Don't know his remit so difficult to comment. He wanted dele alli but we didn't wanna pay. I do know his obsession with the French is disturbing. It's such a weak league and so different to the pl. however to suggest he doesn't deserve credit for cabaye, debuchy etc is stupid. He monitored these guys for years, long before they became known, built up great contacts with their agents, discovered their clauses, and got the deals done. However you wanna dress it up, that is what good scout work is all about. He deserves massive credit.
If he was 'just' chief scout, nobody would mind quite so much. All scouts chalk up failure, and I think you and others are right that he is hindered by, yet again, the structure. That said, he's part of the problem surely - if he was just a scout then this thread wouldn't exist. It's the fact he is on the board of fecking directors that sticks in the craw. There's more than a hint of suspicion in his role appointing McClarts and seems to be complicit in the subservient culture we have bowing down at Mike Ashley's rancid feet.
That's just why he owns us which I think everyone accepts as fact now. Since he does own us, though, you'd imagine he'd prefer us to be successful and boost his brand further (more games on TV, more merchandise sold, higher share of TV money, etc.) but he continues to employ incompetent people and pursue an ill-conceived transfer policy which has been proven a failure year after year. When will he wake up? Or is the **** as thick as he comes across? He spent £50m in the summer but still went after unproven players with profit his only aim, left the club without a competent captain, left the squad full of gaps. The man is a clown. As for the PL advertising, it's an interesting slant I hadn't considered, but how likely is that to happen really?
The thing for me is that his brand does not NEED to be associated with success. Weirdly, and perversely, he makes more selling successful clubs kit - as in, not Newcastle - so it could be argued that Newcastle being bang average is directly in line with what he would want for SD. It makes sense, when you think about it - NUFC, harmlessly hovering around 15th in the PL, still benefiting from masses of free advertising but kinda linked to a club that nobody really hates, but isn't really a threat either. Imagine he owned Man Utd; what would that mean for the masses wanting to buy Arsenal, Liverpool, City and Chelsea merchandise? Isn't there a marginal chance they might think "well, if I spend at SD, I'm essentially buying my stuff in a Man U club shop." I said this a long time ago, that his goal was to keep Newcastle as threadbare, as ineffectual, as inoffensive as possible. Sell players to big clubs? Good idea - because MASH will benefit, where NUFC won't. It's so finely balanced, but I think he's done it successfully for years. Why else would we finish 5th, then decide all we really needed was Vurnon Anita........ As for PL advertising, it may be sooner than you think. The PL has removed lead sponsorship. It's without a title sponsor (no Barclays) from 2016. That's a lot of money. So how do they make it back? They get a slice of pie from other commercial streams. Ties in really strangely with Ashley's "I won't sell before 2016" comment, doesn't it? I suspect the PL will make sponsor announcements around Jan/Feb, and it may well be that Mr Ashley is wondering whether moderating ALL sponsorship will come into it. Apparently, the PL wants to mirror "clean" brands like the NFL, NBA, and other major leagues - but what they also have over the pond is more control on internal sponsorships. I wonder....is the end in sight....
