[football] Bye bye 'Arry and Jim

[JC]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...th/4037591.stm

Why do clubs keep going for these Director of football type positions when they have never worked in England?

[Radical Edward]

because british players and managers are shit.

[Colt]

Was on the cards tbh...

[1-X]

I still think it's more likely he'll quit management and invest in Bournemouth rather than come to Wolves (though it's obvious "we" have been waiting for this to happen)

[Dace]

So that's Kura made some money then.

[Stew]

Jim Smith <3

We have a director of football and it seems to work out quite well, although I suspect we are rare on this front.

[midge5]

I am quite surprised to be honest. If he was going to quit I would have thought it would have been when it was first announced, he seemed to have goten over it.

[Sunday8pm]

Just picture Jim Smith and Harry Redknapp Spitroasting Louise Redknapp while Jamie is busy running his socks off for some wank london team.

[Phalon]

Originally Posted by Sunday8pm

Just picture Jim Smith and Harry Redknapp Spitroasting Louise Redknapp while Jamie is busy running his socks off for some wank london team.

heh

However, Redknapp did reveal last week that he would consider trying to buy Bournemouth

\0/ That would be

[Ste]

Originally Posted by Stew

Jim Smith <3

We have a director of football and it seems to work out quite well, although I suspect we are rare on this front.

Because Derby are doing really well...
(ok better than us but not that great)

[Kurashima]

Originally Posted by Dace

So that's Kura made some money then.

Like you couldnt see this coming .....

[Stew]

Originally Posted by Ste

Because Derby are doing really well...
(ok better than us but not that great)

We've turned a team round that was nearly relegated the last two seasons that, had we won on Saturday would have gone 5th, thats not bad imo.

[G.K Zhukov]

Arsenal has a two directors I belive.

If only Wenger could get a squad of reasonable size, we could win CL soon.

[lokken]

Milan is clearly insane by forcing Harry out.

I couldn't give a toss how dodgy Redknapp is, he's given us two years plus of fantastic football, and this decision could well condemn us back to where we came from. I expected Harry to leave sooner or later, but to do it before we are an 'established' premiership club just seems a silly thing to do.

I hope our chairman knows what he's doing.

[Kurashima]

Originally Posted by lokken

Milan is clearly insane by forcing Harry out.

I couldn't give a toss how dodgy Redknapp is, he's given us two years plus of fantastic football, and this decision could well condemn us back to where we came from. I expected Harry to leave sooner or later, but to do it before we are an 'established' premiership club just seems a silly thing to do.

I hope our chairman knows what he's doing.

'Arry claims its a decisions hes been thinking about for a while, and rumours ave it hes used his pension money to invest in Bournemouth.

Go on Arry , take em to the Premiership and kick Milan's arse on the way past!

[JC]

Originally Posted by Kurashima

'Arry claims its a decisions hes been thinking about for a while

Santini claimed a close friend/family member was ill. Its not like this is his first argument with Milan though, so quitting probably been in the back of his mind for a while, and this new bloke coming in might just have been the final straw.

I think the biggest problem Pompey will have now is finding a good manager that wants to be in a situation where it will be someone above him that has the final say on things and not himself (i'm assuming Pompey will end up with a 'head coach'). I cant see Strachan or Houllier wanting that role, and i'm struggling to think of any other high profile managers that are free at the moment. Sir Bobby could be on his way to Wolves so that would rule him out.

Obviously it doesnt have to be a recognised Premiership manager but throwing in an inexperienced manager could cause problems. A bit like we might end up having with Hughes .

[Kurashima]

Originally Posted by JC

Santini claimed a close friend/family member was ill. Its not like this is his first argument with Milan though, so quitting probably been in the back of his mind for a while, and this new bloke coming in might just have been the final straw.

I think the biggest problem Pompey will have now is finding a good manager that wants to be in a situation where it will be someone above him that has the final say on things and not himself (i'm assuming Pompey will end up with a 'head coach'). I cant see Strachan or Houllier wanting that role, and i'm struggling to think of any other high profile managers that are free at the moment. Sir Bobby could be on his way to Wolves so that would rule him out.

Obviously it doesnt have to be a recognised Premiership manager but throwing in an inexperienced manager could cause problems. A bit like we might end up having with Hughes .

Odds are Pompey will either end up with this Yugoslav bloke taking over immediately and staying there (which may have been Milan's original plan) or some foreign coach whos used to the role will come in, probably someone of Yugoslav/Eastern European origin.

Prosinecki back at Fratton as Manager Lokken?

[lokken]

Originally Posted by Kurashima

Odds are Pompey will either end up with this Yugoslav bloke taking over immediately and staying there (which may have been Milan's original plan) or some foreign coach whos used to the role will come in, probably someone of Yugoslav/Eastern European origin.

Prosinecki back at Fratton as Manager Lokken?

Zajec is not being made manager, he's "temporarily in charge until a proper manager is appointed", which at FP probably means - he's becoming manager, it's just taking time for Milan to persuade him to do it permanently, or iron out a contract.

I'd take Strachan (although he'll probably go to Scotland) - other than that crap managers are out of a job for a reason, there's no one in the lower leagues i like the look of as a manager. Sir Bobby is a footballing legend but going crazier with age, so not worth looking at.

It's a forcing out of a manager that makes no sense as there's no obvious replacement for him. No one really good will want to manage Pompey as our facilities are toss and our finances are limited. Harry was about ideal for our situation.

[Dace]

Originally Posted by Kurashima

'Arry claims its a decisions hes been thinking about for a while, and rumours ave it hes used his pension money to invest in Bournemouth.

How much is that liable to cost him?

