Recruitment Team / Scouting

[nbdrovers]

a John Park return would be utterly fascinating. surely not a cat in hell's chance?

[chaddyrovers]

59 minutes ago, unleaded said:

There was a power struggle with the likes of Parkes Rudy & Adam …. They were hired to look after the recruitment side of it .., Eustace was hired to coach and at the beginning knew & agreed & signed up to the script on how the set up would be ie he would highlight the positions and strong points he needs …

He was happy at beginning but as his stock grew he started to interfere in player recruitment side of it .. 

He wanted to keep Gallagher with his massive wages and his injury record … he was overruled rightly and he also wanted experienced old championship players who came with a premium ( 38 year old Mcfadz 40 year old goali Ruddy Cooper Weimann and few other pensioners ) Club felt that was short term and that costs as well with a  limited budget & he didn’t want the likes Of Pape Gueye Yuki Ohashi Paik Kargbo ( summer) and Ryo Germain (who’s deal was 99 percent done)  ….

Parkes walked away cause of the constant interference from Eustace as he set deals up only for them to be delayed or players no longer willing to wait around …. In essence the power struggle continued and as results improved his ego grew too ….

You can’t let every coach sign his old players ( we had that nightmare with Mowbray who appointed Venus as Sporting Director and signed his pals or sons of pals ….

If the coach doesn’t work or In this case someone who was applying for jobs left right & center you are stuck with his old mates on long contracts …Not Clever …. 

Hopefully the new coach will know how the structure is and if he’s happy to sign up to it then it’s a much more smoother run club …… 

Thanks for clarification of what went on. I thought John Park left cos of Gestede and Owen not Eustace. 

So Eustace wasn't in favour of us signing Gueye and Ohashi here, so how did they end up coming and was it why our transfer business in the summer and January slow cos of the disagreements of between Gestede, Owen, Park(just the summer) and Eustace?  

Edited February 15 by chaddyrovers

[wilsdenrover]

1 hour ago, Upside Down said:

Who the fuck is Charlie?

 

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Wanting to keep Gallagher ! That tells me all I need to know. I bet Stoke are wishing Eustace had got his way. Plus allegedly wanting Bamford ?  He needs to leave the selecting of players alone.

[wilsdenrover]

It’s amazing how leaky the club is when it wants to be.

[DE.]

Yeah, suddenly Eustace is the root of all evil at the club. Not only a liar, snake, backstabber, but also responsible for our transfers being slow, wanted to keep poor players, wanted to bring in nothing but old players on long contracts and is even responsible for Park leaving, lol. I'm expecting to read next that it was actually Eustace who sabotaged the McGuire deal by sneaking into Ewood and distracting the secretary long enough for send not to be hit. A master plan to ensure JDT left and he would get hired.

[Roverthechimp]

Given what our core players are achieving after different coaching I would suggest (rightly or wrongly) that JE believed he could have got a tune out of Gallagher and having seen the recruitment 1 year earlier (Telalovic and Ennis) was scared stiff of what would be brought in to replace him and Szmodics...

That JE demanded more of an influence in transfer targets as time went on is pretty standard stuff - the question is how was this handled internally? If internal communications are even close to the clusterfuck that is our external communication then i would suspect it was not handled in a professional manner...

[JBiz]

2 hours ago, DE. said:

Yeah, suddenly Eustace is the root of all evil at the club. Not only a liar, snake, backstabber, but also responsible for our transfers being slow, wanted to keep poor players, wanted to bring in nothing but old players on long contracts and is even responsible for Park leaving, lol. I'm expecting to read next that it was actually Eustace who sabotaged the McGuire deal by sneaking into Ewood and distracting the secretary long enough for send not to be hit. A master plan to ensure JDT left and he would get hired.

I guess it goes down to reputation of knowing the transfer business - something @unleaded has plenty of.

The sarcastic point about sabotage, just shows how you seemingly can’t see how this sort of power battle is caused by poor management. You can criticise the directors for this too you know? They allowed this argument to fester, they hired JE and the recruitment team. They’re most culpable!

None of that absolves JE from manufacturing a better scenario for himself, whatever reason you might accept.

[DE.]

I've asked unleaded some follow up questions which hopefully he'll answer. We know he has an inside track when it comes to transfers so I don't doubt his source or sources. I'm sceptical about apportioning 100% blame to JE though. Something about the last 14 years just makes me cynical. Who knows why. 

