How on earth is it irrelevant? Losing 3 of your back 4 during the run in & still getting us into the play offs is an impressive feat whether people want to admit it or not. It’s a ready made excuse for most managers an injury or two, would’ve been easy to give up & go again the following season. The team didn’t pick itself at all, many would’ve stuck Nyatanga at left back like Wilson / Johnson did or go into the loan market. Hourihane was superb but so was Scowen, Winnall, Mawson etc. You don’t get promoted because of one player. I get the impression Hecky was allowed more freedom to sign some players he wanted in January from listening to press conferences in getting the target man he talked about signing in Moore & getting experience in with Mills. McBurnie was a long term club target as was Mahoney from what I’ve heard. There’s some I don’t believe he had anything to do with, Cavare, Thiam & Knasmullner. There are others I don’t think he wanted, Mallan for example, he kept saying we needed a defensive minded midfielders & then in comes Mallan so logic would suggest he wasn’t a Hecky signing. There’s others that could be Hecky signings or not, some good, some bad, some where the jury’s still out. Again logic would suggest he wanted Lindsay & Potts with how much he played them but if he wanted Fryers who he played a lot when fit then I’d say he got that one wrong as I would with the Mills signing. I just look at things objectively, I see other posters on here calling him names & then making out they don’t have an agenda. The football was ****, I agree but I do think given the squad we had August - January we should’ve been bottom of the league when he was coach & most people on here did as well until he left for Leeds & people started rewriting history. We got loads wrong last summer, the recruitment was a shambles. We’d got a manager who’s preferred system was 4-4-2 so we gave him about 6 attacking midfielders & only 3 strikers, 1 of which wasn’t up to it, 1 who wasn’t fit enough to start & one who although he’s a decent player he’s limited in what he can do due to his size.
This thread is a joke. Some of the comments are so bitter and twisted, it’s ridiculous. Hecky inherited a team ‘from a far superior manager’. Well that’s one opinion. Maybe. ‘Top end championship squad in league one’. Well it was when he took them there - the same squad was rock bottom of league one, under the superior manager, two or three months before he took over. It had been on a good run prior to his taking over of the team, yes. But that team ‘could have managed itself’ and he apparently had no input into our promotion whatsoever... Yes, the team managed itself, it converted a midfielder into a right back and promoted a reserve right back into first choice left back, plus got a tune out of an underused centre back when we had to change three of the back four; it did this all on its own. The team was brilliant in the first half of the jpt final. It was in no way *****, and did not need a kick up the arse from the gaffer at half time. There was no need for any leadership for the rest of the campaign and the second Wembley win was a foregone conclusion. And then the whole preseason leading into the 16/17 championship season, the head coach was a waste of time, didn’t need one. He didn’t rebuild the defence again, with Mawson being sold and others let go, he didn’t move Scowen back into midfield to do the dog work which made Hourihane more effective. The team got itself to within one place of the playoffs, without the likes of fletcher and Isgrove who had been central to the success of the previous season, no credit at all should go to Heckingbottom... Bloody grow up. Let’s be clear. I wouldn’t have him back; yes I think he’d probably do a good job. But it would be a controversial and devisive thing to do, many fans would take huge exception and he’d be on the back foot from the off. It’d be stupid to bring him back. Especially this soon. But let’s not rewrite history and pretend he was never any good here. As poor as we were January 17 onwards, and he has to accept his part in that no matter how many players were sold, hand on heart how many people genuinely believe we’d have been relegated had he stayed? The squad imbalance he was left with, and clearly didn’t want or design himself, from August to January of this past season might well have led to us being away and gone adrift at the bottom. ‘This year’s Rotherham’. We weren’t. It wasn’t pretty, but without a goal threat we competed and battled. We added a load of goal threat, he left and there was no battle in the side whatsoever. I think with mcburnie and Moore he’d have kept us up at a canter. We will never know, similarly we’ll never know the whole truth about his departure - I suspect the club weren’t entirely shocked and uninvolved in the decision. Going to Leeds hurt many. He couldn’t and shouldn’t just walk back into a job here if and when Leeds get shot of him. He also got stuff wrong and we were garbage for twelve months under him - although with crippling restrictions and circumstances. So no I don’t want him back. But I’m not having all of this ***** about him never achieving anything, load of ********.
You are getting most of this right. Except for the recruitment bit. There’s been a lot of ballax spoken on here with regard to recruitment. Let’s look at the facts. When there wasn’t a CEO then Hecky was directly involved in recruitment - listen to his interviews at that time. Hecky was saying his job was on the training ground not in the office answering the phone. Heckys involvement when there is a CEO in place is to work with the recruitment team to identify players and then its the job of the CEO to work out how they can get those players through the door. Then Ganaye was appointed as CEO - and what happened? We had Hecky on Radio Sheffield complaining that recruitment was too slow and people at the club should be getting on with it. And importantly after the transfer window closed it was clearly evident that the squad was completely unbalanced - there were far too many attacking midfielders - but we were short of defensive midfielders, wingers and importantly we only had one recognised striker (Bradshaw) with any experience at the club. Last summers recruitment was a balls up by Ganaye and I think this caused friction between Hecky and Ganaye. And recent comments by Hecky reinforces that - when he said that Barnsley (Ganaye) was out of order when they said they were surprised and disappointed that he left the club. And then we get to this years January window - when targets that Hecky and the recruitment team had identified were brought in - these recruits had nothing to do with the new owners. They had no involvement in identifying these recruits. However - I do believe Nice Football Club identified a couple of players but these refused to join Barnsley. Hecky has basically been given a rough time at Barnsley - he got a team playing fantastic football and with a couple of more recruits in January 2017 we would have been looking at promotion at the end of that season. Instead he had a team sold from under him - and then a squad of players missing certain positions thrust apon him. He’s now at big ballax Leeds - where their fans and players want ONLY a well known name. It’s looking like the players won’t play for him and most fans want a big name manager - they don’t want a manager from a club that they look down their noses at.
there is no way he should have been given the job in the first place never mind a second time he inherited a team on the turn after jpt and the momentum carried him futyher .Then he couldn't do wrong ......but when it came to his own side of players and doing the management and coaching NOT A CLUE neither at leeds
Same as before when he was here he could do no wrong in some folks eyes. Now if you critical you bitter because he went Leeds. Let me just tell you I was critical when he was here.
Leeds fans don't just want a well known manager. They want someone who wins more that 4 from 16, not someone they took on the basis of a similar record with us. Do you honestly think Heckingbottom isn't winning games because he doesn't feel loved?
Agree with most of that. Fact of the matter is that the team under Hecky that won at Forest to go 7th on 2/1/17 contained only three players from 8LJs last league game, namely Davies, Bree and Hourihane.
Don't sit on the fence, tell us what you really think about him. As for would I have him back ?.. only when hell freezes over!.
caant we now please move on the previous 2 managers have been a complete disaster and I think are equally responsible for the relegation neither have anything to offer a club as a manager and don't you think crying over spilt milk is the wrong thing to do
People soon forget. We had a manager who loved the club and still loves the club. We had a great manager - and the club treat him like a dog. Looking back - if the new owners wanted to make the club more attractive to a wider international audience - while also making the club attractive to foreign players - then they should have looked at bringing someone in to do that job while keeping Hecky in place as manager.
If that was the case why was he wanting out in the summer? Chasing after the Norwich & Sunderland jobs
He must of been under some pressure though we had won once in 2 months and only other teams results were keeping us out of the bottom 3 when Birmingham appointed a half decent manager and hull brought some good players in in Jan our luck ran out.