I sit on the fence as far as Short is concerned. But if we dont splash a bit of cash under Moyes (the guy hes always wanted) then I'll probably fall on the side of anger!
Well, for a start it was him who set up the Altidore/Defoe swap. He also brought in Lens and Toivonen who were players that Advocaat wanted; they only looked like poor signings because Allardyce didn't fancy them and Lens may still come good. Kaboul was a good signing. He didn't get on with Poyet but that doesn't mean he was poor at his job. The Alvarez situation was a fiasco but I would assume that Byrne was responsible for the legal side of that. I think the board as a whole failed to create the right conditions for him to succeed. A similar 'technical director' position has worked well at West Brom for ages.
Credit where it's due the Defoe transfer is looking like a fantastic deal and the most important transfer for us in the last few seasons, great bit of business there. Lens may well come good and I think Borini was a decent signing as well as Kaboul all good bits of business but all to my mind overshadowed by the Alvarez nightmare, it was his job to negotiate the deals mate I don't think we can just give him a free pass and just blame Byrne. He brought M'Villa in on loan again good bit of business but it would have been nice to have an option to buy him with an agreed fee which would have saved us all from another summer long transfer saga. Another aspect of his role was to shift on the deadwood which he by in large failed to do (though admittedly this is a pretty impossible task considering how **** they are). Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on the guy he was involved in some good signings for us but I just think that his blunders and us not having an obvious direction in developing a clear identity / style of play under him mean that I just can't look at his time at the club as a success.
I've always given ellis the benefit of the doubt, but this summer and in particular the mvila saga has completely changed my opinion. I ****ing despise him. Cheap-ass ****ing bellend. The sooner he ****s off the better. Dumbfuck ****.
We did, we've serviced it down to £320m now. That's not the same as a club who spend more than what they earn.
