New Sporting Director | Page 2 | Vital Football

New Sporting Director

Real Deal said:
Here are a few appalling decisions from the top of my head:

Has got one manager right in 20 years of being chairman. Still ended up with no trophies.

He rarely gets the timing right when he sacks the manager.

He has failed continuously in the transfer market with his poor negotiating skills leaving us scrambling every transfer window.

Amazing how so many forget his shocking treatment of Martin Jol? Remember him sniggering in the stands and Jol found out during a game he was sacked?

The amazing chairman that made minimum wage employees furloughed and wouldn't top up the 20% until the fans put pressure on him. Then he and the club earn millions a year. What a guy hey.

His and ENICs decision to go for a super league move without even consulting the fans and manager just shows what an absolute deluded **** he is.

I'm sure there's millions more.

Oh yeah 1 trophy in 20 years. 😉

Him getting a SD in to do the nitty gritty stuff is 15 years to late as far as I'm concerned.
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I agree. But you cannot argue with his focus to build the base of what could be a dynasty. Now we see if he has the smarts to launch the dynasty from the platform he has built. All the rest is noise and in the past. Granted. noise we had to suffer through. But sport is always about the possibilities tomorrow.
 
Pompey Yid said:
Ok RD, where does it say or written that us winning these Trophies are our god given right.
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Didn't say it was a god given right but we are the only club in the richest top 10 that doesn't win silverware. That isn't a coincidence.

With better leadership from Levy over the decades we would have won a few trophies.
 
80deg16minW said:
I agree. But you cannot argue with his focus to build the base of what could be a dynasty. Now we see if he has the smarts to launch the dynasty from the platform he has built. All the rest is noise and in the past. Granted. noise we had to suffer through. But sport is always about the possibilities tomorrow.
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The guy is a workaholic and one ruthless mother fucker. Won't deny that.

Have never questioned his ability as a businessman. Not many better.

I just don't think football is for him.
 
Real Deal said:
He doesn't get all the blame for not winning trophies as that is also the players and managers responsibility.

But if you are the big cheese running the ship for 20 years and have failed to win anything you damn right questions should be asked. There isn't a industry on the planet where this doesn't happen.

I couldn't careless about the training facilities or stadium. All paid for by bank loans and the fans/TV money will be paying the debts off not them scum bags.
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If you were chairman and I came to you and asked for a 29 year old Stephen Pienaar and asked you to put him on a 4 year contract at £75k a week, I have a feeling there would be a robust football conversation. You would reference that he plays in a very different football system under Moyes and that £75k over 4 years for a 29 year -old squad player doesn't fit with your vision of the club. That is because you understand the thing you lead......football.

I would have my work cut out to convince you to make this move especially as we've started the last 3 summers with close to 35 senior players in a league where you can register 25. If you then caved in and he played 10 games and then I put him out on loan, you would be pissed at me right? Again, that is because you understand football. We bought a 29 year old, he got injured, I decided I didn't rate him after all and now I'm asking you to bail me out. Again....you'd get it because Pienaar was more than a name on a spreadsheet to you.

It's these small details where I can't defend Levy. Yes, he has commercial DNA but I'm totally convinced there is no real football DNA there. That plays out in every manager appointment and every single signing. The biggest reason why we don't win trophies until he restructures or leaves.
 
muttley said:
If you were chairman and I came to you and asked for a 29 year old Stephen Pienaar and asked you to put him on a 4 year contract at £75k a week, I have a feeling there would be a robust football conversation. You would reference that he plays in a very different football system under Moyes and that £75k over 4 years for a 29 year -old squad player doesn't fit with your vision of the club. That is because you understand the thing you lead......football.

I would have my work cut out to convince you to make this move especially as we've started the last 3 summers with close to 35 senior players in a league where you can register 25. If you then caved in and he played 10 games and then I put him out on loan, you would be pissed at me right? Again, that is because you understand football. We bought a 29 year old, he got injured, I decided I didn't rate him after all and now I'm asking you to bail me out. Again....you'd get it because Pienaar was more than a name on a spreadsheet to you.

It's these small details where I can't defend Levy. Yes, he has commercial DNA but I'm totally convinced there is no real football DNA there. That plays out in every manager appointment and every single signing. The biggest reason why we don't win trophies until he restructures or leaves.
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Yep agree Mutters. Them little details in the transfer market over the years are the main reason we have not pushed on.

This goes back to the Jol days.
 
Real Deal said:
The new manager must be part of the process of bringing in a DOF/SD.

We have seen everytime in the past where the DOF has fallen out with the head coach.
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Other way around. The manager should report to the DoF.
 
Real Deal said:
Agree but I think the manager should agree on who the DOF is.

Like I said before every DOF that appoints the manager screws that guy over.
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That is usually the case when the DoF is brought in after the manager. If the DoF hires the manager then the DoF will want the manager to succeed. Also, if the manager doesn't succeed then the DoF will look for a replacement manager who can deliver the Spurs brand of football and we won't have to change the whole damn squad every time we hire a new manager!

