I read in the gossip we might be getting an Italian director of football. Do we need one and if so what for? Enlightenment please. I say we don't.
Just look at the transfer record in recent windows and it becomes obvious that we are struggling in this area. Compare our record with NUFC for example. I would say that we are crying out for some expertise, the only reason not to employ somebody was if the manager was against it. Harry was but AVB has endorsed the idea.
Im completely for it. DL has been far too involved in this area for my liking. Someone who can work together with AVB is only a good thing IMO. perhaps 2 heads saying "Daniel, we really really need this player" might make a difference in pushing us on and getting some real quality.
I think we do. Under comolli we overspent on a few but we also picked up some gems. We've been treading water transfer-wise since. Arneson worked well too before he was poached
To me it's just another non job man with whom to have another argument as to whom we should or shouldn't buy but I take all of your points. I didn't know that AVB had endorsed the idea.
I think it is essential. One of the core skills of a football club ought to be buying talented players for less than they are worth (and selling for more). This is a completely different job from getting the best out of the current squad and the number of people who can handle both well is bound to be low. The Director and the Coach need to interact well though so that they can agree the weaknesses in the squad that need to be addressed.
I think that Levy's been distracted in recent seasons by a variety of issues and, whilst he's still managed to bring in some top players and make some very good deals, we've ultimately fallen a little short because of that. The head of our scouting department left with Redknapp and we've got some pretty obvious holes in the squad, so I think that we could do with somebody that can help our manager to sign his targets. Even if we still can't attract the exact players that Villas-Boas wants, a DOF would almost certainly put us in a better position when we have to resort to Plan B. Baldini seems to have been ruled out by Roma, but SC suggested a very interesting alternative. When we signed Juande Ramos from Sevilla a lot of their fans didn't seem too bothered because it wasn't him that was running the show. He was merely the coach. The real captain of the ship was apparently Ramon Rodriguez Verdejo or 'Monchi' as he's also known, the club's Sporting Director. There's very little about him in English though, so I've not got a clue what he's like, but they seem to have done well pretty consistently while he's been there.
Comolli was an exceptional disaster, and we shouldn't use that too much as a reason to not have one. I'm not really in favour of it, but it depends on the structure of the club. For example, one at ManU under SAF would't work, and I felt Harry is another not too receptive to the idea, so during his tenure I felt we didn't need one. Foreign managers are different and seem to embrace the idea, and avb seems no exception, and will need some help in the area of collating scout reports and transfer targets, as Sherwood with no-one over his shoulder has proved error prone a couple of times! I think Levy is/will be spending less time at the club (personal reasons), so it looks like an over-seer is needed, but the choice is absolutely critical, and I'm not sure about the names put up so far.
My main problem with Comollit wasn't that he signed bad players, but that he filled roles that were already full and ignored gaping holes in our squad. No idea what the **** he thought he was doing at Liverpool, though. Some real strange ones there.
Commolli paid too much and as you say did not pay attention to the squad. He was responsible for the huge fees paid when Dalgliesh was at Pool so I am told, but as notso says we should not allow his failings to put us off the idea.
Kind of agree with the sentiment of the thread. I thought Jol/Arnesen was a pretty awesome partnership and got quality players in at cheaper prices. They were the Newcastle of the 00s in that respect.
I think at the pinacle of any industry you need specialists in key areas, and player recruitment is one of the main ones in elite football. AVB is young, does not have the contacts or the sway and has his hands full getting the team to play how he wants. A DOF/Technical director that he aproves off, that can work to get in the kind of players he wants (full time not just in the last 10mins of a window) will be vitaly important. Harry did ok wheeling and dealing, and before that we signed a number of talented players in Thud, Daws, Lennon, Bale, Taraabt and Boateng under this system. Not all worked, but by and large all have been good players, or gone up in value. Someone that can look out for Holtby/VDV/Lloris bargains, whilst also going after the Moutinho's as per AVB's wishes is the way to move forward. (as well as working with the scouting set ups) More Bales and Verthongans, less Dempsey and Krankjars. -Note- Many people have mentioned Fergy, but for most of his UTD career he only needed to nick the best prem players, and the odd foreign talent. It wasn't often they bought from far afield, less so players that were not already established. I'm thinking Cole, York, Cantona, Berbs, Veron, Ruud, Rooney, Rio, Barthez, Van der saar etc etc.... Or he was able to rely on youth, Becks, Scholes, Giggs, Nevs, the Brazilian twins etc. When you are looking to spend 20m+ on a player, the pool to choose from is much smaller so you don't need someone necasarily like we do now.
Fergie effectively had a DoF. It's not his title per-se but he fulfils the same role. Forget his name. People saying fergie was responsible for all signings good and bad are mistaken.
It depends on the individual, his ability to work with the manager, his role etc. It never works when a DoF dictates transfer policy and says to the manager: "Here are the players for you to work with." Nobody would have ever told SAF which players he should be signing. A good DoF should help the manager achieve his transfer targets through his contacts, negotiating skills etc.
I think having someone who's sole job is to find players is good. AvB can't spend a lot of time scouting and travelling looking for players and as long as AvB is on board with the idea then i'm all for it. Levy can then concentrate on sorting out the new stadium instead of haggling over every penny.
I wonder what Pleat's involvement is myself. During the Graham/Hoddle years his brief was to unearth young British talent in the lower leagues for us to develop (which brought us, among others, Simon Davies, Matthew Etherington, Gary Doherty and Anthony Gardner), or has his role changed slightly. In other words, Spurcat, answers!
