Ross County's Next Permanent Manager

[CALDERON]

7 minutes ago, staggy1929 said:

'Siege mentality' and 'prove the doubters wrong' both mentioned, We're finished.

Carbon copy of the pish he came out with when he joined us. 

[Rcfc fan]

Actually a good first interview , speaks well 

[yoda]

GUID HOANEST GOD FEERING PEEPUL UP IN EH HIGHLANDS.

[Highland Capital]

12 minutes ago, Rcfc fan said:

Actually a good first interview , speaks well 

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

They are guid hoanest hard workin peepul in Fore-rose

[Comrie]

I've got a horrible feeling this is going to all go Owen Coyle on us.

[vikingTON]

It's genuinely alarming - but no surprise - that the SFA were employing that braying moron as a tutor for up and coming coaches btw. A jobs for the boys gig par excellence.

Never change, Scottish football.

[ICTChris]

One of the guys in our group chat made the point today that when Hughes took over us we took a little while to get used to his style and suffered a few hammerings (5-0 and 6-0 to Celtic, 5-0 to United in the cup).  We had a very good squad though who were able to adapt and it came good but getting a job with that luxury is rare.

He took over on 4th December 2013 and our league record for the rest of that season was seven wins, eight draws and ten defeats.  If he replicated those percentrages for County for the rest of this season that'd be five wins, six draws and eight defeats, which would probably keep County up.  however, as said before, we had a team that was very settled, we had a spine that was established (Meekings-Warren, Draper, Mckay).  I don't think the current County squad is as good so it'll be harder for him to do it and he isn't a coach who can really adapt well.

 

[johnnydun]

I can't help but like John Hughes. Not as a manager mind you.

[Ric]

Got to say, that is a missed opportunity by the PR department not to interview him a few feet higher up so that the antlers on the crest would appear to be coming out of his own head.

[Forfinn]

3 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

One of the guys in our group chat made the point today that when Hughes took over us we took a little while to get used to his style and suffered a few hammerings (5-0 and 6-0 to Celtic, 5-0 to United in the cup).  We had a very good squad though who were able to adapt and it came good but getting a job with that luxury is rare.

He took over on 4th December 2013 and our league record for the rest of that season was seven wins, eight draws and ten defeats.  If he replicated those percentrages for County for the rest of this season that'd be five wins, six draws and eight defeats, which would probably keep County up.  however, as said before, we had a team that was very settled, we had a spine that was established (Meekings-Warren, Draper, Mckay).  I don't think the current County squad is as good so it'll be harder for him to do it and he isn't a coach who can really adapt well.

 

It's this, combined with failing to do with Raith what we've brought him in to do, which leaves me scratching my head over the decision-making process that's led to his appointment. If we get relegated it'll be thoroughly deserved.

[Staggie_93]

57 minutes ago, staggy1929 said:

'Siege mentality' and 'prove the doubters wrong' both mentioned, We're finished.

Christ almighty, we’re absolutely doomed

[LiviLion]

56 minutes ago, staggy1929 said:

'Siege mentality' and 'prove the doubters wrong' both mentioned, We're finished.

"It aw starts the morrow against Celtic"

Does he know the game isn't tomorrow?

[Biscuits]

Look on the bright side - it's not Stubbs.

[PauloPerth]

Been a while since I've seen this, probably not the best motivational speech I've ever heard, but I'll be surprised if he fails to get any reaction from the County players.

With the league being so tight between the bottom 8, you really don't need that much of an improvement, just someone who can organise and motivate and put out a team that can scrape points.

It could obviously go badly wrong and give us all a lot of amusement, but I think there's a fair chance County start to pick up a few points.

Nothing against County at all, but better them than us down there, and we don't look like getting many points for a few games,  so hopefully Celtic put a cricket score past them and deflate any optimism before they even get going.  And yes I'm disgusted with myself for having to say that.

[RawB93]

18 hours ago, staggy1929 said:

'Siege mentality' and 'prove the doubters wrong' both mentioned, We're finished.

"Seein the boays... very honest"

 

[UAE1929]

18 hours ago, staggy1929 said:

'Siege mentality' and 'prove the doubters wrong' both mentioned, We're finished.

