Hearts have today been linked with former Stoke City manager Gudjon Thordarson in connection with the vacant Tynecastle hotseat.
Thordarson, who also used to manage his country, Iceland, is currently in employment there but is alleged to have a clause in his contract that would let him speak to other clubs should a better offer for his services come in. He is 52 years of age.
I have to say that I have never even heard of this guy, so I have no real view about how good or bad a manager he is. What I will say though, is that it’s important for us not to fall into that old British trap of assuming that anyone that you know very little about must be rubbish! We see it all the time in this country – any time one of our clubs draws a lesser known side in European competition, even if these teams are genuinely top drawer the attitude tends to be ‘never heard of them – should be an easy win’! It usually ends in tears, too.
Whoever eventually does come into the job at Tynecastle should be judged on performances and results on the park, regardless of who they are or their background. Mind you, I think we’d all prefer to see someone with a good track record in the British game – I’m not convinced that this guy can boast this. But it wouldn’t be like Romanov to promise us a proper manager and not deliver one…..would it?!
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Ice Man? As in the guy from the Super Gran title music?
er …no. Ice-Man as in a man from Iceland. Agree that just because he’s not “big” name (though 10 letters isn’t bad) doesn’t mean he’s automatically a bad choice. However, given what we’ve been put through for the past couple of years it would be a PR coup if Vlad could actually deliver what we’re all hoping for. A quick trip to Wikipedia seems to reveal him as posiibly a fair to middling choice.
Not as bad a name as Alexei Mikhailichenko though…
or pierre van hooijdonk
Jim Vinegar of Castlemilk still takes the crown though.
According to the internet he is currently manager of Icelandic club ÍA Akranes and has previously been manager of KA, KR, Keflavík, Notts County, Iceland, Stoke City, Barnsley and Start in Norway. Yes okay I agree that we should not prejudge just because we?ve never heard of this bloke and results are the real acid test but?this is not the sort of appointment to capture the imagination.
I agree imcd, but my imagination would be captured if he got the job and started with 8 straight wins like Burley did! That’s the point I’m making here, even if I would be initially a bit underwhelmed with someone like this.
So long as he was given control to make his own mark on the team, I’d take Zippy from Rainbow to be honest. I’ve just had it with puppet managers. This Icelandic bloke though took over ÍA Akranes after they’d be relegated, got them promoted in his first season in charge, then won the Icelandic league in his 2nd. Okay, it’s only the Icelandic league, but even so that’s not a bad record. He also got Stoke City promoted to Div 1 and narrowly missed the play-offs when in charge of Notts County. Not saying this would be the perfect appointment by any means, but we could possibly do worse. Knowing Vlad though, he’ll be lining up Zippy as we speak…
Stefan Kuntz was a pretty bad name.
The Thor man also has a reputation for being a hard b*stard, something that Hearts are crying out for….
Yes, true – we do badly need discipline and respect brought back into the team sharpish. Bit of tactical nous wouldn’t go amiss either. Maybe I’m warming to the Ice-Man after all.
This is not the guy you want surley? Some big name would love to take over at your club?
Would they? Maybe – I suppose the money would still be good, but I’d really not sure that our owners would to spend as much money as people think they do, which is probably why we’ll end up with this guy or Frail…..or someone like Rix!