Anyone on here going to this tonight?

A mate of mine’s going and was trying to think of a few questions to ask him.

What's happening with Robbie's assistant/striker coach, went all quiet on that.

I was there last night and I'll do my best to remember some of the questions. In no particular order however.


Q: Someone asked Robbie how his move to United came about.

A: Robbie's answer was that since he came up the road after MK he was looking to get a job but only the right one, and realistically a manager wants 4 things in his ideal club:

Ambition
Infrastructure
Good Support
A decent squad

He claimed that the longer a manager is out a job the less likely it is that he'll find one which has all these things. However, he was keeping tabs on teams 'in trouble' and came to a few of our games after it became obvious shabba wasn't going to last much longer. He felt that he could turn things around and that United checked all of these things.

From previous experience with the club he got a hold of Mike Martins number after Csaba was sacked, called him and asked for the job. Was invited round his house for a meeting. MM was pleased with the meeting, few days later met the other directors and it was confirmed.


Next question after this was a good follow up given what had been said.

Q: How long do you potentially see yourself here for? Are you ambitious to move on again or would you happy here long term?


A: Neilsen sees United as a 6 or 7 year project in order to return us to Levein/Houston level Euro competitors / Cup competitors if promotion is gained. Whether he'll be here for it is a different matter, realistically he said at the end of the day I could be sacked 6 months from now so it's hard to predict. He said regardless of any success he wouldnt leave for a lower championship or league 1 team in England. He's ambitious to manage at the highest level possible and he believes players should feel the same way to get the best out of them.

Realistically though 6 or 7 years is the turnaround if promotion is achieved and the clubs infrastructure remains in place under a successful manager.


Q: Are you still looking for a striker coach?

A: Yes, has to be the right man etc. etc. Claimed that a striker coach is necessary as he is comfortable with more structural things such as defending and team moves. However, when a striker approaches him with Q's he finds it hard to give him an answer other than 'Well as a defender I wouldnt like a striker doing x'.

He says that while he  obviously backs himself as a coach he feels that getting someone in who really knows what a striker should do is much more beneficial. Robbie finds it hard to advise strikers as they were often so far ahead of him on the pitch he wouldn't notice what they were doing, as a player his focus was the defence and midfield so this reflects in his coaching also. Also looking to bring on board a video analysis person so they can more properly assess games and past performances.



I'll add a couple more later, away to head out just now.

This is better than having been there!
Keep it going mate!

Thanks for that, Morphman.

Good answers from Robbie, although I'm not convinced by the story about how he got the Head Coach position  But let's not rock the boat!