People trying to beat NC down with the Oxo card make me laugh. That kid played half a season & his dad had already masterminded that move, there was nothing he could do but get as much cash as possible. Ox was not integral to our plans, he's the one who greedily jumped ship at the first opportunity, well done him......but not NC's fault at all.
unless you've seen more of the interview than me, i think you've inferred something from it that perhaps was not meant. if they are talking post premier league promotion days, what i've seen of what he says stands up. i don't see the point of him saying all this though. he doesn't appear to be manouevering a serious bid for the club. is he just auditioning for the CEO job somewhere else?
Not really at all, completely different selling a 17 year old in League One for unheard of amounts of money for that league when they're not even that vital to the team, to achieving your best ever Premier League finish with potential to go further then selling your best players.
The only thing that is any different at the moment is that we appear to know even less about what is going on than we did when NC was in charge, the "clarity pledge" seems to have gone out of the window. When NC sacked anyone it was on the OS instantly! He comes across to me as just another human being who was given a job to do by a ML, he did it to the best of his ability and wasn't bothered that his methods seemed unpopular, the fact is they worked mostly and got us where we are today. We cannot criticise the new regime yet because we haven't a clue where they are taking us, that is the real worry. I have often stressed that I did not have any feelings for NC as a person, it was too difficult to work out what made him tick, I still admire what he did and you cannot take that away from us.
One could never question what NC wanted to achieve or his ability to sell his vision to others. Any controversy was about details relating to his methods, and how individual decisions were explained. We need a plan, and we need Ralph to tell everyone what it is!
Krueger et al really need to be very careful at the moment that they don't go down the route of saying the right things but achieving little. I've worked for both types - the dictatorial megalomaniac that gets things done, sometimes in an unpopular fashion, and the garrulous speaker who's everyone's friend but basically full of soundbites and bluster. I know hands down which one I preferred working with.
Neither? They both sound awful. Although I agree that an effective leader should be capable of sharing his or her vision.
The interview keeps repeatedly popping up on the TV's at work. It's a busy office and we only have the subtitles on, but I cant help but gawk at the TV every time, squinting to read what he says despite having seen it 5 times already. It makes me sad. I miss him now.
Have to say that Kreuger doesn't give us the same potential for humour as our Great Dictator did No horsey heads, thumbscrews, giant shredders etc.
Also a good leader doesn't have only one way of doing things...may have his preferred way, but should recognise when sometimes the situation warrants a different approach. In League 1 with a player who seriously wants to leave = screw 'em for every last penny.
One quick point. Just before Nicola left, weren't we in talks with west ham about selling Rickie to them? So he didn't always say no when we were in the PL. It was a nothing interview really. Just capitalising on the current uncertainty by saying it wouldn't have happened on his watch. If he was still in charge and players/poch wanted assurances about pushing on into Europe he would have to had told them how. The how would be Katherinas money. If she didn't want to invest to that level, then Nicola couldn't guarantee it and the players would be in the same position now under him. If she does want to invest then great but surely she is the key here now and always has been. Not Nicola.
I remember the cartoonist Steve Bell expressing concern that, following Margaret Thatcher and John Major, Tony Blair didn't seem to provide him with much ammunition for satire. That all changed soon enough. Perhaps Ralph will invade Iraq.
Krueger strikes me as a man that might rebrand the Nightmare on Elm Street films as "We've had some slightly uncomfortable sleep based moments whilst residing in the fine neighbourhood of Elm Street, but we're still here and we're still sleeping"
"You don't produce them [great players] just to sell, otherwise you give away your ambition." Too f****** right..! One sentence says it all.
