2019/20 Marcel Brands

[Brennan]

Are you calling me out for a scrap here mate?

I’ll take that as a no x

 

[davek]

Eloquently put sir.
To summarise - You can please some of the fan base some of the time and some of the fan base all of the time, but you'll never fully please the likes of @davek and @Neiler any of the time

I think both @Neiler and myself have underlined that the work done so far seems fine.

The bone of contention is more to do with the way Brands is positioning and presenting himself.

I believe in a strict hierarchy at a club in terms of the playing side: at the top is the manager and then come the players. The DoF (if we have to have one at all) comes after that and just ahead of the other senior first team coaches.

That's the way it has to be. That's because if you have dual control players (who dont need much invitation to swing the lead or down tools) can sniff out any hint of a power struggle and start to play upon it.

In short: thanks for your work this summer Mr Brands, but now you can get back behind your desk and leave the public relations side of the club to Marco Silva.

 

[Harry73]

With respect mate, that has yet to be determined.

I think he has got rid of players that didn't fit at the club and couldn't play at Premier League level or speed and brought in quality. Whether that quality can play in the Premier League is a totally different matter. And yes, only time will ever tell but we have definitely brought in quality players.

 

[blueblue]

With respect mate, that has yet to be determined.

Very true, but that is true of every signing at every club.
What Brands/Silva have done is targeted very clearly the areas that most needed strengthening... left back, centre halves, central midfield, wide left and creative no.10. Last summer it was more a scatter gun approach signing lots of players but not a centre forward or a left back.

Time will tell us what value we have in Digne, Minna and Bernard in particular. They are the three that will really tell us if we had a great window.

 

[davek]

I think he has got rid of players that didn't fit at the club and couldn't play at Premier League level or speed and brought in quality. Whether that quality can play in the Premier League is a totally different matter. And yes, only time will ever tell but we have definitely brought in quality players.

That's all part of deterring whether his work has been astute I suppose. We'll find out shortly.

 

[davek]

Very true, but that is true of every signing at every club.
What Brands/Silva have done is targeted very clearly the areas that most needed strengthening... left back, centre halves, central midfield, wide left and creative no.10. Last summer it was more a scatter gun approach signing lots of players but not a centre forward or a left back.

Time will tell us what value we have in Digne, Minna and Bernard in particular. They are the three that will really tell us if we had a great window.

Oh the positions were easy to identify. The incomings being a good fit is yet to be determined. I think we need to hang fire on determining Brands window just yet.

 

[kev]

I think both [B][B][I]@Neiler and myself have underlined that the work done so far seems fine.[/I][/B][/B]

The bone of contention is more to do with the way Brands is positioning and presenting himself.

I believe in a strict hierarchy at a club in terms of the playing side: at the top is the manager and then come the players. The DoF (if we have to have one at all) comes after that and just ahead of the other senior first team coaches.

That's the way it has to be. That's because if you have dual control players (who dont need much invitation to swing the lead or down tools) can sniff a any hint of a power struggle and start to play upon it.

In short: thanks for your work this summer Mr Brands, but now you can get back behind your desk and leave the public relations side of the club to Marco Silva.

Of course you have, because that can't be denied, yet despite acknowledging that fact you still feel the need to seek out a 'bone of contention'
You can't help yourself Dave. I swear to God that if you were ever to win the lottery you would openly criticise the colour of ink used on the cheque.

 

[Bluerobins]

I don’t see any downside to Brands doing this. Last week I saw plenty of people asking why he hasn’t talked much yet.

There were a few concerns from the fans this window leading up to the deadline:

• Mina wasn’t interested in Everton, he was waiting for a better offer. - The interview dismantles that theory by saying it was Barca playing hard ball and the lad was keen to join since day 1.
• We didn’t have any back ups or other targets if Mina didn’t join. - He mentioned that at first we had another top class target in Lenglet, and were exploring other options when there was risk of Barca not going through with the Mina deal.
• Overspending on wages (Bernard in particular was talked about as being a bad signing because of his personal deal). - We’re much better off when looking at the wage bill despite having a really balanced and on paper much better squad.

As well as many others. He’s trying to build up our stature in the game and it can only help when going after other players who are in demand like Mina was.

All of the above is exactly why he did it. Anyone that thinks anything else has just got out of bed the wrong side (again)

 

[Axlswhk]

I think both @Neiler and myself have underlined that the work done so far seems fine.

The bone of contention is more to do with the way Brands is positioning and presenting himself.

I believe in a strict hierarchy at a club in terms of the playing side: at the top is the manager and then come the players. The DoF (if we have to have one at all) comes after that and just ahead of the other senior first team coaches.

