New Manager Search *BACK ON*

[Tredman]

Just listened to Percy on 5live and he didn’t mention Svenson. Can confirm Chris Sutton is still an ignorant nob.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Bo Svenson - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Not blown away by the CV to be honest but it would certainly be a brave appointment.

Zenga brave?!

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Just listened to Percy on 5live and he didn’t mention Svenson. Can confirm Chris Sutton is still and ignorant nob.

Initially Sutton was a breath of fresh air being prepared to voice opinions that weren’t predictable and safe but he rapidly turned into a shock jock just being contrary for the sake of it.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Who is Bo Svensson? Sounds like a Scandinavian model from the 70s

Seems OK to me...

 

[Keef]

My first thought.
I’m obviously not cultured

 

[Banjo]

He was linked with the Brighton job when Potter left- https://talksport.com/football/1194...p-thomas-tuchel-bo-svensson-roberto-de-zerbi/

Apologies for the source material

 

[pr0sl0]

Experience of getting a team out of the relegation zone in one of the top five leagues, at least...

 

[prawnking]

At least it sounds like the club are undergoing some kind of selection process?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

We have spent three days in the relegation zone of the top flight in a decade. Hardly a perennial problem now that the relevant boil has been lanced.

 

[Alan]

We have spent three days in the relegation zone of the top flight in a decade. Hardly a perennial problem now that the relevant boil has been lanced.

Considering we spent half of the last decade not in the top flight...

It's always weird to me when a stat comes out that's like "club x haven't beaten club y in 70 years!" And then you look and find out the clubs have only even played each other a handful of times during that span. Doesn't quite weigh the same.

 

[pr0sl0]

It's from March 2021 (so only a few months after he took over at Mainz 05) but this is a pretty effusive profile of Svensson from The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/2471541/202...inging-the-carnival-feel-back-to-mainz/?amp=1

Christmas didn’t come early for Mainz 05 — but just in time. The self-styled “carnival club” were 17th in the table with a measly six points from 14 games going into the mini winter break, destined to go down for the first time since Jurgen Klopp’s penultimate season in charge, in 2006-07.

Already on their second coach of the season, Jan-Moritz Lichte, and without a sporting director following the dismissal of the luckless Rouven Schroder, Mainz seemed as much lost off the pitch as on it. That unique sense of Mainz-ness, a kind of magical connection between the team, the supporters and the city, had disappeared due to COVID-19 conditions and they had a squad geared towards making a profit on player sales rather than fostering that unique identity.

Mainz needed a cultural reboot and they knew just the man for it.

Christian Heidel, the former general manager responsible for the club’s rise from Bundesliga 2 obscurity to first-division establishment — by way of hiring Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel as coaches — in 25 years at the club was offered a chance to return. The 57-year-old was available after a less-than-happy stint at Schalke 04 but told club bosses he’d only come with a team of Mainz veterans. On Christmas Eve, he phoned Martin Schmidt, the former Mainz coach, and asked him to join as the club’s new sporting director.

And he’d bring in a new coach as well. Bo Svensson, a former Mainz player and youth coach turned head coach at FC Liefering in Austria, was bought out of his contract for €1.6 million.

“I wanted a (leadership) team that gelled and one that didn’t need explaining what Mainz 05 means,” Heidel explained at the trio’s unveiling in early January. “Bo is a very important cornerstone. The coach is the most important person in the club. I’ve always said that.”

Svensson, 41, was given a contract until 2024 in full recognition that Mainz were likely to go down. Heidel, Schmidt and the new manager were not hired to work a miracle but position the club for a promotion campaign in Bundesliga 2 next season. But it might not come to that.

Since Svensson’s arrival, Mainz have quietly been one of the most impressive and consistent sides in the league, taking 18 points from 11 games, including wins against RB Leipzig (3-2) and Borussia Monchengladbach (2-1), and draws with Borussia Dortmund (1-1) and Bayer Leverkusen (2-2). Saturday’s 2-1 over Hoffenheim saw them climb to 15th spot, just outside the relegation zone.

With games against fellow strugglers Hertha BSC (14th), 1. FC Koln (16th) and Arminia Bielefeld (17th) to come after the international break, staying up no longer looks improbable.

The fact that all of this has happened without Jean-Philippe Mateta, Mainz’s most prolific striker in recent years (24 goals in 64 games), is even more remarkable. But perhaps it shouldn’t be. The Frenchman, now on loan at Crystal Palace, hadn’t made much of a secret about his desire to move abroad and became a divisive figure in the dressing room. According to a well-connected source, Mateta saw Mainz as a mere stepping stone and had little sense of 05’s special identity as a close-knit, fun-loving community.

Jan Doehling, a Mainz-based editor for ZDF’s Aktuelle Sportstudio TV show, explains that the club has reconnected with its own traditions in the wake of Heidel’s return.

