Do you think that Ole can motivate players to play to their potential?

fastwalker

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Currently, there is rightly a huge amount of focus on what might and might not be happening during the transfer window. Who we bring in is massively important, but even more important is what we do with them once they arrive. In football, you can buy talent, skill and experience, but you cannot ever buy application.

It is assumed that players paid tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of pounds per week will apply themselves as a matter of course. However, in football, the only thing that assumptions get you is the sack. Ultimately, the thing that distinguishes average managers from good managers and good ones from great ones is that ability to get players to apply themselves and perform to and above their potential.

You may say that it is too early to judge Ole's powers of motivation, but don't forget that Ole was United manager for half the 2018/19 season. The fact is that Premier League managers have been sacked in half the time that 'Ole has been at the wheel'.

Can Ole do a Pochettino and turn a £22m Heung-Min Son into an £80m rated midfielder and Spurs into Champion's League finalists; or a Klopp and turn an £8m Andy Robertson into a £80m rated defender and Liverpool into Champion's League winners?

Is Ole a manager that players will revere and respect like Sir Alex, or is he one that players will be inspired by and hold in admiration like Pep? Or is he one that players will love and run through walls for like Klopp? Or is he none of these?

Does Ole have the motivational skills and smarts to turn average talent into good talent and mould good talent into a great team?
 

Joeace2020

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Am I weird or Ole makes me want to poke his cheeks and say "cuddie cuddie baby"?
 

ForestRGoinUp

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Still too soon but not by a lot. The evidence is starting to lean towards no, and it will only take until November for us to know one way or another.
 

charlenefan

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Lets be honest as a caretaker manager yes because he did it, the novelty appears to have now worn off though and inevitably players who have won major honours previously will end up questioning his ability when things turn ugly
 

SeasickSykes

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I think he's been really savvy to ask Mike to be on board with him, both working extensively with Fergie will do wonders and then Ole being a United fan at heart hopefully that will rub off on the players
enough initally to motivate them, then with Phelan being on board as the aggressor (somewhat) defintely help the case when it comes to the grind because i can'tsee him taking any crap.

Notice how Paul hasn't changed his hair since Ole took over, i feel like somone has mentioned something behind the scenes, either that or some maaaaajor sponsorship BS is imminent, I digress.

Ole being the more approachable of the two, players can air their concerns whilst still being pushed by Mike, which I think can do wonders as an incentive to try harder, finding a postive balance of criticism.

Jose has got that vastly wrong as the generational change has progressed, todays footballers don't work that way, they need a wingto hide under. Some don't, but brazen dressing room management is a thing of the past, at least until you're winning everything maybe, then you could afford to be more ruthless, players then know what's on the line.

I do worry about his tactical prowess though, the shapeshifting he's shown at Molde and in spells here at United worries me slightly, either he's extremely good at this, or is struggling to find a system, i suspect the former.... but it's too early to tell.
 
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Shark

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Surely it's not all about ''putting a smile on players faces'' though? he needs to get it tactically right also. If management was all about motivating players, there would be nothing to separate average managers and world class managers.
 

Maticmaker

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Ole can motivate players (even this lot) when there is no pressure, he's proved it when he arrived. However motivating players under pressure, its not so obvious he can do that.

After Jose's departure, Ole came in as 'temporary fix', no real pressure until we suddenly had a real chance of making top four and after we beat PSG, maybe just maybe we could do something in the CL?
Ole's given the job 'for real' and suddenly he and those around him especially the players, are all 'under pressure' (acknowledgements to Queen)

Ending management auditions/interviews early (in any walk of life) can be seen to be a good ploy, strike whilst the irons hot etc. but sometimes its not. Before I retired I regularly interviewed many people for a range of jobs, I lost count of the number of times in an interview/assessment process a likely looking candidate 'blew it' when the final question was "now, have you got any questions for us" and their response gave them away...what they asked, rather that what they answered, came to the fore !
 

Smores

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I mean not one person on here can answer any of those questions.

The only thing we can do is make assumptions based off last season and the motivation seemed to come from the Jose sacking and wore off. We'll no more after 5 or so games this season.
 

kouroux

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I mean not one person on here can answer any of those questions.

The only thing we can do is make assumptions based off last season and the motivation seemed to come from the Jose sacking and wore off. We'll no more after 5 or so games this season.
That's a good point, motivation like that can work short term but long term, the manager's input and impact will be in the deciding factor.
 

ottosec

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In order to do that he needs to stop acting like their buddy and start acting like their boss.
 

