The 'Vitor Matos' Managerial Thread

[Bob]

Difficulty with such appointments is that, if it goes tits up - everybody annoyed with all.
If a half succesful season, Leeds or some other crappy previously ok team will poach in 12 months.

As long as he doesn’t play 5 at the back, I’m fully on board

 

[theallseeingdai]

If this is true, it's so odd that I'm not even sure what to say about it. We'd be hiring someone primarily on the basis that Jurgen Klopp used to park his car in the same car park. Makes Sheehan look like a 30 year managerial veteran.

Still, it's true that managerial appointments are a complete crapshoot, so f*ck it, let's do it and hope we've struck oil on this one. If not, I think Gorringe and his crew will be told to clear their desks.

If they fook this up we'll be rebuilding in league one. Huge gamble

 

[swan65split]

First time I’ve seen him…great hair, beard ….whats not to like, I’m in

My frst thought.....its RM , bubble in "tonight Mathew I am........."

 

[Cyberswan]

How Jurgen Klopp described Vitor Matos will excite Swansea City fans as talks advance

The Swans' prime target has received some extreme compliments from his ex-Liverpool colleague over time

footballleagueworld.co.uk

 

[J_B]

Difficulty with such appointments is that, if it goes tits up - everybody annoyed with all.
If a half succesful season, Leeds or some other crappy previously ok team will poach in 12 months.

As long as he doesn’t play 5 at the back, I’m fully on board

Nothing wrong with playing 5 at the back with the right players because it's actually 3 at the back when we're in possession.
The 2 are arguably the most important players in the team though because they're got to be super fit and talented for it to work.

 

[ARQS]

If they fook this up we'll be rebuilding in league one. Huge gamble

I appreciate this is pessimistic but I look at the bottom of the table and how we've performed this season and I do wonder if this is the season we go down. Or at least come very close.

You wouldn't be surprised to see Sheffield United and probably Norwich drag themselves out of where they currently are. The usual strugglers, Stoke, Derby, Hull, to a lesser degree Preston are all 6-10 points above us. Charlton (ie the worst placed promoted clubs) are 6 points ahead of us too and the other two newly promoted clubs have more points, more about them and financial power in January.

When you look at the table, it doesn't take too much of a stretch to see us down there with Oxford, Portsmouth, maybe Blackburn, fighting for 2 relegation slots.

Every metric you want to use pretty much has us down as being crap. Eyes, stats, the fact we've only beaten the bottom 3 and the team currently in 19th (and none of them very convincingly)

Unless this guy has something that none of us are aware of (maybe he interviewed for the job after Williams went?), then it seems absolutely mental appointment.

 

[CurtessECarr]

He has to have our full support! Seasoned managers are not always the answer. If they were there wouldn't be as many of them losing their jobs as regularly as they do.

 

[J_B]

He has to have our full support! Seasoned managers are not always the answer. If they were there wouldn't be as many of them losing their jobs as regularly as they do.

He has my full support but I still think it's a massive unnecessary gamble. All appointments are a gamble but some are bigger gambles than others.
I can think that and support him at the same time. They're not mutually exclusive stances.

 

[Swansea93]

Remember Jurgen Klopp rated Yan Dhanda.

 

[sit_down_jack]

I appreciate this is pessimistic but I look at the bottom of the table and how we've performed this season and I do wonder if this is the season we go down. Or at least come very close.

You wouldn't be surprised to see Sheffield United and probably Norwich drag themselves out of where they currently are. The usual strugglers, Stoke, Derby, Hull, to a lesser degree Preston are all 6-10 points above us. Charlton (ie the worst placed promoted clubs) are 6 points ahead of us too and the other two newly promoted clubs have more points, more about them and financial power in January.

When you look at the table, it doesn't take too much of a stretch to see us down there with Oxford, Portsmouth, maybe Blackburn, fighting for 2 relegation slots.

Every metric you want to use pretty much has us down as being crap. Eyes, stats, the fact we've only beaten the bottom 3 and the team currently in 19th (and none of them very convincingly)

Unless this guy has something that none of us are aware of (maybe he interviewed for the job after Williams went?), then it seems absolutely mental appointment.

I don’t think things are quite that bleak. I think we have good enough players that if we can even remotely improve our attacking output this season and retain a reasonable defensive solidity, we’ll be comfortably midtable. Sadly I think that’s all this season will be despite all the excitement of the summer.

 

[jackharris]

Remember Jurgen Klopp rated Yan Dhanda.

He couldn’t have rated him that much he let him come to us!

 

[Darran]

No tomatos.

 

[Stopthebus]

One way to look at it - if he continues to do this well with Maritimo and gets them promoted this year the opinion of the majority of our fans would be different on him

Maybe someone at the club has recognised his ability and we are taking a chance on him before his reputation takes us beyond the possibility of attracting him.

Lots of good head coaches coming out of Portugal over the past few years.

Huge risk but as with everything, high risk high reward. If it fails - god help us. But I think it’s more along the lines of what I want us to be trying to do as a club, and we aren’t going down the line of employing journeyman managers or dinosaurs

 

[cmajack]

I want to acknowledge that like with every managerial appointment, especially for an unknown, there is a chance it can go well and be a success. But this is a crazy choice and I fear we are not doing it for the right reasons. He has been very active in the media building his reputation and it feels like we are basing it more on that and hearsay than any track record as a coach, just like Klopps other assistant who failed when he became a manager in Austria or the coach who just got sacked by Ajax. Maritimo have had an okay start to the season but do not look like they have been an exceptional team and they are playing against kids teams as a newly relegated side with a big budget.

How Vitor Matos, the manager, was shaped by ‘special’ Klopp and Liverpool life

The Portuguese is blazing his own trail in his home country's second tier after learning crucial lessons at Anfield

www.nytimes.com

It can not be a coincidence that he managed to have this interview article written about him full of praise and suddenly he is in line for our job a couple of days later when we know he was not in line when it was first published. I worry our inexperienced team have been duped by a media creation and have rushed into a decision because it is a simple one to complete and they were let down by Hellberg. I hope I am wrong and people can point and laugh about this in a years time.

All that being said at least it is not Martin.

Looks a bit like Pochettino in that photo. Can we use him as a " ringer " instead of Matos.

 

[MrSwerve]

He will get my support obviously, but it's a big gamble.

I don't think the comparison with Martinez is a fair one - we're a different animal now to what we were then, after spending a long time in the doldrums. League One/Two sides can get away with appointing inexperience, that is how they get experience, after all. Championship clubs such as ourselves should not really be putting ourselves in that position.

Look at our previous handful of managers:

Alan Sheehan - an assistant manager thrust into the position in a caretaker role.
Luke Williams - Russell Martin's assistant who had a bit of managerial experience in League One.
Michael Duff - League One manager who lost in the playoff final with Barnsley.
Russell Martin - League One manager who finished 13th the season before we hired him.
Steve Cooper - England U16/U17 manager with no league experience.
Graham Potter - Manager in the Swedish leagues, but highly thought of.

We've been trying to be clever for a long time. Trying to show that we've uncovered a gem for a pittance. It just hasn't worked. I think what a lot of us now want is a bit of investment into a manager - not expecting to poach a Premier League manager by any means, but I think we should be able to attract managers who have shown that they can compete well in this league by reaching playoffs and promotion. I know we're not a massive club, but we aren't the minnow that we're acting like any longer - we've had more success in the last 10-15 years than plenty of teams in all 4 divisions. We need to act like it.