Do you think it's coincidence that twice AP has left Hull City and twice Hull City have been promoted the next season? Or that twice AP has joined a Premier League club mid-season and twice that team has been relegated? He's as far away from a "football man" as you can get.
AP has said before, we'd never have got promoted with him at the helm as he would never have taken the financial gambles required. That being said, his people skills seemed to be second to none. He seemed to have the exact right words on any interview.
The original agreement was for AP to stay for 6 months to advise Duffen, but think he left after a month. Pearson would never have got us in stupid debt chasing a dream, he'd never got conned by agents or clubs with transfers like Duffen. I think we all know why AP left the second time. For supporting Barmby.
OLM didnt post what it was. He just said it was naughty. Maybe the emails we all got from Hull FC? I dunno but thats what he posted.
To be fair to AA, he did oversee the appointment of SB without having a 'football' man on the board. I don't know who he asked for advice or whether he knows more about this football lark then he's letting on ?
The board doesn't always change with a new owner, obviously they want some of their own people involved, but you wouldn't go and buy Apple and tell the whole board to **** off. You'd look at who you had that you wanted to bring in and what gaps you saw in their skills/knowledge, then you'd see what if the existing board you wanted to keep. (Or the other way round, seeing what gaps you saw on the board and then working out if there was someone to bring in and fill them. I'd say the title would be Director of Football. Looking at the club at the moment you've got a manager who's been in the game as a player and manager for getting on for 30 years (is it that long even?) so his knowledge of how the football side of things works is going to be good. On the financial side you've got Allam who definitely knows how to run a business, deal with financing, etc. So at the moment the person needed to fill the role wouldn't need to be someone with professional experience in either sector, but they'd need to have a good knowledge of the principles of both. Really you're looking for a football fan with financial training who's a good analyst in both sides. Someone who can look at our squad and understand the weaknesses when Bruce is talking to him, and who when he sees a player can understand how that player would help the side. And I don't mean Bruce takes them to a game and goes "that lad up front is great, he's big and strong and that's what we need, go get him for me". It needs to be someone who sees it for themself and believes it, that way when they're explaining to Allam why he's wanted and why the club should push the boat out by going a bit over the budget the belief that they will get the return expected should show through. If you just had someone agreeing with Bruce because Bruce said it and you should support your manager. Going the other way, Bruce would need them to have that instinctive involvement on the football side to stop him viewing rejections as being those of a typical bean counter. To be honest you only really want the person involved when we're talking about things outside the budget, like a player wanting £40k/w if our cap is £30k/w but them being an amazing player that could push us on to the next level they'd be the person that looked for a way to finance it without risking the club before proposing it to Allam. The rest of the time they'd be learning how things work to assist more if either Allam or Bruce were to be replaced by someone with less experience. If things are inside the budget you just need a financial person doing the paperwork and Bruce agreeing to it. If he agrees to things that are too expensive then he'll not be able to get all the other players he wants so he's not going to let us do anything stupid if it can cost him his job as well. Outside of those situations, you'd be looking for someone with the same skills to be involved in fan liaison. So in the name change situation you'd be looking for someone who understands the fans views to be talking to Allam in confidence and with no particular motivation to be against him (impartial rather than a yes man), not to tell him what to do, but to identify the problems his plans will throw up so that they can be solved and the answers presented with the idea. So - changing the name - fans won't like that why are we doing it? - marketing elsewhere - have we got anything we can give them to say it will work because the name is important in football - no - well can we get some, if we can it'll be more acceptable to people, you can even say you don't really want to do it but you think it's the best thing for the club and look good for understanding, if you look like you're just doing it for the hell of it it's going to be confrontational and then it'll be "us vs them" and then even when you back it up it'll be unpopular. Again working the other way the knowledge of both sides of it will help explain why things aren't happening at the club to fans. We basically need 2 football/finance translators employing and we're sorted. (why didn't I just type that to start with?)
No we don't. What we do need though is Nick Thompsons replacement well before the January window opens.
would Bruce be willing to work with a Dof (presume maybe Horton would be a candidate for that - he worked under Frances Lee, so knows about strange chairmen), given Papa's record in appointing good managers - we must assume he wouldn't give us a Kinnear type or Hately type as Dof, but who is there out there who could fill the role and do a good job.
He's shown there's nobody at the club who he trusts to make important decisions that has both financial and football (industry) specific knowledge. To allow anybody else to influence him he needs to trust their business skills, so whenever there's an issue it's the footballing side that will lose out. Bruce coming in at least gives him someone who he can trust knows the game from a team point of view, but we're still missing someone who understands the fan side of things that he feels he can trust. At the moment he's got business people telling him one thing, and people who know football telling him the other. The fact the second group doesn't know about managing international business branding/marketing means he can't see how their point is coming from an informed position when it opposes the business viewpoint he's being given. I can understand the problem, I just can't see an obvious solution to it.
For me, if we know the name of the person already then it's the wrong person. At the moment we don't need someone to control things, we need someone to understand what they're being told by one side and explain it to the other. Ideally you'd be looking for someone who's an experienced scout that Bruce can trust, who is professionally trained/experienced financially.
No we dont need a football person on the clubs board. Steve Bruce is more than enough. As Dr Allam says, let the manager manage. He does.