Matt007a

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Jose was one of the all time great motivators. His players at Chelsea and Inter especially would have laid down in front of traffic for him.

He seems to have lost a lot of that magic, but even so it was clear that our group were indeed difficult to motivate a lot of the time. I think it's too early to say with Ole as we've had such a strange period of extremes with him in charge so far.

Clearly there are a few bad eggs in our dressing room and he needs to sort them out first.
 

Ekeke

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He already did for most of them for a period before injuries disrupted our momentum. More than our previous managers managed
 

SeasickSykes

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In order to do that he needs to stop acting like their buddy and start acting like their boss.
He handles the press massively well, but I don't think he's nicey nicey all the time, for an brief inside look of him in the dressing room look no further than Lingards comments here.
 

Lennon7

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You asking us? How the feck would we know?
 

Sky1981

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Ole isnt the magic wizard or the messiah.

At best he's a good tactician and a happy person to work with. He hasnt shown anything to suggest he's the next pep or zidane. Both pep and zidane hits the ground running everywhere they go. Ole has 5-6 years of management job and hasnt shown anything to suggest he's special.
 

sunama

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Motivate our players?

Short answer: No.

Long answer:
Moyes tried. Failed.
LVG tried. Failed.
Jose tried. Failed.
Ole tried for 6 months. At first he succeeded, then he completely failed culminating in a draw to the worst team in the league and a loss to the 2nd worst team in the league.

The only constant in all of this is Woodward.
IMO Woodward needs to make it clear to the players that the manager is here to stay. If they are "unmotivated", the manager has the right to sell them and bring in players who will be motivated. Until Woodward does this (and stops sacking managers when the players give up), the manager will always lack power and players won't feel like they are playing for their careers.

When SAF was here, they knew that if they did not give 100% effort, they would be replaced and that the manager was untouchable. Unfortunately, these days at MUFC, the reverse is true.

Whatever the case, Woodward needs to be moved on. He simply can't manage the football side of things. His handling of Jose was atrocious - a manager who was fully capable of dealing with the ever increasing strength of LFC and MCFC, but he failed to empower him to beat them. Instead, he demotivated Jose, so the season was a write-off, from game 1. IMO, this season, too, is a write-off, as Ole just doesn't have the fire power to get top 4.
 

Tom Cato

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Ole isnt the magic wizard or the messiah.

At best he's a good tactician and a happy person to work with. He hasnt shown anything to suggest he's the next pep or zidane. Both pep and zidane hits the ground running everywhere they go. Ole has 5-6 years of management job and hasnt shown anything to suggest he's special.
Zidane hit the ground running by inheriting the worlds best team with the worlds 2nd best player and a transfer budget that lets you play FM on cheatcodes. His recent takeover of Real Madrid has been very mediocre. I'm looking forward to see where they are next season. With Ronaldo gone we'll see if Zidane is a master manager or a great "let Ronaldo do his thing" manager. Zidane was a ok Segunda coach for Castilla. He had a tremendous run with Real Madrid the next 3 years. Next season is the first season he has had to build a team and remove the old guard, let's judge him then. Zidane has only been a manager at Real Madrid, so he's not hitting the ground running everywhere he goes.

Pep hit the ground running by inheriting the universes best team with the universes best player and a transfer budget that doesn't have a number on it. He had limited success with Bayern Münich, winning the domestic titles that everyone expected the club to do regardless, but won the uefa super cup and club world cup in 2013. Peps first season in Man City saw them win nothing. The past 2 years has been successful domestically.

Pep has not won the Champions League since 2011. He's a great manager and a fantastic tactician, but he's had very limited success in Europe after leaving Barcelona.

On Ole's experience

Most of Ole's success thats relevant to talk about here comes from his Europa League campaigns with Molde. Molde is a microscopic club compared to everyone else they meet, and it's been David vs Goliat in all group stage matchups. Judging by his 2015/2016 (If I got the year right) EL campaign measured against the team he's manager, he's had some success with his local team.

It's worth mentioning that numerous players of his previous team have come out and commended his man management style, and subsequently dismissed the "nice guy babyface" image that so many give him. He's known for losing his cool in players faces if that's that it takes to wake them up. His style is one of nurture and though love, not constant shouting and screaming and negativity. Several of our own players have come out and complimented how he manages the players, especially the ones that are not performing. We should accept that the players feedback is correct, and he's handling his squad well.