X2

[Highland Capital]

To echo what some other ICT fans have said, it took Hughes a long time to really implement his style and he didn't really do it properly until 14-15 with a proper pre-season behind him.  There seems to be a misconception in some quarters that prior to his appointment, we played long ball ugly football.  Not true at all.  We'd finished 4th the previous season, missing out on Europe on the final day and were absolutely flying before Butcher went to Hibs - we were 2nd in the league for ages and made an uncharacteristic great start to the league season going about five or six games unbeaten until a narrow loss at Pittodrie.  This was all done playing exciting, attacking football.

Hughes came in and it was a big surprise, so much so that the Inverness Courier had already essentially confirmed Paul Hartley on their back page.  Originally Hughes was going to be co-manager with Paul Telfer before the latter pulled out.  Hughes claimed he wasn't going to change much but he did try and implement his style pretty early on and while we finished 5th that year it was a bit of an anti-climax considering how good we were at the start of that season.

Of course Hughes did inherit a really good squad of players and he added to it by bringing back Greg Tansey - a player who'd be been pretty mediocre under Butcher but fit Yogi's style perfectly.  He also turned Carl Tremarco from a hatchet man to a really solid attacking wing back.

Almost all our players from that period have absolutely raved about him - even ones like Nick Ross and David Raven who didn't seem to quite fit into his plans as much as they had under Butcher.  15-16 was probably a good example though of Yogi going bad.  He lost Ofere, Watkins, Shinnie and then Christie and while having a bigger budget than Butcher ever had, signed some absolute dross - Nat Wedderburn, Owain Fon Williams, Dani Lopez, Ryan Williams and Liam Hughes were mostly pish.  In terms of a coach, he's probably the best we've ever had.  As a recruiter, he was probably one of the worst.

He seemed to become a slave to the philosophy - sometimes it was like watching football in slow motion and we seemed terrified of losing possession.  Free-kicks in attacking positions would be passed back to the goalkeeper within a matter of seconds and counter-attacks would be stopped in their tracks by a player looking to pass the ball backwards or sideways when there were options ahead.

How will Hughes do at County?  Hmm I'm not sure.  As I've said, he needs a proper pre-season and he's not getting it.  I don't think he's the type of manager you throw in to try and stave off relegation.  He seems to look at clubs more as projects to play his style and that's not County's focus just now..

Edited December 22, 2020 by Highland Capital

[The Great Stagsby]

On 20/12/2020 at 23:37, Loki said:

McGregor managerial decisions:

Cooper - Great appointment, went stale and eventually sacked

Smith - absolutely disastrous, sacked on holiday LOL

Robertson - disaster, walked out

Scott Leitch - disaster, sacked as he relegated us

Dick Campbell - did well but a disaster behind the scenes, sacked top of the league LOL

Adams - great appointment, moved to Hibs as Assistant.

McStay - disaster, sacked for being utter shite

Calderwood - considered good only as the bar was so low with McStay, still didn't really achieve much despite a Challenge Cup win, short term contract.

Adams II: The Glory Years - again great appointment but went stale and sacked.

McIntyre: we won a league cup, but league form was like a yo yo, eventually sacked when we turned turgid.

Coyle: disaster - sacked

Fergie/Kettlewell - got us relegated but largely because of Coyle, won us the league, returned to Premier, slowly turned to shite when Jamie Lindsay went.  Fergie moved up stairs, Kettlewell sacked.

McGregor going back to Adams is only because it's about the only good decision he has made as a chairman in terms of managerial appointments.

The time period this summary spans coincides exactly with the time I have been following County. During that time we have gone from old 3rd division to 2 spells in the top flight, winning a few challenge cups (yeah, I know) and a League Cup along the way as well as making that Scottish Cup final. Probably not many other “diddies” have won as much as we have in that time. Adams may have been in charge for some of the best moments, but I personally wouldn’t ultimately summarise every managerial appointment other than him as disastrous, or sentiments to that effect.

ETA that’s not to say for a second that some of them haven’t definitely been disasters! Just to say that, during these past 20+ years we have had an awful lot of success, under various Roy MacGregor-appointed managers.

Edited December 22, 2020 by The Great Stagsby

[btb]

In this situation you either go for an "old lag" or an "up & comer" there didn't seem to be an outstanding up & comer and you're not gonna get an old lag who doesn't have a chequered record - speaking with my Saints head on let's hope it's Rover stylee Hughes rather than ICT.

Edited December 22, 2020 by btb