[JBiz]

2 minutes ago, DE. said:

I've asked unleaded some follow up questions which hopefully he'll answer. We know he has an inside track when it comes to transfers so I don't doubt his source or sources. I'm sceptical about apportioning 100% blame to JE though. Something about the last 14 years just makes me cynical. Who knows why. 

He didn’t put it all on Eustace - he explained that this has rumbled on since last summer and should’ve been sorted. You can say JE was lied too, but then you can also say he took the piss and used the situation. We all would professionally. 

[DE.]

The post stated:

JE knew he was signing up to be a coach with transfers above his head.

However, he got a big ego and started interfering. (Literally what the post says, not inferred)

Park walked because JE was slowing down transfers and refusing to follow the model. 

If there is agreement that Waggott, Venky's and Suhail are ultimately still culpable for allowing the situation to happen in the first place then fair enough. That's why I wanted more details, as otherwise JE is singled out explicitly for criticism whilst anything else is simply inferred. 

 

[TugaysMarlboro]

I genuinely have no idea how anything ever gets done when three people have the same job. If there's a standoff, who has final say?

[Roverthechimp]

4 minutes ago, TugaysMarlboro said:

I genuinely have no idea how anything ever gets done when three people have the same job. If there's a standoff, who has final say?

Suhail - always Suhail (even if he is not one of the three involved 😉)

[nbdrovers]

i can't lie, once i got used to the idea of a three-man split in the director of football job, i quite liked the ingenuity of it. three different people with different strengths, knowledge, contacts, experience and expertise; two younger, more modern footballing brains in gestede and owen, the former being more focused on the business side, while the latter looks after the staffing, statistical and physical/fitness side, with the transfer and recruitment taken care of by a proper, proven veteran in park. 

thought it was properly out the box and all three had different knowledge-bases to offer the scouting department. owen was the one aware of ohashi, while park could use his past experience in recruiting japanese players to get it done and also find germain too; gestede knowing of gueye, park knowing he could pick up cantwell cheap etc. etc. i really felt there was promise to it after that first rushed window of bedding it all in. 

if true about eustace and park falling out, i'd love to see the latter come back a third time, despite how ridiculous and unlikely that might be.

[Upside Down]

5 hours ago, DE. said:

I've asked unleaded some follow up questions which hopefully he'll answer. We know he has an inside track when it comes to transfers so I don't doubt his source or sources. I'm sceptical about apportioning 100% blame to JE though. Something about the last 14 years just makes me cynical. Who knows why. 

Yes all very convenient that this year our recruitment problems are down to the guy who's just left.

Because we've never had long drawn out transfers that have fallen through at the last minute prior to his arrival.

Who was at fault the last couple of years? Broughton? JDT? Surely couldn't be venkys and their lap dogs.

Not calling unleaded a liar or anything but there's always convenient leaks that come out at convenient times that ALWAYS deflect the blame away from the owners and their minions.

Besides, I thought John Park left because of a power struggle between him and Rudy ....

Edited February 15 by Upside Down

[ageoftherover]

6 hours ago, DE. said:

I've asked unleaded some follow up questions which hopefully he'll answer. We know he has an inside track when it comes to transfers so I don't doubt his source or sources. I'm sceptical about apportioning 100% blame to JE though. Something about the last 14 years just makes me cynical. Who knows why. 

Why does 100% of the blame have to be apportioned to anyone? We've now heard (indirectly) both sides of the story and on balance the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

[DE.]

20 minutes ago, ageoftherover said:

Why does 100% of the blame have to be apportioned to anyone? We've now heard (indirectly) both sides of the story and on balance the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

I totally agree. That's why I'd like to hear some more details, if unleaded knows any more about the situation. I'm mainly curious about who allowed Eustace to supposedly have enough say in transfer policy that he could delay transfers to the point where players would lose interest. I can understand taking his opinion on board, but if the transfer committee had the final say then it shouldn't have been a factor in whether a player was signed or not. If Eustace was threatening to leave or refuse to play signings he didn't approve of, then we should have parted ways with him sooner. If he wasn't making these kind of threats then why would it delay transfers? He'd just need to get on with it, if that is what he agreed to when he signed. The only conclusion I can come to is that someone in the hierarchy gave him enough sway to significantly delay transfers he didn't approve of, and the only person who makes sense in that scenario is Waggott, as the CEO and the person who hired Eustace.

