Paul Cook

[WalthamOwl]

Would snap your hand off for Cook ahead of anyone on the reported shortlist - Fink, Morais or Jemez. 

[Owls Loyal]

Outstanding Post by Emerson Thome.

 

Well researched, factual and logical.

 

In summary the analysis suggests:

 

Cook

Sligo Rovers - Succeeded

Accrington Stanley- Failed

Chesterfield - Succeeded

Portsmouth - Succeeded

Wigan Athletic - Succeeded

 

Fink

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Emerson Thome said:

When looking at a manager, take a look at how they got on at their previous clubs. They either 1) Succeed - improve the team and leave it in a stronger position than when they arrived, 2) Do an average job - maybe a short term bounce, but club ends up where it was before, 3) Fail - make the team worse.

 

This is why I would prefer Cook over Fink. Agree that Fink has had higher profile jobs - but seems to be a choice between a bigger name on his way down, and a small name on his way up....

 

Cook's CV:

 

Sligo Rovers (2007-2011 seasons), 203 games, 47% win ratio

Before he arrived - first season back in the top flight, mid-table with 40 pts.

Under Cook - three seasons of consolidation (41, 48 and 43 points) followed by two excellent seasons - 3rd with 63 points and won both cups (League and FA), 2nd with 73 points and won Irish FA Cup.

Succeeded

 

Accrington Stanley (Feb 2012-Oct 2012), 33 games, 24% win ratio

Before he arrived - in the playoffs, arrived in Feb 2012 in 7th position on edge of playoffs - only 14 points from 18 games, dropped to 14th in league. Next seasons, only 17 points from first 15 games (16th in league) - left to manage Chesterfield.

Failed

 

Chesterfield (2012-2015), 145 games, 45% win ratio

Before he arrived - relegated from League One previous season, 18 points from 14 games, 13th in League Two

Under Cook - First season improved from 13th in Nov to 8th in League Two, second season = won League Two title (lost in final of Football League Trophy), next season 6th in League One (lost in play-offs to Preston). Took a midtable L2 team to promotion chasing in L1. Left to manage Portsmouth.

Succeeded

 

Portsmouth (2015-2017), 107 games, 49% win ratio

Before he arrived - midtable League Two - 16th and 13th the year before.

Under Cook - Finished 6th in his first season in charge (lost play-off semi to Plymouth) and champions in first place in second season, clinching title on final day of season with a 6-1 win. Left to manage Wigan.

Succeeded

 

 

Wigan (2017-2020), 155 games, 41% win ratio

Before he arrived - relegated in 23rd position from the Championship.

Under Cook - Returned to Championship as Champions in first season with 98 points, knocked out Premier League Bournemouth (3-0), West Ham (2-0) and Man City (1-0) in FA Cup. Second season, consolidated position in the league with 52 points (18th place) third season, improved to win 59 points in 46 games, which would have been 13th place if the Chairman hadn't placed the club into administration. Resigned due to the off-field issues.

Succeeded

 

 

Fink's CV:

Ingolstadt (2008-2009), 44 games, 36% win ratio

Before he arrived - on course for promotion in 3rd tier of German football.

Under Fink - Promoted to Bundesliga 2. Won only 6 of 26 games and sacked in April with club second to last. They were relegated in May second to last.

Average job.

 

 

Basel (2009-2011), 119 games, 64% win ratio

Before he arrived - 3rd in Swiss Super League, Champions the season before.

Under Fink - Champions both seasons in the Swiss Super League and won Swiss Cup in his first season too. Knocked out in group stage of Europe League in first season (behind Roma and Fulham), and in group stage of Champions League in second (6 pts, did get 3-1 win away at Roma).

Succeeded

 

 

Hamburg (2011-2013), 68 games, 34% win ratio

Before he arrived - 8th in Bundesliga the previous season, 7th the season before. 7pts from 9 games in 2011/12 season when he was appointed.

Under Fink - finished 15th, avoiding the relegation play-offs by 1 place and 5 points (picked up 29 points in 25 games). Next season finished 7th (knocked out of cup by 3rd division team). Helped bring through Son Heung-Min. Next season, sacked with 4 points from 5 games in relegation zone. Hamburg would go on to automatic relegation by 1 point and survive a relegation play-off (at that point Hamburg were the only team never to have been relegated since the Bundesliga was formed in the 60s).

Failed

 

 

APOEL (Jan 2015 - May 2015), 22 games, 50% win ratio

Before he arrived - Cypriot treble winners the previous season, and Champions 4 of the previous 5 season. Top with 32 points from 15 games.

