Yep, it's taking an age again. Last time round, it was nearly two months before a bum sat on a seat in the dugout. This time, we are scouring the earth to be rejected, sorry, find the ideal manager. Well, I'm not feeling the frenetic pace one bit. Snapping the chequebook tight on MON (through a combo of MON's mis-spending/high wage earning players and also giving up on the CL dream), then appointing a manager with a serious heart condition, means that RL is on two strikes. If he messes this one up, is he Deadly Jnr?
I don't feel the spend, and neither do candidates such as Rafa, who were told that a kitty of 30m to spend in the Summer wasn't going to happen. I would have thought that 30m for a club of this stature and owner's wealth wasn't at all outrageous unless RL wants us to be the Everton of the Midlands? God knows how we will attract anyone but third tier managers and players if that's the new attitude. Young and Downing are offski, they smell austerity at the Park. Great.
If he ain't got the dosh or the heart, then please sell RL. Football doesn't make anyone any money, it's essentially a loss making business. Get CIC on the phone or some other billionaire conglomerate, who need publicity and can lose a few quid. Otherwise, if it's break even you're after, sell the club to the supporters so we can be a trust like Exeter/Barca.
p.s. Come in Duckies, come in Bongo!
Bored or Board?
posted on 12/6/11
You have to give RL credit for spending an awful lot of his own money, and wisely investing in the academy, but is his time up? Has he done as much as he can, and is he really interested. Neither he, nor PF are football men. Is this an issue?
posted on 12/6/11
Don't think the problem's the timescale; these things do take a certain amount of time. In this case the board couldn't really move until GH's future had been sorted out.
The problem's more to do with PR. By saying almost nothing publicly it's allowed a load of rumours and assumptions to arise. Reckon at the beginning the board should have said something along the lines of:-
"We have a number of potential candidates. We will draw up a shortlist of those who we aim to interview in the immediate future. It is possible that in due course we will contact others as well".
That would have kept all options open, would have kept the board in the driving seat, and is I suspect what is happening anyway. I don't believe for a moment that Martinez was the only person on the shortlist, or even at the top, but that's the way it came out.