Beard Out - Rogers Promoted

The Boston Breakers have hired two-time FAWSL championship-winning coach Matt Beard as their new coach. Glenn Moore of the Independent in the U.K. first reported the news and The Equalizer confirmed the news Wednesday. The Breakers have a noon ET Wednesday announcement scheduled.

Beard turned around a dismal Liverpool team which finished last in the league in 2011 and 2012 — the league’s first two seasons — into back-to-back title winners in 2013 and 2014. Liverpool won only one game in each of its first two seasons before Beard took over. There will not be a three-peat for Liverpool this season as the Reds currently sit in sixth place with 13 points from 12 matches.

The Breakers job became available earlier this month when Tom Durkin stepped down as Breakers coach after compiling a 10-29-5 record in two seasons with Boston.

Beard will hope to construct a turnaround for the Breakers the way he did for Liverpool, but the order is tall. Boston finished last in the NWSL this season with a 4-13-3 record, taking 15 points from 20 games.

Beard was in charge at Chelsea before Liverpool. He becomes the fourth active British-born coach in the nine-team NWSL.

http://equalizersoccer.com/2015/09/22/boston-breakers-hire-matt-beard-coach-liverpool-nwsl-fawsl/

The timing of this announcement from Boston is awful. There is no need for them to have said anything until our season is finished. You just don't announce that you've poached someone's manager while they are still working somewhere else regardless of how few games they have remaining or what games they may be. This news should have come via us and I'm very annoyed that it hasn't.

This news should have come via us and I'm very annoyed that it hasn't. wrote:

I couldn't agree with you more. Is he leaving at the end of the season before the CL league games and/or Conti Cup final if we get there? I'm beyond annoyed. I'm really surprised at this move by Beard because I don't see it as a step up in his career. The NWSL is a completely different beast and player movement is much more restricted there than here. He won't be able to go to Boston and sign a bunch of new players like he did when moved here from Chelsea. Does anyone know if he's taking any of our players with him when he goes? We really don't know the contract status of Fara, Dowie, Oshoala, Bonner, Longhurst or White do we?


Any thoughts one who will replace him?

I can't imagine for a second that we would have wanted the news to come out like this. So did we not think to put measures in place to ensure it wouldn't? It's poor form all round if we never. The season has been frustrating enough without bad news being delivered in such a haphazard and unprofessional manner. If the blame lies solely on Boston's shoulders then fair enough, but if we ourselves have overlooked the handling of the situation I'll be beyond disappointed because I genuinely thought we were better than this. The fans certainly deserved better.

Acer wrote:Does anyone know if he's taking any of our players with him when he goes?

We'll find out when Boston tell us.

Acer wrote:Any thoughts one who will replace him?

Paul Riley is available and will inevitably get linked in some capacity given he is Liverpool-born. I don't want to go down that road though.

I would personally rather we go European-based, continental if possible. I know we aren't likely to be back in the Champions League until 2017/18 at the earliest but somebody who is well versed in European football would a nice acquisition for CL purposes. Trouble is, our season overlapping with the continental one doesn't exactly leave us with us many options who aren't currently employed. To hire anybody would probably need them to leave somewhere mid-season and that really doesn't happen often. It makes an NWSL-based coach or at least an American-based coach the more likely.

Riley is so bad. I follow Portland in the NWSL and how he managed that team was disgraceful. Liverpool please don't break my heart and hire him.

Acer wrote:Is he leaving at the end of the season before the CL league games and/or Conti Cup final if we get there?

Presumably after our last game, surely? There is still a trophy up for grabs and champions league games around the corner and I see no reason for him to leave us in the lurch when Boston don't even start up again until next year. Our season could be wrapped up in three weeks time, or two months tops. He may as well see it out.

This is horrible news timed horribly. After a dismal league campaign what we really needed more than anything else was manager stability going forward so that we could say to any player pondering an exit and any player pondering an arrival that we at least had somebody in charge who has been there and got the t shirt and that this year was just an unfortunate injury laden blip. Losing Beard means we've lost a big 'be at Liverpool' card to play when we needed to play it the most. It's very concerning.

Boston tweeted about 24 hours ago that they had an announcement due today, so whether or not there was an agreement in place that the news would remain under wraps until our season was finished, you would think we had ample opportunity upon realising their plans for today to step in and either ask that they refrain or just remind them they said they wouldn't tell anybody. It doesn't look like that happened.

I see no reason for him to leave us in the lurch when Boston don't even start up again until next year.

Why would Beard agree for Boston to announce he's going to be their manager before Liverpool's season is over, he could have easily put that into his contract? Surely it would effect how his players play the rest of the season, unless he doesn't have the faith/care that his team can win anymore games.  Also who from Liverpool leaked the information to Glenn Moore?  Something's off.  IMO all of this, points at Beard leaving at the end of the league season instead of Liverpool's season.

I don't want an American manager, name me one that's good?  I wouldn't mind the manager from Brescia but I doubt she'd leave Italy.  Aren't there any good British managers left?

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/ladies/194271-beard-set-to-leave-liverpool-ladies

Leaving at the end of the season - end of the season being after our last game, CL included.

I would love to know if this announcement of ours was a reactionary one to preempt Boston speaking first.

Are you sure?

