Leadbitter

I hope so, I absolutely love him. Talk about mentality.

You can’t have eleven of them but the standards a guy drives who is permanently ***ed off and thinks about nothing else but winning makes a massive difference to a football team.

Grant’s mentality is as good as it gets. He’s what a proper captain looks like. I loved his interviews when he played for us, almost psychopathically driven.

Always thought he’d make a great manager - even more so that unlike Keane and Gerrard, who he’s pretty much a clone of, he wasn’t the most naturally talented player so had to get to the top by other means. Can only imagine his reaction to young players who are mainly interested in Instagram and trainers.
 
So we have a boyhood Newcastle fan as head coach, a boyhood Sunderland fan as coach and a boyhood Middlesbrough fan who is also an ex Boro manager as coach, not to mention a Boro legend as Sunderland manager! What could possibly go wrong 🤣
 
So we have a boyhood Newcastle fan as head coach, a boyhood Sunderland fan as coach and a boyhood Middlesbrough fan who is also an ex Boro manager as coach, not to mention a Boro legend as Sunderland manager! What could possibly go wrong 🤣
you forgot the boyhood boro fan, who is a sunderland legend, and boro youth coach.


Derby days are going to get very, very confusing
 
I just love the disrespect. “Putting the cones out,” just smacks of misplaced arrogance, entitlement, self-delusion. I’d love to see the people who use this phrase as an insult take their coaching qualifications and then put on training sessions for professional athletes. They’d last about four minutes before being laughed off the field and frogmarched off the premises.
aye go say it to grants face after a match and see how it goes down haha
 
So we have a boyhood Newcastle fan as head coach, a boyhood Sunderland fan as coach and a boyhood Middlesbrough fan who is also an ex Boro manager as coach, not to mention a Boro legend as Sunderland manager! What could possibly go wrong 🤣
Sunderland have very poor player retention and Newcastle are awash with elite level money.. could see us signing some decent players living in the north east!
 
Grant McCann, Lee Bowyer, Gerhard Struber, Pep Clotet, Nathan Jones all finished behind Boro in Woodgate’s first season..
I am getting a bit forgetful, but I'm pretty sure JW didn't in fact finish the season and Steve Gibson had to reach for the Batphone to ask Neil to come up and save the day?
 
I am getting a bit forgetful, but I'm pretty sure JW didn't in fact finish the season and Steve Gibson had to reach for the Batphone to ask Neil to come up and save the day?
No you are not forgetful.
We were out of the bottom 3 on Goal difference only when Woodgate got fired for being the worst Middlesbrough manager I can remember. We had won just 9 of 38 matches.
Warnock got 12 points from his 8 matches to keep us up, winning 4.

Woodgate is back, as a coach and Carrick seems happy with it, but let's not remotely big up Woodgate's time here as manager, whatever hand he was dealt.
 
I am getting a bit forgetful, but I'm pretty sure JW didn't in fact finish the season and Steve Gibson had to reach for the Batphone to ask Neil to come up and save the day?
Cowley Brothers didn’t finish the season.. I’d argue that amongst Woodgate’s boo boys they were the preferred option.

If Grant McCann, Lee Bowyer, Gerhard Struber, Pep Clotet or Nathan Jones were named as Carrick’s Assistant or First team coach no one would bat an eyelid.
 
No you are not forgetful.
We were out of the bottom 3 on Goal difference only when Woodgate got fired for being the worst Middlesbrough manager I can remember. We had won just 9 of 38 matches.
Warnock got 12 points from his 8 matches to keep us up, winning 4.

Woodgate is back, as a coach and Carrick seems happy with it, but let's not remotely big up Woodgate's time here as manager, whatever hand he was dealt.
The disrespect for Woodgate is completely over the top. Putting his record in context not unreasonable is it?
 
I hope so, I absolutely love him. Talk about mentality.

You can’t have eleven of them but the standards a guy drives who is permanently ***ed off and thinks about nothing else but winning makes a massive difference to a football team.

Grant’s mentality is as good as it gets. He’s what a proper captain looks like. I loved his interviews when he played for us, almost psychopathically driven.

Always thought he’d make a great manager - even more so that unlike Keane and Gerrard, who he’s pretty much a clone of, he wasn’t the most naturally talented player so had to get to the top by other means. Can only imagine his reaction to young players who are mainly interested in Instagram and trainers.
Agree although think he was actually pretty talented. His technique and range of passing was very good. Could hit a ball too.

What held him back a bit were his physical attributes. Not quick and not big and powerful. His talent wasn't quite enough to compensate for that at the highest level, but he had more natural talent than many who've made a career in the top flight.

Peak Leadbitter would probably have held his own in lower end mid table premier League side. But for players like him, somewhere between a top end championship player and lower end prem player, there's a bit of luck involved in being at the right club at the right time.

By the time we got up he had a big injury and was on the wane.
 
Except that you didn't put it in context at all. Not remotely, so I did it for you.
More experienced managers than woodgate have failed in the championship.. including Chris Wilder who left with a worse ppg this season than Woodgate had.

Woodgate averaged 1.7ppg with Bournemouth

and he hasn’t even returned as manager.
 
Agree although think he was actually pretty talented. His technique and range of passing was very good. Could hit a ball too.

What held him back a bit were his physical attributes. Not quick and not big and powerful. His talent wasn't quite enough to compensate for that at the highest level, but he had more natural talent than many who've made a career in the top flight.

Peak Leadbitter would probably have held his own in lower end mid table premier League side. But for players like him, somewhere between a top end championship player and lower end prem player, there's a bit of luck involved in being at the right club at the right time.

By the time we got up he had a big injury and was on the wane.
I think Leadbitter was only ever a Championship midfielder, but a very good one.
His partnership with Clayton was key to those very good two Championship seasons under Karanka.
 
In footballing terms they might be, Gazza couldn't add 2+2 and hadn't read a book since Meg and Mog, but he was a genius in his knowledge of where danger exists on a pitch
But managing/coaching is a completely different skill to playing the game. Being able to teach someone something is very different to being good at something. If it was that simple the best players would be the best managers but that's rarely the case.
 
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