Under Fink - picked up 26 points from 15 games, loss on 10th May meant their lead in the league had been cut with an effective title decider the next week. Sacked before the match (his replacement got a draw, enough to hold on to title). Got through to Cypriot Cup Final (his replacement won the final)

Average job

 

 

Austria Vienna (2015-2018), 123 games, 49% win ratio

Before he arrived - 7th (30 points off title), season before that 4th (27 points off title) in the 10-team Austrian Bundesliga.

Under Fink - 3rd (15 points off title), 2nd (18 points off title) and then 7th (40 points off title). No success in the domestic cups, two European campaigns - first, finished bottom of Europa League group (Roma, but also a Czech and Romanian team) and bottom again in Europe league (Milan, but a Greek and Croatian team as well). So initial success, but tailed off badly in third season with just 27 points from 24 games and no cup success.

Average job

 

 

Grasshoppers (April 2018- March 2019), 35 games, 29% win ratio

Before he arrived - 6th in the 10-team Swiss Super League in April. Season before they had finished 8th.

Under Fink - Rest of 2017-18 season he picked up 7 points from 6 games, dropped to 9th (1 place and 4 points above relegation). Next season, sacked in March, rock bottom with 18 points from 25 games. Knocked out by 3rd tier team in the cup. Went on to get relegated.

Failed

 

 

Vissel Kobe (June 2019-2020), 49 games, 45% win ratio

Before he arrived - 10th, before that 9th in 18-team J-league in the two previous seasons. 14 games in, they were in 13th place with 14 points from 14 games.

Under Fink - finished 8th in the 2019 season, picking up 33 points from the last 20 games. Failed in J-League Cup (both seasons), but did win the Emperor's Cup (Japanese FA Cup) in 2019. This meant they also played in the Japanese Super Cup (Charity Shield), winning on penalties after a 0-0 draw. 17 games in to the 2020 season, in 10th place (20 points from 17 games) he resigned. So, average in the league, although success in winning the FA Cup - although, should be noted with one of the biggest spending teams in the league (including Andres Iniesta, David Villa, Lukas Podolski and Thomas Vermaelen on the payroll)

Average job

 

[Kendo Nagasaki]

8 minutes ago, mcmigo said:

Pearson is a complete car crash of a manager. The one job in the last few years he has lasted more than 6 months  in was leading a random Belgian team to the bottom of division 2.

 

 

Glad you have entered the discussion in such a reserved manner can’t be doing with the belligerent approach

[sonofbert2]

It’s a shame we can’t have them both and then just swap the first letters round on their surnames....

 

We could truly be FookCink Wednesday!

Edited January 3, 2021 by sonofbert2

[Owls Loyal]

I should not worry about McMigo if I were you Kendo Nagasaki.

 

He should be studying his Statistics Course after he was roundly ridiculed on here two days.ago for not understanding basic maths.

[matthefish2002]

30 minutes ago, mcmigo said:

I wouldn’t say cook was a ‘ success’ by relegating Wigan last season , but I will entertain the argument for now.

 

even if you add back those points, cook got a massive 3 more points than Garry monk did last season and somehow that is a success for him and failure for monk ?

 

there needs to be a long , hard look at this Paul cook band wagon. This all smacks of Paul Jewell Mark two to me . 
 

 

 

Paul Jewell was a decent manager. Did very well at Bradford and Wigan. Less so at Derby and Ipswich I admit.

I give him the benefit of the doubt at Wednesday due to the circumstances at the club when he was here.

Same is likely to happen to Paul Cook at Wednesday though, things off the field will prove insurmountable.

 

 

[Guest hirstysfags]

14 minutes ago, sonofbert2 said:

It’s a shame we can’t have them both and then just swap the first letters round on their surnames....

 

We could truly be FookCink Wednesday!

That, sir, is my favourite post of the day.

[Athelwulf]

At least Cuke wants the job, knows this area and knows something about this league.

[Emerson Thome]

39 minutes ago, mcmigo said:

I wouldn’t say cook was a ‘ success’ by relegating Wigan last season , but I will entertain the argument for now.

 

even if you add back those points, cook got a massive 3 more points than Garry monk did last season and somehow that is a success for him and failure for monk ?

 

there needs to be a long , hard look at this Paul cook band wagon. This all smacks of Paul Jewell Mark two to me . 
 

 

 

I've covered this before. The difference is Cook was operating on a wage bill of £11 million (21st largest in the league) and Monk of £29 million.

 

So, bearing in mind that context and how little money was available at Wigan, 59 points is a success.

[Athelwulf]

4 minutes ago, Emerson Thome said:

 

I've covered this before. The difference is Cook was operating on a wage bill of £11 million (21st largest in the league) and Monk of £29 million.

 

So, bearing in mind that context and how little money was available at Wigan, 59 points is a success.

