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Picking a successful manager
Posted by Jake on 20/9/2026, 07:49:41
Must be the hardest thing in football.
With success measured by reaching the playoffs, or Europe in the Premier and maybe a few avoiding relegation there are only about a quarter of the 92 managers that are deemed successful.
There are quite a few that seem to think our club are worse than others at picking Managers which just isn't true.
I'm not sure if Wilshere will go on to be a top manager it is too early to say, I think he would be better suited in the Championship or Premier with his style of play he needsto get there with more pragmatism first.
Last season he changed things when it wasn't working and we went on a good run, we can do that again. He is hungry and is learning his trade I think we need to be patient, he and the players want success the same as us.
It would be wreckless in my opinion to change the manager again .
I think you can safely say this club has proved that in the last 20 years or so. Might be reckless sacking Wilshere but you could argue it was also reckless not sacking Edwards after the Middlesbrough meltdown. I don't think the board will make that mistake again if things don't improve rapidly.
We’ve now got to ride it out and hope he adapts and comes good.
Just don’t agree with some of your early points though - not all clubs have had the incredible income we had. The best smaller clubs took advantage of that and we absolutely wasted the opportunity.
After the weak culture that Edwards wrecked us with, the last thing we needed were two inexperienced managers to sort it out. We didn’t need naive experiments, we needed wisdom, backbone and knowledge of how to stop the rot and perform in this league.
Not necessarily winning the league even but getting in the top 5 and being hard to beat. Not lightweight and fragile.
“Not necessarily winning the league even but getting in the top 5 and being hard to beat. Not lightweight and fragile”
The irony is that’s exactly what we were for the last 1/4 of last season. Which is why I’m genuinely surprised as to how uninspiring we’ve looked so far this season.
Odoffin looked like the leader we’d been missing, Palmer brought physicality and unreal skill and power in midfield, and wells had finally found his goal scoring touch.
Odoffin has been really off it so far this season, as has Palmer. Ashby and Kodua seem to be the only two players who look half decent. The break has come at a good time, everything changes last season after a two week break, so let’s hope the same thing happens.
I really don’t know but this pattern of letting managers do whatever they want to the squad and playing style, with no real Luton Town dna anymore, is unsustainable for sure.
Ultimately if we get pulled into a relegation scrap, we have a naive and inexperienced manager who is unlikely to get us out of it. So it would become untenable. We’re not there yet though.
What a mess.
Just should never have taken two punts on inexperienced managers. Has GS got a problem with working with experienced characters who might challenge him back? Something weird is going on that the board would allow two such experiments after the Edwards debacle.
...this pattern of letting managers do whatever they want to the squad and playing style, with no real Luton Town dna anymore, is unsustainable for sure.
This is a major issue. We keep changing managers and keep changing the style and we often need big recruitment drives to meet the different styles. Then a manager loses his job and it starts again
Look at Brentford. Andrews has taken over from Frank seamlessly because they have an identity/DNA/personality/style - whatever you want to call it. Brentford recruit managers and players that fit their style/DNA so a change isn't disruptive
Also, Luton way back when. Pleat left but we had our style and identity and John Moore and Ray Harford retained our identity and it was a smooth transition
When we were relegated back to the C'ship we should have gone back to Nathan Jones-ball but we thought that was beneath us by then. Hubris again
Brentford are a good example, as are Bournemouth and Brighton. All have had managerial and player turnover but stay true to knowing what’s going to make them successful.
Jones made us so hard to play against. Energy, athleticism, physicality and some decent attacking football at times too. As well the adaptability to be direct when needed.
I’ve lost total faith in the board and the executive’s football nouse and backbone. We’ve totally lost our identity and nobody is protecting it.
Would be great to go back to what we were under Jones and recruit managers and players on that basis. That should have been our identity (with tweaks and evolution at the right times) but Edwards and the club decided to rip it up in promotion to the prem. With Jones, the crowd were always involved and the atmosphere was usually good but, for 2 years now, the atmosphere has, largely, been shit because of the constant disappointment and failure and the largely tepid football
I agree that senior people at the club appear to have no idea how to stop the rot. The club doesn't seem to be in control of events and we're in a total mess
The double relegation is going to take years to recover from unless some fresh investment comes in and, even then, this is a ship that is going to be very difficult for anybody to turn around quickly
Not sure who was available at that point and it’s not my job - that’s what our CEO has become a millionaire for.
