Tends to be overlooked as clearly, when people want to blame the previous regime, the focus tends to be on our bearded saviour. If his wiki page is accurate, he seems to have worked most of his working life in football. Potentially thats both good and bad. Whether the wiki page is accurate or not, its quite funny, and potentially libellous, though probably not quite. Currently, NW seems to be anxious to make the point that SH is working hard to secure new signings. Maybe a neat move on NW's part that. Anyway, not much sign of any success coming from all that"working hard". Just wondered what the views were on him. The fact he's part of the old regime is not a reason to be anti, as you can't sack the lot of them, and its a truth of business that there are usually good people even in bad organisations, just being thwarted by circumstances. On the other hand............... he is Chief Exec. Thats a position of huge influence, sets the tone for a lot of things other than the really top level stuff you get from the owners. At a detail level, he is probably the most important person in the club. I wonder how much of working for KB has rubbed off, and even if the new owners want an entirely different approach (and we don't know they do, completely) would he be able to deliver it? Makes me uneasy. If his whole ethos is wanting to look good by saving the last penny in every deal, we ain't going to make the progress we need, and the gradual spiral down will continue. I look forward to my fears being proved groundless in the run up to the window closing. Possibly.
If GFH felt he was really that much of a hinderance they'd just sack him. They might not have a great deal of experience in football but they do have experience in business and they're not complete idiots.
I'm inclined to think (hope) that GFH want to spend from now until the end of the season assessing all aspects of the club (although they had ample time to do that over due diligence anyway...), decide what they want to do about Warnock/decide upon and approach his replacement, learn the ropes a bit more whilst attempting to connect with the fans, and sorting out the team upstairs (ie, Harvey's future, who becomes chairman, Bates' figurehead position, etc etc). And next season, with a new manager, some solid experience and with things set up the way they want them to be, we might, with any luck, just see a big improvement in all areas of the club. I say all of this more in hope than expectation though. Chances are Harvey's still a **** and GFH are fine with that, Warnock's given an extension and we sell Becchio and Byram in january.
2020 How someone can continue to fail at his job and still get employed on more than the prime minister I will never know!!! Harvey is useless and needs to jog on
I hope – hope – that Harvey has been kept on to ensure that there is continuity in the transition from Bates to GFH, but that the idiot is sacked as soon as the season is over. His record as Chief Executive is dreadful and he should have been shot years ago for letting so many good players leave for nowt or next to nowt. Anyone would be better than Harvey. Even this young whippersnapper from Mansfield: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/14901438
That's what I'm hoping, they're waiting until summer to properly sort things out so it gives them time to truly judge the situation and what needs to be done
"I want to wake sleeping fans with a lot of different initiatives by liaising with them and finding what they want." maybe that's the reason why
I choose to believe that the amount of time spent assessing every last detail of how the club is run, and taking their time over decisions of things they want to change, is a sign that they are here to do the job right, not to do the job quickly.
I want to believe that, I really do. Perhaps it's just the cynicism in me born out of the Bates' regime, but I'm half expecting another 7/8 years of broken promises and mediocre teams that are continually ripped apart by the sales of key players. Hopefully though, it is a sign that they're here to make a steady improvement. It's probably wiser for them to finance a few decent loan moves, give Warnock his chance of one final promotion, and sit in the background, planning ahead and making adjustments for next year. That would make perfect sense.
I'd rather see us make a permanent signing of a good, young winger. Someone who's already good enough for first team. End of the day any manager with any sense is going to see straight away that we play best with wingers and Becchio. If possible, some ground should be made on rebuilding the team now.
There's a few in Scotland who could probably do a job and would be fairly realistic. Mackay-Steven or Johnny Russell from Dundee United? Probably would cost a bit though so I suppose that rules them out for now.
I do want to agree with you. Honest I do. And its true that the summer is a much better time to make changes, get good players in etc. I suppose we have all lost the ability to keep faith, as a result of being severely tested for many years. Officially, my position is I won't make any form conclusions on GFH until the summer is over, but I really would like see plenty of good signs before then...... can only hope
I keep seeing Harvey being criticised, but to be honest, I've no idea if it's justified or not. For a start, I've actually got no idea what he's supposed to do for a job, exactly. Even if I did know what his job was, I have no idea what constraints he has to work under - e.g. wage structure, cash flow, budgets etc. So could someone please give me details why he is constantly the subject of abuse? (Not being funny, I really don't understand it!).
I wasn't having a go at him, actually, more asking the question. My impression is most people tend to ignore him, on here anyway. The only concrete reason for questioning how effective he is, is he does seem to be in charge of the transfer negotiations. On his role, I know what a CEO does generally, but not got a clue what it will be at LUFC (because its just a job title, and every company handles it differently). LUFC is not a huge multinational, and its privately owned (or was, not sure now - not listed on a stock exchange anyway). So iI'd expect a CEO to do the following: - ensure the management team execute their roles in line with the overall direction of the owners (up to recently, KB). - handle key matters personally (eg although theres a finance officer, you'd expect a CEO oif a company this size to have a very tight grip on the finances, the financial plans and any larger expenditures. So bound to have a big voice in player sales and purchases, and the detailed negotiations of contracts (players and other commercial contracts, for example the police, the pie concessions etc etc) - I doubt the owner - unless its an Abramovich - get too hands on on this sort of stuff just sets the direction he wants. - whether he's the lead on things like the real estate contracts, sponsorship deals, is more debatable, but if the owner is leading those things you can still expect the CEO is a big part of it. - on the things that matter most to us fans, how much they spend on transfer fees, new contracts, player wages, I'd expect the CEO of most clubs to have a lot more say than the team manager. Maybe in big clubs, there is a director of football who does this, but nowadays I doubt many clubs entrust it to the team coach/manager, not on his own anyway. But thats all what I think, I was hoping there might be some on here with some facts as opposed to my opinions. Behind my question is this (and its not meant to be criticism or even a description of SH, I simply don't know much of him): if you give someone who is essentially an administrator a role beyond administration, where they actually have to manage, make trade offs between meeting short term objectives and achieving long term goals, you may be giving that responsibility to the wrong person. i.e. to someone who will always play safe, balance the books in the current year, but lose momentum and drift off the longer term goals of the business. The opposite extreme, where people drive for the long term "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow" and ignore the fact they are risking bankruptcy, is also not what you want (hardly need to say that on the Leeds United board), there's a balance to be had, and you need a proper businessman in charge of the decisions to find that balance.