 

Especially bearing in mind the extent to which he sups.

[areNOTwhatTHEYseem]

9 minutes ago, matthefish2002 said:

Paul Jewell was a decent manager. Did very well at Bradford and Wigan. Less so at Derby and Ipswich I admit.

I give him the benefit of the doubt at Wednesday due to the circumstances at the club when he was here.

Same is likely to happen to Paul Cook at Wednesday though, things off the field will prove insurmountable.

 

This is where I'm at with it, too.

 

I don't believe either Monk or Pulis are bad managers; the jobs they've done elsewhere should tell you that. The wrong managers for our club at this moment in time? That's another viewpoint, and one which I'd be more willing to entertain.

 

But which manager isn't likely to get chewed up and spat out by our club as things stand? Who is there who could come in, work with our chairman, and make a success of this club?

 

I'm struggling...

[WhiteOwl91]

5 minutes ago, Emerson Thome said:

 

I've covered this before. The difference is Cook was operating on a wage bill of £11 million (21st largest in the league) and Monk of £29 million.

 

So, bearing in mind that context and how little money was available at Wigan, 59 points is a success.

Let’s be honest though the wage budget is deceiving when you consider the fact Jordan Rhodes is swallowing up £35k a week. I’m sure even Gary monk wouldn’t have chosen to spend £29m on wages like we have done

[WhiteOwl91]

46 minutes ago, mcmigo said:

Pearson is a complete car crash of a manager. The one job in the last few years he has lasted more than 6 months  in was leading a random Belgian team to the bottom of division 2.

 

 

He literally saved Watford when they were miles adrift when he took over, for them to sack him with 2 games to go and then relegate themselves. 
 

Watford have had more managers in recent years than I’ve had sheets in 2021, and trust me it’s not been pretty. So that’s no reflection on Pearson

[Owls Loyal]

WhiteOwl91 ducks the issue.

 

Monk had nearly three times the wage budget of that available to Paul Cook at Wigan Athletic.

 

The other big difference is that Cook has won serial promotions with different clubs whereas Monk has won sweet FA.

[wellbeaten-the-owl]

47 minutes ago, Jim said:

 

Why would he be better than the recent managers we’ve had? Harsh or not, he still got relegated in his last job from this level and before you say it wasn’t his fault, which it wasn’t. He’s inheriting a similar situation here.

Don't see the similarity, only the points deduction.

 

At Wigan got them up from league 1 with over 100 points, kept them up following year against the odds, then had big turnaround in players adding quite a few in summer of 2019, they had difficult first half of year as side took time to gel, but when it did they took off and were sailing to mid table (with even a few pundits saying they may have an outside chance of play offs) when out of knowhere the owners pulled plug and sent them into administration.

 

 

[sonofbert2]

11 minutes ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said:

 

This is where I'm at with it, too.

 

I don't believe either Monk or Pulis are bad managers; the jobs they've done elsewhere should tell you that. The wrong managers for our club at this moment in time? That's another viewpoint, and one which I'd be more willing to entertain.

 

But which manager isn't likely to get chewed up and spat out by our club as things stand? Who is there who could come in, work with our chairman, and make a success of this club?

 

I'm struggling...

 

Bruno Lage.

 

Lump on!  I can smell it.

 

CC’s assistant, knows the chairman and club and some players as well as CC’s go to man - Paixao.

 

Managed at a much higher level since and currently out of work.

[wellbeaten-the-owl]

9 minutes ago, Owls Loyal said:

WhiteOwl91 ducks the issue.

 

Monk had nearly three times the wage budget of that available to Paul Cook at Wigan Athletic.

 

The other big difference is that Cook has won serial promotions with different clubs whereas Monk has won sweet FA.

Garry Monk has best agent in football to keep getting jobs at big clubs despite constant failure

[IstillhateSteveBould]

Cook’s a useful manager. Certainly in the lower leagues. Also did a decent job at Wigan considering the budget and quality he had to work with. 
 

This would be the biggest job he’s had and it’s a tough one with our current situation. Off field issues and the weakest squad we’ve had in the last 5 years. 
 

I’m 50/50 on him. He seems confident and passionate enough to come in and galvanise the squad, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it was all too much for him.

[gurujuan]

6 minutes ago, sonofbert2 said:

 

Bruno Lage.

 

Lump on!  I can smell it.

 

CC’s assistant, knows the chairman and club and some players as well as CC’s go to man - Paixao.

 

Managed at a much higher level since and currently out of work.

and some wonderful young players in Portugal right now Not a bad direction to go

[sonofbert2]

1 minute ago, gurujuan said:

and some wonderful young players in Portugal right now Not a bad direction to go

 

I agree. Be happy with that.