I talk about Comolli in my latest piece on Directors of Football: http://hitrowz.com/2013/06/26/directors-of-football-lost-in-translation/
DoF's are hit and miss and I think to an extent, they need a big element of luck to be spoken of as a "successful DoF"... Baldini's track record would suggest he's had a high level of success and with the potential signing of Paulinho coming out of the blue, plus pressing ahead with Villa and links with Doria, Bernard and more, I'm quite positive about his appointment. He seems very well respected and with our young coaching set up, an experienced head around the place assisting with transfers certainly wouldn't do any harm. To be fair to Commoli, like you mentioned in your article, he did bring in some key players for us which have brought some sort of success on and off (financially) the field. Some of his "flops" like Bentley and Gio, I feel is a little harsh to solely blame him like many have done. Bentley was an established prem winger and the "heir to Becks" when we signed him and Gio came off the back of a season where he kept Ronaldinho (admittedly Ronny was a little off form at the time) out of the Barca line up and built his rep at the times as "The new Ronaldinho". Their poor attitudes were the sole reasons (in my opinion) that lead to their downfalls. They had/ have undeniable talent yet chose to waste it. Having said that, Commoli's time at Pool was shocking. With Suarez (footballing wise) aside, all of his transfers were a complete waste of money.
Comolli is fairly clueless when it comes to players, with a seemingly scatter gun approach to transfers he will always get 1 or 2 right and also waste millions on crap at the same time. I hope Baldini is a better judge of a player and their value than Comolli was.
Well said. Hopefully came across in my article that I do believe he did well at times for you, and granted - the players that were brought in as you mentioned were highly promising and it was perhaps the coaching staff, manager and the players themselves who should also be footing some blame. And yes, his Liverpool reign was an absolute disaster. He and Dalglish rightly shown the door - the buying English talent route was an honourable notion, but terribly implemented with some baffling judgements.
Yeah exactly, coaching staff, Comolli as well the players themselves need to share equal blame really, would be unfair to just say it's Comolli's fault for a players failure. Honourable to an extent but mainly ludicrous. In an ideal world I'd love Spurs and other clubs to be able to field predominantly English XI's but £20m on Downing and £16m on Henderson is just ridiculous and don't get me started on the Carroll deal . Good players but the money paid could've got Liverpool a hell of a lot better than them.
The problem with Comolli isn't the money he wasted with us (although that is a serious issue as well) but the fact he didn't follow instructions. Jol told him he wanted a striker signed on the basis of Defoe and Mido leaving...so we sold Mido and spent £16.5m on Darren Bent Jol told him he wanted a defensive midfielder...so we signed Kevin Prince Boateng, who isn't a defensive midfielder Jol told him he wanted a left winger to go straight into the first team...so he signed Adel Taarabt, who wasn't ready for first team football Keegan sued Newcastle for similar, arguing it constituted as constructive dismissal.
I never understood the signing of Bent. Not just because of the money but we had Berbatov, Keane and Defoe who all came off the back of a good season each (didn't think Defoe was linked with a move away at that point though...?). Bent was one of the most not-needed signings in our history. That £16.5m could've been split and spent on various positions.
At least we have a striker to play up front - for several seasons we played central midfielders (Malbranque, O'Hara, Tainio, Murphy) on the left just so someone was there, and then there was Ramos' bright idea of playing Lennon on the left and Bentley on the right.
True, maybe this is why i have a soft spot for Ziegler, who played left-mid (not really left wing) for a bit. At least he was left footed!
I understand what you are saying, but I think it is more to do the with the overwhelming pressures, ( financial and by fans or chairman who will no longer accept mixed results from anybody,) of the modern game here, that make the DOF role such a challenging one. If you look at the stats, I imagine the success/dismissal rate of manager is comparable.
It works better now when Bale and Lennon swap wings, so it wasn't the idea but the personnel that caused that problem IMHO
A DoF is only as good as his contacts, worldwide that is, not just home and Europe, which is where you have to say Baldini does score well. Comolli imo just hadn't been around long enough when he was here. Someone said 'scattergun'...perfect description, we could all sign fifteen players and have 5 turn out alright! Can't say I'm bothered Tim Sherwood's nose appear's to be out of joint since Baldini was announced, to think he thought he was fit for the job.
Article mentions Arneson having a Torrid time with us? I remember him being here for 5mins and then ****ing off for 8mil? Also - 1 starred the "Why Gareth must Bale" article just cos I can
The only thing torrid about Arnesen's stay with us is that he wanted Jol, but levy got cold feet and thought Santini would satisfy calls for a "big name" - and we all know how THAT worked out...
