Michael Nicholson

For 18 years. Peter Lawell. Has left it to the last minute to sign anyone in January.

The last days and minutes and hours from that tight *.

Well done Nicholson for backing the manager. What a start.

 

Fantastic start from him, hopefully more to come.

 

Credit where it's due, backing the manager big time. Even a broken clock is right 2 times a day though....

 

Why you say that?

 

He either stayed out of Ange's way and obeyed his orders, or decided the 40 million euros from CL qualification are really important, and changed the club's transfer policy.

 

now go get us a CB, LB and Striker and you'll have a done an outstanding job

 

Everyone giving him credit. If it was him fair * but the board know they needed to act fast and Id say they were the ones made this happen so quickly. Sure isn't he only in the door .

 

I really hope the board have finally woken up. And realised that automatic access intro the CL is Worth investing to secure. Hopefully there are some more signings coming in this window.

 

And you can be sure as * it'll be back to normal next year.

These * will get no praise from me .

 

Give credit where it is due but to get all 3 deals done and ready for January 1 is an impressive start to his first full window as CEO. Will be interesting to see how the rest of the window turns out. Hopefully more to come in yet and we maybe we even find buyers for a few of the players we need to move on.

 

I’ve always seen a DoF role as another role that can * up a club. Sticking someone between Ange and Nicholson could break down the lines of communication and see us as a club being the loser. If Ange and Nicholson work well together, then I see it as superfluous to our needs.

I’ve seen an English club do it with and without. The DoF was getting sacked every other window, it seems as though the DoF’s weren’t listening to what the manager wanted and there was power plays behind the scenes. The players selected under a DoF reigns were disastrous. If the manager can be trusted with player identification, then I see no need.

 

I would agree. If there truly is a good working relationship between Nicholson and Ange then there is no need for a Director of Football IMHO.

 

It also sounds like the relationship between Ange and Tommy McIntyre is good. Overall things seem to be ticking along pretty well, they'd want to be very careful about who else they introduce into the mix.

 

If we don’t hire a DOF, then we’re going to be in the same situation as when Rodgers left when Ange eventually leaves.

Hiring a DOF is so important for continuity and setting up a framework of how we run as a club.

 

The idea behind it is to have someone building the football department in the long term.

Ange is unlikely to be here for more than 4 years. He’ll either do poorly and leave or do well and move on.

Who is looking ahead for what happens next? Who is modernising the training facilities, managing the recruitment team etc.?

In fact, our footballing department was so ill-prepared for Ange coming in that we didn’t even have a head of sports science until October when we were at the peak of our first injury crisis. We are losing this league because no one cared about looking after players properly, but the Lawyer will know all about that?

We can’t keep loading these responsibilities onto managers and hoping they can handle it only for them to leave in a few years. Likewise we can’t expect accountants and Lawyers to run modern footballing departments.

I think a lot of people argue against a DOF-style role because they say, “Well what if we get a * one”. That’s an obviously poor argument.

 

Of course not every appointment of a DoF works out as expected ed. Just look at the last time we tried it as well.

But the idea is that the DoF will out last multiple managers and will be aligned with the clubs footballing ethos.

It sounds like the club you indicate to from down south didn't understand the role of a DoF nor understand their own ideas of how they wanted to develop as a football club.


For us, just now, we love the idea of Angeball and how things are working.

If we are to appoint a DoF this season, it would make absolutely zero sense in appointing someone that was at odds with his approach.
It would also not be sensible to appoint one that is best pals already with him (for fear of jumping ship).

But what we should be doing, is utilising this moment with Ange as a moment to identify they style and approach we want to go as a football club, the DoF then comes in on good terms with the current manager and gets on with the task of building a football club around the ideas and ethos of this approach to the game.

So he would be looking to improve the fitness and physio departments, the analysis departments, coaches who understand and are similar in approach to the Ange methods.

Once that is all in place, as Celtic staff (not Ange staff as was the case with Rodgers), then when Ange leaves, we as a football club still have all the core building blocks and systems in place to continue that. It would make appointing an interim manager a piece of cake, as any coach within the setup would be 100% on board with the style, system, players etc and continue that, then the DoF would go on to identify the full time replacement, who, would be a continuation (in part) of the style of Ange.

The next manager would have to be reasonably aligned with what our approach and identify is as a football club.

We wouldn't be risking hiring random * managers and wondering what the * our approach to the game would be.

It wouldn't be set in stone that every manager comes in and just plays the Ange way, but the fundamentals would be there and it wouldn't all be too far off each other.

Just ask clubs like Ajax, Barcelona, Porto, the red bulls, they all have an identity that no matter which manager comes in, they all (within reason) follow the same identity.

If, the manager is the wrong candidate for that, assuming you've got an adequate DoF, then it's the manager who would not last very long and the DoF would go about changing that again.


The issue we have without having a DoF is seen by the last 18 years at this club.

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Been here for years. He had to step in last summer cause McKay couldn’t get deals done was the reported issue and Ange has said several times he works with him and talk daily

 

Must have flew over my head this one. I thought he was only brought in. Hadn't heard of him untill it was announced. With him being about the place a few years, then that's a positive IMO. Plus he'll be well in with PL who'll only be a phone call away. I know PL gets riped to * on here but IMO, he did an excellent job. One can't point the finger then overlook our trophy hall over this last decade plus bringing Ange in. Yes he has * up on other things but that's life. I'd take your hand off for another PL if it meant the end of this decade we'd have the same success as the last.