[Joe]

That's all true, but did anyone ever get any sort of "Special One" vibe off Daf when he was here?

To me, he was a quiet smiley chap behind Mansell, managing an under performing team, unable to pass the ball forwards.

[Gladfans]

You always automatically think the better the player, the better the manager, but so many great players became managers and were dreadful. Jose Mourinio kicked around the lower Portuguese leagues and retired at 24, yet turned into a great manager. Doesn't always follow. Plus Dafs, I think had a very bad injury very young that curtailed his playing days. No way to know how good he would have been.

Not in the same league I appreciate but James Rowe scored 160+ goals in just over 250 appearances for Histon AFC Sudbury to name just a few. Also has sports science degrees etc. his career was cut short by injury. You have to have the brains as well as the brawn which sadly shows when ex pros become pundits and can barely put a sentence together. 

 Dafydd Williams is also a very well educated man so who knows.

[Neil]

Not in the same league I appreciate but James Rowe scored 160+ goals in just over 250 appearances for Histon AFC Sudbury to name just a few. Also has sports science degrees etc. his career was cut short by injury. You have to have the brains as well as the brawn which sadly shows when ex pros become pundits and can barely put a sentence together. 

 Dafydd Williams is also a very well educated man so who knows.

But James clearly played and excelled as a player. Also there must be players who won't be told by someone who hasn't played. 

Plus humoursly when clubs advertise for new managers they often get one of two applications from someone who has taken Burton Albion to the Champions League on Football Manager. They're normally tossed aside but are they missing a trick by not considering them?

[Gladfans]

But James clearly played and excelled as a player. Also there must be players who won't be told by someone who hasn't played. 

Plus humoursly when clubs advertise for new managers they often get one of two applications from someone who has taken Burton Albion to the Champions League on Football Manager. They're normally tossed aside but are they missing a trick by not considering them?

Point taken but isn’t there a saying that those who can’t do it teach it?

[TP1]

It’s mad that we still have this debate after having massively successful managers like Wenger, Klopp, Ferguson and Mourinho, who were either mediocre players or didn’t play at all.

And at our humble level, we got massively bitten on the arse when a recent chairman got starry-eyed over the prospect of an England international managing us, with disastrous consequences….

[Neil]

But was the problem the Manager or the players that the Chairman had signed to formulate his plan?

[Daveangel]

But was the problem the Manager or the players that the Chairman had signed to formulate his plan?

We’ll never know, but I wouldn’t rule out the latter!

[MeadowClark]

I personally think the biggest skill at these levels is contacts, knowing what kind of players it takes to win matches in a particular league and ability to get said players in. Doesn’t matter if they’ve ‘played the game’ or not.

In the wider football world as someone pointed out, there’s plenty of examples of managers who didn’t have careers or careers cut short, in some ways I’d prefer a manager like that. Look at your likes of Nagelsmann who spent his 20s learning the game and now is one of Europe’s top coaches.

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

Plus humoursly when clubs advertise for new managers they often get one of two applications from someone who has taken Burton Albion to the Champions League on Football Manager. They're normally tossed aside but are they missing a trick by not considering them?

I submitted an application for the Sheffield Wednesday job in the early naughties but was unsuccessful

[Neil]

Although, for balance, Tim did sign Eliot Durrell and Jamie Reckord!