We have a selection of your lovely Mails. If you want to contribute, you know what to do: Mail us at [email protected]
Transfer for Spurs
I am a Tottenham fan and this week has been terrible to say the least. At lot has been said about our thin squad, unfortunate injuries etc. to try and explain why it all fell apart so abruptly, in 4 days time but I have yet to see any fellow spurs fan offer a reasonable solution to this. I for one would love to sell Janssen and Nkoudou off, free up funds and buy Yuri Tielemans from Monaco who might be available for as little as £20m. After that, all we need is a good back-up striker for Kane and I realize this may not sit well with some other fans but why not go for Olivier Giroud? He is out of contract in the summer, he has just seen Higuain arrive and severely limit his playtime so why not give one of the best target forwards in the prem for the last 5 years a chance, maybe give him a 12-18 month contract. He already lives in London and would probably find it an exciting idea despite his Arsenal history. By doing those four transfer dealings, (Janssen & Nkoudou off, Tielemans & Giroud in) we’ll have spent little money and added some strength to a seriously weak midfield with a young, hungry player with great potential while also having Giroud as a plan B or a backup striker would allow us to approach games differently and not freak out just as much next when Kane gets injured.
Make it happen Levy!
Sibbi, The Icelandic-Spur.
Sleeper cells
I’ve been reading some spy novels where the concept of sleeper cells has been expanded to whole groups of people from a naughty country gradually taking over a number of communities, a process that takes many years. Then when circumstances are right they rise up and take over whatever it was they had their eye on, much to the surprise of everyone.
As a footie fan naturally I transferred this idea to football clubs.
Was Ollie part of a Manchester United sleeper cell? Was he recruited years ago and sent away to Scandinavia and told to wait until the circumstances are just right, then brought back to save the day?
Are there other managers/coaches working around the world just waiting to be brought back to turn around the fortunes of their beloved club?
I think we should be told.
Must go, here comes nursey
Roger, THFC
Recruitment is the imperative
Hey,
I just read a mail mentioning whether G.Nev etc. picked the wrong job. It is so but I don’t think that they should straight get into managing strong squads. It’s just a matter of having the right kind of players. Here scouting becomes very important because you have to find the players that best fit your vision. The players under ole are best fit for how he wants them to play. Majority of them are forward thinking. Paul Pogba is a prime example. This is one of the reasons why Jose didn’t get the entire control over the transfers because the scouting has been pre-determined to work under a certain policy. They probably do not want to get players who are over-priced and also players who are experienced but old (Matic is an exception). Now, there will be times where you have to heed to what the first team needs so in that sense, there has to be a unified structure that seeks a similar understanding with the manager and the board. That’s why a DOF is needed, so that such a situation like Mourinho’s with United doesn’t occur. So a recruitment policy has to be set and that itself should be based on the interests (probably tradition) of the club. Probably something of that sort is happening right now with ole in charge. United now have a clear vision of what the club is, it has an identity. Now it’s all about bridging the gaps between scouting, coaching and executive levels under one single vision and the prime mediator being the DOF.
In that sense, as a manager you have to find the right kind of players in the right sort of situation. One doesn’t become an Allardyce overnight and bring stability to a team. You have to start from scratch. Look at Ole’s career itself. Coached Molde, went to Cardiff thinking he could save them but probably didn’t have the skill. Then he went back to Molde, back to square one and now look at what he’s doing. There’s a substantial change. Sometimes to establish your way of coaching you need to have an environment that’s stable to experiment with. Through experience you can handle situations in a better way than previously. So basically, when you start out one shouldn’t consider themselves worthy of a challenge or that this challenge is better than other offers being given. In my opinion it’s always a safe bet to manage teams that are stable and that need some new ideas.
LJ
Scrabble pedantry
I’m sure I won’t be the only one to point this out (please don’t make me the only one to point this out), but you only get one J in a game of Scrabble, so Hadergjonaj would be impossible. Also only being able to use seven letters would knacker you, as would not being allowed to play a proper noun.
If I were Auntie Cath I’d be at Thierry Henry-esque levels of sniffy disdain.
David (can’t play the word Zbrojovka either) Szmidt, Brno, Czech Rep
FA Cup solution
A few emails today on the theme of the FA Cup and how teams don’t seem to prioritise it anymore.
I’ve always thought the solution was simple: remove the CL qualifying spot for fourth place and give it to the cup winners instead. Everyone will be playing their best XI from that point on.
Phil, MUFC
The manager myth
Thank you Ved for simply outlining one of the most important, but widely misunderstood principles in football. I wrote a mail to this same effect a couple of games into Solskjaer’s reign: it stands to reason that a manager (in any field) will be better at managing and organisation they’re familiar with, than one unknown to them.