[Andy]

To the original point, it did cross my mind towards the end of the game.

MoM: Ribeiro
Goal: Forshaw
Assist: Kargbo
Solid at the back: Sanderson

The signings definitely played their part today.

[AAK]

11 hours ago, Roverthechimp said:

Given what our core players are achieving after different coaching I would suggest (rightly or wrongly) that JE believed he could have got a tune out of Gallagher and having seen the recruitment 1 year earlier (Telalovic and Ennis) was scared stiff of what would be brought in to replace him and Szmodics...

That JE demanded more of an influence in transfer targets as time went on is pretty standard stuff - the question is how was this handled internally? If internal communications are even close to the clusterfuck that is our external communication then i would suspect it was not handled in a professional manner...

Weren't Ennis and Tel signed under a different recruitment team? So that debunks that.

People playing to many guessing games, he left because the owners are shit, simple.

He had this planned all along which is why people are unhappy, shit move on his part, however it's venkys so what do we expect.

He lied about the derby approach etc which is why I have lost respect for him.

This team needs normality, I think a different person would disrupt it, I think they should go with the caretaker approach with an added experienced coach.

Edited February 15 by AAK

[Roverthechimp]

8 hours ago, AAK said:

Weren't Ennis and Tel signed under a different recruitment team? So that debunks that.

People playing to many guessing games, he left because the owners are shit, simple.

He had this planned all along which is why people are unhappy, shit move on his part, however it's venkys so what do we expect.

He lied about the derby approach etc which is why I have lost respect for him. Fair comment

This team needs normality, I think a different person would disrupt it, I think they should go with the caretaker approach with an added experienced coach.

The bit in bold is sort of my point - the transfer team is always at the whim of our owners. Of course I’m guessing about JE “meddling” - i might be completely wrong. As it is we have spent very little but fair play to both JE and the recruitment team - most signings have done ok/well and have been integrated into the team/squad on merit.

[onlyonejackwalker]

On 15/02/2025 at 22:39, Andy said:

To the original point, it did cross my mind towards the end of the game.

MoM: Ribeiro
Goal: Forshaw
Assist: Kargbo
Solid at the back: Sanderson

The signings definitely played their part today.

On the subject of Sanderson.

I've been very impressed with how he has slotted in seamlessly and contributed to two clean sheets. Both games we have been relatively untroubled and he looks very comfortable at this level.

He was described as 4th choice, couldn't get a game at Birmingham, low cost, etc. But he looks far better than that to me. I like his strength. aggression and positional play and as a defender clean sheets are your currency.

[rigger]

55 minutes ago, onlyonejackwalker said:

On the subject of Sanderson.

I've been very impressed with how he has slotted in seamlessly and contributed to two clean sheets. Both games we have been relatively untroubled and he looks very comfortable at this level.

He was described as 4th choice, couldn't get a game at Birmingham, low cost, etc. But he looks far better than that to me. I like his strength. aggression and positional play and as a defender clean sheets are your currency.

He was a bit lucky to be given a foul against Plymouth, he could have easily given away a goal. But he does look a reasonable signing.

[Andy]

10 hours ago, onlyonejackwalker said:

On the subject of Sanderson.

I've been very impressed with how he has slotted in seamlessly and contributed to two clean sheets. Both games we have been relatively untroubled and he looks very comfortable at this level.

He was described as 4th choice, couldn't get a game at Birmingham, low cost, etc. But he looks far better than that to me. I like his strength. aggression and positional play and as a defender clean sheets are your currency.

Agreed.

Some players just seem to 'fit' the club - and early signs suggest that Sanderson is one of them.

Really like the look of him.

[Upside Down]

3 hours ago, Andy said:

Agreed.

Some players just seem to 'fit' the club - and early signs suggest that Sanderson is one of them.

Really like the look of him.

Shame he's only on a 6 month loan.

[Nic81]

On 15/02/2025 at 05:38, Upside Down said:

That's not really the point though.

If the club would have signed players he wanted and they were shit then that's on him. Instead the club signed players that were shit that he didn't want, whilst ignoring all his demands for quality to enhance the squad.

I’d rather the club have responsibility, because if we signed crap players and they were JE’s pick, then he left or got sacked then it’s an even harder place to be. I don’t agree that the signings were poor; left too late yes but not poor. Some have been good and steady, others yet to decide. 

Edited February 19 by Nic81