Paul Pogba recently had a very interesting podcast with the Times, where he talks about everything personal, and football. He also adresses Ole in a section of it, complimenting their good working relationship, also adressing that Ole is a good man, a good human being. Pogba and Ole worked together in the reserves when Paul was a wee lad, they also met when Pogba played in Juventus. These men have a respectful working relationship. Ole has also stated Pogbas importance to the club on numerous occasions, complimented his play and overall attitude. For Pogba, you won't find a manager that has your corner any better than Ole, and that goes for the rest of the squad that delivers to their promise. Or at the very least tries.

Sir Alex almost got fired from Man United since his first time here wasn't a roaring success. But on that the club built a legacy that no one can match, or very likely never will. I suspect that's that the club is trying to do with Ole, and we should be behind him every step of the way, through this entire process, even when we lose.
 

Raw

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I think he can with the right players. There are quite a few players at the club that seem like they don't care enough, and those are the players that I don't think Ole can motivate. He needs players that genuinely care about the club and want it to succeed, as opposed to players who are already looking at other clubs.

If we're going down the route of buying young talents then that will benefit Ole in the long term. I reckon players like Daniel James are going to work their hardest to prove themselves to Ole. Buying already top class players who come here expecting immediate success isn't going to help, as after a few months they'll quickly realise that success isn't going to come immediately. Then they'll start getting their agent to find them a better club, or beg for ridiculous wages.
 
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I'm rather confident Ole can get the best out of the likes of James and potentially Longstaff.
Basically players who also clearly seem self motivated while also being,personality wise,rather grounded.

I think Ole will have a slight issue with players who have alittle too much ego on their shoulders,young or old.
 

Jeffthered

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In order to do that he needs to stop acting like their buddy and start acting like their boss.
100%. We all love you Ole. Players, fans, managers. Forever.

But you need to show you can deal with this job. And that means these players.

I'm not convinced yet.
 

MrBest

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I think he can as long as he remembers to take out the trash. Young players will be vital to his future success, they can mould onto his ethics and his desire. If we sign a superstar i worry about his experiences and whether it is enough. The only exception is Pogba as he managed him before in the reserves. Nevertheless i still want him out. I fully back ole now. Just eagerly waitimg for who we sign as it will be essential information to answer the question.
 

Drz

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Currently, there is rightly a huge amount of focus on what might and might not be happening during the transfer window. Who we bring in is massively important, but even more important is what we do with them once they arrive. In football, you can buy talent, skill and experience, but you cannot ever buy application.

It is assumed that players paid tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of pounds per week will apply themselves as a matter of course. However, in football, the only thing that assumptions get you is the sack. Ultimately, the thing that distinguishes average managers from good managers and good ones from great ones is that ability to get players to apply themselves and perform to and above their potential.

You may say that it is too early to judge Ole's powers of motivation, but don't forget that Ole was United manager for half the 2018/19 season. The fact is that Premier League managers have been sacked in half the time that 'Ole has been at the wheel'.

Can Ole do a Pochettino and turn a £22m Heung-Min Son into an £80m rated midfielder and Spurs into Champion's League finalists; or a Klopp and turn an £8m Andy Robertson into a £80m rated defender and Liverpool into Champion's League winners?

Is Ole a manager that players will revere and respect like Sir Alex, or is he one that players will be inspired by and hold in admiration like Pep? Or is he one that players will love and run through walls for like Klopp? Or is he none of these?

Does Ole have the motivational skills and smarts to turn average talent into good talent and mould good talent into a great team?

In feel your premise is wrong. Klopp and Poch didn't just walk in, take the squad as is and improve the players you mention. First they setup a core group of players and a game plan then purchase the players that can reach their maximum potential within that team and playing style.
An opportunity that I doubt will be afforded to Ole.
 

fastwalker

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Zidane hit the ground running by inheriting the worlds best team with the worlds 2nd best player and a transfer budget that lets you play FM on cheatcodes. His recent takeover of Real Madrid has been very mediocre. I'm looking forward to see where they are next season. With Ronaldo gone we'll see if Zidane is a master manager or a great "let Ronaldo do his thing" manager. Zidane was a ok Segunda coach for Castilla. He had a tremendous run with Real Madrid the next 3 years. Next season is the first season he has had to build a team and remove the old guard, let's judge him then. Zidane has only been a manager at Real Madrid, so he's not hitting the ground running everywhere he goes.

Pep hit the ground running by inheriting the universes best team with the universes best player and a transfer budget that doesn't have a number on it. He had limited success with Bayern Münich, winning the domestic titles that everyone expected the club to do regardless, but won the uefa super cup and club world cup in 2013. Peps first season in Man City saw them win nothing. The past 2 years has been successful domestically.

