Postecoglou & Lange (& Paratici) Watch

Paratici stepping back until the outcome of the appeal mid-April. You’d imagine he’s probably toast either way but especially if that appeal is quashed.

 

Still begs the question why this wasn't on the cards weeks ago, especially given he was very hands-off with January dealings so not to jeopardise them by association

 

He was with us the season we signed Dele Alli, albeit IIRC that was in no small part because David Pleat put in some hard yards

Given his club-hopping it's honestly hard to judge him by the players signed at those clubs given he wasn't there long enough to actually get a broader picture, hence there's some people against him being appointed as our new DoF solely because Getafe play Pulisball this season

 

Stable doors and horses come to mind. He should have been suspended as soon as the FIGC decision was reached. I remember the reporting at the time saying that UEFA and FIFA would accede to the extension of the ban as a matter of course.

More late management by reaction to the worst and most obvious of outcomes...

 

What advantage was there in suspending him in advance of him being banned?

 

Where is the advantage in failing to suspend a DoF, who is banned from football activity in his home country and was always going to be banned worldwide and is highly likely to be facing criminal charges very shortly.

Levy's put it off, like he puts off so many things and then reacts. It's amateur and two bob.

 

You avoid being sued for breach of contract and you might get some added value.
If you think on the balance of probability that he is going to be found guilty of criminal behaviour then I agree he should be suspended.

 

If Levy can't negotiate that Paratici goes on a sabbatical until this is sorted, he's a pretty poor excuse for a chairman. The Italian needs to be working on his appeal and defence to the potential criminal charges, not leading our chairman around by the nose.

Given the amount of money that Daniel's pissed away on compensation to Poch, Mourinho, Nuno and Conte, I'm not sure that 'added value' is an appropriate phrase from having Paratici hanging around the place for a few weeks.

The timing's terrible and highly inconvenient to Daniel's plans to distance himself from the problems that are stacking up for this summer, but Paratici has no place working at the club when he's been found guilty of actions that are tantamount to fraud. If he succeeds in his appeal and the criminal charges don't materialize, that's a different matter.

 

That's exactly what has happened! But in response to a FIFA ban rather than pre-empting it.
I can see the arguments for and against doing it like that and would myself have tended to err on the side of suspension but the club know more facts than me and may well have seen the advice from Paratici's lawyers so I think claiming it is a massive mistake is an over-reaction.

 

Slot (as HBIC said a couple days ago) and Kompany are picking up a bit more traction, if it continues I’ll get them added as they’re becoming more than just random links but seemingly potentially serious contenders.

Kompany manager, Super Jan back as his assistant with Toby first team defensive coach?

**** it, get them all in as player coaches actually, they’d be upgrades on some of our defenders .

Postecoglou is also picking up a little heat but I get the feeling he’s in a “fall back” option type of situation should we miss out on one or two first choice targets.

 

I find it hard to assess Scottish club managers at the moment.
Celtic are on a different level to other sides, but is that due to one man or the club?
I suspect it's the latter.

 

Even if you accept that keeping him on after he'd been found guilty was a viable option (it wasn't), the fact that Levy picked the wrong option, is what I and others are exasperated with and want bringing to an end.

RCL has previously produced a list of Levy's dreadful choices over the last few years. If there are 2 options, Daniel will pick the wrong one. Surely, the minimum one should expect of the individual in charge of our football budget is that he's not dishonest?

 

How have we finished in the top 6 since 2009 with one exception when we finished 7th, then?

Levy makes a wide variety of mistakes and I've pointed out various issues that I have with him.
He's not stumbling around stepping on rakes every day, though.
He also hasn't plundered the club like the Glazers or tied us in with dictators like... almost everyone else.
City, Chelsea and Arsenal are obvious examples. Forest's owner is a crime boss.
10 witnesses to a drugs trafficking case implicating him have all died, for example.

Levy is neither incompetent nor an obvious crook.
He's ****ing some stuff up and needs to make some good choices pretty quickly.
There's far, far worse in football though and we need to be careful if we want him replaced.

 

Paratici is almost certainly gone already, but the whole situation seems odd to me.
I haven't looked into it massively, but wasn't this all about FFP during COVID?
You'd have thought that there would be some allowances made for the extraordinary circumstances.

The problem now is whether to bring in a manager or a director of football first.
Some sort of simultaneous appointment would probably be ideal, but rather unlikely.
Rangnick and Nagelsmann worked together at Leipzig, so that could work.
Other possibilities are riskier and would rule out some of our options.

 

Alasdair Gold says that Paratici's duties will be handled by Gretar Steinsson and Andy Scoulding

 

You have to read the whole thing, not just bits of it...

"The last few years" means that, not since 2009. If I meant for over half his period in charge, I'd have made that clear.

Also, I've never suggested that Levy's a crook. I am suggesting that he is currently incompetent in running the football club...and am far from being alone in that belief. Apparently, Paratici is in charge of the football budget, who we hire as coach and buy as players

I am sure that you will reappraise your unrealistic and inappropriate response accordingly....

 

I didn't mean to suggest that you'd called Levy a crook.
If that was the impression that my comment gave you, then I apologise.
I was just pointing out that a lot of the alternatives are just that.
We're dealing with dictators, criminals and oligarchs. Some clubs combine all three.

I don't think that Paratici's done a bad job, overall.
His managerial choices, if they are his, have been questionable, but his signings haven't.
He appears to have largely backed the manager/s.

I think that we're hiring the wrong kind of coach, but a lot of our fans didn't.
People wanted successful managers who had won things and proven themselves.
Mourinho and Conte are not who I'd want in charge, but they certainly tick those boxes.

 

No, this is about the valuations of players included in swap + cash deals. I think that was pre Covid. The covid ffp thing was to do with wage payments I think. The trial for that is still yet to happen and could also implicate some players, though not any currently at Spurs apparently.

 

For an initial objective assessment of clubs I would use
a "rank correlation" (per season) of PL placing vs
revenues for that season.

I know that statistically said correlation is high.

Consequently the baseline measure would be that
the club that finishes Nth at the end of the season
has the Nth largest revenues.

And if you are going with an "all or nothing" assessment
of a club owner (acclaim or blame) , I would warn that
you are going to have to refine your assessment
criteria quite a bit indeed ...

 

You are right but it doesn't change the fact that changing him for a better option who isn't state sponsored or guilty of war crimes has a microscopically small probability, which I why my personal preference is for Levy to stay on but to take a total step back from all executive decisions on the football side of things apart from setting an annual budget, and leave the rest to an upgraded version of a DoF.

I had a think the other day about owners in the football world at clubs of a comparable size to ours who I wouldn't mind seeing in charge instead of Levy and I could only come up with two options: Tom Werner at Liverpool and Miguel Gil at Atletico.

I'm sure there are more out there but they are few and far between to the extreme. Germany follows a totally different ownership model, Spain's is a total mess due to the split between Association clubs and PLCs (also aside from Atletico none of the other teams are remotely close to us in size), France is irrelevant apart from PSG who cheat, Italy can be assumed to be wholly corrupt and the other leagues operate on annual budgets that are a margin of error on our books.