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Do we need a Director of Football?

Discussion in 'Celtic Chat' started by TIART, Aug 2, 2014.

Discuss Do we need a Director of Football? in the Celtic Chat area at TalkCeltic.net.

  1. TIART Gold Member Gold Member

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    Director of Football, call the position whatever you like. Technical Director, Sporting Director or General Manager.

    Since reading many opinions on here regarding where Celtic may be failing or maybe where we're doing fine but should be doing much better. Here's a wee list of what I notice more often than not.

    • Player Investment
    • Scouting
    • Youth Setup
    • Manager Selection

    From these four categories, there will be at least one category you'll believe we are failing at, contributing to the situation we find out club in now.

    Whatever the reason you feel were coming up short in one of the above or maybe more than one, the question you need to ask is;

    1. Who dictates the DIRECTION of these areas of our club?
    2. What is their credentials and what are their priorities?

    Let's look at our Chief Executive, Peter Lawwell, after all, he is the head of ALL operations. He calls the shots, sets the strategy and vision for our club. This is a guy who began his career as an accountant and more specifically moving on to be a financial controller. This is a man, who as we all know, is very good with managing our money. Our debt is gone, it's something the club seem to champion every year.

    In light of what we know about Peter and what his expertise is and now looking back to the categories, there are two aspects that require consideration. There are Financial aspects and there are the Footballing aspects in each one of those categories. Another question that you need to ask is;

    • If we are failing in those areas and Peter Lawwell is prioritizing the financial aspects of them, then who is prioritizing the Footballing aspects?
    • Who has the expertise in fighting the corner for the footballing decision?

    We know a coach can come in, and if you recall O'Neill, he wanted full ownership of the all footballing strategies. He wanted control and had control of all but one of the above categories.

    Manager Selection

    Our manager selection is entrusted in a Chief with a financial background, he has now brought in lowly reputable manager with no experience of a club our size with the depth it has.

    We now have a manager who will have very little control compared to what O'Neill had. It would be foolhardy to expect a manager of a very small Norwegian club to come in and control all aspects of such a large club.

    One thing I believe we require is a Director of Football. We need a very experienced guy to fight the corner at the top level to achieve a better balance between both Footballing and Financial aspects.

    I would rather we had a Director of Football on board before we looked for Lennon's replacement. A footballing man, an expert who knows what we need in a footballing sense. Alas, we are in the situation we are now with a manager selected by a financier.

    Look at Salzburg with Trappatoni.

    So do we need a Director of Football?


    I intentionally didnt mention John Park throughout that. THe reason being, although Park is a fine scout, Headed Hibs Youth Development. He is not at the level of Footballing Director for our club although I do know he had a lot of input on our current manager Deila.
     
    Lilac Wine likes this.
  2. The Celtic Way

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    like john park
     
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  3. ILoveTheCeltic

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    John Park basically is a director of football so no, we dont need one.
     
  4. Wicker Bhoy

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    As already said John Park
     
  5. Rendog

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  6. wulliebad

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    Would the director of football take his orders from DD like the board, so why would anything change.
     
  7. TIART Gold Member Gold Member

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    It would be a position that would hold more weight on footballing strategies rather than those strategies being dictated by a financial expert in Peter Lawwell.

    John Park is a great scout and now Development Manager if I'm right, but is not a Director. He is restricted to the strategies put in place by Lawwell, who obviously prioritizes finances over football.

    Again, the Director of Football would be able to offer far more weight on footballing matters which in my eyes is required to strike a better balance between the balance sheet and what were currently seeing on the park, coming out the youth set-up and the scouting network.
     
  8. Sean Daleer Free Palestine Gold Member

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    Stuart Baxter. Ronny obviously needs an old head in there.
     
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  9. Tifosi Celtic

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    Like Pistol Pedro Lawell. He's already here and getting us moving forward, close thread.
     
  10. PaulM1888 Moderator Moderator Gold Member

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  11. maggiethatcher

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    No they would just become Lawwell's man on the football side. The manager would have an extra hoop to jump through or another man telling him no. It's like making John Park Director of Football, he has arguably been choosing the players for Lawwell to sign anyway that it would be redundant.
     
  12. Mr. Slippyfist

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    John Barnes could do it.
     
  13. skills780

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    Yes because I'm sure a Director of football will solve the problem of embarrassing performances on the pitch.
     
  14. Sean Daleer Free Palestine Gold Member

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    Petrofac Cup.
     
  15. wulliebad

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    Lennon left him MON and WGS numbers.
     
  16. AwesomeCaz

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    Nope would be a waste of money.

    I think we're ok on a staff front, maybe need 1 or 2 more coaches as we lost Lenny, Parker & Mjallby and as far as I know Deila has only replaced them with 1 of his guys. (Collins was basically Lawwell's decision).

    We need to have more than 2 good players for our staff to actually work with though.
     
  17. Mr. Slippyfist

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    We have considerably more than 2 good players :rolleyes:

    Deika has brought in Collins, John Kennedy and his own guy (can't remember his name). The manager and all coaching staff that left have been replaced.
     
  18. maggiethatcher

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    Think last season we had Lennon, Mjallby, Parker and McGrain. So far we have Deila, Collins, Kennedy and the new guy. So not too bad but yeah apart from one they aren't really Deila's men.
     
  19. ulsterscot

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    I would have thought the case for Director of Football would have been better made by giving far more than one example .
    A change in the Direction of Our Football , I think is far more important .
    To concede 10 goals in two games , even though one was labelled a friendly , doesn't augur well for the Season or the Football Management . Of course we had people here last season that had Lennon blamed for all our football ills . Just a year ago , a younger team than today's actually beat Liverpool 1 nil , compare that to the 6-1 defeat today and I think you will agree the problem is nearer the pitch .
     
  20. Vertie Auld

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    :smiley-laughing002: