Knapper has been interviewed by Connor from the PinkUn I believe there is also an interview with TNC set to be released tonight as well
Given all the vitriol towards him, and the demands from people to hear from Knapper, I am surprised and the apparent lack of interest in these interviews? For what it's worth I think he spoke well, addressed all of the issues that have been aimed at him and accepted the anger toward him is justified when looking at the position the team are in. He took ownership of everything and tried to explain the reasoning behind certain decisions, as far as he could. I don't know if fans could expect him to come out and said anything more than he has done across the 3 pieces, it's clear to me that he isn't particularly comfortable doing press work. He praised the fans rather than calling half of them a bunch of divorcees as well.
In my opinion, the Winter one is easily the best. Very focused and detailed and pointed and didn't allow Knapper to hide behind Mea Culpas and waffle and empty generalities. In the end I felt this worked well for Knapper, too, and he looked far more comfortable and capable in his responses. Be interested to know if other people agree with me because obviously this is very subjective.
Agreed, I also thought it was good from Knapper and the club that they got such a well respected journalist in to interview him rather than someone from the club. I thought going to TNC was also a big step considering both Reeves having been calling for Knapper to be sacked for a couple of months now, and as more of a conversational style neither party was afraid to disagree with one another
I was impressed with the Canary Call interview with Attanasio and reassured by his answers then, and I'd say the same about these interviews where the questions were direct and the answers equally direct. Knapper offered no excuses and took full responsibility for the things that have gone wrong, including the injuries that have so disrupted player availability all season. My concern about changing the HC now was that we'd struggle to find a top quality replacement but we have, to my total amazement given the hole we're in. Knapper and Attanasio deserve credit for that as they convinced Clement to take on this situation. Now if Knapper can improve the injury situation, Clement can improve team confidence and performance and Attanasio provide the funding in January, we should see the results improving as we move back up the table. Let's hope so anyway.
What makes people think that Knapper had any role in identifying Philippe Clement as a successor to Manning? Other than producing a data sheet?
I agree Robbie. All last week all we heard about was an interview committee and the owner making the final decision. Now, because we seem to have secured a decent HC, Knapper is getting the praise and presumably we have also got to forget his other HC mistakes and his atrocious record in the transfer windows. If we aren't doomed already we will be if Knapper is still there in December.
I think my interpretation was from what PC has said so far is that the meeting with the owners sealed the deal, but Knapper got him to the table and gave an honest assessment of where we are at and what they thought PC could do for us. PC admitted that he wasn’t really considering this job 2 weeks ago but Knapper and the Attanassios convinced him.
Nothing there that isn't consistent with Knapper doing Attanasio's bidding in making an approach to Clement to see whether he might be interested.
Clement's arrival tells me that Knapper will no longer be the principal voice when it comes to recruitment, certainly first team recruitment. Henry Winter put this directly to Knapper in his interview. Knapper side-stepped Winter's very pointed question by trotting out the standard line that recruitment is always a joint effort.
I'd agree that the need for a senior figure in Clement, has been brought in to help with areas of the job that we are falling short in at the moment - namely recruitment and fitness, the latter has been emphasised as a big part of why Clement has been brought in but one that Knapper stated he was wholly responsible for. I think it's painfully obvious that there are far too many in-experienced people at the club at the moment, in-experience isn't a bad thing per se but we lack enough experience around them - that goes for players and staff.
I'm not sure whether it has been raised on here but I find it interesting that Tony Roberts looks likely to leave the club, presumably to be replaced by a GK coach of Clements choosing?
I know that I keep going on about this but if Knapper is no longer responsible for hiring and firing and has lost his role as recruitment chief why the hell is he still there??
