De Zerbi added his slight spark which worked. Once he had more of an influence they dropped off.

He wasn't sacked though, this is one I actually genuinely consider to be worthy of the mutual consent title.
The past 10/15 days has been weird, he's spoken like a man who knew what was ahead. If he'd been sacked, he'd have been sacked last mo th when they drew to Sheff Utd. Or Bur ley. Or smacked by The Arsenal. Or earlier on in the season when the worst Man Utd team in a generation played like prime Peps Barca against them.

Chelsea are a basket case football club, run by Amateurs and a group of people who don't see eye to eye or agree with the model it should be. That isn't Pochettino's fault. He's the smartest man at that club in a football sense - Chelsea have two sporting directors which is weird in itself and it's always going to cause division.
When the manager doesn't want his captain and a capable effective versatile defender moved on to squeeze in other underperforming players for FFP reasons you can understand his frustration. And he'll find work easy enough whilst Chelsea continue to cause division with their fanbase and recieve laughter and criticism from others deservedly. That model will not be successful. They'll continue to sell assets and not grow a stable team. That's unsustainable for the long term.

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"It's not about hoping this little moment will change our momentum, its about our daily actions and courage in everything we do.. We've got to stop believing in fairytales"

- Graham Alexander, October 2023

Why would anyone want to go to Man United? Who'd want to work at a club that finished mid-table, and were on towards the end of MOTD. In actual fact, MOTD spent longer on Ian Wright leaving the programme than they did on United. Why would anyone want to work in a stadium that's falling apart, and under someone who thinks Brexit is a good idea?

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For those that like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.

Because this is Manchester United we're talking about here

https://youtu.be/12j2Esnn-eY?si=q3z-v7lcTa7l_p4k

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"It's not about hoping this little moment will change our momentum, its about our daily actions and courage in everything we do.. We've got to stop believing in fairytales"

- Graham Alexander, October 2023

He’s not wrong though.

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

Yeah, about that.

The queue of applicants for the managers job will be 50+ deep at Chelsea and even deeper at United should they part company with ETH.
I suspect they will.

I thought the timing of De Zerbis announcement was interesting and if I were placing bets I would have one on him ending up at United.

I just dont think a fan can truly grasp how little managers and players give a toss about the team they play for. There are a few exceptions such as Lewington, Terry, Scholes and Giggs amonst a few others but on the whole its just a job for them and they would move for more money or opportunities the very same as most of us would in our jobs so its no surprise that clubs act without much loyalty in return.

Not sure I'd overly fancy De Zerbi at United?

Brighton are currently a very well run club and I expect plenty of managers to do quite well there as it's got a good set up for managers to succeed up to a certain level. Which he did. But he's another of those gambles out there whose CV has no evidence to suggest whether they have what it takes to succeed at a huge club and to deliver trophies. And I'm not sold on whether he has that 'thing' (elite ability, aura, whatever) that a United manager will need if they're to get back challenging again.

Maybe, given the current gulf and the lack of quality options out there, the next manager is just going to be one getting them just a little higher than where we were two years ago - 3rd place and both domestic finals, winning one. So being a little more realistically in the title reckoning and doing better in the CL than of late. Which maybe a Tuchel or Pocchetino could achieve But don't see anyone this summer who I think would be the long term answer in terms of winning either of them.

ETH only has one year left on his deal - and with gardening leave it's taking some time to get the people in place behind the scenes for taking charge of football matters such as transfers and contracts - so, with no great candidate out there this summer either, I wouldn't be overly shocked to see ETH given next season to see if he can repeat his first season's efforts before they make a choice?

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