Stuart Gray

I'll give the guy a chance (like we have a choice) but take a look at his experience. Underwhelming might be the best adjective that can be applied to him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Gray_(footballer,_born_1960)

 

Like Joe said, I'll give him a chance, but on the surface this is a really underwhelming hire. Hard to look at this and not think that we got shot down by a number of prospects before hiring Plan D or E.

 

Because that's what happened. The beauty of it is that Plan A doesn't always pan out & there's a chance Plan D or E does. It's really down to timing, fit and whether he can command respect and effort from the players.

So yeah, on the surface it's underwhelming and worthy of skepticism, but only time will tell. Hopefully our fans get behind him & the team and it all works out.

One other point, if the points Vescey made are accurate, Gray is going to serve as more of a head of the coaching staff & we're still in the market for more of a manager type (who would work with Rigg & Gray to set tactics & squad selection). The rumors are that would be one of the Dutch guys rumored (Stam, Advocaat, Seedorf). I know people are struggling with it, but it does appear the club are going with a different setup than the traditional model. I'd be more skeptical of that if there weren't other clubs using this model successfully. I linked an article in the manager search thread that kind of lays it out and makes the case for this model. I recommend checking it out if you haven't. I'm pretty sure it's on page 1 of that thread.

 

I'm encouraged by his defensive track record. We'll see how it goes.