Next Manager Thread (2026 Edition)

[Modrical]

The club needs a manage to unify everyone again
That’s a huge huge task
Poch wasn’t that guy before he joined
But he 100% was when he was here (if that makes any sense)
I do think Ariola could do it but I’m sure we’re going back in for Poch

I agree, but i also thought Frank would unify the club as he was/is respectable towards everyone (Ange definitely unified the club as well at the beginning, but that is for another thread).

Iraola would be riskier, he will no doubt get a bigger job soon (could see him at Palace), and the easy win is Poch. Poch would at least get us feeling something positive to this circus of a football club in the short term - what a low bar we are striving for.

 

[tommysvr]

I really like him
Went off him because of the injuries
Then realised his squad was tiny and he was still getting an tune out of them
Said it when they played us off the park in his first season he is the new Poch
Even his background is very, very similar

Once the decision to fire Ange was made, Iraiola was the only logical Premier League proven appointment that was available. A continuation of what we had, with the remit of making us more consistent.

That the board skipped over him and went for Frank is just mind boggling. A purely emotional decision on trying to find a pragmatist to right all our wrongs. Like getting proven winners in Mourinho and Conte was supposed to be the magic bullet to heal the post-CL final woes. Short cuts at every step, no vision for what they want the club to be.

 

[robp135]

I'm still in the Andoni Iraola camp. No one else no? Fair enough.

Ange 2.0

 

[Gutter Boy]

Ange 2.0

His teams are more balanced. And he's proven at getting teams punching above their weight in the EPL.

He'd be my second choice if we can't get the original and the best (Poch)

 

[Mr Gogolak]

It's unusual, but I think, right now, the choice of the next manager is fairly irrelevant.

There are huge problems everywhere at the club, from top to bottom. Whoever takes the hotseat next season won't last much longer than those who came before him if we don't sort our transfer policy, kick the players with massive egos (or at least players whose egos don't match their ability) out of the club and reassess our expectations (when you finish in the bottom 5 two seasons in a row, there's no point in talking about Europe or Top 6).

Once this has been done (spoiler: it won't happen) and we have a squad of honest, hard-working players, then we can focus on getting a decent manager, who plays the kind of football we want. There ain't two ways about it: at best, we're back at the very beginning of the ENIC cycle, so there's no point in appointing a manager who'll get us competiting from trophies. It won't happen in the short-term. What we need is someone who will bring people around a modest but entertaining project.

 

[robp135]

His teams are more balanced. And he's proven at getting teams punching above their weight in the EPL.

He'd be my second choice if we can't get the original and the best (Poch)

He benefits from not being in Europe. Would do amazing next season without it if we’re still in the prem….and haven’t won Champions League

But then the team will fall apart the following season.

 

[robp135]

It's unusual, but I think, right now, the choice of the next manager is fairly irrelevant.

There are huge problems everywhere at the club, from top to bottom. Whoever takes the hotseat next season won't last much longer than those who came before him if we don't sort our transfer policy, kick the players with massive egos (or at least players whose egos don't match their ability) out of the club and reassess our expectations (when you finish in the bottom 5 two seasons in a row, there's no point in talking about Europe or Top 6).

Once this has been done (spoiler: it won't happen) and we have a squad of honest, hard-working players, then we can focus on getting a decent manager, who plays the kind of football we want. There ain't two ways about it: at best, we're back at the very beginning of the ENIC cycle, so there's no point in appointing a manager who'll get us competiting from trophies. It won't happen in the short-term. What we need is someone who will bring people around a modest but entertaining project.

Can’t agree with this. I know it’s difficult to hear but we’ve basically gone from having one man running every major part of the club apart from coaching the team. Eve with transfers, in reality aside from a brief period under Arnesen and to an extent Paratici, he was running that as well with scouts feeding up to him.

To expect the club to turn that around in a 6 month period and have everything working exactly as it needs to be is not realistic and for the most part we’re judging that on results on the field and a single transfer window in January.

Beyond that, if you look at any of the successful teams during the Premiership era they have also have an Manager that’s the main man at the club. Ferguson, Dalglish, Wenger, Mourinhio, Pep, Klopp and now legohead of they don’t bottle it. The DofF in all cases were subservient to them. Even for our club Redknapp & Pochettino were the clear #1.

 

[Ace Face]

The club needs a manage to unify everyone again
That’s a huge huge task
Poch wasn’t that guy before he joined
But he 100% was when he was here (if that makes any sense)
I do think Ariola could do it but I’m sure we’re going back in for Poch

Agree on Poch. I think we’re in a moment where we should minimize any risks with our next managerial appointment, and that for me is Poch, or someone of his ilk.

Iraola is a fine manager, and I would be fine with him taking over, but is a second choice for this reason.

 

[Mr Gogolak]

Can’t agree with this. I know it’s difficult to hear but we’ve basically gone from having one man running every major part of the club apart from coaching the team. Eve with transfers, in reality aside from a brief period under Arnesen and to an extent Paratici, he was running that as well with scouts feeding up to him.

To expect the club to turn that around in a 6 month period and have everything working exactly as it needs to be is not realistic and for the most part we’re judging that on results on the field and a single transfer window in January.

Beyond that, if you look at any of the successful teams during the Premiership era they have also have an Manager that’s the main man at the club. Ferguson, Dalglish, Wenger, Mourinhio, Pep, Klopp and now legohead of they don’t bottle it. The DofF in all cases were subservient to them. Even for our club Redknapp & Pochettino were the clear #1.

