Paul Heckingbottom

[Norm]

I thought Barnsley had been taken over by some mega-rich middle-eastern set.
I promise not to call him "Heckingarse" unless we lose the first 5 games under him!
Beyond that, best of luck mate - you might need it but I wish you well and hope you achieve what we all know we need.

[gessa]

It will be a tough start for him, a hard run of games, a depleated squad who look low on confidence. If he gets any wins in the next half dozen games I'll be impressed. No idea how it will work out but I obviously wish him well.

[HarryofOz]

This post from taken another forum says it all about Christiansen & Heckingbottom

First of all TC was utter sh*te and here are many of the reasons:

Played 4-5-1 with Alioski and Roofe wingers week in week out, both sh*t week in week out. One ain't a winger the other just falls over, Dallas still can't get a game.

Only changed the line up when someone got injured, regardless of how poor their form was. Vieira only got his first game when someone got injured. Might not have seen Vieira yet this season otherwise.

Neither Lasogga or Roofe can play as a lone striker (one needs balls to feet from a strike partner, one too lightweight) but would probably be good together in a 3-5-2 or 4-3-1-2, never tries it.

Anita (regular in a team that won the championship last season) Dallas and Klich never ever played. People saying our squad is rubbish when they haven't even seen half of them play and neither did TC.

Mental late substitutions that cost us, the worst being when we were 3-2 up v millwall and cruising, ball nowhere near our box until TC took off attacking options and then it was non-stop millwall attacking, lost 4-3.

Had two huge bad runs bridged with a couple of lucky wins (Norwich and Hull 1-0 come to mind) yet people still surprised he's gone when many chairman would've sacked him after the first 8 losses in 10.

Now for Heckingbottom

Won Promotion from League One with Barnsley

Next season ended 2016 in 9th http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38424314 playing some great football until their Chairman sold all their best players in January and the freefall started, still got them a very respectable 14th considering how s**t their team was.

Freefall continues and this season their team is even worse, the Chairman selling even more players and quality wise are probably bottom 3 on paper. PH keeping them adrift of relegation.

Looking up a managers win ratio for 2 minutes on Wikipedia doesn't really mean much, it's all about context. Nigel Clough is working wonders at Burton for example and his win ratio is probably worse than Heckingbottoms. If Hockaday went to man city, his win ratio would probably be better than Don Revie's at Leeds. Would that make him a better manager?.

In conclusion, Heckingbottom even before he had all his players sold, got his team to 9th and his team were much shitter than ours on paper. Let's give him a chance before we deem him sh*t cos we looked up his win ratio on wiki for 30 seconds. Anyone with an ounce of intelligence would realise there's much more to it than that.

I'm not writing Heckingbottom off, but that poster is simply picking selected facts to suit his point of view. If I wanted to, I'm sure I can pick a handful of facts that point to TC being better than PH.

[NorfolkWhite]

Having had a bit of time to digest the impending appointment of PH must say I'm still totally underwhelmed, will be interesting to see what reasoning Radz gives for the appointment. I know stats can justify just about anything but his team has won 8 games out of 50 since the Jan 2017 transfer window. Even given the players that Barnsley have shipped out that's mightily unimpressive. Also if it is true that he had a £500k release clause in his contract he's not a particularly cheap option which some are suggesting. We may get a bit of a new manager bounce as is often the way proof will be to see if he can sustain that through to the end of the season and get a top 6 challenge back on track, obviously wish him well but I'm also not overly hopeful.

[weasel]

NW - Couldn't agree more. 1 win in 16, 2 in 23, 8 in 50 just isn't impressive and if the only reason being given is that his best players were sold well then hang on as that happened to TC too yet he has got the sack despite a much better record.
It just smacks to me as being exactly the same as in the Rosler/Evans season. We start the season hiring a foreign manager who has a style completely different to what we are used to. Buy him a few players but still leave him short and don't give him even a full season to try to get players used to his system. Then panic and revert to a completely opposite type of manager - back to the british manager that has had a bit of success at a lower level and is getting a chance at the biggest club they have and ever likely will manage.

No matter how it is dressed up it is taking a huge gamble on someone in the hope that the poor results for the last year are just a blip

[Gurj]

You know exactly what Radz and he's PR team will reel out........." we wanted a young, up and coming English coach who has great all round knowledge of the Championship and Paul Heckingbottom ticks all those boxes for us ".

I am not too enamoured by this decision tbh it smacks of the cheap option again, even with the compensation we have had to pay Barnsley, but a lot of the yorkshire media folks, such as Bryn Law, Adam Pope, Phil Hay seem to rate him and point to the fact ( in he's defence of Barnsley's awful record of late ) that he has had to sell a lot of first teamers in the past 12 months hence the decline wasnt down to him.

[HarryofOz]

You know exactly what Radz and he's PR team will reel out........." we wanted a young, up and coming English coach who has great all round knowledge of the Championship and Paul Heckingbottom ticks all those boxes for us ".

I am not too enamoured by this decision tbh it smacks of the cheap option again, even with the compensation we have had to pay Barnsley, but a lot of the yorkshire media folks, such as Bryn Law, Adam Pope, Phil Hay seem to rate him and point to the fact ( in he's defence of Barnsley's awful record of late ) that he has had to sell a lot of first teamers in the past 12 months hence the decline wasnt down to him.

Law, Pope and Hay are never going to say anything negative about the appointment of any Leeds coach/manager.

