Steve Walsh - no longer our Director of Football

[TheBlueGibbon]

Walsh gets a fresh chance as of now, in my opinion. I'm willing to believe that he hasn't been allowed to do his job properly as of yet.

Anyone know what happened to that Befodil guy that Ron vetoed? He still available?

On loan at Werder Bremen apparently.

 

[Bob Elstone]

Recruitment was the root cause of the situation we currently find ourselves in.

Therefore he should fall on his sword.

 

[kithnou]

Recruitment was the root cause of the situation we currently find ourselves in.

Therefore he should fall on his sword.

This, along with some of the worst list management exhibited anywhere in professional football.

 

[KaiserEFC]

Should be fired into the sun

 

[toffeeblue9]

It's a little bit hard to judge who is at fault for some stuff

The Echo reported as recently as yesterday that Walsh is responsible for identifying transfer targets, but negotiations are still led by Kenwright

So - if Walsh identified the strikers we needed but Kenwright couldn't get the deals done for them, where does the blame lie? I think it's a bit of a grey area

The striker and lack of cover for Baines aren't going to go away and they're glaring issues.

What I would say about our summer recruitment is that I think all of the players who arrived in the summer should get a clean slate from here - we've been a mess and a couple of narrow, possibly undeserved wins against Stoke and Bournemouth have masked the possibility that we may have been the worst side in the whole league up to this point. It can't have been easy for anyone to settle in a situation like that or with the alleged atmosphere off the pitch.

So the likes of Pickford (who doesn't really need the clean slate), Keane, Klaassen, Sigurdsson, Sandro, Rooney, Vlasic (who again has done fine anyway) and even Martina get a pass for what has gone before. We start again and I'll judge them from what I see from now.

As far as Walsh goes - benefit of the doubt as it looks on the face of things that Kenwright and Koeman are more culpable for perceived failings up to this point

 

[originalgreaserbob]

It's a little bit hard to judge who is at fault for some stuff

The Echo reported as recently as yesterday that Walsh is responsible for identifying transfer targets, but negotiations are still led by Kenwright

So - if Walsh identified the strikers we needed but Kenwright couldn't get the deals done for them, where does the blame lie? I think it's a bit of a grey area

The striker and lack of cover for Baines aren't going to go away and they're glaring issues.

What I would say about our summer recruitment is that I think all of the players who arrived in the summer should get a clean slate from here - we've been a mess and a couple of narrow, possibly undeserved wins against Stoke and Bournemouth have masked the possibility that we may have been the worst side in the whole league up to this point. It can't have been easy for anyone to settle in a situation like that or with the alleged atmosphere off the pitch.

So the likes of Pickford (who doesn't really need the clean slate), Keane, Klaassen, Sigurdsson, Sandro, Rooney, Vlasic (who again has done fine anyway) and even Martina get a pass for what has gone before. We start again and I'll judge them from what I see from now.

As far as Walsh goes - benefit of the doubt as it looks on the face of things that Kenwright and Koeman are more culpable for perceived failings up to this point

I wouldn't call it a grey area, it's just an unknown, because nobody's telling us.

Ron had to agree to any one they went after, so what if the problem was that Ron vetoed every until suggestion until Walsh finally said, with heavy sarcasm, "golly boss, how about Giroud?", or, "okay, fine -- what do you think of Gylfi Siggurdson? Have you seen him?" This is the explanation I'm going with. It's as likely as any.

 

[The_La]

On loan at Werder Bremen apparently.

Been keeping an eye on him when I watch the bundesliga highlights. Started a fair few games for them. Hasn't scored yet but doesn't look horrendous either fro mate the snippets I've seen

 

[Eggs]

..I think he has to be culpable for the recruitment of so many similar players and the lack of progress in key positions. We lack pace and athleticism, we lack team shape and strategy. What we don’t know is the level of his culpability but he is Director of Football.

We have acquired some good players but I suspect he’s in last chance saloon.

 

[eddy]

De Telegraff lay a lot of the blame on Walsh. This director of football seems to be illogical
Walsh should be sacked

 

[toffeeblue9]

..I think he has to be culpable for the recruitment of so many similar players and the lack of progress in key positions. We lack pace and athleticism, we lack team shape and strategy. What we don’t know is the level of his culpability but he is Director of Football.

We have acquired some good players but I suspect he’s in last chance saloon.

Team shape and strategy has to be the manager

The decision to get both Rooney and Sigurdsson in is a curious one - difficult to see how they co-exist in any coherent strategy, but I think you could make reasonable arguments about the rest - Klaassen isn't a number 10, for example, as people keep labelling him

 

[toffeeblue9]

De Telegraff lay a lot of the blame on Walsh. This director of football seems to be illogical
Walsh should be sacked

That's a bit of a Mandy Rice-Davies moment isn't it?

 

[BlueToff]

Team shape and strategy has to be the manager

The decision to get both Rooney and Sigurdsson in is a curious one - difficult to see how they co-exist in any coherent strategy, but I think you could make reasonable arguments about the rest - Klaassen isn't a number 10, for example, as people keep labelling him

Chasing Gylfi for so long looks stupid because of our failure to get a striker in.

Walsh certainly takes a huge share of the blame. He needs to up his game and also be more vocal with the fans - he needs to be the line of communication with the club. Well, we should have a fan liaison officer (and we have the perfect person to do so in Alan Myers)

One of the first things Monchi (the best DoF out there) did on his arrival at Roma was, after TDD, explain in detail why they had signed the players they had, and what the strategy would be going forward. That's a brilliant way of doing things.

 

[toffeeblue9]

If Walsh's job is to identify players for recruitment, the following have come in under his watch for the first team:

Gueye
Williams
Bolasie
Schneiderlin
Lookman
Klaassen
Pickford
Keane
Sandro
Onyekuru
Rooney
Vlasic
Sigurdsson
Martina

That's how he should be judged as far as I can see and for a lot of those on that list, you'd say that it's too early to give a verdict

 

[toffeeblue9]

Chasing Gylfi for so long looks stupid because of our failure to get a striker in.

Walsh certainly takes a huge share of the blame. He needs to up his game and also be more vocal with the fans - he needs to be the line of communication with the club. Well, we should have a fan liaison officer (and we have the perfect person to do so in Alan Myers)

One of the first things Monchi (the best DoF out there) did on his arrival at Roma was, after TDD, explain in detail why they had signed the players they had, and what the strategy would be going forward. That's a brilliant way of doing things.

Again, the grey area is how much of the blame he shoulders. If he is identifying the players and Kenwright and co are the ones who are doing the negotiating (i.e. the ones who chased Gylfi for so long), I don't know how much of it you can lay at his door.

We want a scapegoat for the way the end of the window panned out, but because none of us really know where responsibilities lie anymore, it's hard to pinpoint one

Alan Myers will not be back at the club under the existing management structure, but you're absolutely right about communication

 

[bluestevon]

De Telegraff lay a lot of the blame on Walsh. This director of football seems to be illogical
Walsh should be sacked

De Telegraff for whom Koeman writes a weekly column for, surely no bias there then