Quote Originally Posted by blue lewj View Post
In an ideal world we get a director of football in.
The money Tan would pay this individual would be more than saved by the football savvy he would bring to the football operations. Large wages and long contracts for average players would be a thing of the past.

I would bring in a manager whose style fits in with the way the academy play and at least try to play some modern football where we try to keep it a bit
attack and drop the underdog attitude. We are as big as teams like Bournemouth. I could take Warnock bigging up teams in the Premier League (just) but not the Bournemouths of this world.
If our aim is to just tread water for a few years then why not get a more forward thinking manager now. Or do we just ask the new fella to change it up overnight with Mick's squad and act as though the situation has crept up on us, like we have a tendency to do.

I would use academy players when they are ready. I cannot agree under any circumstances that our academy is producing players of the required quality overnight in such numbers having produced nothing for seasons. One or two maybe but not to that level.

I would look into why we are signing players to supplement the midfield and then making excuses and loaning them out.

Of course the above would be somebody who is not a yes man to Tan (The DOF) and somebody that may well tell him he hasn't been doing things the right way, which isn't something that happens here.

So, in short I'd bring in a director of football, I'd bring in a younger manager that has some clue what a modern football team plays like that is more aligned with what we're asking the academy to do and I would not force players into the team if they are not good enough yet, that only ends one way.
Finally I'd look at why, at a time when we have next to no money, we seem to think we have the luxury to sign players and loan them out. If we were rolling in it then yes take a chance. We need that money spent on somebody featuring in the first team now.
I'd like to see us bring in a director of football too, but many of the things you'd want a DoF to be doing we seem to have already started - i.e. bringing youth through, targeting players who have the potential to gain in value etc. So I think the right kind of voices must be getting heard from somewhere. That's ultimately what matters - not whether or not there's someone with a specific job title.

Of course I'd like a more progressive playing style. That isn't going to happen under mick, but that's where we are. If mick keeps us away from trouble while we clear out the high earners and develop some of the young players then that leaves us in a good position to bring in a more modern manager net time around perhaps. Not ideal, but it is what it is.

Finally I think the Wintle deal is one of the smartest things we've done in some time.
We've picked up a highly rated player on a free, he will gain championship experience while someone else pays his wages then come back to us as a more valuable player at the time we are losing vaulks, pack and ralls due to their contracts expiring.
that suggests an element of forward planning that has been missing from this club for a long time.

If we kept him here it would either mean he gets less game time, or we have to pay one of the existing midfield their inflated wages to sit on the bench.
He might be a better player than our existing players already - but with or without him we won't be going up this season, so we are better off planning for a couple of seasons ahead.