[LevLeeds]

Sorry but I just cant get excited by this appointment at all.

If this actually happens I will get behind him of course, but for me it just lakes ambition. Yes he has done well considering difficult circumstances at Barnsley. But he still has no real managerial experience, he was caretaker manager at Barnsley in 2016 before taking over full time.

Maybe I'm being to optimistic but I think we deserve better. Hope he proves me wrong.

[1964white]

It will be a tough start for him, a hard run of games, a depleated squad who look low on confidence. If he gets any wins in the next half dozen games I'll be impressed. No idea how it will work out but I obviously wish him well.

He has walked into a nightmare of a job as you say mate. Hopefully he'll address our disciplinary problems something Christiansen never got to grips with, fingers crossed we'll see an improvement in our general play too. It's all about hopes now for us fans now, the only expectation I have from HECK is to make us more solid, competitive & disciplined

[1964white]

NW - Couldn't agree more. 1 win in 16, 2 in 23, 8 in 50 just isn't impressive and if the only reason being given is that his best players were sold well then hang on as that happened to TC too yet he has got the sack despite a much better record.

Yes that is true Weasel, all the same even though I have been critical of Orta's signings Christiansen was still left with a much better squad of players than Heck had at Barnsley, any football fan could see that when we played them at Oakwell last November, that was the worst Barnsley team I've seen since we were relegated from the prem. Ayling, Berardi, Jansson, Cooper, Vieira, Phillips, O'Kane, Hernandez from Monk's squad were all better than what Heck had to play with, add Saiz & Alioski who both shone on the day & we were far too strong for their poor outfit. God knows how the tykes have got 27 points on the board & are still above the likes of Hull & Sunderland. I recall I predicted them to be in the bottom three by Christmas !

Personally I think we should have gone for the German coach who looks to have a decent CV on paper as I do like the winning mentality of the footballers/coaches

[NorfolkWhite]

Yes that is true Weasel, all the same even though I have been critical of Orta's signings Christiansen was still left with a much better squad of players than Heck had at Barnsley, any football fan could see that when we played them at Oakwell last November, that was the worst Barnsley team I've seen since we were relegated from the prem. Ayling, Berardi, Jansson, Cooper, Vieira, Phillips, O'Kane, Hernandez from Monk's squad were all better than what Heck had to play with, add Saiz & Alioski who both shone on the day & we were far too strong for their poor outfit. God knows how the tykes have got 27 points on the board & are still above the likes of Hull & Sunderland. I recall I predicted them to be in the bottom three by Christmas !

Personally I think we should have gone for the German coach who looks to have a decent CV on paper as I do like the winning mentality of the footballers/coaches

And we are above them in the table - if Heck had been getting a poor Barnsley squad to mid-table I could maybe understand but he had a poor Barnsley squad performing poorly, not really exceeding expectations.

Been lots of talk on here that we are a mid-table squad, and that's just about where we are so TC was performing at a similar level to Heck really, neither getting any more out of the squad than they should and both on poor runs, just Hecks was worse and we've gone for him

[gessa]

He's signed until the end of the 2018/19 season.

[Ronan]

I would even have Leon as manager if it brought Leeds success.

[NorfolkWhite]

He's signed until the end of the 2018/19 season.

Let's just hope he gets the chance to negotiate another

[lufc1304]

Length of contract suggests the management don't see him as a long term appointee. I'll back him, he deserves that, but am underwhelmed. Supposedly is highly rated within the game, so maybe he's going to be better than his current Barnsley stats suggest? Good luck to him, I suspect he's going to need it.

One small mercy, he's not that complete tool McLaren!!

[Cjay]

Welcome and best of luck.

Not happy about it, its an appointment that reeks of cheap and available imo.

Yes we paid 500k but in this day and age thats cheap.

Not that impressed with his record but it is what it is,

He has to hit the ground running, which i cant see given the fixtures and issues with suspensions and injuries. Fan base isnt to pleased by his appointment and i fear they will turn quickly if they dont see an immediate reaction and improvement.

Contract length doesnt suggest a long term appointment, which heightens the suspicion that it was a panicked appointment after a panicked sacking.

His record is no better then Jaap Stam, Simon Grayson, Nigel Clough etc who nobody wanted.

[1964white]

I would even have Leon as manager if it brought Leeds success.

[Cjay]

Just realised, some coaches under TC will stay, Gianni Vio and the Goalkeeping coach.

Not saying its bad, they seem to have done decent jobs,but remember reading about Orta, " He started to bring in coaches with loyalty to him not the club or the manager, creating a divide in the club where he became the unofficial Assistant to Karanka".

[lufc1304]

Just realised, some coaches under TC will stay, Gianni Vio and the Goalkeeping coach.

Not saying its bad, they seem to have done decent jobs,but remember reading about Orta, " He started to bring in coaches with loyalty to him not the club or the manager, creating a divide in the club where he became the unofficial Assistant to Karanka".

The sooner he goes, the better as far as I'm concerned. I get the feeling that AR doesn't know the game well and is reliant on Orta for 'expertise'. I don't rate him and I think he is loyal only to himself. He's also full of sh*t if he thinks the squad he helped to assemble is top 6 material. Might have been had he got us decent replacements for Bartley, Taylor and Wood, but he didn't

[MeeTa]

The more i read and learn about this guy the more positive about this i get. Then i read the frustration and anger of the Barnsley fans and i get even more positive about this. Welcome Heck, givem em hell