Pep has not won the Champions League since 2011. He's a great manager and a fantastic tactician, but he's had very limited success in Europe after leaving Barcelona.

On Ole's experience

Most of Ole's success thats relevant to talk about here comes from his Europa League campaigns with Molde. Molde is a microscopic club compared to everyone else they meet, and it's been David vs Goliat in all group stage matchups. Judging by his 2015/2016 (If I got the year right) EL campaign measured against the team he's manager, he's had some success with his local team.

It's worth mentioning that numerous players of his previous team have come out and commended his man management style, and subsequently dismissed the "nice guy babyface" image that so many give him. He's known for losing his cool in players faces if that's that it takes to wake them up. His style is one of nurture and though love, not constant shouting and screaming and negativity. Several of our own players have come out and complimented how he manages the players, especially the ones that are not performing. We should accept that the players feedback is correct, and he's handling his squad well.

Paul Pogba recently had a very interesting podcast with the Times, where he talks about everything personal, and football. He also adresses Ole in a section of it, complimenting their good working relationship, also adressing that Ole is a good man, a good human being. Pogba and Ole worked together in the reserves when Paul was a wee lad, they also met when Pogba played in Juventus. These men have a respectful working relationship. Ole has also stated Pogbas importance to the club on numerous occasions, complimented his play and overall attitude. For Pogba, you won't find a manager that has your corner any better than Ole, and that goes for the rest of the squad that delivers to their promise. Or at the very least tries.

Sir Alex almost got fired from Man United since his first time here wasn't a roaring success. But on that the club built a legacy that no one can match, or very likely never will. I suspect that's that the club is trying to do with Ole, and we should be behind him every step of the way, through this entire process, even when we lose.
This is a really interesting synopsis. Totally agree with your insights on Zidane and Pep. That is not to downplay their undoubted successes as managers, because no amount of resource will ever be enough, if you do not know what to do with it. But I wonder if Pep or Zidane could achieve what Klopp has managed to accomplish at Liverpool or what Pochettino has been able to achieve at Spurs? The jury is out on that question.

Your insights on Ole's management and motivational approach are very interesting and encouraging. However, the question I would ask is where did it go wrong last season? He seemed singularly unable to lift the team out of a desperate slump when he needed to, at the tail end of last season. In fact, he seemed almost clueless at times.

My concern for Ole, is that the players may well like him more than they respect him. If that is the case then he is doomed. The retention of the hapless Young and Jones gives me real cause to question, whether Ole can inspire confidence in his decision-making. The truth is that in today's game players wield incredible power and we have seen dressing room revolts result in management sackings. Does Ole really have the bloody-mindedness to tame the United dressing room? Maybe he can? I hope he does.

I wonder if the players at United care enough about Ole and what he is trying to do, like Klopp at Liverpool? Do they perceive him as a no-nonsense enforcer, like Ferguson? Or do they perceive him as their friend, like Roberto Di Matteo at Chelsea? What balance has he struck in his relationship and is it the right one?
 

Van Piorsing

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He has to if he wants to remain as full time Manchester United manager, then again players needs to develop understanding with him, that's why it's so important for Ole to have full summer in building and training with the lads.
 

Big Andy

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To be fair if a player needs motivation to achieve their potential then they want fecking shooting.
 

Full bodied red

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Perhaps he can and perhaps he can't.

I'm not convinced - yet - that he is / will be the long term answer to our problems.

But.....The real worry should be that if you believe he can, then their potential is simply not good enough and they've been ' playing to their potential ' all this time and we've been fooled into believing that there's more potential still to come that we haven't seen yet and Ole can drag it out of them.
 

simplyared

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Currently, there is rightly a huge amount of focus on what might and might not be happening during the transfer window. Who we bring in is massively important, but even more important is what we do with them once they arrive. In football, you can buy talent, skill and experience, but you cannot ever buy application.

It is assumed that players paid tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of pounds per week will apply themselves as a matter of course. However, in football, the only thing that assumptions get you is the sack. Ultimately, the thing that distinguishes average managers from good managers and good ones from great ones is that ability to get players to apply themselves and perform to and above their potential.

You may say that it is too early to judge Ole's powers of motivation, but don't forget that Ole was United manager for half the 2018/19 season. The fact is that Premier League managers have been sacked in half the time that 'Ole has been at the wheel'.

Can Ole do a Pochettino and turn a £22m Heung-Min Son into an £80m rated midfielder and Spurs into Champion's League finalists; or a Klopp and turn an £8m Andy Robertson into a £80m rated defender and Liverpool into Champion's League winners?

