Director of Football - Do we want one?

If you don’t think we need a DOF then you’re saying the guy that is chasing the bottom line on every department of the club, including things like retail, commercial deals, season tickets etc. - who has zero footballing experience, should be the guy solely responsible for finding and hiring managers, scouts, coaches every 2-3 seasons without challenge from anybody.

I don’t see how that can be consistently successful over a sustained period. We’ll go back to the boom and bust management cycle and have zero overall progression, except in commercial deals of course, and that’s the main thing we all care about, right?

 

Have been wanting this change for a few years now as have many posters on here since I've been a member.

As others have said, to have a clear vision and structure in place brings consistency and continuity when the first team coach/manager is inevitably changed, while separating the business/financial/commercial side of the club with the sporting one is something we badly need to implement.

Ideally we get someone who's got a lot of experience in that role, or who has the attributes and resources to succeed in it (good contacts in football, scouting/recruitment, youth development etc.)

 

I want the exact same model Red Bull Salzburg & Ajax have, we should be looking at their model & basically copying it

 

The reality is it cannot be any worse than the current set up which has allowed us to fail and has lead us to a massive rebuild. Like any system change we have to be prepared for this to take a couple of years at the minimum to start to show any decent effects. I think no matter what for a while we will feel the current system for a while even with new people in at higher levels. So anybody getting annoyed at it not working next season needs to give time to a new system before judging (unless it's really dreadful).

 

Then that manager leaves and takes his whole backroom team with him and we are back to square one again. I dont want the new CEO having all the power like Lawell did either

 

The DOF for me brings in a happy medium. In theory the CEO shouldn't be getting paid £1.5-2million a year anyway at this club, his wage should be half that and then look to invest the other portion in to the DOF to actually do that aspect of the job.

Rodgers leaving ripped out a large part of what made us good, but he also brought them all in as well. He never took anything/one away that wasnt basically his.
The DOF should be overseeing the football structure from youth coaches through to head coach and every aspect in between.

Part of why Rodgers left is the lack of a competent DOF (Lawwell attempting the job himself), bring in one and you're more likely to get head coaches who just want to get down to the day to day job, than actually fighting with CEOs about budget and transfer dealings.

 

I think a DOF would be good. Lawell or his replacement are clearly overstepping their role when they're getting materially involved with specific signings etc. The CEO's role is really just to determine if we have the Finances or make them available to do business if the DOF makes the footballing call.

 

Yes.

Ridiculous question.

 

Not always the case, but I get why you say that.

DOF shouldn't and cant be a head coach/manager who just wants a change of gig for a year or two, that'd completely defeat the purpose of it.
But it should be someone with a working knowledge of how a football club is run on the footballing side - literally could be an ex player.
In that case, take Ajax - Marc Overmars has been their DoF for the last 9 years with another 2 to go on his current contract.

At PSV they call it "Team Manager" it seems, and was Mart van den Heuvel for 12 years before Bas Roorda took over.
Feyenoord had a bit of a chop and change attitude to it between 2004-2011 but since 2011 it has been Martin van Geel as DoF

Porto have had Antero Henrique since 2005 til 2016 where it changed to "Sporting Director" and has been Luis Goncalves for the last 5 years
RB Salzburg have had Christoph Freund since 2015


These are the commonly mentioned teams we compare ourselves to, and rightly so. We also should be in and about this lot for competing in Europe. Financially some are better off than us these days, but not by any great amount and not that would suggest we can't copy their model.


Honestly, I'd even take Kennedy right now as a DoF with a less egotistical CEO in Lawwell above him. It's probably more suited of a role. The idea should be they have a fundamental understanding of how a football club should run, from the footballing side of it. A connection to the club is normally handy to keep them long term, but they should be seeing any job as a DoF/Sports Director as something for the long term, not a stepping stone to a managers gig down south.

 

I can't think of a club that needs to revamp its youth development, youth recruitment, scouting structure and general direction more than us. A manager won't fix these things. Also struggle to think of a club that gets less value for its money than we do.

So yes, we need a DoF.

The trick is finding a good one with a football brain, rather than palming the job off to some suit.

Seen Jock Brown mentioned here. He was a lawyer, a contracts man, he wasn't doing the same job as Monchi or Rangnick, and he wouldn't have the first clue how to.

 

I think the issues we have had in the past has reverberated between the managers and DOF, I think that managers have seen them as a threat to their jobs or obstacles in getting the players they wanted. What we need is clear defined roles and responsibilities if the guy coming in as manager knows he is there as first team coach and working within a system for playing and recruitment than we shouldn’t have the issues we had before, the DOF also need clear instructions on his role overall direction of sport and recruitment process

I think if the DOF is a person who has been in management and is no longer interested or is long serving in this role like a MON or a Harry Redknapp (I don’t mean any of them for us these ur just examples of experience we should look for) then the first team coach is less likely to feel threatened and work in partnership,

if they want to make it work it will that’s why teams like Bayern, Man City and Leipzig are successful they take the ego out of the equation.

 

O’Neill and Redknapp are the complete opposite of what we should want in a DOF.

 

What would have stopped lawell doing to a DOF exactly what he done to managers over the last 10 years? What would have stopped lawell hiring a yes man director of football?

 

They were examples of long standing experience within the game not the people we want in ?

 

Nothing, but the hope would have been that Lawwell wouldn't have had the remit to basically do two jobs and would naturally back the * off.

Either way, its a moot point going forward as thank * that * is on the way out.
Our hope now is that McKay is coming from a successful role and understands he can't come in and play Football Manager, he needs to delegate the jobs out and a DoF would help him massively as well as the playing side of the club

 

We shouldn’t get one for the sake of getting one.

Should head hunt someone that has a plan and view of how to set the club up correctly, from youth level all the way up.

I also don’t want the same situation just now though, with Lawwell being Desmonds puppet and only looking at profits and losses.

 

Well the fact he is leaving makes this a mute point, but the new guy is coming from outside football and is more of a commercial marketing background so he will need a DOF to take that element of him i don’t see the club allowing the manager to control the whole sporting side of the club and DD won’t allow that, anyway Lennon doesn’t have the capacity to deliver, he can hardly pick a team ffs.

I think this is the best role for us or get Arsen Venger in he could probably operate the clubs sporting direction and manage the first team.

 

I kind of agree with this, I think these guys also have charisma and would be better at attracting players to our club, I’ve had no faith in the last couple of appointments we’ve had.