Once Palace sell him for €103m we’ll find out Lot of expectation he will get his debut for England against Malta
Looks like we’re waiting on everyone else to do their business so we can pick up what’s left on the cheap. Clever business strategy that.
More than a little concerning that in a year of such an important and extensive rebuild we don't have any apparent agreement on targets. Here's hoping we have a DoF in place by the start of next week, and they're strong enough to not let Ainsworth have it all (or any?) his way.
Why not let Ainsworth have it his own way, he is the manger of course, crazy comment, if it don’t work out & then there’s only him to blame
Because we go through multiple managers per season on average. It you let them all have their own way you end up with bloated and unbalanced squads. The manager should have input into transfers but not the final say - and should be expected to work with what they have/get within the club structure. It's not that crazy and it's how pretty much every effective club operates.
The DoF has far more to do than just do( or not do) the managers whim. He is in charge of the whole team pyramid from the youngest team to the first team. He arranges all contracts , works with financial director...on how much we can afford on players, on kids on backroom staff). He has to think about everything Football. Let Ainsworth concentrate on first team, and the few players who can step up....and not whether a kid should go to aldershot or Nuneaton to do a months work experience
Les' weakness in letting Beale have his own way landed us with perpetual sick notes like JCS and Balagoun. You're proposal is to do the same with GA. Can't blame Les if that tactic backfires again.
Those days seem to be long gone Jeff. Remember when it was a manager who told the board which players he wanted. Now it's some dick in a suit sat in an office
I presume that directors of football and managers have to share common ground to make any transfer successful. I'm back part time coaching at Leeds for 4 hours a week and their recent DOF has made a right cock up of things. Robin Koch on a contract where he can leave for free if relegated!!! Great business sense. There's lots that can go on behind the scenes and in the boardroom and my opinion is that they had a disagreement on player recruitment as I reckon Les doesn't think that GA will be around long enough.
Think we should show our intent and bring an old boy back then. Who can we sell to free up some coin.
I find myself agreeing with you too much Raving Bit bizarre that we identified players to release early and didn’t already have the discussions on the type, or specific, players we wanted to recruit - so any disagreements (between DoF and GA) would have come to light early not with 49 days left to season kick-off. I’m sure it won’t stop us making moves for players but it would have been much better to have a new DoF in place earlier with his input, support and drive to get things moving positively, forwards and quicker. Feels a typical messy head office method of working. Bloody frustrating.
