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Next Manager Thread (2026 Edition)

Who Is Up Next?

  • Alonso

    Votes: 22 27.8%
  • Xavi

    Votes: 3 3.8%
  • Poch

    Votes: 39 49.4%
  • Mckenna

    Votes: 1 1.3%
  • Other

    Votes: 14 17.7%

  • Total voters
    79
We signed Kudus & Xavi in the summer along with Palinhia on loan. We were also prepared to sign Savinho. Thats 4 players ready for the 1st Team and an outlay of over £150M. In January when it’s tough to buy players they got Gallagher done and were prepared to sign Robertson & Semenyo on big wages. So I don’t think it’s out of the question. Especially from a position of being close to relegation 2 seasons in a row.

Robertson can still happen on a free and I don’t think any manager we hire would be against it. Thats your Palhinha style signing where your paying big wages but not a huge fee. Then it’s 3 more players and the goalkeeper would be largely funded by a sale of Vicario who will bring in £25M+ worst case. Wouldn’t be against Ter Stegan on a 2 year deal and thats not a huge transfer fee. Then you spend big at DM & LW.
Did you fort to put a decimal place between the 2 and the 5 there? :D

(In all seriousness though I do think we might be able to scrape £15m for Vicario from an Italian club).
 
I would think Rodger’s wouldn’t accept being interim for the rest of the season. If the board want him it would be a 3 year contract. Can’t deny he plays good football but he’s always creeped me out, though I doubt that’s a factor the board are considering

He doesnt seem to be in the running for any jobs at this point in time. Come on and save Spurs looks good on the CV.
 
The only thing I would have an issue with if we appointed Poch again is that as far as I can remember(which isn`t too far to be fair) managers who return to clubs for a second spell rarely do well. The most recent exception is probably Moyes second spell at West Ham when he achieved a couple of top 8 finishes and won the conference league. Apart from that I can`t think of any others that have done well second time around.
Our main problem since we got to the Champions League final has been our recruitment. Our squad is very average. We sell world class players and replace them with the most average players. Is it any surprise Harry Kane left eventually. Over the years we have had some real quality players but have we kept them and tried to bring top quality players in? I am sick of us buying youngsters and hoping they come good. For me the exception recently is Archie Gray. Constantly played out of position in multiple different roles but he has mostly been good. The rest of them are average at best. I know we are decimated by injuries but the team that started last night would have struggled in the championship. I wasn`t a big fan of Ange but at least when we lost , we lost having a real go at the other team. At the final whistle last night I said to my boys I will be surprised if Frank does not get sacked in the morning. I know it was our "B" team but I really dont know where we go from here on. I think the only players from last night who would start if everyone was fit would be Vicario Van De Ven and Solanke and I would bet that 2 out of those 3 will not be here next season

Other than there being plenty of examples of returning managers doing well, what is the context behind the ones that don’t? It’s never just ‘the manager didn’t work’. What changed about the club? The players? The situation they were in?

I think Poch is perfect for us in the way that Zidane or Ancelotti are for Real. They just need a leader to manage the egos. But we need a culture to make younger players perform above their station. Jose is right for Chelsea under Roman because they cared purely about winning, not about style.

Poch should never have not been our manager. There should never have been a question of starting a second stint!
 
It has to be said that he managed us to heights that we hadn't been to in a long time or, barring one pot thanks to Ange, since.

The one caveat to this I have to flag is that he had young Kane, young dele and young Sonny. He also had two or three truly exceptional servants to the club in Vertonghen, Walker and Dembele.

We are not there now and if we were to take him back, it would need to be understood that it might take two years to get it right. Good luck getting that across to the modern day fan.
 
It has to be said that he managed us to heights that we hadn't been to in a long time or, barring one pot thanks to Ange, since.

The one caveat to this I have to flag is that he had young Kane, young dele and young Sonny. He also had two or three truly exceptional servants to the club in Vertonghen, Walker and Dembele.

We are not there now and if we were to take him back, it would need to be understood that it might take two years to get it right. Good luck getting that across to the modern day fan.
He'd definitely get a lot more grace from fans than almost anyone else I think.
 
So I checked the odds first thing this morning. It was De Zerbi at 5:4 and Poch at 10:1

I check this evening and it is 13/8 and 7/2.
 
It has to be said that he managed us to heights that we hadn't been to in a long time or, barring one pot thanks to Ange, since.

The one caveat to this I have to flag is that he had young Kane, young dele and young Sonny. He also had two or three truly exceptional servants to the club in Vertonghen, Walker and Dembele.

We are not there now and if we were to take him back, it would need to be understood that it might take two years to get it right. Good luck getting that across to the modern day fan.

Well, he didn't start with many of those players, and others who were here hadn't reached the levels they would in subsequent years.

