Paddy Reilly

[TheMalandro]

I don't think it's all been fabricated, do you? (No side to that by the way, just read it back and it may look like it)

Which bit do you mean fabricated? If you mean the 'transfer committee', then no I don't think it has.

Like I said, there be will a group of different people who will all have their input. Whether that is then called a 'transfer committee' or just 'the normal day-to-day running of any professional football club' I guess comes down to whether the journalist writing about it (or his mate) has an axe to grind or not.

Whether that group of people making those decisions for us in the summer were doing their jobs well enough is still open for debate, but the principle is exactly the way that transfers should be conducted.

I disagree, I think it was obvious it would cause disharmony.
Rightly or wrongly, I don't think many British managers would put up with that level of interference.

[AV82EC]

I don't think it's all been fabricated, do you? (No side to that by the way, just read it back and it may look like it)

Which bit do you mean fabricated? If you mean the 'transfer committee', then no I don't think it has.

Like I said, there be will a group of different people who will all have their input. Whether that is then called a 'transfer committee' or just 'the normal day-to-day running of any professional football club' I guess comes down to whether the journalist writing about it (or his mate) has an axe to grind or not.

Whether that group of people making those decisions for us in the summer were doing their jobs well enough is still open for debate, but the principle is exactly the way that transfers should be conducted.

I disagree, I think it was obvious it would cause disharmony.
Rightly or wrongly, I don't think many British managers would put up with that level of interference.

Well as has often been noted with British Managers who don't like it, they're fucking idiots.

[TheMalandro]

I don't think it's all been fabricated, do you? (No side to that by the way, just read it back and it may look like it)

Which bit do you mean fabricated? If you mean the 'transfer committee', then no I don't think it has.

Like I said, there be will a group of different people who will all have their input. Whether that is then called a 'transfer committee' or just 'the normal day-to-day running of any professional football club' I guess comes down to whether the journalist writing about it (or his mate) has an axe to grind or not.

Whether that group of people making those decisions for us in the summer were doing their jobs well enough is still open for debate, but the principle is exactly the way that transfers should be conducted.

I disagree, I think it was obvious it would cause disharmony.
Rightly or wrongly, I don't think many British managers would put up with that level of interference.

Well as has often been noted with British Managers who don't like it, they're fucking idiots.

I agree but if you are going to implement it, make damn sure they agree with the signings.
How many weeks of farce did we have until he eventually got the boot?

[b23]

Part of the now famous transfer committee, brought back from being Scout co-ordinator to be director of player recruitment here.

Does anyone know why?

He previously worked here as the head of performance analyst before moving up to be our head of player recruitment from July 11 to November 12, during that time we signed

Shay Given
Charles Nzogbia
Alan Hutton
Enda Stevens
Karim El Hamadi
Brett Holman
Matt Lowton
Ron Vlaar
Joe Bennett
Ashley Westwood
Jordan Bowery
Christian Benteke

Not encouraging.

He moved to Liverpool from November 12 to August 14, they signed

Phillipe Coutinho
Daniel Sturridge
Luis Alberto
Iago Aspas
Simon Mignolet
Joao Texiera
Kolo Toure
Mamadou Sakho
Thiago Ilori
Kevin Stewart
Rickie Lambert
Adam Lallana
Dejan Lovren
Emre Can
Alberto Moreno
Lazar Markovic
Divock Origi
Mario Ballotelli

for nearly £200m, not encouraging.

He then returns back here as head of recruitment and we know the story. Now I might be looking at this the wrong way or missing some facts but from the job he did at Liverpool, admittedly the manager nearly always has the last say on transfers, but looking at most of the players scouted and signed at Liverpool and Villa during his time at the clubs and the fees paid it looks to me like this guy is not very good at his job. So why was he brought back to this club?

At the end of his previous Villa employment, wasn't his Club laptop seized ?

Wasn't he escorted off the Bodymoor Heath premises ?

I think he's doing a fantastic job.

[Des Little]

Well, all I know is that since he's been here we've signed some shit players and we are marooned at the foot of the table with precious little chance of staying up. Given this, I'd say he's a making a total dogs arse of it.

[pauliewalnuts]

Seized?

Every single job I've had, I've had to hand over my work laptop when I left.

[b23]

Escorted off the premises too ?

