04 Oct 2020 10:07:38
There are rumours of a big bust up at a board meeting last week, Thursday I believe. Who knows what it was about, or if the rumour was even true, but I suspect the finances can't deliver all the players the manager asked for. The revenues will be down, no match day revenue, I can imagine from the accountants perspective we have to deal with a big financial hole and the club has delayed announcing numbers until after the window closed. That has been done before but I suspect the numbers in the financial forecasts will be very gloomy and therefore I suspect the Sancho deal is very tough to swallow for the accountants.

The key to all this is planning, accountants will forecast numbers so unless they got it very wrong, surely they knew what was available to spend this summer. It appears we spent all our time chasing Sancho, when maybe the fee could cripple our finances. Madness.

Planning, what planning? Football wise how on Earth was the answer Cavani? It looks a panic situation, he has been available for months, so if he was in the plan why not have him for the start of the season? It doesn't add up, like many things at our club. Who decided to keep Ighalo until January? If they had a plan for Cavani why do that? Who is asking and suggesting the moves on both those? We needed a forward, no argument from me, but I would have looked at Jovic personally before Cavani. It just looks chaos and amateur, something off the back of a cigarette packet given the timing, desperation. I wrote weeks ago we should have been decisive, had the players bar maybe a last minute tough one, at the club bedded in early for an important season. Maybe they had someone else in mind but decided to get Cavani as there was no big transfer fee, put the money "saved" towards Sancho. Our club are that daft.

Daft? Yes, we have Pogba going into his last year, doesn't want to be there, so why is he there? Does Ole want to keep him or is it the decision makers don't want to lose face or won't take a financial hit whilst wanting other clubs to take one when we buy. Why buy DvB, excellent player, but hardly the biggest need position unless Pogba was going. The manager plays Pogba deep, awful tactic and you can bet if he is deep today Spurs will target taking the ball off him.

What happens next? The amateurs as they keep ably showing is true, will pay more (too much) for Sancho, they will ignore the CB problem and I suspect Ole was told no chance financially hence his comments ignoring the obvious issue, do nothing about the DM problem, but might sort the LB problem.

What a mess.

1.) 04 Oct 2020
04 Oct 2020 10:39:08
Red Man, it is this mess which I why I don't think sacking the manager is a great idea.

I agree that Ole isn't the best manager, and I agree that he is unlikely to be the man to take that step to make us a winning side again. What he has done is give young players, who are likely to be key to our next great side, game time and allowing them to develop.

If we sack the manager then the current mess of a board will be responsible for hiring the next manager, will they get it right? Judging by their track record I highly doubt it.

That means we will have another manager looking for different players, playing in a different style and potentially exasperating the issues we have with a currently disjointed squad.

The old saying is "horse before the cart". We need someone to come in as a DoF to arch the gap between the football and business aspects of the club. Someone to set the vision, higher a manager who has a style that works with the majority of the squad and aligns with the vision of the club. To move on players who either aren't good enough or fit that vision, and bring in player who blend with that vision and improve the squad.

Until that person is in place we will only see the exact same things happen time and again with sacking managers and struggling to perform.

2.) 04 Oct 2020
04 Oct 2020 10:48:52
I think Cavani is a panic signing that stems from the belief that Ighalo was enough cover. The club are always looking for quick fix solutions, and thought that Ighalo’s decent start solved the striker problem. With Martial struggling and Ighalo not good enough, they’ve started to panic again. With should have pushed for Dembele (Lyon), but have left it too late to do anything long term.

Cavani is a good player and a better striker than Martial, but it risks getting Martial into a strop again, this time without the long term alternative Lukaku offered.

Sacking the manager won’t solve the underlying problems, but Ole has a lack of power that only helps the club continue to make mistakes. At least Jose was pushing for changes, Ole isn’t.

3.) 04 Oct 2020
04 Oct 2020 10:53:55
Shappy

Ole is not getting enough out of what he has, he isn’t good enough and using the argument about the issues above him as an excuse to keep him in the job is frankly nonsensical.

It could be years before there is change above him. You miss the real point and that is that Ole is the emotional, sentimental, pull at heart strings, choice that has kept the heat off the owners for two years. If you look at our up coming fixtures he has to win them or the pressure may be on sooner than Christmas. He just isn’t good enough and I will be happy to be proved wrong he hasn’t shown he has the facets needed. Just continuing is sentimental.

4.) 04 Oct 2020
04 Oct 2020 10:58:41
I actually don’t think OGS has done that bad a job?!

5.) 04 Oct 2020
04 Oct 2020 10:59:38
Success on the pitch will certainly be by luck more than judgement. We know planning hasn't been a strong suit of the club for a while now.

Ultimately spending an entire window chasing a player is nothing new for us, Bruno, Maguire just in the last 2. Even now, cost wise Sancho would probably be more expensive than Cavani, Telles and Sarr altogether. Until we have capable people dealing with transfers and staffing, we won't be successful consistently.

6.) 04 Oct 2020
04 Oct 2020 11:12:01
Good post redman, regardless of the 'rumoured' board argument, it's a joke how they run it all. From top to bottom. I wonder when it will get better?

Be nice to kick it off with a win today. Spurs are there for the taking.

7.) 04 Oct 2020
04 Oct 2020 14:50:30
A Director Of Football will not change anything. He will have a job title without the power and authority to execute. He just be the scapegoat

No one will take the job as they know what ever they do, they will be overlooked by the men above.

Keep saying it. Until either they sell up or Ed and Glazers step away from the football side and concentrate on the business side. Nothing is going to change.

8.) 05 Oct 2020
05 Oct 2020 22:24:02
The point you make about bedding in signings is key RM, bedding in players and giving them time to adjust is huge. The problem the money men is they don't see this, they just see it as a signing that slots into a position and that's what we are up against.

Carrying on the way we are as fans won't change the situation, it'll never change. Football is like an addiction and you cannot switch off from it, and that's what our board know. So if you can find something else to take your mind off it for the next 10 years whilst this club goes round in circles hiring and firing, because its not going to change for a long long time, more and more heart ache is on the horizon.