Oscar Garcia - Opinions from BHA fans

[symyjym]

Needs a strong and motivating number 2, from what I heard he wasn't really a hands on kind of manager..

You have to give him the benefit of the doubt over "negative rumours" because of where we finished. He was never going to get involved with the players like Poyet did and he brought in two coaches and had Jones.

 

[fat old seagull]

Well he appears to be the epitome of a 'Loan Manager'. So if you're looking for a short term fix, ok. He doesn't seem to have the fortitude to stick it out.... should I rephrase that ?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

He's walked out on his last four jobs, & according to our chairman, was not communicative. We scraped into the playoffs at the last minute, but collapsed in them.

 

[mr sheen]

Forest fans would hate Garcia. They haven't had footballing education we had via poyet, and still love the 442, kick and rush, balls out passion of the likes of Pearce.

 

[Prince Monolulu]

We scraped into the playoffs at the last minute, but collapsed in them.

Wish we had that problem this season.

 

[Baldseagull]

I heard stories of players complaining that Oscar never ever understood what their strengths were and that he would send them out to play with instructions that the players simply found confusing.

He spotted Ince's strengths fairly well.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

He spotted Ince's strengths fairly well.

Did he have a choice with the injury list?

 

[BensGrandad]

He spotted Ince's strengths fairly well.

Not really because he has come on leaps and bounds this season far far better than under OG.

 

[symyjym]

He's walked out on his last four jobs, & according to our chairman, was not communicative. We scraped into the playoffs at the last minute, but collapsed in them.

To be fair he did have good reasons to leave all those jobs, and most people would have a problem communicating with Burke. I think Bloom was wrong to publicly suggest that it was Oscar who had the problem.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

To be fair he did have good reasons to leave all those jobs, and most people would have a problem communicating with Burke. I think Bloom was wrong to publicly suggest that it was Oscar who had the problem.

Bloom isn't the only one who suggested it. As has been said, Upson helped the team.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Not really because he has come on leaps and bounds this season far far better than under OG.

it was garcia who turned him from a clumsy centre back into a great defensive midfielder. The fact that he's come on leaps and bounds is probably due to experience- last season was his first season of proper football really

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

ince aside, not many players really progressed under Garcia..Kuszczak wasn't as solid as before, Greer wasn't great,.Bridcutt and Buckley couldn't be arsed, Lopez was poor

 

[Guinness Boy]

Well, Forest Visitor, I wrote about it as it happened

https://brightononlyathome.wordpress.com/2014/05/

Few posts in there so I'll summarise. Did brilliantly with a team that had been allowed to deteriorate after Poyet left. Played very nice football at times and massively boring football at others. Set coaching targets for ball retention and win back but didn't play the attacking football he promised. Watched coaching DVDs but allegedly went missing during transfer windows and alienated several players.

When we had Semi the Useless Finn I would have taken him back in a heartbeat. I'd honestly rather have Hughton though.

 

[symyjym]

Bloom isn't the only one who suggested it. As has been said, Upson helped the team.

He had just come to a troubled club after a massive fallout with a manager, who it could be considered was being too hands on and personal with the players. Maybe Upson was doing Greers job

It doesn’t really matter other than I feel that I can only judge him fairly based on the next club he manages.

 

[Machiavelli]

As most have said, got us extremely well organised defensively, and we had an uncanny habit of scoring in the last third/quarter of the game. Our squad was weakened compared with 2012/13, yet he got us into the play-offs. Didn't exactly exude charisma, but one of the game's good guys.

 

[Working class pride]

This season shows what a good job he did last season.

 

[Machiavelli]

I think it's a complicated one that is made murky by whispering campaigns and rumours.

Look at our season under him and you see a team that was frequently dealing with injuries. Ulloa missed a couple of months, Crofts and Stephens missed at least half a season, Orlandi was in and out, Bridcutt wasn't in the right frame of mind to play, Buckley admitted he tried to be professional and get on with his job, but that he was probably distracted by talk of going to the premier league, Barnes was sold in January, and replacements that came in were not good enough, El Abd was sold and I don't remember if we truly replaced him with another back up defender (which cost us in the play offs), CMS was out injured until late in the season.

Despite this, we made it to the play offs.

When he left after the play offs, the club made it clear they didn't want him to go and they were making every effort to convince him to stay.

Which would probably make it seem like he was good at making the most of what he had, but that's only the surface.

After he left, the local journalist wrote an article that hinted at some sort of interview, but didn't actually have (as far as I recall) direct comments from Oscar, where he complained about lack of backing from the club, not buying the players he wanted, Bloom being unavailable in January during the transfer window (I think the Grabban attempted transfer was listed). The club took a hit of a reputation hit with that.

Then whispers started, people relaying what they heard from a well placed source that he never spoke to the players, that it was Oscar who was never available during the transfer window (again, with the Grabban transfer attempt being cited), and that it was Matthew Upson that ran the team.

Then after Hyypia quit, Bloom sacked the director of football. This was followed by whispers and rumours of him singing during negotiations because he was rehearsing, one of our scouts went on the radio and mentioned how he would ignore all the players the scouts suggested and stuck with his own targets.

So, it's hard to tell. Where is it spin, rumours leaked out to protect the club, and where is it true inside info leaking out? The scout actually had his name attached to his claims. Warren Aspinall does co-commentary on the games for our local radio station/club player, and that would give his words a bit more weight than "I know a guy whose neighbour knows someone in the club and he said..." Were Bloom and Oscar unavailable for transfers, or did Burke manipulate things to make them each believe it and let him do what he wanted? Was Burke let go just because having a director of football was putting our target managers off, and not because of how he was doing his job?

I'm sure people will have their own beliefs on this, depending on their own bias, and how close they were to the leak v what they have read on here, and so on.


As far as the football goes, I was not a fan of it. Some people like to point to Gus as having dull possession style and saying Oscar's was no different, but it did feel different to me. Under Gus, when we passed it around the back it felt to me like there was a purpose to it, the players were playing with patience, knew what they were waiting for further upfield before moving forward and I liked it. Under Oscar it felt more like they had forgotten all that and were just passing it around the back out of habit and I found that boring. (Under Sami it felt like they were too scared to move forward).

I'd say this is accurate, fair, ... and thorough.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

He's great, so long as you don't mind getting royally hammered by Derby County in important matches.

Oh.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

One of my favourite albion managers actually, although we have, I think, a better one now.

It was very strange when he resigned. Bloom went on record as saying he wanted Oscar to stay, and that he was trying to persuade him to reconsider his resignation.

Then, suddenly, the rumours started from people with 'club sources', slagging Oscar off quite mercilessly. I do wonder if Burke was the source of this, with the old trick of shifting all blame to an ex-employee, when called on to deliver explanations.


Anyhow, he would be a good manager for Forest I feel, and I'd be a bit hacked off if he went to you.

 

[Baldseagull]

Did he have a choice with the injury list?

He was playing Ince in midfield in pre season friendlies.