That’s why the standard line of “[x top player] should go and learn the ropes / prove himself at a lower league club if he wants to get into management” is so idiotic. Can you imagine if, on the death of Steve Jobs, Apple had said to Tim Cook (then CFO, and now CEO) “gee Tim, we’d love to give you the job, but you have no CEO experience – go and run some random small business successfully for a few years, then maybe we’ll consider it”. No, they knew that his deep knowledge of how the organisation worked stood him in better stead to continue their success than, say, the “experienced” CEO of a local paper merchant.
Only in football do people think like this.
This isn’t to say that a top player might not – by luck or skill – do well at a lower league club. And it’s also not to say that every top player will do well at a top club (some people just don’t have the personality type for management in general). But it is to say that, *on average*, you will manage best in the context you know best.
Further implications of this rule, which run counter to what people generally think, include:
– It’s extremely high risk to “promote” a successful manager from one tier of club to another (e.g. Moyes to United, Hurst to Ipswich); their success will probably not continue. It’s far more reliable to move successful managers “sideways” (e.g. Warnock should just keep getting teams promoted for big fees, but not waste his time trying to keep them up, Big Sam should keep taking over teams placed 14th in the Premiership, etc.).
– No player should start their managerial career at a lower level than what they played, if they can help it, because their likely failure will see them labelled as “bad managers” forever more (Solskjaer is one-in-a-million lucky to get this shot at United; his Cardiff failure would have ruled him out ever been considered as a long term candidate). This is why all the abuse Giggs received for not dropping down was uncalled for.
– We should not see the appointment of “club legends” as naive and romantic, but as low risk and strategic. Examples of their success (Guardiola, Zidane, Dalgliesh, Cruyff, Enrique, Conte, possibly Solskjaer, the likes of Jim Magilton at lower levels, Hoddle / Southgate’s relative success for England, Deschamps for France etc.) are actually more common than the failures. Barcelona – not too unsuccessful – actually do it as standard practice.
Anyway, this obviously isn’t 100% predictive by any means, but it’s not without merit – and this matters given that football people / journos tend to think the precise opposite.
Alex
Degsy
Interesting to see a sensible contribution in yesterday’s mailbox from somebody going by ‘Degsy’.Would this perchance be F365’s own Cheeky Punter?
Is this a new era in his career?
More importantly, has this contribution negatively affected the chances of a midweek Cheeky Punt article?
Cheers,
Rory LFC Sydney
Naughty Mediawatch!
Saying Van Dijk is one of the best defenders in the history of the Premier League. Stirring a little I reckon.
And in response to Rick’s mailbox entry this morning and for the benefit of our younger readers, maybe we can get an article showing the exchanges between the great Antony Kastrinakis and Mediawatch. Funny at the time and one of the many reasons why the journos would rather pretend F365 does not exist. It makes you wonder why the mainstream media keep employing people off of the F365 conveyor belt. Unless they all read it and laugh at their colleagues while filtering out their own sections. Actually that’s probably what they do especially Chief Grumpypants II.
Thanks
Rob (Whatever happened to Mrs Mediawatch? Upgraded probably) Gravesend
Maybe Poch is the man for the job
‘Mediawatch largely agrees with Stan Collymore in the Daily Mirror that Mauricio Pochettino’s comments about trophies only building your ego are basically bunkum – quite why the Argentine is talking himself out of bigger jobs is a mystery.’
This got me thinking. Maybe the comments were a deliberate attempt to end the speculation linking him to the United job? It sounds like everyone at Spurs is sick of it, and it seems to be working. With a flair for mind games like that, maybe he is the man for the job.
Robert, Birmingham.
Body cameras for referees
Good afternoon,
I’ve been reading the discussion about referees. I don’t know if it’s ever been considered before, but what if referees wore body worn cameras? I’m not suggesting that the footage is broadcast, but more used for gathering evidence during a match. If the referee hasn’t dealt with an incident, the powers that be can determine whether or not the referee is likely to have seen it depending on what has been captured on his camera (not an exact science, I know). Also, the behaviour of the players. It would capture all the vitriol displayed towards the referee from players as they are seeing it, which would give it its true impact. I feel that players would react differently knowing that they have a camera right in front of them, catching everything they are saying.
I work for the police, and since body work cameras have been introduced, we have seen a drop in the number of assaults on police, and also seen a drop in malicious complaints about officers. It has also made officers truly accountable for their decisions, as there’s no arguing with the video recordings. It could very easily have a similar effect on refereeing.
Many thanks,
Anonymous