Kilmarnock's Next Permanent Manager

[Radford]

Not a good fit for me but we'll see what happens.

Killie are a club that have achieved a lot in the last few years in the league, so the bar is set high for what the fans will be hoping for. I think the expectations there are higher than in Perth (hence the change of manager in the first place) and suspect the fans will want more identity in their football. 

There were serious legacy issues but Dundee would have been a fit for him (although obviously no vacancy) and I actually think County would have suited him as well. 

Obviously the big city clubs but having seen the stamp that Callum Davidson has put on Saints, it kind of makes it clearer to me why he wasn't an attractive proposition to them.

His track record suggests he can do a job though, so we'll see. I was probably more sure than Derek McInnes would do well at Aberdeen than I am Tommy Wright at Killie though. 

[Nadroj]

Glad to see there’s still a lot of positive opinions about TW from saints fans. Given we probably have pretty similar budgets/expectations I’m quite excited to see what he can do once this shit show of a season is done. Hopefully we are still in the top league. 
 

Personally, I think this appointment is about 2 years too late. We should have tried to get him when Clarke left rather taking the ridiculous risk that was Alessio. It pleases me that despite being terrible just now, we are still a decent and appealing option for successful managers. 

[Nadroj]

Just now, Radford said:

Not a good fit for me but we'll see what happens.

Killie are a club that have achieved a lot in the last few years in the league, so the bar is set high for what the fans will be hoping for. I think the expectations there are higher than in Perth (hence the change of manager in the first place) and suspect the fans will want more identity in their football. 

There were serious legacy issues but Dundee would have been a fit for him (although obviously no vacancy) and I actually think County would have suited him as well. 

Obviously the big city clubs but having seen the stamp that Callum Davidson has put on Saints, it kind of makes it clearer to me why he wasn't an attractive proposition to them.

His track record suggests he can do a job though, so we'll see. I was probably more sure than Derek McInnes would do well at Aberdeen than I am Tommy Wright at Killie though. 

Honestly mate, our expectations are pretty low just now. If he can keep us up this season fans will love him. 
 

If he could regularly getting us pushing for top 6 then fans will be happy. We have had one and a half good seasons - we have no right to be picky just now imo. 

[Kyle]

1 minute ago, Nadroj said:

Glad to see there’s still a lot of positive opinions about TW from saints fans. Given we probably have pretty similar budgets/expectations I’m quite excited to see what he can do once this shit show of a season is done. Hopefully we are still in the top league. 
 

Personally, I think this appointment is about 2 years too late. We should have tried to get him when Clarke left rather taking the ridiculous risk that was Alessio. It pleases me that despite being terrible just now, we are still a decent and appealing option for successful managers. 

He’s a great manager, the best in our history. He won us our only major trophy, took us into Europe 4 times as manager and once as assistant and is responsible for our best ever sequence of finishes in the league. 

Get used to him constantly complaining about his budget and throwing the odd game to make a point the size of his squad to those upstairs. He’ll keep you up though and will no doubt improve you in the summer so it’s not an issue again next season. 
 

 

[Wilbur]

Kilmarnock shouldn't panic and make a hasty managerial appointment. I really can't see them being relegated this season. The automatic relegation spot will surely go to either Ross County or Hamilton, I can't envisage both of them going on a run of victories, so the worst possible outcome for Kilmarnock should be 11th. If that should be the case I'd be confident that Killie will be able to see off their play-off opposition since the Championship has no quality below Hearts.

 

[RandomGuy.]

17 minutes ago, Nadroj said:

I wonder that about any manager at this stage in the season given how absolutely awful we are. Even if he doesn’t change us around and worst case scenario we go down - I’d much rather have someone with his experience and success in Scotland rather than the alternatives such as Pressley, McIntyre etc. 
 

Wright seems like a very good option from a pretty awful bunch. 

He's by far the best option, especially if Pressley was involved. Absolutely the best decision Kilmarnock could make to hire him.

I'm just not entirely sure how quickly he can turn you lot around. We had some horrendous runs under him, especially when he was trying to figure out his best team/line up, and the season is short for him now.

He was sort of lucky with us that he always had a reliable, trusty, base to fall back on. Last season a fine example. We fucked about with player here, there, everywhere as he tried to wedge Swanson in, we sat near the bottom, then he brought Liam Craig in against you lot, slogged to a win, and that got us going. Its not a popular opinion but Hendrys goals last season saved us from a relegation battle, and no striker will match his rate of scoring at our level again (it was the best of any striker over 800 mins in the past 6 seasons in the entire division).