What I do know is the two we chose were far too inexperienced.
If we drift towards relegation now, then maybe we should start looking at people like:
Dave Challinor has earned his stripes Nigel Clough would make more of the resources and knows how to bring success Paul Heckington has a point to prove This obviously wouldn’t be popular and there’s an argument he’s not experienced enough (but far more than JW) - Tom Cleverley is about to put Plymouth right up there in our league.
Graham Alexander. Played for us and knows what we’re about and expect. Plays a similar style to NJ, keep clean sheets and nick 1-0 wins. He was mention by some fans before Bloomfailed and before Wilshere.
The brief would be someone who knows league 1 and league 2 inside out and some Championship experience, probably as a player and manager,and has promotions or at least play offs on his cv.
As we have been in free fall, this isn't a job for an inexperienced coach /manager trying to implement a style of play that doesn't suit the division.
Can you imagine someone like Neil Warnock starting a game with two 5ft 8inch central midfield players, two kids in wide midfield and a centre half who has no presence?
How would I know who was available or could have been bought out of their contract 12 months ago. The club employ professional people to do that, they have failed.
There weren’t many options at all. Same as there weren’t when Bloomfield was appointed.
People wanted Neil Warnock from 15 years ago. It’s a shame Sheffield United reinstated Wilder at the start of last season as I think he’d have been a realistic option.
If we had acted earlier with Edwards and sacked him after that Boro embarrassment in Nov 24, then Alex Neil was available
But, no, we acted too late and then doubled down on that mistake by making another with a 'clever', wacky appointment in Bloomfield
I watched the Millwall game in the pub yesterday, before our game, and I was thinking how they play is how we used to play... and is what we should go back to
I sort of get why Wilshere was appointed but it's clearly not working, although he should be given more time. The real mistake was sacking Edwards too late and then appointing Bloomfield
18th in the pyramid to 60th in 30 months is not Wilshere's fault
So what? I'm talking about style and attitude and what we used to be. Horrible to play against but also playing some decent stuff. It was a painful reminder of what we were not so long ago
They were up against West Ham, who are an anomaly in the Championship, and Millwall dominated the first half. We never looked like scoring against Bradford in Div 3. Although we wouldn't be in Div 3 if Neil (or someone like him) was appointed when we were a Championship side
I think we could’ve persuaded Robins to come here if we’d fired Edward’s earlier. I’m not convinced about Neil and how he’d have fitted in here, but I agree we definitely wouldn’t have been relegated with him in charge.
Part of me thinks we cut the cord on Wilshere as the crowd seems to be turning. But the other half of me thinks that’s ridiculous considering how good we were at the end of last season and the fact we’ve recruited with him in mind. I just don’t know, but Alan Sheehan is available and might be the type of person we need. Someone who can unite the fans and players. Eustace might be available soon as well.
Those names you mention are interesting but, again, it will involve ripping it all up when we've spent a summer recruiting for Wilshere's style
No identity and no strategy. Got a horrible feeling we'll become the Stoke of Div 3. They're always chopping and changing with zero long term planning and no defined identity
It took Sunderland four to bounce back. And Sheffield united the same I think. Yesterday was the most disappointing game of the season for me, even worse than Stevenage or Mansfield, because we were at home and just looked totally void of ideas. Hopefully he manages to turn it around in the international break in the same way he did last year.
Sunderland were a mess, off the pitch, when they were double relegated and then got taken over by those weirdos we saw on that Netflix show. They also lurched from one manager's playing style to another
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What you read on here is 100% conjecture, fiction, lies, bullshit and complete bollocks. If you want to be taken seriously, you are in the wrong place.
Enjoy. Admin contact - dilligaf.outlaws@gmail.com.
on 20/9/2026, 07:49:41