Pochettino obvious disagreed with his 'I'm just a coach' comment. We've had Mourinho and Conte at the club in recent years. Make of them what you will, but I think most people would agree that they don't take no brick from no one and yet... did it make any difference? Not really, it didn't. In my opinion, you can try whoever you like Iraola, Silva, Ancelotti, Tuchel... it will always end up the same.

Our squad is full of over rated players, some of them with inflated egos, our wage structure puts shackles on our transfer policy and our transfer policy is completely outdated. I'd argue it's back to what it was in the 90s, considering we at least managed to identify some quality players in the turn of the century, before stumbling on a group of great young players (and one of the best strikers of all time).

Brighton and Brentford are good examples of very well-run clubs. It doesn't mean we could apply the same recipe at Spurs and become an instant success but they scout players that are gettable (no point in trying to sign Semenyo once City were in for him for instance) and they sell them a clear and believable project. They also put a lot of consideration into their targets' mentality.

And then there's also the small matter of our medical department...

Is it possible to turn everything around in 6 months? Probably not, I agree. But at the very least, we have to show signs that we're moving in the right direction. For me, focusing on the next manager means 'we've got a good squad (lol), everything's fine at the club, we just need the right guy to get back where we belong'. In my opinion, this guy doesn't exist; it's beyond asking for a miracle.

 

[robp135]

Pochettino obvious disagreed with his 'I'm just a coach' comment. We've had Mourinho and Conte at the club in recent years. Make of them what you will, but I think most people would agree that they don't take no brick from no one and yet... did it make any difference? Not really, it didn't. In my opinion, you can try whoever you like Iraola, Silva, Ancelotti, Tuchel... it will always end up the same.

Our squad is full of over rated players, some of them with inflated egos, our wage structure puts shackles on our transfer policy and our transfer policy is completely outdated. I'd argue it's back to what it was in the 90s, considering we at least managed to identify some quality players in the turn of the century, before stumbling on a group of great young players (and one of the best strikers of all time).

Brighton and Brentford are good examples of very well-run clubs. It doesn't mean we could apply the same recipe at Spurs and become an instant success but they scout players that are gettable (no point in trying to sign Semenyo once City were in for him for instance) and they sell them a clear and believable project. They also put a lot of consideration into their targets' mentality.

And then there's also the small matter of our medical department...

Is it possible to turn everything around in 6 months? Probably not, I agree. But at the very least, we have to show signs that we're moving in the right direction. For me, focusing on the next manager means 'we've got a good squad (lol), everything's fine at the club, we just need the right guy to get back where we belong'. In my opinion, this guy doesn't exist; it's beyond asking for a miracle.

Brighton & Brentford are well run over achieving mid table clubs. We should be looking to the well run clubs that win titles. In almost all cases the manager is clearly the #1.

 

[Mr Gogolak]

Brighton & Brentford are well run over achieving mid table clubs. We should be looking to the well run clubs that win titles. In almost all cases the manager is clearly the #1.

I'm not sure there's such a thing as a well-run club that wins titles. The UEFA rankings read:
Real
Bayern
Inter
Liverpool
Emirates Marketing Project
PSG
Barcelona
Arsenal
Bayer Leverkusen
Dortmund

Real, City, PSG, Bayern and Barcelona aren't well-run: they just have access to a bottomless pit of money.

PSG and Bayern are in a monopoly situation in their leagues. Arsenal, Leverkusen and Dortmund hardly win any title.

That leaves us with Liverpool and possibly Inter (although I don't follow Italian football at all these days so I can't really comment on that). I'm not really sure there's a model there. Liverpool just signed Klopp and he was very successful. That's the past 10 years or so for them.

To be honest, I'm not sure I'm following your line of thought (it's not a dig at all): we should just sign a good manager and let him do his stuff then?

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I agree, but i also thought Frank would unify the club as he was/is respectable towards everyone (Ange definitely unified the club as well at the beginning, but that is for another thread).

Iraola would be riskier, he will no doubt get a bigger job soon (could see him at Palace), and the easy win is Poch. Poch would at least get us feeling something positive to this circus of a football club in the short term - what a low bar we are striving for.

Frank could have if he understood where he was at
He didn’t get Tottenham
Not sure how or why
He was almost talking as a novice but then in reality he hasn’t had much management experience

 

[robp135]

Frank could have if he understood where he was at
He didn’t get Tottenham
Not sure how or why
He was almost talking as a novice but then in reality he hasn’t had much management experience

I suspect that Frank was given a different remit to what’s vocalised to the fans. He was probably told the most important thing was for the club to be back in the Champions League next season. The way to do that would be playing pragmatic football. And it worked the first 2 months of the season. We were 4th place on November 1st with our first choice Striker missing. 2 more points we would have been 2nd. But the Chelsea & Arsenal fans turned the fanbase and the players.

 

[P.D.]

They sold almost their entire defence last summer. He is building a defence from scratch this season so not surprising they may look a little disjointed. Still better than ours have looked.

Very true but I don't think he was a great organiser before that, certainly seems to improve players. I'm not against him. Like it or not I think they'll try for Poch but it will end up in tears, he also won't join till quite late in pre season, even if the US go out in the quarters he won't be here until early July at best.

 

[Bullet]

I think/hear Iraola makes his players run huge distances and they get injured a lot, even though they only play once a week because they are not in Europe nor the domestic cups.

I don't know if that is fair/true, but that is my concern. Playing midweek games every week is a TOTALLY different kettle of fish, something that the likes of Thomas Frank and Iraola would not know.

I fear Iraola would be left with 3 fit players.

The next manager needs to have experience of midweek European games, it is a brutal turnaround every few days. I am aware of the irony we won't have European games next season.