I think the issue regarding the Barbosa signing won't be his skill level but more an attitude issue. Kids treated like royalty in Brazil and loves the limelight away from the pitch as much as on it, which is something I think we're trying to stay clear from. I have a sneaky feeling this may the signing Staveley referred to when she said they had one done which they pulled out of due to reports off the field.
Ahh, the "mysterious fans" cropping up again. Do you know who they are so that we can have a "word" with them? If you know what I mean.
Who’s to say Nickson isn’t a brilliant scout that was just misused under the previous regime/tyrant. If he had anything to do with the January signings then he has done a brilliant job under the new owners. Equally how do we know he didn’t recommend big Joe as a midfielder but Bruce and his “coaching” staff ignored him
I'm going to guess the answer to that one is quite probably the fact that Joelinton had never ever ever ever ever EVER played in midfield before EVER. He played as a left sided forward in a front 3 for Hoffenheim.
I’ve seen a bit of him in the Copa Libertadores, Tim Vickery the commentator is not a fan of him. Tore into him during one match because he was sulking after not winning a penalty, basically it was a character assassination calling him weak mentally and thinking he was a big time Charlie……I’d stay well clear if that’s the case, that type of signing is where we don’t want to go, we need to avoid big time Charlie’s and mercenaries, we need good honest pros like Burn, Targett, Pope etc mixed with a few hungry ambitious lads like Bruno
Thats kind of strange because I'm sure it was the very same fella that said what I just wrote before about him. That being said he didn't think very much of Bruno either if I remember correctly .
Targett was another nixon wanted years ago.. The list of players he wanted but Charnley didn't cough up for is extensive.
You’re probably right but there’s more to scouting then picking players based on the position they play in. Remember Shearer started as a GK until someone saw something else in him. I’m not saying factually that Nickson recommend Joe as a midfielder but who knows, maybe he saw the attributes and physicality of a guy who could play there but meathead wouldn’t listen to him. I’m willing to give Nickson a chance to prove himself.
Isn’t recruitment different to scouting albeit linked so you can have a head of recruitment and a head of scouting. Would guess the head of recruitment is the one with the biggest say on signings though.
He'll have a bigger say, but it's really a team effort. They've all done very well since the tyranical rule of Ashley and Charnley ended. Funny that isn't it...
It sounded very personal when he tore into him, I wonder had Vickery something to do with recommending him to Milan and got burnt in the process.
Graham Carr got blamed last time but I'm sure he'd have done fine without the arseholes that were running the club at the time. The fans blamed Ashley for everything, but never spared a thought as to how hard it would be working under such a tyrannical arsehole. If the scouts asked for a mars bar they were given a chomp
It’s more a title really, most head of recruitments will have spent years working as scouts. Nickson I think initially began as an u21 scout for us
Exactly!! Nickson once recommended Tomiasyu but we ended up with Krafth, now thanks to good coaching from Howe and Co Krafth has improved but that’s an example of how Ashley and Charnleys minds worked