Unsure how true this specific story is Tottenham Hotspur hope to appoint Franco Baldini as director of football to work alongside Andre Villas-Boas Tottenham Hotspur are to appoint a director of football to work alongside head coach Andre Villas-Boas with Franco Baldini the outstanding candidate. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ball-to-work-alongside-Andre-Villas-Boas.html Yet I think its blatantly obvious Levy favours the DOF/Coach system, as we only need to look back at his previous appointments, such as Frank & Comolli. However, Franco Baldini? where has this come from? would anyone see him as AVB's first choice?
Perhaps this has been motivated by the difficulty that we appear to have had signing players quickly in the last few transfer windows? Too much for Levy to do all on his own, maybe? Baldini does seem to be a bit out of left field, though. Italian Director of Football, or General Manager as he is at Roma, English owner, club and Chairman, with a Portuguese manager? Cosmopolitan.
Why not ask AVB who he wants? Or maybe he does want Baldini. Somebody who backs the same philosophy as the manager is essential or we could have another Camolli esque scenario which leaves our gaffer with a bunch of expensive purchases he does not fancy... and with that there comes trouble.
He was at Roma and Real Madrid before joining the England set-up, so the important thing to consider is his connections. For a start, he's heavily connected with Fabio Capello, so if we want any Russian players that would be a good place to start...
This has been in the pipeline for a while now, but as there has been a recent deterioration in the relationship between AVB and Tim Sherwood, then it has become more of a priority.
This summer demonstrated the problem with Levy being our main mover & shaker - if he's unavailable, as he was for a lot of the summer for various reasons, our transfer activity grinds to a halt. However, once again, he's getting the DoF role wrong - the DoF is brought in first, and chooses the manager they want to work with. The last time we did this the other way around, we had Comolli signing players Jol didn;t ask for (and not signing players Jol did ask for) just to undermine him, which worked out so well for everyone involved...
From what i've read, AVB actually recommended Baldini for the position. Which would mean that he must have known what Levy's plans were when he took the job.
Franco Baldini set to reject Spurs technical director job http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19698921
Some of the issues with this seem semantics to me. There are clearly a number of different roles in a football club. Scouting for players, identifying weaknesses in the squad, valuing players, negotiating contracts and transfers, selecting teams, deciding tactics, and coaching. This is too much for a single person in my view, but if divided up then needs to be co-ordinated somehow.
I prefer the old skool approach, or allowing a manager like Ferguson to be in control, much like Wenger, they don't have a DOF and seem to have done ok over the years, yet I expect there are various people in suits doing the tasks you mention. Do we really need a DOF? it just seems to create a problem, what happens if the DOF & Manager fall out? or if we sack the manager, but keep the DOF? and the new manager doesn't want to work with a DOF?...........I hope we don't go down that route yet Levy seems obsessed with this system.
Just because there are very capable people like Ferguson and Wenger around, who can clearly run the whole show, doesn't mean that the lesser lights are capable of the same thing. Harry clearly wasn't.
Wasn't really thinking of harry running the whole show, but as soon as a DOF becomes known in this country, it seems to create problems. Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Newcastle, just to name a few, do they have a DOF? or do they have a team of people doing various tasks, such as signing players, scouting etc. I know the DOF system works abroad yet it just seems to cause problems over here.
They don't run the whole show though. Its just the people that help them aren't particularly known and aren't labelled with "director of football"
Chelsea certainly have someone in the DoF role, and I wouldn't be surprised if Newcastle did - whilst Liverpool certainly did for a couple of seasons.
It only works, in my opinion, if the DOF employs the manager. The manager has to report to them, and is hired and fired by them. Otherwise it becomes a battle. Anyone know who else is in the frame if not Baldini? Has to be someone who can attract players. Pep Guardiola's not doing much
Aye, but do we know their name? (without google!) i know these clubs have a form of DOF, as in someone who does a similar task but they are behind the scenes getting on with the job. We seem to want a DOF, who is as well known as the manager.
I think the main issue people are having here is that we see DOF as an evil due to the mess Comolli created but if you look at Frank's work before Chelsea tapped him up we were challanging for 4th with buys that didn't cost the earth and what the team needed. We need to get back to this way of thinking because Levy will never let Comolli esc **** to happen again after his open letter admitting he was wrong just before appointing Harry. We need someone who can do the leg work and means we won't end up missing out on players again. Would explain why we let go of the head scout too.
Can't think of his name, but I've seen HBIC mention his name several times. Trixi someone, who is Levy's favoured choice whilst it's AVB who is keen on Baldini.