“Mainz can only succeed by doing things the Mainz way, understanding what makes people tick,” he says. “They are immensely proud of BioNTech (the Mainz-based inventors of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer), for example, but hanging out at the Wochenmarkt (central marketplace) is more important to them. They’re very down to earth here. Heidel, Schmidt and Svensson get that, and they’ve brought that back. It might sound trite but the club derive a tremendous amount of energy from people’s support and being united.”

The opposite had been the case when the team had refused to train under Achim Beierlorzer in September of last year, an episode that had painfully demonstrated the extent of dissonance within the camp.

Doehling isn’t the only one who’s noted that the work-rate of the team and its cohesion have gone up a lot in recent weeks. Having worked RB Salzburg’s feeder club Liefering, Svensson has been influenced by the pressing principles of the Ralf Rangnick school but he’s also brought elements of Tuchel’s more possession-based game with him; they are especially visible in the varied build-up play.

The Dane played one season under Klopp and six under Tuchel as a defender for Mainz; formative years that have influenced his coaching ideas.

“I remember a lot from both, in technical and human terms: how to deal with people, lead a team. The way Mainz play, I was able to learn from both of them,” he said. “I was able to take on board things on all different levels.”

The intensity and complexity of the new training regime, in particular, are reminiscent of Tuchel. Everything happens at million miles per hour and without a break in order to challenge the team as much as possible. The idea is that they will be more prepared for the game as result.

“I used to be one of the players telling people how stressful training was under Thomas,” Svensson has said with a smile.

While Heidel has already encouraged comparisons with Svensson’s famous predecessors, Svensson himself has humbly rejected the praise.

“It’s down to the team,” he says. But his attention to detail shines through in Mainz’s much better use of set pieces, which have yielded five goals since he’s in charge, as well as the kind of orchestrated attacking moves that used to help the relatively modest Mainz teams in his time punch well above their weight.

It’s also helped that the three winter loan signings, midfielder Dominik Kohr, right-back Danny da Costa (both from Eintracht Frankfurt) and Cardiff City’s Robert Glatzel have immediately been able to strengthen the side, but this is mainly a case of “Bo knows” and, by extension, Heidel.

If things continue as well as they’ve started for them, Christmas 2020 might well one day become as an important a date in Mainz’s history as Rose Monday in 2001 — the day Heidel appointed Klopp as coach.

Sounds like he did for Mainz what Nuno did for us. Came in to a club that had lost its identity and built a new one from scratch with intensive training sessions, intelligent tactical preparation, and a better relationship with the players. (Also, managed a new, attacking style despite not having a proper main striker...)

No idea if this reflects developments in the season and a bit since, but on the basis of this and literally nothing else I can see the logic if he is on the shortlist.

 

[prawnking]

Sounds like he's highly rated: 3 atb, high pressing, emphasis on counter-attacking

Any insights @Deutsch Wolf if you've noticed him at Mainz?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Considering we spent half of the last decade not in the top flight...

It's always weird to me when a stat comes out that's like "club x haven't beaten club y in 70 years!" And then you look and find out the clubs have only even played each other a handful of times during that span. Doesn't quite weigh the same.

3 days in five seasons then

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

John Percy
@JPercyTelegraph
Julen Lopetegui and Bo Svensson emerge as two of #Wolves’ top targets after the dismissal of Bruno Lage. Lopetegui currently at Sevilla, Svensson at Mainz. Pedro Martins not under serious consideration at this stage. Story with @mcgrathmike #wwfc

Half the replies to that seem to be people relieved we might not go for Martins and people excited about Lopetegui. Maybe I’m in the minority but I’d prefer Martins. As far as I can tell, his football would be better to watch and Lopetegui would probably jump ship at the first sniff of a better job. He’d still be a huge upgrade on Lage, mind.

I’d never heard of Svensson before that tweet but I’m sure that after Googling him for 10 minutes at work tomorrow I’ll be convinced he’s going to be amazing.

 

[Stan Hullis]

I have done the 10 minutes of requisite googling and can confirm he is exactly who I want now and will be throwing a ‘Jinky’ if we now don’t get him

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Sounds like he's highly rated: 3 atb, high pressing, emphasis on counter-attacking

Any insights @Deutsch Wolf if you've noticed him at Mainz?

He's done an excellent job. Mainz have a very definite ceiling so I think he would be interested.

They're certainly not dull to watch.

 

[Lupo]

Tony Roberts is still with us assisting Davis and Collins

 

[Kenny]

I like Tony.

Sounds like a footballing dinosaur and def loves a good old "blue" comedian but his ideas and methods are actually spot on for modern football.

 

[Tony Towner]

I like Tony.

 

[Kenny]

I don't like you....more love I would say x