I don't know how it'll go, but he had plenty of rough spells/seasons as manager of us that have been forgotten, and it was simply patience by our board that allowed him through that. He has 11 games to get it right for you.

Edited February 7, 2021 by RandomGuy.

[Nadroj]

Just now, Kyle said:

He’s a great manager, the best in our history. He won us our only major trophy, took us into Europe 4 times as manager and once as assistant and is responsible for our best ever sequence of finishes in the league. 

Get used to him constantly complaining about his budget and throwing the odd game to make a point the size of his squad to those upstairs. He’ll keep you up though and will no doubt improve you in the summer so it’s not an issue again next season. 
 

 

Re the complaining about the board. Obviously it would eventually grow a bit tiring but to be honest someone that isn’t afraid to speak his mind and rock the boat a bit sounds quite appealing. After a season of listening to Alex Dyer, who literally was the most placid yes man ever, it would be quite nice to get a big nasty moany b*****d in. Hopefully he gives players like Power, Dicker etc a few home truths as well. 

[Kyle]

2 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

He's by far the best option, especially if Pressley was involved. Absolutely the best decision Kilmarnock could make to hire him.

I'm just not entirely sure how quickly he can turn you lot around. We had some horrendous runs under him, especially when he was trying to figure out his best team/line up, and the season is short for him now.

He was sort of lucky with us that he always had a reliable, trusty, base to fall back on. Last season a fine example. We fucked about with player here, there, everywhere as he tried to wedge Swanson in, we sat near the bottom, then he brought Liam Craig in against you lot, slogged to a win, and that was going. Its not a popular opinion but Hendrys goals last season saved us from a relegation battle last season, and no striker will match his rate of scoring at our level again (it was the best of any striker over 800 mins in the past 6 seasons in the entire division).

I don't know how it'll go, but he had plenty of rough spells/seasons as manager of us that have been forgotten, and it was simply patience by our board that allowed him through that. He has 11 games to get it right for you.

Plenty of rough seasons? His worst finish with us was 8th and he only failed to finish in the top 6 twice. I think that says more about people’s expectations than it does about Wright as a manager to be honest! 
 

No argument about some of the runs of results. Winless runs were common place, but so were 5 or 6 wins in a row. There’s barely a record that Tommy Wright and his team didn’t break in his time with us. 

[Nadroj]

4 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

He's by far the best option, especially if Pressley was involved. Absolutely the best decision Kilmarnock could make to hire him.

I'm just not entirely sure how quickly he can turn you lot around. We had some horrendous runs under him, especially when he was trying to figure out his best team/line up, and the season is short for him now.

He was sort of lucky with us that he always had a reliable, trusty, base to fall back on. Last season a fine example. We fucked about with player here, there, everywhere as he tried to wedge Swanson in, we sat near the bottom, then he brought Liam Craig in against you lot, slogged to a win, and that got us going. Its not a popular opinion but Hendrys goals last season saved us from a relegation battle, and no striker will match his rate of scoring at our level again (it was the best of any striker over 800 mins in the past 6 seasons in the entire division).

I don't know how it'll go, but he had plenty of rough spells/seasons as manager of us that have been forgotten, and it was simply patience by our board that allowed him through that. He has 11 games to get it right for you.

I don’t think anyone at Killie - fans, board and players - are under any illusion as to how big a job he has on his hands with us. If he fucks up the 11 games and we go down, so be it. He won’t be blamed as it wasn’t him that got us into this mess, so in a way, the pressure is kinda off him imo. 
 

Time will tell. 

[HibsFan]

44 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

TW taking the Killie job pretty much confirms how little interest there actually was for him, sadly.

Can he really achieve more than a Cup win, regular top half finishes and Europe with them?

Add in his vocal hatred of plastic pitches, and having to work under a DOF figure, and this all feels a bit desperate from him tbh, simply to get back into a job.

Interested to see how it all unfolds.

He'll be managing at a significantly bigger club and won't have to contend with the jilted bride types like your good self.

[RandomGuy.]

6 minutes ago, Kyle said:

Plenty of rough seasons? His worst finish with us was 8th and he only failed to finish in the top 6 twice. I think that says more about people’s expectations than it does about Wright as a manager to be honest! 
 

No argument about some of the runs of results. Winless runs were common place, but so were 5 or 6 wins in a row. There’s barely a record that Tommy Wright and his team didn’t break in his time with us. 