[lokken]

£2M would sort out Bournemouth

£5M would prob take the club to another level

Pocket money for 'arry

[midge5]

Originally Posted by JC

Obviously it doesnt have to be a recognised Premiership manager but throwing in an inexperienced manager could cause problems. A bit like we might end up having with Hughes .

Hughes' shortcomings were shown up quite a while before he joined you. I never really expected him to be much of a success for you.

[Rids]

Think it would be because Harrys transfers would actually have an independant party looking closely into them?

Just wondering, and I'm a huge Harry fan.

[lokken]

Originally Posted by Rids

Think it would be because Harrys transfers would actually have an independant party looking closely into them?

Just wondering, and I'm a huge Harry fan.

don't doubt it for a second

i'd rather have that with Redknapp than a manager who's crap though, but let's face it only Allardyce compares with 'Arry in the pulling players out of your arse stakes.

[Sunday8pm]

I think milan is planning to asset strip the club.

With Arry leaving at no cost, it'd not be unreasonable to assume other players might want to move on, mil or so for Gary O'Neil, Couple mil for Amdy Faye etc etc won't look to surprising.

Portsmouth have just got that planning permission opened up for the new stadium, milan probably doesn't want to try and afford it and spend the next 10 years working back into the black, no he'll sell the club to some ambitious investors who think the club has potential for a fat profit, 30k fans a week with more waiting outside to get in? premiership status?

Yah portsmouth is about to be asset stripped, expect no-one on big wages to come in and milan to leave in the next 12-24 months as soon as he identifies some muppets who want to pay him too much for the club.

[Kurashima]

Mark Hughes will take Blackburn down

And as for Asset Stripping pompey , i think youll find Milan already has fingers in a few pies that will get him a pretty penny for the club. Theyre committed to this new stadium, but it wont grow the capacity by a massive amount (Pompey could fill a 40k stadium each home game, no question). Ask any Pompey fan and theyll tell you they appreciate what Milan has done for the club, but nobody there believes for a second he wouldnt cut and run if offered big bucks.

[lokken]

the stadium comes with a big property development, so it's being built at a profit. I believe that once this is all done, the club will sold, and milan will cut his losses. I think Milan's aim is while he can't get that money, he's trying to ensure the club is run as a business as 1) it will be an attractive purchase and hopefully 2) the club can stand on its own two foot as a business entity. I suppose harry doesn't fit in with that.

I can understand why Milan has done it, but still I think it's a very risky one. Hopefully he gets it right.

[Blastoderm]

Originally Posted by G.K Zhukov

Arsenal has a two directors I belive.

If only Wenger could get a squad of reasonable size, we could win CL soon.

I know that the legendary Liam Brady is a Director of Football. He never got in front of Wenger's way.

I haven't got a clue about the other guy, David Court.

[Ragnarak]

Arnesen was our Sporting Director and Santini (now Jol) was our head coach. Neither were the manager.

The only problem with our system was getting the right personnel to do the job (turns out Santini was a twat) and the fact that the british media aren't able to understand how it works.

Al the 'pundits' on Sky and MOTD who kept going on about Arnesen buying players the manager didn't want when Santini wasn't the manager but the head coach.

The reason the system hasn't worked here yet is no clubs ever tried it. There have been numerous attempts to install a director of football (lol pleat/hoddle lol) but also keep the manager at the same time. That's not how the system works.

Jol is our head coach who is in charge of coaching our players and picking the best team from the resources we have. Arnesen is the one who decides who we sign and where we need strengthening.

If you're drawing comparisons between what other clubs have, the closest examples are Arnesen is our Wenger/Fergie and Jol is our Pat Rice/Brian Kidd/whoever.

[JC]

Originally Posted by midge5

Hughes' shortcomings were shown up quite a while before he joined you. I never really expected him to be much of a success for you.

I've got 50 minutes to waste before i'm heading back to Blackburn for the weekend so i'll ramble on for a bit...

Souness gave us 3 great years - promotion, Worthington Cup and top 6 finish. His last year and a bit we went downhill drastically though. If he hadnt walked he would have been sacked, we hadnt got a win under him this season. When Souness came to Rovers he inherited the groundings for a good team but over the course of his time in charge he has left us with a very poor squad. Our best players have been sold off - Dunn, Duff, Cole, Berg etc - and most of those are because Souness fell out with them. Its all well and good having a bit of discipline in the side, but falling out with the best players and then exiling them to the reserves doesnt help our league position. He also fell out with Todd (our player of the season) and Gallagher last year and sent them to Burnley and the reserves respectively, but fortunately they didnt get sold off.

Over 4 years he spent £50 million. Sam Allardyce could build a Champion's League winning squad with that kind of money. Souness decided to go for the likes of Amoruso, Matteo, Yorke, Grabbi, De Pedro and Pederson instead, who so far have all been expensive failures. By the end of his reign here the players didnt want to play for him and you could see that in our performances, if we went down 1-0 we were doomed to end up losing 3 or 4 more goals because the players heads dropped and there was no fight.

Although Hughes hasnt put a string of wins together he has got us battling for results again. Now when we go behind in a game the fans sit there expecting us to pull a draw out of somewhere. That never say die attitude may just be what keeps us in the Premiership this season. From everything i have heard coming out of the club it also seems that Hughes has revolutionised our training and the players themselves admit to being fitter than ever since Hughes started. I guess that could just be the usual snide remarks that are thrown at a manager when he leaves in bad terms, but i honestly think Hughes has improved things so far.

The real test for Hughes will be in the transfer market seeing as he has never signed a player before. We will also more than likely be raided once again by Souness (he's taken about 5 of our backroom staff) for Ferguson and possibly Emerton.

If we had beat Birmingham at the weekend we would have gone up to 14th, its not like we are stranded at the bottom yet so writing us off already is a bit drastic.