McClaren in for criticism

S

Smoggle

Well-known member
Saw this retweeted earlier, a clip of Joe Cole and Schwarzer having their say on McClaren at England and Boro. It does seem that despite his success with us he wasn’t deemed very trustworthy if comments by Schwarzer, Gibson etc are believed.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1396028059090751489

I wish him well and will always be thankful he helped us win something, but it’s a strange one as even though he’s our most successful manager, I found him very hard to warm to and the post match “magnificent” cliches and courting of other jobs didn’t help.
 
He’d probably love to manage us now but I doubt steve would ever want him back .
I thought he’d of been a good choice after AK . He’d probably form a good coaching team with a young manager like lampard .
 
What was it SG said? Something along the lines of “if he told me it was raining I’d open the window to check?” - certainly has an untrustworthy reputation, but is also highly thought of as a coach. A DoF role might suit him somewhere.
 
Does it matter what Joe Cole or schwarzer thinks? He won a cup, two fa cup semi finals. Highest league finish for 40 years, two European campaigns including one final and two second legs enroute that were incredible especially for those who were There. I get things are kinda slow but looking to pick holes in McClaren? Record speaks for itself with us at least
 
He probably looked after number 1 and football is a bit of a dirty game, look at how some of the agents operate. Most managers last a short period, to stay a top level manager for 15 years takes some doing nowadays. I saw the Ian Wright documentary and he went to talk to Paul Ince about his managerial career. Ince always wanted to be manager and was nicknamed the governor as a player. He played 19 years at a top domestic and international level His managerial career was about 6-7 years, mainly lower league. There could have been an element of racism in restricting his opportunities, but I still think its an useful example of how tough it is. I also remember Alan Curbishley seemed to looking for work for 10 years after doing well at Charlton.

Mark Schwarzer had Barry Silkman as his agent. Barry was an interesting character and would duck and dive to get what he wanted.
 
Ted_DN38416 said:
Does it matter what Joe Cole or schwarzer thinks? He won a cup, two fa cup semi finals. Highest league finish for 40 years, two European campaigns including one final and two second legs enroute that were incredible especially for those who were There. I get things are kinda slow but looking to pick holes in McClaren? Record speaks for itself with us at least
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It matters what Cole and other ex-internationals have said because he failed with England, they offer insight why.

It matters what Schwarzer and others at the club with him have said as it seems he rubbed some up the wrong way and, as Schwarzer alludes to, players are less likely to push themselves harder under a manager they don’t trust. There’s also the rumours about Southgate and Viduka inspiring European wins in the dressing room, not SM. We’re unlikely to find out much more until a few autobiographies come out.

People have been picking holes in McClaren since he was with us so it’s nothing new. The success he brought was fantastic, but that doesn’t place him beyond criticism.
 
Listening to the interview Cole only criticised him for picking Carson for the Croatia game and taking the England job too early. MS is a strange one because we don't know the exact details, but we do know he played for 5 years for SMac and did better with him than Robbo.
 
BaronSmoggie said:
We'll never know, but I'd love to know what the lies were that Mark was talking about.
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As time passes more things seem to be being said in interviews and podcasts, so maybe more will come out in the years ahead in autobiographies and the like.
 
Redwurzel said:
Listening to the interview Cole only criticised him for picking Carson for the Croatia game and taking the England job too early. MS is a strange one because we don't know the exact details, but we do know he played for 5 years for SMac and did better with him than Robbo.
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We also know he felt the need to hand in a transfer request(s) under SM, whether to us fans his reasons would be justified I don’t know. Sometimes managers have to take a hard line and players might not take it gently, MS is certainly a strong personality and has said a lot on his podcast that doesn’t reflect well on the club and individuals at times.
 
He may be our most successful manager but I don’t think he was our best manager and he isn’t my favourite manager. But he did well and that’s all there is to it really. Other than that amazing season with Twente he has been a pretty terrible manager for the rest of his career TBF.
 
His managerial record is certainly patchy but far from terrible overall.

Over 44% win ratio across his managerial career is pretty good going.

To compare Neil Warnock has been successful in general and his win record is 40%, Big Sam's is 38.8%
 
Jimmy floyd in his autobiography last chapter of hard back,, raves about McClaren, but he wrote another chapter for the paperback, where he then goes on to call him all sorts, because he went back on promises.
 
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Ted_DN38416 said:
Does it matter what Joe Cole or schwarzer thinks? He won a cup, two fa cup semi finals. Highest league finish for 40 years, two European campaigns including one final and two second legs enroute that were incredible especially for those who were There. I get things are kinda slow but looking to pick holes in McClaren? Record speaks for itself with us at least
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I agree with that, his record speaks for itself - most successful manager we’ve ever had.

There’s an interesting bit in the video though where Joe Cole, who’s a sharp and open pundit, says that McClaren could be where Brendan Rodgers is now; and that he has to separate McClaren the coach - the best he’s ever worked with - and McClaren the manager, who was something different.

It’s really interesting, and a guy who was so good that he became Ferguson’s treble-winning number 2 shouldn’t now be scrabbling around for a Championship job on the back streets of Yarm.
 
Smoggle said:
What was it SG said? Something along the lines of “if he told me it was raining I’d open the window to check?” - certainly has an untrustworthy reputation, but is also highly thought of as a coach. A DoF role might suit him somewhere.
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I think what SG actually said about him was ' if he said the grass is green, he would go outside and check'
 
I liked the football we played under him, but I never warmed to him and his soundbite interviews. Regardless of, 'best manager for the Boro', he wasn't this fan's favourite, nowhere close.
 
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