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Fact - In recent decades Swindon have always performed best under a manager given his first chance at management
Fact - Those managers have all started as player managers
Question - Who could be Swindon's NEXT successful player-manager?

I'm going to think the unthinkable and suggest ... Tommy Mooney!
OK, I know he went to the Pox but, in my opinion he would bring grit and determination to the team. He has the experience and the passion and I think he could build a team who are fit, energetic, reasonably skillfull and tough enough to bully their way out of whichever division we find ourselves in next season.

Other points in his favour are that he lives locally and he would be within the club's budget!

Comments please

Paul Smith would be better in my opinion.

i'd rather stick seering hot needles up my japseye than see mooney as player/manager.

and i'd rather stick seering hot needles up my japseye than see iffy here next season.

mooney is a poor suggestion. but yes your right i think a player manager would be a good move. but it needs to be someone who has played at the very top in this country ala hoddle or someone similar. sheringham would be my choice but we couldnt afford him. however someone like him may be willing to come here if we give him his first shot at management.

the most important thing is the guy HAS to have top class contacts. sheringham certainly has that attribute, just think of the number of top clubs hes played for!

Sherringham would be a great choice but I was trying to think of people we could actually afford!

Mooney has played at a high(ish) level, (albeit not a premiership star) and has certainly been around and has lots of contacts. If he could transfer even a little of his drive and enthusiam for the game to some of our players I'm sure he'd get more from the club than we've seen for some time.

We are no longer in the market for names like Hoddle and Macari. Our budget simply wouldn't stretch that far.

i'd appoint peacock if anyone.

city had huge success with brian tinnion after all.

Yep let's slag off Tinnion Iffy's proved him wrong  :roll:

going back 30ish years...



only ossie ardilles, lou macari, glenn hoddle bought any success to the club in their first managerial role.

on the other hand, you've got iffy onuora (relegated), john gorman (relegated), steve mcmahon (cunt), ken beamish (lowest ever league finish) and john trollope (only previous relegation to bottom division)



ardilles only played two games for us, macari 12 league appearance in promotion season. hoddle however definitely fits the criteria for both.

"only ossie ardilles, lou macari, glenn hoddle bought any success to the club in their first managerial role. "
"ardilles only played two games for us, macari 12 league appearance in promotion season. hoddle however definitely fits the criteria for both."

So my original statement was right. They were all first-time managers and they started as player-managers. The other first-timers you listed didn't start with a playing role.

And you seem to be forgetting that even though he was a prat we did actually WIN a title under McMahon, (or doesn't that count because you didn't like him?).

kevin horlock it is then  :D

it depends on how much of an effect you think a player/manager brings to a team through their presence on the pitch. hoddle for instance was arguably the main reason we achieved promotion to the premiership, whereas ardilles' impact as a player was minimal. macari was inbetween the two.

i was only 10 years old in 95/96, but to my understanding the team we had was far too good for that league and the only reason we were in that league was due to the mismanagement of mcmahon and the fact he was an utter cunt.

That's true but if we're going to be ultra pedantic you did say that



which the youthster was trying to point out was incorrect. 2 appearances hardly accounts as player manager really.

You thought wrong then....95/96 was McMahons first full season in charge...and he won us the league...

although he is a cunt....selling Fjortoft for 1.3million....

we were doing alright until mcmahon flogged fjortoft because he didn't like his style of play.

that said, i was about 9 years old and more interested in riding my bike around my village and learning to ride with no hands.

Peacock would be a good one :D

Steve Claridge ?

It was a strange season that one.  We started well until Kevin Morris' suicide, when we dropped at an incredible rate of knots.  Gorman's reign came to an end after a 3-2 loss at Ashton Gate where we sang, 'We're shit, and we're going down'.

McMoan was brought in and it seemed got them playing with a bit more fight, although we had more luck in the cup than the league.  Then after Bolton came from 3-1 down to win 4-3 on that cold night in Lancashire, Fjortoft was supposed to have jokingly sung 'take me away' or something in that vein, and that was effectively the end of him at the club.  I remember going to the Baseball Ground just before transfer deadline day and realising he was off as he didn't make the team.

