Director of Football Wanted

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Better late than never!

Another 'yes man' , Sexstone. An obvious waste of time and money. Fletcher simply hasn't got it. You only have to listen to him speak.

A decent manager is all that is needed at this level.

WTF is going on?

This is a basic admission that they know Fletchers useless and not up to it - yet still they refuse to sack him!

PAFC - Clueless from top to bottom.

We should have had one in place from the start of the season not now!!

You only have to look at the results before and during last season when Carl had experience on board it helped and worked. Why Fletcher or the club (both even) thought after only half a season under a tutor Carl was capable and ready to manage on his own just shows how inexperience this board are and how thick Carl is. What we have now is the result of inexperience a clusterfuck of a team no rookie manager is stupid enough to manage without at least one experienced member of staff alongside him whether its as a director of football or as an assistant manager.

The club and force nerd obviously see something in Fletcher that the majority of the fans don't and by bringing in a director of football is there way of saying he is here for the end of the season and beyond!!!!

I await to see who comes in and what impact it will have i personally dont think fletcher will vastly improve enough to win over the fans or improve results so this appointment will probably be a waste of time.
At least its shows Sexstone is spotting the obvious that the board where blind too and they are listening.

I pray the club appoint a fitness coach soon too as the levels of the players (even after having an extra week working on it in pre season) is shocking.

There's two options for Brent

1) Appoint a new manager. - This will cost Brent as Fletcher will need to be paid off and an experienced manager will cost Brent bucks.

2) Appoint a Nanny for Fletcher - Cheaper than appointing a new manager and dismissing Fletcher with the added bonus of subduing any dissenting voices from the terraces.

FUDGE!

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GOB wrote:

There's two options for Brent

1) Appoint a new manager. - This will cost Brent as Fletcher will need to be paid off and an experienced manager will cost Brent bucks.

2) Appoint a Nanny for Fletcher - Cheaper than appointing a new manager and dismissing Fletcher with the added bonus of subduing any dissenting voices from the terraces.

FUDGE!

Didnt fletcher sign a rolling 12 month contract? i dont think he would be that expensive to pay off imo.

I agree. It's some kind of fudge and compromise. We are in the bottom division of the whole football league where the football should be oh so simple yet we need a person to direct the people charged with getting the best out of the players at there disposal.

Angry of Mayfair wrote:

GOB wrote:

There's two options for Brent

1) Appoint a new manager. - This will cost Brent as Fletcher will need to be paid off and an experienced manager will cost Brent bucks.

2) Appoint a Nanny for Fletcher - Cheaper than appointing a new manager and dismissing Fletcher with the added bonus of subduing any dissenting voices from the terraces.

FUDGE!

Didnt fletcher sign a rolling 12 month contract? i dont think he would be that expensive to pay off imo.

Fair point, even so Brent as usual has gone for the cheap option to buy time until he can run off with his piggy bank swollen and the club in deep shitzo.

Also, doesnt appointing a director of football now weaken carl fletcher's position? after all if results improve it will be down to his influence not carl!

just had that thought does anyone agree with it at all?

I wonder who it will be-

Colin Lee? (lives in Buckfastleigh and was DoF at Torquay)
Deehan returns? (strange that his contract wasn't extended)
Bruce Rioch (lives in Cornwall)

Looking at ex-Bristol City managers (Sextone's contacts) I see Danny Wilson and John Ward are both out of work.

Brent doesn't seem to have grown a pair over the last year or so. So this will be the second time he'd have brought someone in to help Fletcher out. The first took so long to appoint it was pretty farcical. Then you let him go and Fletch appears to have learnt the square root of bugger all from him. So you go looking for another one. From where I'm looking this looks like the manager and coaches are the problem not the lack of a Director of Football.

Quote :

Argyle are taking an early position on what we think will become a trend in English football to employ a Director of Football, Sporting Director, Technical Director or similar.

Is early position the new first in football?

Warny wrote:

Brent doesn't seem to have grown a pair over the last year or so. So this will be the second time he'd have brought someone in to help Fletcher out. The first took so long to appoint it was pretty farcical. Then you let him go and Fletch appears to have learnt the square root of bugger all from him. So you go looking for another one. From where I'm looking this looks like the manager and coaches are the problem not the lack of a Director of Football.

It's called stalling or otherwise known as delaying tactics to pacify dissenting voices and, it'll work!

I wonder if Alan Pardew, oops ummm I mean I wonder who would want it though really?

Steve Cotterill would be my shout.

Whoever it is you can be sure of one thing, it'll take months to find him!

And i dont think many people will want the job if they know they are gone when Fletcher is.

unless this appointment signals an intention to give the job to purse when fletcher goes? have the stability and experience in place before hand.

Is history repeating itself though?