[Des Little]

He's beginning to sound more like Alan Partridge with every post

[joe_c]

What Dave has said about the transfer process tallies with how Tom Fox described it yesterday. Basically, the manager identifies players he wants to bring in, the committee (for want of a better word) asks what attributes in particular they have that he wants and then the scouting team will review the player in question and also alternatives with similar characteristics in the event that the first choice isn't viable and so on down the list. He stressed that the manager has the final say and can pull the plug at any point in the proceedings if they feel the player isn't the right match.

[old man villa fan]

What Dave has said about the transfer process tallies with how Tom Fox described it yesterday. Basically, the manager identifies players he wants to bring in, the committee (for want of a better word) asks what attributes in particular they have that he wants and then the scouting team will review the player in question and also alternatives with similar characteristics in the event that the first choice isn't viable and so on down the list. He stressed that the manager has the final say and can pull the plug at any point in the proceedings if they feel the player isn't the right match.

Sounds the way to go for me but it does not fit the 'drama' agenda of the media hyped modern day football.

[TheMalandro]

What Dave has said about the transfer process tallies with how Tom Fox described it yesterday. Basically, the manager identifies players he wants to bring in, the committee (for want of a better word) asks what attributes in particular they have that he wants and then the scouting team will review the player in question and also alternatives with similar characteristics in the event that the first choice isn't viable and so on down the list. He stressed that the manager has the final say and can pull the plug at any point in the proceedings if they feel the player isn't the right match.

Sounds the way to go for me but it does not fit the 'drama' agenda of the media hyped modern day football.

I'm not sure its 'drama agenda' in this case. How many of us thought this summer we'd get two or three Tottenham rejects? Most were surprised with the summer transfers.

I'll stop carping on about it as I seem to be in the minority and maybe that's a sign I'm wrong!

[Dave]

So this:

I don't think it's all been fabricated, do you? (No side to that by the way, just read it back and it may look like it)

Which bit do you mean fabricated? If you mean the 'transfer committee', then no I don't think it has.

Like I said, there be will a group of different people who will all have their input. Whether that is then called a 'transfer committee' or just 'the normal day-to-day running of any professional football club' I guess comes down to whether the journalist writing about it (or his mate) has an axe to grind or not.

Whether that group of people making those decisions for us in the summer were doing their jobs well enough is still open for debate, but the principle is exactly the way that transfers should be conducted.

I disagree, I think it was obvious it would cause disharmony.
Rightly or wrongly, I don't think many British managers would put up with that level of interference.

Tallied with this:

I'm not sure its 'drama agenda' in this case. How many of us thought this summer we'd get two or three Tottenham rejects? Most were surprised with the summer transfers.

Suggests that you feel that two or three Tottenham rejects is the route that we should have taken. i.e Just buy whoever the manager wants, so when he gets fired due to the inevitably terrible job that he does we have a load of players unfit for anybody else. Meaning more millions written off and another new manager bringing in a load of new players, meaning the whole cycle starts again.

I was very surprised with the business over the summer as it looked like there was a plan in place and it's been ages since we'd shown any signs of that.

As for your wider point above "I don't think many British managers would put up with that level of interference", first of all I think it's wrong - Steve Fletcher does the recruitment for Bournemouth and Eddie Howe seems happy enough with it. Graham Carr does the Paddy Reilly role for Newcastle, Mark Cartwright does it for Stoke, Lee Congerton at Sunderland and David Leadbeater does it at Swansea (who obviously had a British manager until recently).

And even if it were right - that would be a very good reason why hardly anybody is hiring British managers anymore. Why would anybody risk giving total control over tens of millions of pounds to somebody who is probably going to be your manager for no more than a couple of years?

[cheltenhamlion]

Another snippet from the Fox meeting we havent mentioned yet (not embargoed, just forgotten) was the reason Reilly departed first time round. A major falling out with Lambert's brother in law.

[aj2k77]

Karsa and shithouse causing more problems. I'd love and hate to read an insiders book of what's been going on at our circus the last 10 years.

[LTA]

Another snippet from the Fox meeting we havent mentioned yet (not embargoed, just forgotten) was the reason Reilly departed first time round. A major falling out with Lambert's brother in law.

Club has been in total disarray since O'Neill walked away, which all stems from Lerner hiding in America and offering no leadership.

Fox reminds me of a supply teacher who can't control his students, simply letting them run amok.