I certainly was happy enough with the Wilder one. Not my first choice, but it made obvious sense.
He also started like a train. Leaving Blackpool in 5th position ahead of a January window I was very happy indeed.
IMHO he wasn't backed, but he himself didn't make the best of what he had and our fall away was obvious after the Tottenham win.
He's gone.
I don't agree with a Head of/ Director of Football at a club of our size.
I can't for the life of me understand how Kieran Scott was given the job with his alleged remit.
I'd prefer to have a strong scouting organisation supporting a manager, with a Chief Exec who is a football expert to handle negotiations and deals as per Kenyon, Levy.
I can't see how accountability works in the structure we appear to have.
I can't envisage many managers wanting to be constrained within it.
I want us to be successful, so I too hope that Gibson gets this next choice right. Not one that looks good, but that actually is good.
I broadly agree with you(as per).
I think it’s fine to have a DoF whatever the size of the club is, I think clubs like Brighton and Brentford have them(or at least employ lots of technical staff). Almost every club on the Continent has this sort of set-up. Obviously the issue is getting the right one in.
It’s too early to say if Scott is the right man for Boro IMO. The next window will tell us a lot about quite a lot of aspects of how things are working. If we spend nowt and don’t strengthen the midfield, we know the next few years will more than likely be a slog. If we do spend do address the midfield, we know they’re identifying issues and trying to correct them. If they don’t sign at least one quality midfielder in January I’d be staggered(and pretty concerned as well TBH).
I’ve said a few times that I personally think one of the issues we have with recruitment is the secrecy around it. Nobody knows how big the department or staff is, how many people work in it, how they look for players, where they’re establishing contacts or networks, whether we’re even looking for particular types or characters, whether we’re data- and stats-driven. It just creates this big vacuum where people fill in the gaps for themselves, especially when the chairman is essentially MIA.
When was the last time he spoke to the supporters? Woodgate’s unveiling? It might be helpful(and interesting) if Scott came out and said “this is what we’re trying to do, are doing, are working towards, and this is where we are,” instead of the complete silence. There’s just this huge space there at the moment. I don’t ‘expect’ the club to be updating supporters every week but for the chairman to not speak in public in over three years is it? I don’t think that’s particularly good really.
But we’ll see what happens. I’m sure this group is much better than the bottom three or four of the division so the next person should be able to get it moving quickly enough. You would hope.