You can't always get the chemistry right the first time but you shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
 
The reason many clubs do not have a permanent DOF built into their base infrastructure, is that they choose to allow their on-pitch managers/coaches to have some flexibility in how that side of their squad-building is handled.

Seems like DL has been amenable to this kind of thing in the past, but with the hiring of Trevor Birch, it was an obvious signal of a change in direction at the club. It was a big deal. It was a hire that was a good amount of time in the making, from the initial decision to do it, to the search, and then recruitment, and hire. If not for the job of a lifetime being offered to him a mere few months into his tenure, I fully expect he would be in that DOF position at Spurs today.

So let's just take a moment and not play the whole revisionist game and apply nonsense to his business decisions in reality.

He's not perfect, might not even be "good", but he's not stoopid, and he HAS shown an absolute willingness to be nimble with his club in trying to get the best performance out of the structure at the appropriate time.

Sounds like Im a DL apologist/defender, which I am not, just being a bit real for a brief moment.

.
 
xvausch said:
The reason many clubs do not have a permanent DOF built into their base infrastructure, is that they choose to allow their on-pitch managers/coaches to have some flexibility in how that side of their squad-building is handled.

Seems like DL has been amenable to this kind of thing in the past, but with the hiring of Trevor Birch, it was an obvious signal of a change in direction at the club. It was a big deal. It was a hire that was a good amount of time in the making, from the initial decision to do it, to the search, and then recruitment, and hire. If not for the job of a lifetime being offered to him a mere few months into his tenure, I fully expect he would be in that DOF position at Spurs today.

So let's just take a moment and not play the whole revisionist game and apply nonsense to his business decisions in reality.

He's not perfect, might not even be "good", but he's not stoopid, and he HAS shown an absolute willingness to be nimble with his club in trying to get the best performance out of the structure at the appropriate time.

Sounds like Im a DL apologist/defender, which I am not, just being a bit real for a brief moment.

.
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So would Trevor Birch have ensured that Matt Doherty didn't join the club after Jose wanted an average 6 footer in his late twenties? A player that wasn't even one of the best 6 RB's in the league at the time and didn't even play in a back four.

I'd like to think so.
 
muttley said:
My problem is that DoF's mostly get attributed to incoming transfers i.e. recruitment. When you go back and look at Arnesen, Commoli, Baldini etc it was all about that. Hence why the last name on anyone's list was Luis Campos from Lille.

Quite frankly, I would do something like break the club down into football vs non-football operations and appoint a 2-in-the-box leadership structure reporting to the chairman.

The non-football operations lead runs everything from the stadium hospitality franchises, the retail arm, sponsorship and the NFL / other events. Somebody that can optimise all these revenue streams and ensure that the long-term debt is in control. More of a commercial DNA.

The football operations lead would be bigger than the previous DoF roles. They would be singularly accountable for the men's, women and academy activities including transfer activity. It would need to be someone with an opinion on football matters and huge credibility in the game. My choice would be Joachim Leow especially if we're considering someone like Nagelsmann for the 1st team role.
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I don't know if Leow would be suitable for that role, IMO it needs to be someone with football knowledge for sure. But, it also needs to be someone that can deal with agents. someone with extensive contacts within the game, and a Good administrator.
 
Topspur1 said:
I don't know if Leow would be suitable for that role, IMO it needs to be someone with football knowledge for sure. But, it also needs to be someone that can deal with agents. someone with extensive contacts within the game, and a Good administrator.
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Interesting.

Looking at how Leow and the Bundesliga have partnered in the last decade, I think his style would be welcome. They certainly put agents in the right box, rather than let them rule the roost. His connections must be extensive and he's certainly worked with many club managers in his career. No clue about his admin capabilities though. My guess is that international managers are quite used to that as they spend less time with the tracksuit on.
 
Some bloody good views/opinions on here but its still the same, Ex says chicken or egg, Walt says Hokey Kokey, but in the end its still round n round in circles we go.

Ah well, lets just all hope it goes for the best and even I think for what it is worth the "times they are a changing!"
 
muttley said:
So would Trevor Birch have ensured that Matt Doherty didn't join the club after Jose wanted an average 6 footer in his late twenties? A player that wasn't even one of the best 6 RB's in the league at the time and didn't even play in a back four.

I'd like to think so.
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Like any professional, he would have made mistakes too, but he would have stood up to Jose in the buying dept - that's for sure.

The shame is that he walked so quickly - there's a real story there, but here is not the time and place as to try and explain why he jumped at the first chanced he got before he'd even warmed his new office seat!
 
Pompey Yid said:
Some bloody good views/opinions on here but its still the same, Ex says chicken or egg, Walt says Hokey Kokey, but in the end its still round n round in circles we go.

Ah well, lets just all hope it goes for the best and even I think for what it is worth the "times they are a changing!"
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Bottom line is that our strategic planning in the space of 12 months or so has been blown to smithereens - now our need for a large cash injection is of paramount importance.
 
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