Is Ole a manager that players will revere and respect like Sir Alex, or is he one that players will be inspired by and hold in admiration like Pep? Or is he one that players will love and run through walls for like Klopp? Or is he none of these?

Does Ole have the motivational skills and smarts to turn average talent into good talent and mould good talent into a great team?
Is this a genuine question about the qualities Ole may or may not have, or just a tribute to Poch, Klopp, SAF and Pep?
 

Greck

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Who's the Cardiff player that said in an interview that Ole wasn't a great motivator? He may have changed but leadership traits are innate and rarely ever developed later in life. Ole from his interviews comes across as just a really nice bloke. Getting hungry players capable of their own internally generated motivation is the right move if you're Ole
 

WR10

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Nah he’s going for an outdated approach to this elite level game now. Back with SAF there wasn’t an ‘elite’ couple teams to compete with he only had to out-grunt them with effort and motivation regardless of the quality of our own players. He was very good at doing that. However we all saw the short comings of this approach in Europe once our team faced elite competition. Effort doesn’t work anymore. We got lucky in 99 and we had the best team possible in 08.

Ole still thinks that approach cuts it when we have spurs, city and Liverpool on a whole different level of football than SAF ever had to face.

Ole is going to trim people that won’t listen to his ways and replace them with yes men that will.

We will most likely run around with mid table quality that would have been title contender quality from the 2000’s and maybe early 2010’s. Losing games this season will be normal and our response will easily be ‘they tried they ran a lot’

Why have we allowed ourselves to succumb to this? Loss of hope and when all else fails you fall back onto nostalgia to savour any glimmer of hope that remains. This is our kiss of death.
 

AllezLesDiables

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I think he's been really savvy to ask Mike to be on board with him, both working extensively with Fergie will do wonders and then Ole being a United fan at heart hopefully that will rub off on the players
enough initally to motivate them, then with Phelan being on board as the aggressor (somewhat) defintely help the case when it comes to the grind because i can'tsee him taking any crap.

Notice how Paul hasn't changed his hair since Ole took over, i feel like somone has mentioned something behind the scenes, either that or some maaaaajor sponsorship BS is imminent, I digress.

Ole being the more approachable of the two, players can air their concerns whilst still being pushed by Mike, which I think can do wonders as an incentive to try harder, finding a postive balance of criticism.

Jose has got that vastly wrong as the generational change has progressed, todays footballers don't work that way, they need a wingto hide under. Some don't, but brazen dressing room management is a thing of the past, at least until you're winning everything maybe, then you could afford to be more ruthless, players then know what's on the line.

I do worry about his tactical prowess though, the shapeshifting he's shown at Molde and in spells here at United worries me slightly, either he's extremely good at this, or is struggling to find a system, i suspect the former.... but it's too early to tell.
People do respond to Jose’s style of leadership. The problem with Jose is that all he needed to do was say is it was my fault that we lost, which Jose never did.

When you have leadership that acts like they have no accountability for things going wrong what ends up happening is that the team gets fed up. No manager is perfect and like any other leader you are responsible for the results even when there are things are out of your control.

Jose got some strategies wrong and made bad decisions and he got things right and the players failed him. The point being that when you take responsibility/ownership people respect you because it shows your investment in the team.

When you just blame things on everyone and everything else it promotes the idea it is never your fault, which shows that you are only invested in yourself (narcissism).
 

fastwalker

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Is this a genuine question about the qualities Ole may or may not have, or just a tribute to Poch, Klopp, SAF and Pep?
Did you read the OP? The question is whether or not Ole can motivate players to play to their potential. In forming a view, is it unreasonable to reflect on Sir Alex, who Ole himself openly reveres, has lavished compliments on and seeks to emulate? Equally, is it unreasonable to reflect on the likes of Pep, Klopp and Pochettino who are his managerial peers? In case you hadn't noticed, Pep, Klopp and Poch are all coaching elite players (like Ole) and are known for being able to get the best out of the players in their charge. In fact one of them recently won the domestic treble, one of them won the Champions League, whilst the other managed to get to a Champions League final (having not signed a single new player last season). They are also the very same managers with whom Ole, will hopefully be competing with over the next few years for honours.

So, let's summarise, you would wish me to ask the question of Ole's motivational powers, but not offer Sir Alex, Pep, Klopp or Pochettino as benchmarks against which to compare? Really?

Would you rather that I compared Ole to recently relegated Scott Parker at Fulham or recently promoted Daniel Farke at Norwich or perhaps a recently sacked manager like Chris Hughton formerly of Brighton? Or perhaps a manager from the Championship or League One?

Let me know.....
 
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