Technically we didn't finish top 6 in any of his last 3 seasons, as it was only PPG that put us 6th, not actual points gained. Only 8 wins in 29 games.

We'd been getting progressively worse for years and last season was the pinnacle of that. Hendry turning into the best striker over the past decade for a few months helped us more than folk want to admit, but accept I'm pretty much entirely on my own with that as it was discussed months ago.

He was undoubtedly our best manager ever, in our best top flight run ever, but he walked into a club with a great base and built on that through patience and hard work, both from him and those above him. He's got 11 games to sort Kilmarnock out, and is walking into a really unbalanced squad. I suspect he'll try and build around Dicker/Power, and make McKenzie his Wotherspoon, but it all feels like downgrades of what he had when starting off with us.

[Radford]

18 minutes ago, Kyle said:

Plenty of rough seasons?

In arguably his final three seasons, he was fortunate the board had far more patience and faith than some supporters, no? 

For everyone that was happy to judge him in May, there were those that had the knives out much earlier?

Tommy Wright was a good fit for Saints but Saints were a good fit for him too. I think we realise that, maybe he will come to as well over the next little while. 

Edited February 7, 2021 by Radford

[craigkillie]

30 minutes ago, Radford said:

Not a good fit for me but we'll see what happens.

Killie are a club that have achieved a lot in the last few years in the league, so the bar is set high for what the fans will be hoping for. I think the expectations there are higher than in Perth (hence the change of manager in the first place) and suspect the fans will want more identity in their football.

Steve Clarke didn't really have an identity, unless winning all the time and bending it up the Old Firm counts as an identity. We're not a big enough club to have a specific identity or way to play, our three biggest periods of success in my lifetime (Williamson, Mixu/first year of Shiels and Clarke) have come with three totally different styles of play and general outlooks on the game.

I actually think it is a really obvious fit because I'd say there are a lot of similarities between Saints and Killie off the pitch, and on the pitch the squad we have is not a million miles away from the type of squad he used to have with you. We have Broadfoot, Findlay, Dicker and Power, which is a strong spine, even if Findlay and Power have both had slightly ropey seasons by their standards, and then we have other experienced guys like Burke and McKenzie who are good tactical players and can execute instructions well.

The DOF stuff is probably not a big deal, because I feel like Fowler will be happy to let him do his own thing in terms of running the club. Clarke was certainly given that free reign, though we didn't explicitly have someone in Fowler's role then I suppose.

[Ric]

The biggest oddity for me is the plastic pitch thing, as Wright has been very vocal about in the past. Is there any chance that Killie return to a grass pitch?

Edited February 7, 2021 by Ric

[Lang Toon Saintee]

TW is a bit of a throwback and is very much an Alpha Male..Your board are not in for an an easy ride as he knows exactly what he wants and will fight to get it.He is a bit of a creature of habit so I would expect him to target a few players who have played for him before and I would not be at all surprised if there was a Saints connection as his assistant.He is a great man manager and brings out the best in players but he also makes a few dreadful signing..

[RossBFaeDundee]

A team in freefall with no ability to retool the squad on a type of pitch he supposedly hates? It really makes TW seem far more desperate than I thought he was. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

[craigkillie]

1 minute ago, Ric said:

The biggest oddity for me is the plastic pitch thing, as Wright have been very vocal about in the past. Is there any chance that Killie return to a grass pitch?

It seems unlikely to me. Wright just strikes me as a perennial moaner, he chucks out lots of throwaway complaints about whatever is going through his head at the time but it doesn't mean he necessarily cares deeply about these things.

[RandomGuy.]

1 minute ago, craigkillie said:

It seems unlikely to me. Wright just strikes me as a perennial moaner, he chucks out lots of throwaway complaints about whatever is going through his head at the time but it doesn't mean he necessarily cares deeply about these things.

Tbf he spoke pretty much every season about hating plastic pitches.

You can find comments about that from 2013 to 2019.

[Ric]

2 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

It seems unlikely to me. Wright just strikes me as a perennial moaner, he chucks out lots of throwaway complaints about whatever is going through his head at the time but it doesn't mean he necessarily cares deeply about these things.

What state is the plastic pitch in? Forgive my ignorance but do they need replaced after a certain time?

[Jacksgranda]

2 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

It seems unlikely to me. Wright just strikes me as a perennial moaner, he chucks out lots of throwaway complaints about whatever is going through his head at the time but it doesn't mean he necessarily cares deeply about these things.

He's a Ballymena man...

(He's not really, but close enough.)