That's the way it has to be. That's because if you have dual control players (who dont need much invitation to swing the lead or down tools) can sniff out any hint of a power struggle and start to play upon it.

In short: thanks for your work this summer Mr Brands, but now you can get back behind your desk and leave the public relations side of the club to Marco Silva.

Disagree, the position of DOF has to be held at high esteem. Our DOF will be around long after any managers get sack to ensure stability and enable the club to stay on the correct path.

A strong DOF with a good reputation across Europe will have more leeway and better negotiating power when it comes to transfer. I have no problem with Brand’s hogging the limelight if he deserve so. It certainly raise the profile of our club. A powerful DOF will not get influence by agent easily either, perfect example is the relationship of Marcel and Rioala in the Dutch league. It’s well known within the industry that only Marcel is capable of handling him in the entire league.

 

[Bluerobins]

Oh the positions were easy to identify. The incomings being a good fit is yet to be determined. I think we need to hang fire on determining Brands window just yet.

The positions are always easy to identify unless you are Walsh! Finding the right players is the problem, which on the face of it, at this stage, is so much better

 

[Jokerdan]

Of course you have, because that can't be denied, yet despite acknowledging that fact you still feel the need to seek out a 'bone of contention'
You can't help yourself Dave. I swear to God that if you were ever to win the lottery you would openly criticise the colour of ink used on the cheque.

PMSL

 

[malcson]

I think both @Neiler and myself have underlined that the work done so far seems fine.

The bone of contention is more to do with the way Brands is positioning and presenting himself.

I believe in a strict hierarchy at a club in terms of the playing side: at the top is the manager and then come the players. The DoF (if we have to have one at all) comes after that and just ahead of the other senior first team coaches.

That's the way it has to be. That's because if you have dual control players (who dont need much invitation to swing the lead or down tools) can sniff out any hint of a power struggle and start to play upon it.

In short: thanks for your work this summer Mr Brands, but now you can get back behind your desk and leave the public relations side of the club to Marco Silva.

Disagree, and even Mourihno has said that football has changed and that the Manager should now be Chief Coach. Admittedly this is sour grapes as he didn't get the players he wanted. Managers in this day and age rarely stay longer than 3 years, you can't run a club with player development plans on a 3 year plan. Someone has to take a long term strategic view on how the club should be run and player recruitment, development plans. Ultimately if the club is run well with sound recruitment and development in place it can more readily survive a switch in coaching personnel - Chelsea are a prime example of this. Allowing the Manager to control everything can lead to turmoil and confusion every time the coach leaves. As soon as players feel that a coach is vulnerable they may play up, Brands can be the man who says "I'm not going anywhere, knuckle down or whoever we bring in as coach you will be sold!"

 

[COYBL25]

I'll try to put it across as simply as I can:

We want, in fact NEED, more communication from the club. They need to tell us exactly what is going on, when we're interested in a player, how much we pay for a player, what negotiations are involved, whether we're pleased with our business or not, whether there were targets we missed out on, and who is going to be surplus to requirements. I'm sure you can understand that none of us can be expected to live our lives without these questions being answered, and that is why Steve Walsh simply had to go, because he didn't speak enough.

What we absolutely DON'T need though, is for the club to communicate more. They certainly don't need to tell us exactly what is going on, when we're interested in a player, how much we pay for a player, what negotiations are involved, whether we're pleased with our business or not, whether there were targets we missed out on, and who is going to be surplus to requirements. Brands has now committed the cardinal sin of speaking, and so he must go.

I hope that clears it up.

Thanks, having read that it`s cleared it up nicely for me.

I think you`ve actually been quite lenient on him tbh, hanging would be too good for him.

 

[Eggs]

Oh the positions were easy to identify. The incomings being a good fit is yet to be determined. I think we need to hang fire on determining Brands window just yet.

..I think we can judge the window a success because he appears to have largely filled the positions he wanted with the players he wanted.

How the window manifests itself on the pitch will be an assessment of Brands/Silva’s judgement. It’s a moot point but I think there is a distinction.

 

[jazzy]

Perhaps im a bit old school, or behind the curve on DOF. I do think if we had a poor window it would be radio silence, it makes me question his motivation, does he want to raise his profile after a good window, maybe its a win for everyone. I just wouldn't be a fan of that approach.

I hope ( and trust I'm not being too naive here ) that this was nothing more than a way of communicating with the fans and ( in the case of Mina ) putting it out there that we weren't his 2nd or 3rd choice and that he ( Mina ) was not responsible for the delay in signing.