@DevTrehan: Sad to see @mattbeard02 leave his current role but delighted he has an exciting challenge ahead of him: http://t.co/NN7TRb4DF5 #topman #LFC

From the LFC statement:

Beard will continue in his role as Ladies manager until the end of this season, which will include the upcoming Champions League campaign.

The Echo has got a longer story on it than the official website has and they can't have written it in the 15 minutes since the announcement was made. So the club have briefed the local press at least. They have probably briefed other journalists too, who have then blabbed and ruined what looks to have been an intended coordinated announcement.

I'm a bit confused about the time frame here. Durkin only announced he was standing down at Boston on Sept 10th. Beard says he thought long and hard about leaving us for them. Is two weeks really long and hard? If you were Boston and your manager quit in September but your next season doesn't start until spring how and why have you hired somebody within two weeks? This has been in the pipeline for a while, right?

Guest wrote:I'm a bit confused about the time frame here. Durkin only announced he was standing down at Boston on Sept 10th. Beard says he thought long and hard about leaving us for them. Is two weeks really long and hard? If you were Boston and your manager quit in September but your next season doesn't start until spring how and why have you hired somebody within two weeks? This has been in the pipeline for a while, right?

You would think so. Two weeks is an awfully short time to have both started and completed a recruitment process, and especially when you don't need to make an immediate appointment. But in the grand scheme of things I don't think it really matters when he decided to move on in this case. He has chosen to and we now have months ahead of us in which to replace him if we feel like using all of the available time, which Boston clearly didn't. I don't want to see us take too long though. Sorted in the next month or two would be preferable.

If this move was indeed in the pipeline for a while it throws up the possibility that we already have a successor to some extent. But even if it really was a two week process, if Boston managed to swap managers this quickly then there is no reason we couldn't have pulled off a similarly paced deal on our next manager ourselves. It all comes down to how much notice we have been given by Beard. 

There is also the possibility that his contract was up at the end of the season anyway, and that if he hadn't signed a new one by now then the club would have been mooching around for a potential replacement just in case. Meaning we have been drawing up a shortlist even before we knew he was off.

Anonymous wrote:The Echo has got a longer story on it than the official website has and they can't have written it in the 15 minutes since the announcement was made. So the club have briefed the local press at least. They have probably briefed other journalists too, who have then blabbed and ruined what looks to have been an intended coordinated announcement.

That makes the whole thing even more baffling. Why not what until November or December for the announcement? What's the rush? Boston just started their off season, they don't have games until at least February. I get that Beard is probably excited to start a new job in America (I'm truly happy for him) but he currently still has one which should have all his focus at the moment. This whole thing is very odd.

Acer wrote:That makes the whole thing even more baffling. Why not what until November or December for the announcement? What's the rush? Boston just started their off season, they don't have games until at least February. I get that Beard is probably excited to start a new job in America (I'm truly happy for him) but he currently still has one which should have all his focus at the moment. This whole thing is very odd.

Boston have more reason to announce this now than we do, because although they are off-season, to many people the off-season is where a new one starts. They have had another poor year and probably wanted to kick off the next era as soon as possible to appease their fans. I can understand that. But from our point of view this is something of a distraction we just don't need. It would have been better to sit on the news until after our final game which really isn't that long a wait.

Either Boston unexpectedly jumped first and we had to follow their lead, which isn't that hard to imagine because the NWSL is not known for having tact - or it was agreed that even though it isn't really in our interests for the news to come out yet it was best that we made it official anyway, because nobody had any confidence that it would remain a secret when both leagues are full of as many loose lips as they are.

It feels very weird to think about replacement managers when you technically already have one. It's usually an off season subject so it now kinda feels like the year has already finished. Except it hasn't. So are we allowed to speculate on a replacement or are we supposed to wait until he is actually gone. What's the etiquette here 

Does anybody think any managers already in the WSL would be interested? Would someone like Parker for example leave Birmingham in order to get the type of budget he wouldn't get with them? I know there has been talk of Birmingham going full time soon but it sounds a little up in the air still. There would be a lot positives to hiring somebody already familiar with the league or at least the country.

Parker is probably the only WSL1 manager who looks like a possible candidate for wanting better working conditions assuming Birmingham aren't about to take a big financial stride forward. The rest would probably be content where they are and of the opinion that what they could get here isn't any or much better than what they've already got. I will admit to not being totally clued up on WSL2 happenings manager-wise but I would like to think we will aim to bring in somebody who has already worked at and is proven at a much higher level.

I would like to think we will aim to bring in somebody who has already worked at and is proven at a much higher level.

If it's the right person that has a clear plan for the club, respect of the players and enthusiasm and hunger to prove themselves, I don't really care if they don't have experience at the highest level. Incidentally does anyone know if Beard is taking any of the coaching staff with him?

Parker is a good manager and would be a nice fit for Liverpool but I don't see him leaving Birmingham.

Anonymous wrote:If this move was indeed in the pipeline for a while it throws up the possibility that we already have a successor to some extent. But even if it really was a two week process, if Boston managed to swap managers this quickly then there is no reason we couldn't have pulled off a similarly paced deal on our next manager ourselves. It all comes down to how much notice we have been given by Beard. 

There is also the possibility that his contract was up at the end of the season anyway, and that if he hadn't signed a new one by now then the club would have been mooching around for a potential replacement just in case. Meaning we have been drawing up a shortlist even before we knew he was off.

I bet his contract was ending. I had the feeling that he was not going to be there since June.