Then listening to a personal stereo at school and finding out we'd got £1.3 million and a left-back called Jason Drysdale.  The club obviously figured with Thorne scoring they didn't need another striker, and after Chris Hamon was left out in the cold(supposedly for taking loads of pain killers before the pompey match and being in no fit state to play), we played one up front and he was kicked all over the place every game.

In the final game of the season we beat Notts County 3-0 at home in front of a crowd of about 6,500, and I remember thinking how terribly empty the ground looked :D

I remember the first home game after we sold him, the 9. shirt on the back of the program was empty...no one knew he was going to play

announcer: number 9...Martin Ling

Some guy a few rows in front got up and shouted 'I didnt come all the way from burney to watch martin fucking ling play upfront' then he walked off.....but came back and watched the game

Can't see it happening to be honest.

Has to be the right calibre of player sufficient to punch well above their weight on the pitch and still have the right manager’s personality for the job.  

The ideal candidate has to be someone with recent top flight experience who is going to still cut the mustard yet at that age where they’re looking to hang up their boots in a season or two.  Ideally I’d say that has to be someone coming from a Premiership/Championship club and willing to take a massive pay cut and potentially lose out on a year or two of salary they could have earned by carrying on playing at that level.

Because of the financial gulf the chances of tempting someone to drop down of the right calibre is virtually nil nowadays.  

Take Garry Speed at Bolton.  Fits the profile of intelligent, hard working, committed and coming to perhaps his last season or two in the top flight.  Yet one more season at Bolton is going to earn him the equivalent of 15 years salary that he’d get managing ourselves, Sheringham would likely be closer to 20.

 When JAF left, Mcmahon had set up a deal to sign Ian Marshall as a front man....it fell through, over some wrangle, probably to do with money.

 Marshall at the time cut a bit of a comical figure, so it didn't seem so bad, in fact he went on to play effectively at a high level.

 Gorman's 2nd season time was ruined by the loss of Ross McClaren....he brought him back for that Shitty game bit like Iffy yesterday with Paul Smith, when clearly unfit , just in the hope they might be able to influence a game by organisation.

i remember us trying to sign marshall! i also remember him scoring a few that season as well

Well if we were to get a different manager, we need someone who is a disciplinarian (kinky) but yeah someone who will make sure the players are fit as hell and will give 110%. Of course that is what you hope any manager would want, but saying it and actually getting the players to do so is a totally different matter.

In fact I think we'd do well to get someone in with knowledge of the lower leagues, who knows the kind of players we will need, like bruisers in central defence. I think it was Michael Bridges who said the work done by Paul Simpson was so impressive because the commitment of the his players and the levels of fitness at the club.

It seems there's quite a lot of support for the idea of getting Paul Ince in as Manager.

Might be nice if the bedget could stretch that far and if he was interested. What does everyone else think?

http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=381507&plid=1853&clid=39&cpid=

From this it appears he's playing on for another season with Wolves so not going to happen, even if the board etc were interested.

 Sorry, but its just thisis looneys at their worst

How much is Ince on?  

Got to around the 15k a week mark it's the equivalent of asking a teacher to give up their job and  do a paper round.  

As committed as I'd be to shuffling papers through letter boxes and reading the Sport in a hedge would someone taking such a huge drop in salary have the right commitment?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/bolton_wanderers/4854424.stm



Nice suggestion old boy

Why thank you old chum you have the makings of a BBC website journo

Well, if we're streching the budget, what about Eriksson - he'll be at a loose end after the summer  :D


Erm for the irony deficient, no I'm not seriously suggesting the Ulrika Shrieker as manager, just saying it's about as likely, budget-wise.

Scotty Leitch, just been given a role at Motherwell and wouldn;t take any shit off anyone!

Ross County boss

I understand that Alan Shearer doesn't want to be manager at Newcastle just yet. You reckon he'd be interested in learning his trade down here at Swindon for a bit now that there's some money in the bank? :wink:

http://mickeyhazardwasgod.forumup.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=9&mforum=mickeyhazardwasgod

Enough said!