23-03-2021, 12:29 PM
(22-03-2021, 08:08 PM)Pedalo_menders Wrote: Isnt the whole point of a sporting director to have someone who is better at identifying players? Whatever system is currently in place is not working (to put it politely).
If you dont have early conversations with players about their contracts, what are they going to do? They're not going to sit on their hands counting down the days til they can sign on the dole. Having just 1 person who understands that you dont want player churn in defense would be nice.
If you believe the rhetoric from the club, then that's your decision. I find it hard to believe Burgess was pushing for a move. Thompson got completely done over by his agent. If either of these players had had a contract extension offer prior to their last year, I think it highly unlikely that either would have left.
The fact is, that it puts you on the back foot straight away. Why arent we identifying players we want to keep and making it the harder choice to leave? We're making it the easy choice.
I'm glad we agree that recruitment is crap. A DOF would be working with the manager to get him the best available players for his needs. How is that not a good thing? The problem comes when you think the DOF outright dictates what players come in., without any say from the manager.
The whole point of a director of football may include some responsibility for recruitment (although I would still argue that no club at our level has ever sucessfully used this system), but to go back to my original question what is the whole point of a Sporting Director ? What is the difference ? To me Sporting Director sounds like the sort of job someone with a Sports Management degree might apply for, not necessarily someone with playing experience and not therefore someone that I would want to be involved in the identifying of players to be recruited.
IMO the only person who should have that responsibility is the one who gets sacked when they don't work out. How is that not right ?
And Burgess said when he left that he made the decision to go before Christmas and signed a pre-contract agreement with his new club, which is why we had to ask their permission to play him in the play-offs. He was quite happy with the contract offer Pompey made but had already made the decision to move on. Unless your are arguing that players should never be allowed to go into the last year of their contract (in which case good luck with moving the likes of Downing) what could the club have done any better ? Burgess always knew he was wanted here and would be offered a new deal and that staying was an option open to him. And he chose to move on. And having a DOF or Sporting Director would not have made a blind but of difference.