Spurs Banter Archive March 27 2014

27 Mar 2014 11:53:19
Wulf

This is what I intended to say yesterday about Directors of Football.

The problems between AVB and Baldini were not just wild speculation on my part. Last season the rumours were very vague and non-attributable, but they surfaced when AVB was sacked.

The Independent wrote:

"Former Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas is reported to have objected against (sic) four of the seven summer signings that were brought in to White Hart Lane in the summer (sic), with chairman Daniel Levy and technical director Franco Baldini said to have overruled the Portuguese.

The additions of Erik Lamela, Nacer Chadli, Vlad Chiriches and Christian Eriksen were against Villas-Boas' wishes according to the Daily Mail, who go on to suggest that his opinions over (sic) the new signings were completely overruled by both Levy and Baldini.

Spurs spent a staggering £110m-plus in the summer transfer window due to the record £86m generated by Gareth Bale's transfer to Real Madrid, but it is claimed that Villas-Boas's wish list to replace Bale's goal-tally was completely ignored.

The question over Villas-Boas's happiness at the signings was raised at the post-match press conference following the Liverpool defeat, and his refusal to confirm that it was his decision to sanction the additions - instead choosing to claim "I don't know if I can make that public" - set alarm bells ringing among the Lilywhites' supporters."

This is not exactly as I speculated, but the message is the same. A manager who was responsible for results on the pitch felt he was being overruled by a Director who wasn't.

Les Ferdinand tried to deflect criticism by claiming that AVB was happy with the summer signings:

"Speaking to US podcast Beyond the Pitch, Ferdinand said: "Most of the signings were perhaps suggestions to him, but he agreed to those suggestions."

In other words: AVB had one list and Baldini had a different one. But Baldiini was a Board member, so he had the last say. AVB was just invited to approve his boss's decisions.

None of this has been proved, but it seems very credible and is consistent with what Ramos said in 2008. He claimed that none of the players he asked for in the summer had been signed. Instead, he got 7 players he hadn't asked for.

Levy's argument about Directors of Football being needed to ensure continuity doesn't hold water. They come and go just as often as traditional managers and for the same reason: they fail.

Of course, managers can't be given blank cheques. They may want players that are unobtainable, too expensive or just over-priced. Someone has to take financial responsibility and somebody has to conduct the actual negotiations.

However, it is not that person's job to shower the Manager with players he didn't ask for and may not be able to use.

Seen and heard the same speculation. But the counter to that is were AVB's, also rumored, targets viable . Hulk, Moutinho were 2 of the 3 I heard about, forget who the third one was.

Further I don't understand why Levy would sanction the purchase without agreement between the DoF and the Manager.

Yellow-Card

Some of the players AVB supposedly wanted gave me the willies as well.

Hulk has been spoiled by Russian oligarch money. He would be worth a bid at the right price but he is nothing like a £42m player.

Moutinho was a better bet and was a possibility until Monaco threw money at him last May.

Together, they just look like AVB’s security blanket: players he knew and trusted.

The other player I heard about was Willian. That deal was apparently going through until Chelsea stepped in.

There is probably no simple answer to the vexed question of how decisions are actually made. It is a question I asked in 2008, in the wake of the Ramos disaster. This was what I wrote at the time:

“I am not suggesting that all those deals were done behind Ramos’s back or against his will. Of course, Ramos would have known who the club was pursuing and if he had raised serious objections, they may well have been heeded. Nonetheless, I cannot help feeling that the transfer agenda was being set by the Technical Director, not the Head Coach.

What was the consultation process really like? I can imagine Commoli saying to Ramos in the final days of the transfer window: “Berbatov is going. There is no point trying to hang onto him any longer, but I can get Pavlyuchenko for you. What do you think?”

What is Ramos supposed to say? By then, it was Pavlyuchenko or nobody. But that would have left Darren Bent as the only player who could lead the line.

I suspect that it was a similar story with most of the other summer signings.

Ramos didn't rate any of his goalkeepers and gave the club a list of possible replacements. Robinson, Cerny and Fulop all left. Commoli then comes to Ramos and says: “I couldn’t get any of the keepers you asked for, but I can get Gomes. He has played for Brazil and has kept a lot of clean sheets for PSV. They have just won the Dutch league for the last four years.

Again, what can Ramos say? He has to have a keeper and has been told that none of the ones he has nominated is available. Of course he is going to agree.

But that means Levy can claim that Ramos took the final decisions."

My fear is that something like that was happening all this summer.

In the current climate where players renegotiate there contracts every other week and players come and go every transfer window, I understand the need for some sort of DOF role at clubs . surely this person should work for the manager? Maybe I'm old fashioned, but the manager should have over all control of all football decisions and dome say in business decisions that affect his team

So he may have been happy with Paulinho - expensive and mostly $h1t so far, Capoue - has hardly played at all and, Soldado - expensive and struggled (but I think can be class).
He didn't want Eriksen - best signing of all and should've been bought whatever, even if Bale had stayed. Vlad - reasonable price with potential, main mistake in that position was not keeping Caulker and cashing in on Dawson. Chadli - I keep saying he looks promising, he scored a couple and looked better lately and was only £7m ish.
Lamela - who knows but hugely expensive for nothing at all for the season so a mistake in that respect.

In other words, it's all hit and miss, plenty of miss.

Whoever else we'd have realistically bought when shipping out 8-9 players and bringing in 9-10 (incl returning loanees) was going to be a big carve up.

As I've said before lots of fans, and not just spurs fans, were saying how great our signings were in the summer. I would say Paulinho was the worst, Chadli is winning me over recently. Get rid of Paulinho he would be off quicker than you could blink if Madrid came in for him as mooted.

KM - yes I read those reports as well, but this is what I mean by speculation. You are citing newspaper reports as evidence, and that is usually a pretty poor place to get knowledge of such things from.

So the report you have cited is from the Independent, which has a pretty good reputation for "not making things up". But then we see the part that all modern newspapers are guilty of - regurgitating. The Independent admits that it is not a primary source, but is actually re-reporting something that was written in the Daily Fail.

So what is the Daily Fail's evidence? They have none. As the mock turtle said "what I say three times is true". Just because the Mail might make something up doesn't mean I have to accept it as anything more than speculation just because the Independent and you repeat it to me.

Was AVB completely happy with the signings that were made? Of course not - what manager is? Look at the list of players that Redknapp wanted us to sign, or Mancini wanted at Man City despite the quality they had. Look at Rodgers being unhappy at missing his targets. It was obvious and clear that AVB wanted Hulk, Moutinho, and Villa. Hulk is dubious quality at £40m, Moutinho didn't want to join us (we missed our chance), and we thought Villa was all wrapped up until he decided to stay in Spain instead. Just because we know he missed players he did want doesn't mean he was burdened with players he did not want.

Finally we get to the Ferdinand quote. This is typical journalistic switching of a comment to try and turn it into a story. Were most of the signings suggested to AVB? Yes I do believe that. Are most signings of most clubs suggestions to the manager? Yes - of course. This is why you have a scouting system. Why bother to have scouts in your club if you only ever sign the players that the manager suggests? That is a far cry from AVB having one list and Baldini having another. It's pure speculation again. And Ramos wanted to sign Eto'o and Villa in your quote. Think they wanted to leave Barcelona to join us? And I agree that there were problems with Comolli (who is more a chief scout than a DoF in my opinion), but that doesn't mean the system doesn't work.

Transfers should be about the manager saying the type of player he needs to fit his system, the Chief Scout identifying those players, and the DoF ensuring it is financially viable and meets the long term strategy of the club (such as youth development).

A very interesting read, thanks guys keep it up.