Folks last night I was working with a colleague, who is not ITK but does pick up some great stuff, due to work he does in the Prem league (thats no bull **** by the way). Anyway he dared to suggest that in many cases, the club does very much gauge the opinion of fans prior to the final approach for transfer targets, ie social networking sites, forums etc. Now whilst this is just a tentative toe in the water question...do you think all the negative feedback and comment regarding Jenas yesterday (on several sites I might add) could have had any bearing on the late withdrawal from the deal. Word was he was he was about to fly up here when the word came through from Sunderland. Whats yer thoughts ?
wouldn't surprise me - big brands crawl social media sites all the time to gauge response to new campaigns, tv spots and so forth. pretty much to a man, every sunderland fan i know was vociferous in their not wanting jenas to come, so it may have had an impact. maybe mon just reaslised he was ****e though, and that he already had a load of average central midfielders...
I honestly don't beleive that either MON or ES bothered to pay attention to us on here, i'm sure our thoughts are valued but not when it comes to splashing cash on players. Why have a manager of you are going to listen your average Joe?
Companies always carry out focus groups to gauge consumer reactions. These forums are a good cross section of ages and opinions and are generally used by season card holders or long term followers. They are as good a feedback outlet as anything a large company uses in my experience (and I have got background in this) to test new products and services. I'd say someone at the club DOES monitor this, amongst various other sites and gives feedback to the manager and boardroom. How else do they sample? Match day attendance is only a numbers thing not a feeling behind it. 99% of the reactions on here yesterday were anti-Jenas and quite vociferously so. That was maybe fed back to the club and as Jenas was an after thought target anyway, his inclusion was not a make or break deal. That said, if MoN had actually wanted the player, I have absolutley no doubt, regardless of the oposition by us, he would have bought or loaned him. After all, focus groups are one thing and what a manager wants is another. We don't run the club we just support it and had Jenas come, I'd still be there every game supporting.
It would be nice to think that our views were taken into account, but overall I hope that they didn't pay any attention at all. Anything designed by a focus group is generally bland and ****e.
Not sure mate can't see MON being influenced one way or another by anything any of us say especially on sites like these.
It could be that we agreed to take Jenas as part of the deal to bring Rose here, as a Spurs pal and somebody who knew the area for example, but O'Neill may have heard that Rose was enthusiastic about coming here anyway and so pulled the plug. Just a suggestion.
It was me I rang MON. http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/166072-Rang-MON-earlier To be honest Biffa mate in this age of instant information. I would be more surprised if they didn't have monitors on the social networking sites and football forums. It is no longer just a case of buying a player, sometimes the player needs to be SOLD to the fans.
With the way that these things work on deadline day, do you reckon Jenas was being lined up to replace someone who in the end didn't need replacing?
He apparently said to journalists that he would rather have red hot pokers shoved up his bell end, sideways and two at at a time, than play one second for your lot. Hope this helps?
