I have just read Benito Carbone has been employed as a consultant for Leeds United. Does anyone know what this means, and why this position is needed in football? Apparently he will be in charge of Technical Operations. I don't understand that either? Much like the stupid position of a Football Director is football made unnecessarily complicated? When you see the likes of Hull about to compete in an FA Cup final, with an old school manager like Steve Bruce, you have to think if clubs just stuck to basics, the likes of QPR for instance, that things would run much more smoothly and succesfully. Too many cooks...
Sounds like jobs for the boys to me. The owner/money man is also an Italian. I can't for the life of me see that the position is needed or what it's expected to deliver
The technical director is like the director of football. There to offer advice to the board. Citys director of football appears to have no purpose. The role was dumbed down very quickly.
No idea what a technical director is as far as a footballing appointment is concerned. I guess it depends on the size and make up of the club. Some are likely to need translators, unlikely for League 1 and 2 and most championship sides. Man Utd's training facilities seem to lack for nothing. They even carry out their own surgery there for their players, speed and return to action being key here. I think most clubs have chaplains or access to them, but I am sure a lot of things could be outsourced. Still not sure that football really runs as an efficient business would.
If you watch the QPR documentary Four Year Plan on NetFlix, you get a true sense of just how inept, unrealistic, insane and damaging some of the businessmen are that buy football clubs. FA does absolutely nothing to prevent it either, and are an organisation equally as corrupt as FIFA are proving to be. If I have any intake of money, it is scrutinously monitored as to how I came by it, why can the same not be said for members of the FA or FIFA who can somehow live way beyond the means of their salaries.
Unrealistic, insane and damaging some of the businessmen are that buy football clubs. That should be where the director of football comes in. Topical today but David James, a DOF might say "Mr Lansdown, its too much for too little, very poor value this, don't buy!"
Watch the documentary, the Director of Football Gianni Paladini was the fundamental problem more so than the owners.
It does not have to be that way. Think about Bristol Citys owner and directors. At various points the club has had people on the board who have no background in football, one doesn't even like football, but these people make decisions which obviously affect the team and its long term future. The club buys A,B,C on the strength of one mans word the Manager, he is inevitably sacked and the next Manager brings in another lot costing another huge sum of money. Millions are spent this way by small clubs like City without getting advice, which is where a Director of football comes in. It works well at progressive German clubs, very well.
If you aren't clever enough to recognise the same mistake you have made 3 times, as well as countless clubs around you making the same mistakes, without the need of a director of footballs help, then there is something fundamentally wrong with you that goes beyond football. I don't need a weatherman to tell me it will be cold in December, I learned that it would be by the previous 27 Decembers.
An individual can be intensely intelligent and fail to understand football. Many directors of clubs will fall into that category. I coach kids, have coaching badges but I frequently ask for advice from others with more expertise than myself. My Sons coach has twenty years + of experience, a few minutes of his time I find invaluable, his knowledge and expertise I will never possess. Clubs can do the same. A director of football / technical director can oversee transfers, scouting and review elements of the FC. Bristol City have been relegated and lost forty million pounds in seasons without similar.
Don't see the connection between coaching and Director of Football. A chairman or owner shouldn't be looking to coach so therefore doesn't need that help. Getting advice as a coach from other coaches with more experience doesn't explain a director of football position. Can you explain why Benito Carbone, a man with zero experience of multi-million pound transfers, no experience of coaching football in England at any level, is being used as a "consultant" to a club he has had no dealings with in the past? As I can't. Can you tell me how a director of football has ever helped the likes of Newcastle? Can you tell me how it would have helped Bristol Rovers? Or does it dilute the chain of command, confuse, alienate and cause more unrest than it does unite each level of personel from board to player? Maybe it does work in some countries, but its yet to work in England.
Directors and owners purchase. They often will not have in depth knowledge of football. There a director of football / technical director can inform / identify and profile targets. If the club is set up to be based on fluid passing rhythm players should be signed to suit the club style. A manager left to himself can make signings that are short term. The Manager moves on and clubs again and again get lumbered with short term mistakes costing millions. Getting advice as a coach from other coaches with more experience doesn't explain a director of football position ... If I had a budget of millions I would seek out the experience and knowledge of others within the game to make sure it was spent properly. A lack of due dilligence has cost BCFC millions of pounds. Limiting scouting has cost BCFC millions of pounds. An ex coach, ex player, or ex Manager can help clubs save millions. It is ludicrous if you think about this ability to destabilise clubs can come down to one mercenary man on a contract of a couple of years. Clubs in England have had successful Directors of football. WBA have had a very good director of football. Man City yes the richest club in the land, but they have a director of football. Clubs can have a head coach who coaches not purchases. There is no exact job description for a director of football / technical director and ideally the board would have a collective responsibility based on knowing their stuff, but that obviously is far from the mark for a lot of clubs and at too many the English model encourages reckless stupidity. Newcastle â Gas? I am not interested in other poorly ran clubs other than the one in BS3. Good practice elsewhere or excellence has my attention.
