New manager

I think a lot (not all, but a lot) of the people who wanted Rodgers out had totally unrealistic ideas about who we would or even could get to replace him. Suggestions like Knutsen, Rose or the Brugge manager being good examples of that.

I saw we were interested in someone I had never heard of managing a mid-table Championship club, read up on him a little and thought to myself: "I'm OK with this, not as good as Rodgers but definitely better than I expected." Now I've been reading that Ipswich want too much money for our tastes and I'm thinking: "Yup, that sounds about right."

 

It's not even the money, the weather or the city, etc. The food in Scotland is genuinely awful, but Belgium is pretty rainy too and Scotland is more beautiful than people give it credit for. It's much more fundamental reasons.

He'd be swapping a job with less pressure at a better-run club, agile and effective in the transfer market with a more modern structure in a better league with a better local talent pool for a job with more pressure to achieve but worse players to do it in a less prestigious league. He'd also get to work with a transfer system consisting of a lawyer, an accountant, a weirdo with a CV based on the English lower leagues and a bizarre hat fetish and a CEO who insists on personally OKing every transfer above a certain (rather low) threshold and writes unprofessional rants about former senior employees on social media.

Why on earth would he even give it a moment's consideration?

 

It seems at this juncture Hayen is a pipe dream for the hipsters, Ange has no interest in coming back and Celtic have no interest in bringing him back, McKenna will cost a fortune which we likely won't spend. If those 3 are ruled out which seems likely where do we really turn? Bellamy, Keane, Duff, Maloney? Jesus it couldn't get that bad could it?

 

Oh it could

 

Woah oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh Martin O’Neill Martin O’Neill to the strains of Dirty Old Town like that Charlie Mulgrew chant.

Great to see him back. Hasn’t changed my views on the board but just great to see MON back again with that enthusiasm he had.

 

Nicky Hayen refuses to rule out becoming Celtic manager when directly asked tonight.

Daily Record

 

https://sporza.be/nl/2025/10/29/nic...tbal-maar-ik-ben-hier-gelukkig~1761774359236/


Nicky Hayen responds to Celtic interest: "Never say never in football, but I'm happy here"

Across the Channel, Nicky Hayen is already quite familiar. He was the manager and technical director of Haverfordwest County in Wales before moving to Club Brugge.

There, he's making waves as a coach. He guided Club Brugge to the league title in 2024, won the Belgian Cup last year, and is also excelling in European competitions. Club Brugge survived the League Phase in the Champions League last year, and this year they survived two qualifying rounds to reach the same stage.

Along the way, they made light work of Rangers, something their main rivals Celtic were eager to see happen. Celtic themselves play in the Europa League and are currently second in the Scottish league. They

did lose the top-flight match there against league leaders Hearts last weekend, and on Monday evening, coach Brendan Rodgers decided to resign. Hayen's name is being mentioned in the search for a successor.

"I've said before that I know I'm on lists, although I don't know which ones," Hayen said in response to the rumors after the match against Eendracht Aalst Lede. "As long as nothing is concrete, I don't need to know about it. I'm happy here and I want to work hard to win my 20th national title. That's still my goal."

Hayen seems to indicate that he will simply stay at Club Brugge, where he signed an improved contract in June. "Never say never in football, but I'm happy here. As long as you have mutual trust between the club and me, there's nothing wrong."

 

I reckon O’Neill will see the 4 games out but we will have the new man in at the start of the international break to give him a few weeks and McManus and fotherhingham may stick around in the set up

 

MON to see the season out then changing of the guard in the boardroom. New board, new set up, new manager. I’m thinking that was always the plan but Brendan quitting threw a spanner in it. Brendan wanted to be around for whatever the new board might offer.

Desmond going nuts with his reaction belies that but he can’t complain after the utter stupidity of that last summer transfer window. There was no need for that nonsense whether Rodgers was staying on or not. Maeda and Hatate and Yang, all those guys should be gone out of the club. Badly handled no matter what way you look at it but would love to see MON lead the club to more trophies.

 

Nicky Hayen is the next Phillipe Clement.

 

Hayen will get a higher salary than bruuge and that'll do most of the heavy lifting in terms of him coming here, regardless of the conditions of the club internally.

 

If he has premiership ambitions then coming to Scotland may appeal as managers here have often been poached by clubs in England , Rodger’s , gerrard , ange

from of the top of my head there’s not many go direct from Belgium to the premier league so could be a pathway for him

 

Tbh battered mars bars is better than anything I've had in Michelin starred restaurants.

 

If bite your hand off for Hayen.

I'd * off your dog for Hayen and a restructure to our recruitment processes.

ConnorBarroncsc

 

After last night and our record low possession stat, I think Hayen should not be in consideration for the job. Or Bellamy.

 

Interesting how much of Bruges recent great progress and recruitment is down to Hayen or the broader sporting infrastructure at the club?
Style of play is exciting, really aggressive press with clearly good recruitment - having lost key players in recent window and still doing well.

If Hayen himself (and his coaches) are the key drivers for it all, it naturally makes him very attractive to us and I'd imagine many other clubs.

If it's primarily a superbly run club where every manager does well (Brighton, Bournemouth) then Hayen is a much bigger risk - because we are definitely not that (currently) on sporting ambition and recruitment.
The opposite is basket case clubs like Man Utd where no manager on earth can succeed.
We aren't Man Utd just yet, but not exactly a well oiled machine either!

Anyone have any intel on how Bruges have developed over last few years?

 

Maybe it's different for the wealthy. I spent more than half my childhood in Scotland followed by uni in Scotland and the ordinary, everyday food was easily the worst of the 5 countries I have lived in.

I guess a football manager would probably be on the kind of income that would allow him to enjoy lamb and seafood at fine restaurants to be fair- so you may have a point.

 

It's also been shown to be a good career move if he has ambitions to work in EPL. Can't remember many who have went straight there from Belgian football