If you look at the M7 management (with Luggy Mk2) and compare to Brent's there are a lot of similarities-

Poor Manager who 70%+ fans want sacked;

Refusal to sack manager and offer alternative- M7 bring in Mariner/ Move Luggy; JB Keep CF, bring in DoF;

Lowering crowds;

Large squad which is low on quality;

Poor team performances and results;

Boards which put other aspects first (before 'football')- World Cup Bids/ Property etc;


Oh well administration (Mk 2) here we come

What is the exact role for director of football anyway? I presume fletch will still be running day to day training an selecting the usual shit team so really can't see how this will make much difference. Brent needs to grow a pair an just replace fletcher not brining in more help for him, we've already been down that road.

Basically we are manager-less and have been since Reid was sacked. Fletcher maybe the manager in name but it's apparent that PAFC only employs a manager at a time of severe crises and only for short periods of time.

Angry of Mayfair wrote:

Also, doesnt appointing a director of football now weaken carl fletcher's position? after all if results improve it will be down to his influence not carl!

just had that thought does anyone agree with it at all?

I agree. I think it's the beginning of a shuffling exercise to move Fletch sideways, albeit via stealth mode. If, 'IF' the DoF's input is any good and results pick-up, it will highlight Fletch's woeful tactical bollockness and it will conveniantly trigger Brent to 'appear' to have some balls and sack Fletch.

Smoke, Mirrors, black capes and top-hats spring to mind.

Shite, rotten and amateur from top to bottom. In the imortal words of Duncan Bannatyne, Hilary Devey, Theo Paphitis, Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones, I'm out.

Chemical Ali wrote:

Is history repeating itself though?

If you look at the M7 management (with Luggy Mk2) and compare to Brent's there are a lot of similarities-

Poor Manager who 70%+ fans want sacked;

Refusal to sack manager and offer alternative- M7 bring in Mariner/ Move Luggy; JB Keep CF, bring in DoF;

Lowering crowds;

Large squad which is low on quality;

Poor team performances and results;

Boards which put other aspects first (before 'football')- World Cup Bids/ Property etc;


Oh well administration (Mk 2) here we come

Sad really isn't it.

I'd still personally hold short on saying Brent will be as bad as the M7 era. The jury's still out but I'm losing faith and gaining worries by the day. However, this just stinks of Sturrock/Mariner doesn't it.

This is the worst news we could have got today. If Carl Fletcher is still allowed autonomy then we're buggered. If the new guy is allowed autonomy then he'll have resentful coaching staff hoisted on him who probably have different football ideals which could easily mean a power struggle. If it does work, if somehow this new DOF does provide the very large and gaping missing link between an enthusiastic but incompetent young manager with some nice ideas to a functional, competent manager who uses those ideas to get results then I'll take my hat off to Mr Brent for an excellent decision. I'll also eat my hat afterwards. Very worried.

Czarcasm wrote:

WTF is going on?

This is a basic admission that they know Fletchers useless and not up to it - yet still they refuse to sack him!

PAFC - Clueless from top to bottom.

Hit the nail on the head there me thinks......

What a mess.

The DoF role has proven to work very well at some other clubs, but in a completely different way to how Brent and co appear to be viewing the position.

At WBA, Dan Ashworth - who recently got an FA gig - has worked wonders; likewise, Nicky Hammond at Reading over a number of years. But their roles have been more concerned with backroom stuff (e.g. scouting, running the academy / youth team, liaising with the board in regards to the coaching staff).

Instead, we seem to be looking for an ex-manager who'll work as some kind of de facto assistant / mentor / minder, for an initial 6 month period.

Only at Argyle!!

lloyd_down_under wrote:

What a mess.

The DoF role has proven to work very well at some other clubs, but in a completely different way to how Brent and co appear to be viewing the position.

At WBA, Dan Ashworth - who recently got an FA gig - has worked wonders; likewise, Nicky Hammond at Reading over a number of years. But their roles have been more concerned with backroom stuff (e.g. scouting, running the academy / youth team, liaising with the board in regards to the coaching staff).

Instead, we seem to be looking for an ex-manager who'll work as some kind of de facto assistant / mentor / minder, for an initial 6 month period.

Only at Argyle!!

its a football first!!
weve still got a club!!
trust in brent!!
happy christmas exeter!!

Not a terrible decision at this point. If Messrs Brent & Jones are committed to the future abilities of Carl Fletcher - as they have both said they are - then it is right that they give him support. Amongst Mr Brent's avowed intentions was to try to avoid the football merry-go-round for managers as typified by Abramovich's reign at Chelski.

But the point at which it really ought to have been made was during the Summer! Deehan was there during the relegation battle. Why did they think that such support was no longer needed? He didn't suddenly become the expert, experienced manager that he clearly isn't. At least the owner is financing improvement. We have no idea at the moment how the relationship between the manager & advisor will work.