he wasn’t an experienced brickie though that’s the point. He was a hod carrier working with two twigs and half a jar of marmalade. Of course he was an utter ****ing failure, irrespective of the circumstances, that’s a fact you can’t take away. His words on his appointment, “ “A thriving academy is the bedrock of any successful football club. I am looking forward to working alongside the academy team, with the aim of building on the great foundations that are already in place and cementing our reputation as one of the best environments in the country for young footballers to develop and progress.” Building on foundations? He sold the bastards man, was he taken in by Donald too? On leaving he said he saved 22% on the academy budget, must have been cheap foundations then. He was a failure because he wasn’t experience enough to say to an owner, “no I want to create a sound academy”. He failed in a role that he thought he could do with the tools provided. He hasn’t been a roaring success which has saw him reach the heights of Bashley. That’s the yardstick, you are trying to defend. I would have thought if he did so well, there would be plenty of League One, or League two clubs that could have used his expertise. You are bigging up a bloke who hasn’t had a job for 2 years in football and has gone a few league backwards, but that’s ok, not his fault People can criticise all they want if they see it that way, some people won’t criticise at all, despite it being right there in front of them.
I reckon both you and @Confucius are right, just seeing tbings from a different perspective. Based on his CV he was a big gamble but sometimes gambles pay off. The parameters set by donald meant even an experienced cat 1 academy director would have struggled very badly. I have some sympathy with Reid in that his CV will now look awful, we will see if he can climb back up, but arguably he knew what he was letting himself in for. One of the things it does show is owners dont need to be making appointments like that, as they cant possibly know who is needed. Somebody like Speakman will know better, but even then I am not convinved. There is a major problem in how coaches and managers are appointed in football, in that in the main they are appointed by people who dont understand the roles they are recruiting for. It is madness.
Smug i know someone who used to work at the acdemey. He told me all the young lads were definitely sold to fund the 1st team because they didn't have a pot to piss in. Some of them had heads turned by the lure of the big clubs but others told they had to go to help the club. I'm just pleased that the acdemey will not be like that again under kld.
To be fair mate that's why he left as it sickened him. To see young lads he worked with just been shipped out to help with running of club was it for him and he knew acdemey was been ruined by the 2 clowns.
Worst thing they did in their time here. Shocking way to run a football club and like said elsewhere showed despite what they were saying at the time their plans were very short term. Pair of ****s!
We could not stop them leaving, that's a fact, both had their heads turned by bigger bucks than we could offer.
I know Logan Pye's family. The told me not one member of the club made an effort to persuade him to stay. That says it all