Lack of vision, overpaying for middling talents to make a splash, throwing good money after bad – take your pick!
ASOXO on
Ownership. Done.
_rhinoxious_ on
I’d say Man Utd and Spurs were underachieving even more given their incomes. But it’s no real comfort to us.
trevlarrr on
I feel like Man Utd and Spurs being where they were last season after spending around 3x what we did is a bigger underachievement, although granted Spurs won the Europa League too.
Problem is, as those two clubs show, generating revenue and even spending that revenue don’t equal success if you don’t have everything set up behind the scenes for success, from facilities, to staff, to recruitment, to culture.
Sullivans never really had a problem splashing the cash on players but without a cohesive strategy it’s meaningless.
aned_ on
Lack of long term strategic thinking. We get the highest rated players or managers we can afford at the time without considering any kind of long term system. Our record with strikers over the last 20 years is emblematic of this approach. I wouldn’t be surprised if our scouting system consisted of Sullivan’s offspring checking out the latest Fifa ratings.
Some occasional gems have papered over it (Rice, Soucek), but overall the return on investment has been poor.
I also think our fans can get on players backs a bit who go off the boil. Kudus wasnt as bad as people make out in his 2nd season and im really disappointed he left. He was able to bring the ball up the pitch without much support, but his end product started to fail him, which was a confidence thing.
W35TH4M on
Ownership, plain and simple. Any modern club has a director of football type set up compared to the 90’s way of chairman and manager. Leads to situations like this where the squad is constantly a mess because it’s a combination of multiple managers wants and needs.
You need someone in place who’s job it is to hire managers and players without meddling from the owners. The director hires the head coach and then builds the team with them. If they leave for whatever reason, you hire another manager in the same mould who will be fine with your squad.
ChileanIggy on
Club ownership just can’t stay out of the club’s own way. Really all it comes down to.
ThatGuyFromBraindead on
I beg to differ.
Conference League titles won in last 50 years.
Real Madrid. 0
Barcelona. 0
Bayern Munich. 0
PSG. 0
Liverpool. 0
Man City. 0
Arsenal. 0
Man Utd 0
Spurs 0
Chelsea. 0
Inter. 0
Dortmund. 0
Athletics. 0
AC Milan. 0
Juventus. 0
Newcastle. 0
Aston Villa. 0
Stuttgart 0
Benfica. 0
West Ham. 1
mart182 on
Being 20th on this list counts for a lot less when you’re 9th in your own league and 100m less that the next on this list from the PL. Yes we are underachieving but realistically we’re a mid table team and that can quickly turn into a relegation candidate with a couple of bad decisions as we’ve seen this season.
BorneAudio on
David Sullivan buys the players his agent mates have connections with and not the best option for the manager or team. He looks to spend the bare minimum on recruits and gambled on the summer that Wolves Leeds Sunderland and Burnley would be worse than us. A lot of the players he does target are reluctant to join so he throws big salaries at them and then we cannot move them on when it doesn’t work out. The man doesn’t know how to run a football club with this hands on approach which is evident with the 50 odd forwards he has tried and failed with during his tenure. We are screwed for as long as the man holds the keys.
Chappietime on
1. Ownership sets up managers to fail by forcing compromises with what ownership sees as the best way forward.
2. When that inevitably fails, we switch managers, and force compromises with a new system. We currently have players signed for 4 different managers with 4 different playing styles.
One thing successful teams have in common is the owner keeps the fuck out of the football side of things and lets the experts implement their plans.
11 Comments
Lack of vision, overpaying for middling talents to make a splash, throwing good money after bad – take your pick!
Ownership. Done.
I’d say Man Utd and Spurs were underachieving even more given their incomes. But it’s no real comfort to us.
I feel like Man Utd and Spurs being where they were last season after spending around 3x what we did is a bigger underachievement, although granted Spurs won the Europa League too.
Problem is, as those two clubs show, generating revenue and even spending that revenue don’t equal success if you don’t have everything set up behind the scenes for success, from facilities, to staff, to recruitment, to culture.
Sullivans never really had a problem splashing the cash on players but without a cohesive strategy it’s meaningless.
Lack of long term strategic thinking. We get the highest rated players or managers we can afford at the time without considering any kind of long term system. Our record with strikers over the last 20 years is emblematic of this approach. I wouldn’t be surprised if our scouting system consisted of Sullivan’s offspring checking out the latest Fifa ratings.
Some occasional gems have papered over it (Rice, Soucek), but overall the return on investment has been poor.
I also think our fans can get on players backs a bit who go off the boil. Kudus wasnt as bad as people make out in his 2nd season and im really disappointed he left. He was able to bring the ball up the pitch without much support, but his end product started to fail him, which was a confidence thing.
Ownership, plain and simple. Any modern club has a director of football type set up compared to the 90’s way of chairman and manager. Leads to situations like this where the squad is constantly a mess because it’s a combination of multiple managers wants and needs.
You need someone in place who’s job it is to hire managers and players without meddling from the owners. The director hires the head coach and then builds the team with them. If they leave for whatever reason, you hire another manager in the same mould who will be fine with your squad.
Club ownership just can’t stay out of the club’s own way. Really all it comes down to.
I beg to differ.
Conference League titles won in last 50 years.
Real Madrid. 0
Barcelona. 0
Bayern Munich. 0
PSG. 0
Liverpool. 0
Man City. 0
Arsenal. 0
Man Utd 0
Spurs 0
Chelsea. 0
Inter. 0
Dortmund. 0
Athletics. 0
AC Milan. 0
Juventus. 0
Newcastle. 0
Aston Villa. 0
Stuttgart 0
Benfica. 0
West Ham. 1
Being 20th on this list counts for a lot less when you’re 9th in your own league and 100m less that the next on this list from the PL. Yes we are underachieving but realistically we’re a mid table team and that can quickly turn into a relegation candidate with a couple of bad decisions as we’ve seen this season.
David Sullivan buys the players his agent mates have connections with and not the best option for the manager or team. He looks to spend the bare minimum on recruits and gambled on the summer that Wolves Leeds Sunderland and Burnley would be worse than us. A lot of the players he does target are reluctant to join so he throws big salaries at them and then we cannot move them on when it doesn’t work out. The man doesn’t know how to run a football club with this hands on approach which is evident with the 50 odd forwards he has tried and failed with during his tenure. We are screwed for as long as the man holds the keys.
1. Ownership sets up managers to fail by forcing compromises with what ownership sees as the best way forward.
2. When that inevitably fails, we switch managers, and force compromises with a new system. We currently have players signed for 4 different managers with 4 different playing styles.
One thing successful teams have in common is the owner keeps the fuck out of the football side of things and lets the experts implement their plans.