Homepage Update: Wine, Gravy and working with what you've got

[brieverton]

Walsh has said more than once in interviews I have heard that he is responsible for recruitment. Objectively I think he has failed on that score.

The signings of younger players like Gibson, Markelo etc may well turn out to be inspired but surely his remit is to oversee signings for the here and now as well.

In mitigation, I don't think the scope of the job seems to have been properly defined for him and it seems he had to invent his own interpretation of it whilst working alongside the existing cabal.

As others have said, for the role to be implemented correctly it has to be a senior management role whereas here it just seems to be an empty ego trip. Responsibility without authority or vice versa always ends in failure. The DOF should ideally be on the board or at least be in place within a structure that the manager reports directly to him. We have had two characters in Koeman and Allardyce neither of which as I see it take kindly to bowing to someone elses judgement on football matters. And it just seems to me he does not have the presence to hold his own in that type of environment. Appointed after Koeman and probably in awe of him and mates with Allardyce.

In my industry if you take a job on you are saying you are up for it and capable of it and will be expected to fight your corner and assert yourself/defend your patch as required to get what you see as being necessary, done. It seems to me he hasn't done that.

As it stands with his current history with Allardyce and the likelihood of a new manager soon, I think now would be the ideal time to relieve him of his position and get a new DOF in if required who can lead the managerial search. That would be optimal. In hindsight there was probably a high degree of likelihood of failure since this was the clubs first attempt at an an appointment and it was done hastily, a square peg in a round hole. It hasn't worked out, let's admit it. The important thing is to learn from what went wrong.

Sadly as it stands Moshiri will probably appoint Silva anyway without much input from Walsh, and he will continue on. It worries me greatly how much more money will be wasted under his watch.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

For me it is not necessarily he problem of buying 'project players' who develop over time, it is the imbalance of first team ready players and project players brought in. We've had gaping holes in the squad for a while that need filling in the here and now. Which arguably have not been addressed.

 

[davek]

I know Woodward is a CEO with a different role to Walsh but my concern is whether we have the quality of people at the club who are capable of delivering on deals for players who are recommended by Walsh? Or if Walsh's recommendations are trusted enough to go all out on? A lot of the fanbase seem to have decided he's a big problem but I'm not convinced our transfer failings are down to him solely, if at all.

I agree, it's difficult to understand who made what decision on squad recruitment...but that further strengthens the case against having a DoF if, as we all suspect, the DoF is not going to have final say.

I'd slightly disagree on the clubs requirements for a DOF being dependent on standing or size. At the start of the season we had a Europa League campaign to play for as well domestic honours. That would suggest that our manager would have a workload in excess of a lot of other managers in the league so the need to divide labour would be just as applicable perhaps? Acquiring and assessing players properly is time consuming regardless of where you are in the league and if you are a club of comparatively lesser financial resource then the need to do it thoroughly is maybe even greater.

And if the ultimate long term aim is to return to the top table of European football is it not better to get the model up and running as soon as possible?

But we've coped fine in the EL without a DoF. The decision making on player recruitment is usually done and dusted before the season starts.

 

[samsonthedog1]

The pop gun attack still needed a semi decent striker to work, ala a Giroud/Benteke. This was Koeman and will be Walshs down fall.

 

[LocalNative]

This is fantastically written.

Great article and it's interesting the dynamic between Walsh and Allardyce, however, I feel like the chums either remain here together or are shown the door.. together.

 

[davek]

If we are not going to go down the DOF role, then we need a far better scouting network than what the club has at the moment. Recruitment has been a problem with this club for a long time now and that is not just Walsh's fault, we clearly don't have a very wide or good scouting setup imo. Personally i like the DOF model as it allows the coach/manager to just get on with working with the team. I can see advantages and disadvantages with both setups, although i do think some people are slightly down on it because we have a guy who is way out of his depth with it.

Agree with a lot of that. Theoretically it makes sense to free a manager to coach the team. However, imo, the reality is that the two roles cant be completely separated and you have to hope that the figures in command of two departments are completely on the same page...and even then one of them knows that, ultimately, the other one is his senior in the hierarchy and can have him removed. The relationship is fraught with that inherent tension.

 

[Simon Buttle]

Agree with a lot of that. Theoretically it makes sense to free a manager to coach the team. However, imo, the reality is that the two roles cant be completely separated and you have to hope that the figures in command of two departments are completely on the same page...and even then one of them knows that, ultimately, the other one is his senior in the hierarchy and can have him removed. The relationship is fraught with that inherent tension.

I guess it all depends on who comes into a/the club first. If it is a DOF then you would hope they would have a proper plan and tactical idea of how they see a team playing. Based on it they would know how to select a coach/manager who uses that formation and plan, and thus be able to go and look for suitable players to recruit to fit that system. Part of me likes the idea of having a decent manager (like you said) get rid of the DOF position and instead of it, we should concetrate on building a top class scouting network. Instead of paying out for another Walsh or whoever, let's pay to get the best scouts working for us.

 

[electricblue]

The jury is still very much out for me, especially given the amount of signings that have supposedly failed to settle.

It seems that there is a policy now in place to buy in young players who may or may not make the first team but who can be sold on at a profit, much as Chelsea do, and he is responsible for this. So we will have to see how that develops and whether or not he will unearth a gem.

 

[davek]

I guess it all depends on who comes into a/the club first. If it is a DOF then you would hope they would have a proper plan and tactical idea of how they see a team playing. Based on it they would know how to select a coach/manager who uses that formation and plan, and thus be able to go and look for suitable players to recruit to fit that system. Part of me likes the idea of having a decent manager (like you said) get rid of the DOF position and instead of it, we should concetrate on building a top class scouting network. Instead of paying out for another Walsh or whoever, let's pay to get the best scouts working for us.

Yeah, it's a good point. It'd help cut down any friction you would think - at least initially.

I still think these relations splinter quickly when the pressure is on though. I have no figures to back it up, but I'd guess that clubs who adopt the system tend to go through a lot of managers pretty quickly. If the manager is just seen as another moving part of the engine then they can be replaced easily enough. To me, that's a system where you never ride out poor form or disappointing seasons and the churn from it is destabilising.

 

[smileychap]

Very good read. Thank you Claus.

By way of contrast, here's some poorly written and likely quite empty ITK I learned from a guy called Norman at my local table tennis club yesterday evening.

Walsh is dining out on his Leicester creds. OK, fine. Sam also appeared quite happy to herald the new season in full confidence of having " kept us up", if that was the brief.

But big Norman, sprightly 70yrs old, spiky white hair and younger middle aged wife in tow was it seems an ex-scout and talked knowledgeably about the top guys, back room staff and youth systems at Newcastle, Leicester, Spurs and others in the last 40yrs. Big Norm recently moved to the area after retirement, and to work with long time friend Graham Carr.

Where an I going with this? Well Norman 's got a good serve and nicked the first two games, but... hang on. No. football.

He says he knows Walsh and mostly he's signing deals scouted by others.