West Brom is your one and only example, and one that illustrates my point not yours. They have gone backwards as a club, and wasted millions themselves. So how has a director of football helped? You can't try and make your point and then when someone challenges it with credible examples as to why directors of football don't work say "I am not interested in clubs that are run poorly" as thats just being a politician and ignoring the flaws pointed out to you. You still couldn't answer why Benito Carbone was hired, and what good he will do? As like I said he has never had any dealings with multi million pound transfers. After I asked you to back up your statement of directors of football can save clubs millions, You still haven't given an example of when they have done that. Are you telling me Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti is going to ever say "yeah let Joe Kinnear pick the players for the team, and I'll try and get a tune out of them even if they are nothing like the type of player I want" ???... No chance! How could a director of football, who may have no coaching badges whatsoever, possibly tell someone who has been a football manager for 20 years, who is the best player for them. If a manager is signed, you sign him with the intention you trust him to get you results the way he has done previously in his track record. Otherwise why else would you employ a manager? You may as well save yourself a multi million pound contract and the worry of compensation and leave the managerial position altogether and leave it to the DOF and team coaches.
Beyond watching Bristol Rovers coach under sevens at their ADC in Redfield and seeing my sons kids team play theirs ... I am not interested in anything else they do. The current Premier league champions have a Director of football. Leicester have a Director of football. Clubs promoted above City have directors of football. Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti have worked with Sporting directors / Directors of football. If you employ a Manager he Manages. If you employ a head coach he coaches and may not sign players at all, this is where a Diector of football in its various guises makes decisions / advises / seek and identifies. Seeks and identifies can be at the bequest of the Manager. Manager x scouts x DOF can come to a more effective outcome as responsibility is shared. How could a director of football, who may have no coaching badges whatsoever, possibly tell someone who has been a football manage ... It already happens with scouts, agents and on recommendations. Managers do sign players without seeing them play - A role for a DOF and due dilligence to step in. Its a different methodolgy. Sacking Managers in the UK creates instabilty. In Spain the coach goes and the clubs structure alters little. Real Madrid can sack season to season that way. The German clubs do similar and the top clubs have top ex players e.g. Sammer as Directors to advise. Madrid use Zidane.
Hahahaha sorry, you cannot suggest that the Champions of the richest league in the world is down to Begiristain. They have spent billions more than anyone else in the world in Sport, they scraped by winning the league this year. He spent over 30 million on a untested 29 year old who has never played in that league. His signings have been quite poor and a huge waste of money, so again, how has a director of football saved Man City the millions you claim this position can save a club? They overspent on Garcia, overspent on Rodwell, overspent on Fernando, overspent on Negredo, and as a result have now been capped players in the CL and fined 49 million hahahaha This is absurd! Yes, players do get signed without ever being seen, Dennish Wise signed Xisco, and scouts advised Ferguson to sign Bebe, how did these players work out? A strong manager doesn't need a DOF, if you want a head coach and tell him to work with what he likes, then go ahead, see how it works out. But Tottenham have experimented with DOF for years and it has failed apocolyptically to an insane cost and fortune spent. Achieving the very opposite of your argument. Frank Arnessen, Baldini, Comolli all achieved nothing but spend unnecessary millions. Real managers don't want this position, Curbishly didn't want Gianluca Nani, Keegan didnt want Wise, Dalglish didn't want Comolli, Pardew didn't want Kinnear. I think its safe to say that clubs that have a DOF who make decisions for the managers tend to waste more money than they do save. So their appointments are not sound decisions in this country!
It appears you are now resorting to google like the thread is a form of competition. You asked for successful club here who use the capacity of a director of football / technical director. Manchester City and Leicester City are successful. You yourself have pointed out two strong characters, who are highly successful and of world renown and have worked at clubs who use a director of football. Todayâs German cup final likewise usea director of football / technical director , this seasons Champions league final and last ditto. I make no claims to say itâs a complete panacea to cease the wasteful largesse of clubs, but similar could have helped a club here that spent wildly past its annual income, so wild it was one of the worst financially performing in England. A DOF may have also prevented the oddest signing I can remember in my forty years supporting the same above club. That club once bought a Slovakian who clearly could not play the role he had been bought for, it was obvious to fans, anybody, but somehow he was bought for hundreds of thousands of pounds. Because the clubs board was full of people who donât know football, and as pointed out some donât even like the game nobody smelt it.
Mr Steve should have put a pub drunk on a retainer of four cans of natch. Even with 2am eyes they would have seen Twenty Peter Stuyvesant wasn't a forward. Funny then and funnier still with time.
