Fan Letters: Heckingbottom IS NOT the man for the job; & What the hell is taking so long?!

Dear Roker Report,

I honestly think that the board have a fantastic chance to really change the whole outlook of the club with this next managerial appointment - but I just cannot understand what handing Paul Heckingbottom that role would bring to the club.

He’s hardly set the Championship alight with Barnsley.

Yes, he’s capable of managing on a budget, yes, he’s kept them in the league, but he’s done sod all else of note.

They might as well let Stockdale continue until the end of the season, because I very much doubt a manager the calibre of Heckingbottom can drastically change the position that the club is in at the minute.

The problems at the club run far deeper than the manager but no one there seems to realise that. It’s like a new house falling down and blaming the painter!

I said at the time that appointing David Moyes was a massive mistake, and that was proved to be right. I was more hopeful with Grayson but, unfortunately his lack of basic managerial skills let him down.

With Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales not qualifying for the upcoming World Cup, plus, dare I say it, Everton not persisting with chasing Sam Allardyce, there are plenty of managers out there who we could take a punt on. No doubt they’ll manage to mess it up spectacularly because that’s the way things seem to occur, but we can all live in hope.

Keep up the good work lads!

Grant Potter

Photo by Clint Hughes/Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

Grayson had to go, I think we all appreciate that.

We weren’t being unlucky, we weren’t anywhere near being able to fix things - a change was needed, despite the summer constraints he had to work with.

When we rushed to sack him at the final whistle against Bolton I think we all assumed this was because we had already identified a replacement, maybe to come in and watch the Boro game from the stands but certainly to arrive swiftly afterwards, getting some time with the majority of our players before the Millwall game.

Decisive, swift, maybe a bit brutal, but perhaps a sign of some much needed professionalism and the semblance of a plan.

It now appears that we had no such masterplan, possibly nothing more than “Ally McCoist?” scribbled on a napkin.

No one appears to have been properly sounded out (and if they have we can assume the answer has been an unequivocal “no”) and weeks later we don’t even appear to have made an official approach for, well, anyone.

The incompetence of the people running this football club seemingly knows no bounds.

Ewan, Sunderland