Of the all conquering 2016-2017 team of Lloris, Walker, Verts, Toby, Rose, Dier, Dembele, Eriksen, Alli, Sonny and Kane - Dier, Toby, Alli and Sonny were bought under Poch.

Rose went from an underwhelming, always-on-loan left winger to one of the league's best left-backs. Dembele went from underperforming forward to utterly unpressable midfielder. Eriksen went from lightweight to unstoppable. Kane went from third-choice forward with some promise, to what he ended up being. Really only Lloris, Walker and Verts came in ready-made.

Point being, he carefully built and bought as many players as he inherited, if not more.

The one thing I will say is that the tactical environment in the league has changed from his heyday. He introduced the high press to the league, so there was a 2-3 year period where it utterly smothered everyone because no one had adapted to it.

Today everyone presses, and Poch's tactical approach may not have fully adapted to this. Apart from that, the generally magnificent recruitment between 2012 and 2016, I think, is more down to Edwards and Mitchell than Poch. But he improves players.
 
It has to be said that he managed us to heights that we hadn't been to in a long time or, barring one pot thanks to Ange, since.

The one caveat to this I have to flag is that he had young Kane, young dele and young Sonny. He also had two or three truly exceptional servants to the club in Vertonghen, Walker and Dembele.

We are not there now and if we were to take him back, it would need to be understood that it might take two years to get it right. Good luck getting that across to the modern day fan.
The things being said about our current squad not being good enough echoes what was being said the season before Poch came in. They were being said by the interim manager at the time, no less
 
The things being said about our current squad not being good enough echoes what was being said the season before Poch came in. They were being said by the interim manager at the time, no less

And it didn’t take Poch long to clear a load of the senior players out.
 
I could well see De Zerbi coming in till the summer. I wouldn't mind Rodgers till the summer either but seen he's gone to Saudi recently, doubt he'd come back for a short term gig.

I see I'm still the sole vote for McKenna - still think he's a good option.
 
This was Poch's first ever line-up remember

Screenshot_2019-06-11-Football-Formation-Creator-Make-Your-Team-and-Share-Tactics.png
 
Well, he didn't start with many of those players, and others who were here hadn't reached the levels they would in subsequent years.

Of the all conquering 2016-2017 team of Lloris, Walker, Verts, Toby, Rose, Dier, Dembele, Eriksen, Alli, Sonny and Kane - Dier, Toby, Alli and Sonny were bought under Poch.

Rose went from an underwhelming, always-on-loan left winger to one of the league's best left-backs. Dembele went from underperforming forward to utterly unpressable midfielder. Eriksen went from lightweight to unstoppable. Kane went from third-choice forward with some promise, to what he ended up being. Really only Lloris, Walker and Verts came in ready-made.

Point being, he carefully built and bought as many players as he inherited, if not more.

The one thing I will say is that the tactical environment in the league has changed from his heyday. He introduced the high press to the league, so there was a 2-3 year period where it utterly smothered everyone because no one had adapted to it.

Today everyone presses, and Poch's tactical approach may not have fully adapted to this. Apart from that, the generally magnificent recruitment between 2012 and 2016, I think, is more down to Edwards and Mitchell than Poch. But he improves players.
Sorry Dubai but this is rose tinted mate.

Dembele was bossing it in midfield for Fulham, the reason we signed him was that game vs United when he dominated their midfield. Kane was brought through by Sherwood and was already showing his potential replacing Soldaldo. Alli performed from day 1 so that’s on MK not Poch. Eriksen was smashing it for Ajax etc…

The only one I can genuinely say he improved was Sonny, but even that is caveated as his performance in Germany suggested it was always there and just needed to adapt to the PL .

Now it’s not Pochs fault we pretty much had a pre-built core prior to his arrival, he still had to recognise their potential and play them but to think of “Poch” players we have to think more Foyth/Ndombele/Lo Celso etc from a purchase perspective. Part of me want to bring Poch back with this team which is the complete opposite of the position last time just to see if he is really magic or not, but I don’t like it when the narrative of that 2016 team is changed to Poch brought/improved all these players and without him our squad was mid table only
 
This was Poch's first ever line-up remember

Screenshot_2019-06-11-Football-Formation-Creator-Make-Your-Team-and-Share-Tactics.png
His first league game was vs West Ham and the lineup was: Lloris/Naughton/Kaboul/Dier/Rose/Capoue/Bentaleb/lamela/Eriksen/lennon/Adebayor with Kane on as sub.

Verts was suspended or would have started, similar Dembele had a hamstring injury, Walker from Hernia Op and Sandro knee injury.

Not sure where you got the above from unless your counting pre-season friendly when our internationals are away
 
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