It looks like the hunt for a new 'man upstairs' is well under way. Baldini mentioned the other day, Begiristan before and now AVB's old Porto go-to-man Henrique.
A lot of people automatically shudder at the DoF role returning to Spurs, but that is tainted by the Damien Comedy years, and Pleat before him. This to me is like totally disregarding playing one striker up front when you have only tried Rasiak and Andy Booth in that role.
Whether you were a Comedy fan or not (I'm not) he did get business done relatively quickly (albeit some good and a lot of bad) - an area we have dragged our heels on since he left. To me it makes perfect sense to have somebody working with Levy and the coach to identify players, sell the club to them and expediate the negotiation process, and also oversee our set-up from top to bottom.
Someone with a proven track record at a top club would do me nicely. Bergiristan obviously did a good job at Barcelona, I wouldn't be disappointed to see him here, and although I know little about Henrique, Porto have a proven track record of identifying young talent and developing them.
What says you?
Technical/Director/of football
posted on 25/9/12
It works elsewhere though Bahamas - it's all about getting the right man for the job. Arnesen may have been great but went to Chelsea and got marginalised.
Chronic - Comolli was obviously good on the admin side, but on the identification of players he was average at best. Every man and his dog had heard of Bale and Modric, and Berba had scored plenty regularly for a top Bundesliga club. The only 'find' he made was Benny I think. What about all the dross? For every Benny there's a Rocha. For every Berbatov a Rasiak. Signing players for the wrong positions for Jol? More negatives than positives, much much more
posted on 25/9/12
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posted on 25/9/12
HRH. commolli made some shockers, but the majority, or at least significant minority of the players that got us the 4th 5th 4th finishes were bought to the club under his watch
posted on 25/9/12
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posted on 25/9/12
I agree with Chronic - the players that Commoli bought were for the most part very good players, but I think part of the problem was that there was not a strong coach in place with a clear idea of how they wanted the team to set up and play who could work along with a DOF to set a clear stratagy regarding targets. Bently and Bent were both very good players, but we did not need either of them and their strengths did not suit our style of play or our existing players. A key part of making a system like this work is getting the coach and DOF and Chairman all working together with a common strategy - not easy, but it has worked elsewhere, so not impossible I guess.
Not sure how much to believe of what Redknapp said, but it seems like Levy has been pretty much doing thsi role himself anyway since Comoli left and Redknapp came in, with mixed results. It seems Levys idea of transfer dealing certainly didn't gel with Redknapps, and since AVB has come in as head coach, and seeing as he did his best work at porto under a similar system, i'm not surprised to see Levy trying to bring the DOF role back.
Not sure if I am happy with it mind you... but then again I am very much in the wait and see camp regadring the change from Redknapp to AVB.
posted on 25/9/12
DOF with a coach like Arry would never work but with AVB I have a sneaky suspicion it could pay dividends. AVB comes across as a forwarding thinking type of guy who is willing to give youth a chance, unlike Arry who would marginalise anybody that he didn't fancy any more. That's no way to manage a squad in this day and age and for me was one of his biggest shortfalls as a manager. Ie, he didn't properly manage the squad
posted on 25/9/12
http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/apr/12/damien-comolli-liverpool-arsene-wenger?cat=football&type=article
I was looking for a list of 'Comedy's signings and found this piece.
A major sticking point with Comedy for me was that post-Carrick, and the start of King's woes, when what we needed was leaders in the side, we got the likes of Zokora, then later an unsuitable Bent, a raw Kaboul and a green KPB. Jol wanted Distin, an experienced head, but we ended up rudderless for a few years. Not forgetting the fortunes spent on Bentley, Pav, GDS, Rocha, Gilberto to name but a few. His successes were far outweighed by his flops, and he rarely identified good players for positions we were desperate to fill
posted on 25/9/12
Wots a DOF supposed to do anyways? Run the scouting organization and put out a set of talent spies to screw around with player's agents?
He'd better see eye-to-eye with the manager or ... trouble.
Now, .... why has Levy decided to go this route?
Any ideas guys??
posted on 25/9/12
AVB comes across as a forwarding thinking type of guy who is willing to give youth a chance, unlike Arry who would marginalise anybody that he didn't fancy any more. That's no way to manage a squad in this day and age and for me was one of his biggest shortfalls as a manager. Ie, he didn't properly manage the squad
==================================
Luka, don't disagree with your observation about the right way to run a squad, but I can't help feeling that AVB has far more propensity than Harry to marginalise players, dump them in the reserves, make them train with the kids etc etc, as we all know from his chelsea days. I just hope he has learned his lesson, time will tell.....
posted on 26/9/12
Ted Ditchburn
We all suspect Levy is a pain to deal with, we rarely get our business done early, and the Lyon chairman confirmed he is the most difficult person to negotiate with in his whole time at Lyon. Perhaps he realises this himself, and that it would be far more prudent to have a lieutenant that is well networked across the European (and indeed world) game to look after that side of the club and leave him to concentrate on the finances and the new stadium.
It makes perfect sense to me....as long as it's a man with a pedigree, not a no-mark shyster like Damien Moneyball