New chairman and Lerner ramblings

[oldhill_avfc]

Pat Murphy missing the obvious flaw in his snide remarks again

But the summer recruitment was awful - the management team failed to replace the quality that was lost nevermind improve on last years near escape.

If you're implying it was Sherwood's fault then it's also fair to criticise the man that appointed him.

Well I'd argue that Amavi, Veretout and Ayew have probably been our best three players this year. The latter two in particular have grown brilliantly into their roles, so I'd hardly say recruitment was a disaster.

Nobody is arguing about those players.  But overall the recruitment was a disaster (as it has been for some time) - otherwise we wouldn't be in the position where we are now.  I'm not blaming them for bringing in the players you mentioned, but there was an obvious need for more quality in other areas too.

The 'recruitment team' surely included Sherwood, Fox and Lerner - and that wider team is fair game for criticism.

[cdward]

This has to be preferable to Randy just selling up to the Venkys, or Kumars or Carson Yeung types.
At least we will have consistency with the plan of sticking with Garde. We now need to see him backed in the transfer window.

"The club needs a shake up and with Randy's continued support the board will look forward to working with Tom and Remi to help drive the changes that our fans rightfully demand and that our city can be proud of".

Clever choice of language using "our" fans and "our" city.
Look forward to seeing the "shake up"

[brian green]

Now that Lescott has had his wake up call I would go so far as to say the summer signings have been good. Gestede is the glaring failure but any fair minded person would accept that his confidence is in tatters. I venture to suggest that if we still had Benteke and he was playing for us like he is for Liverpool there would be chorused asking why didn't we cash in on him when we had the chance. Selling them Benteke looks more and more like a good bit of business.

[avfcdale]

yes bet he will have loads of stories from his days at Ragdoll produtions and Teletubbies just right to manage the clowns in  Randy's 3 ring fuckin circus

[Steve R]

Does anyone know of an organisation that has both a chairman and a CEO? How can a CEO be a CEO when he reports to a chairman?

Whatever Hollis' (and Fox's) capabilities are, we have a structure in place that lends itself to conflict and politics and not to good corporate management.

Nearly all of them. Clue is in the title. The Chief Executive Officer represents the Executive, who run the club on a day-to-day basis. The Chairman represents the owners, usually shareholders but in this case Randy, and sets out the parameters that the Executive are to follow and holds their performance against those objectives to account.

http://www.differencebetween.net/business/difference-between-ceo-and-chairman/

None that I worked for. In fact the chairman actually changed his own job title to CEO at the last place I worked. What you are describing there as a CEO is in fact a Chief Operations Officer.

A 'representative of the shareholders', where such a thing exists, is normally a more passive role.

On a practical note, what this all means is that Fox will now have to relinquish powers  that he previously held, and will have to be happy to do so. Either that or Hollis will have to spend most of his day making paper darts - which would leave Lerner out of a job.

[VinnieChase84]

At least our chairman will actually be at matches to see things first hand now!

[Dave]

Pat Murphy missing the obvious flaw in his snide remarks again

But the summer recruitment was awful - the management team failed to replace the quality that was lost nevermind improve on last years near escape.

If you're implying it was Sherwood's fault then it's also fair to criticise the man that appointed him.

Well I'd argue that Amavi, Veretout and Ayew have probably been our best three players this year. The latter two in particular have grown brilliantly into their roles, so I'd hardly say recruitment was a disaster.

Nobody is arguing about those players.  But overall the recruitment was a disaster (as it has been for some time) - otherwise we wouldn't be in the position where we are now.  I'm not blaming them for bringing in the players you mentioned, but there was an obvious need for more quality in other areas too.

The 'recruitment team' surely included Sherwood, Fox and Lerner - and that wider team is fair game for criticism.

It's difficult to gauge, I think you're both right. I don't think many people would disagree with the idea that had Ayew, Veretout, Amavi etc been used better earlier in the season we would probably have more points than we do now. If you buy a nice T-Bone steak, then boil it and serve it as the middle layer of a trifle, it doesn't mean that you bought bad ingredients.

That being said, the recruitment team had a responsibility to make sure that the squad was in such a state to perform in the environment they were working in.  If the chef for whom you're buying ingredients isn't capable of doing anything more than opening tins of soup, don't buy him the T-Bone steak. Buy him tins of soup.

Or just fire him and hire a chef who is able to cook your steak properly, even if he did once manage to cook you a nice bowl of soup when you were really hungry a few months ago.

Edit: as for Murphy's comment, recruitment doesn't necessary mean players only. Whether you were in favour of one, the other, both or neither then there are legitimate questions that can be asked about the decisions to hire both Sherwood and Garde and the circumstances in which they were brought in. Those were recruitment decisions, just as much as Gestede and Ayew.

[LeeB]

Pat Murphy missing the obvious flaw in his snide remarks again

But the summer recruitment was awful - the management team failed to replace the quality that was lost nevermind improve on last years near escape.

If you're implying it was Sherwood's fault then it's also fair to criticise the man that appointed him.

Well I'd argue that Amavi, Veretout and Ayew have probably been our best three players this year. The latter two in particular have grown brilliantly into their roles, so I'd hardly say recruitment was a disaster.

Nobody is arguing about those players.  But overall the recruitment was a disaster (as it has been for some time) - otherwise we wouldn't be in the position where we are now.  I'm not blaming them for bringing in the players you mentioned, but there was an obvious need for more quality in other areas too.

The 'recruitment team' surely included Sherwood, Fox and Lerner - and that wider team is fair game for criticism.

It's difficult to gague, I think you're both right. I don't think many people would disagree with the idea that had Ayew, Veretout, Amavi etc been used better earlier in the season we would probably have more points than we do now. If you buy a nice T-Bone steak, then boil it and serve it as the middle layer of a trifle, it doesn't mean that you bought bad ingredients.

That being said, the recruitment team had a responsibility to make sure that the squad was in such a state to perform in the environment they were working in.  If the chef for whom you're buying ingredients isn't capable of doing anything more than opening tins of soup, don't buy him the T-Bone steak. Buy him tins of soup.

Or just fire him and hire a chef who is able to cook your steak properly, even if he did once manage to cook you a nice bowl of soup when you were really hungry a few months ago.

We hired a Michelin star chef this time, but gave him tins of soup and told him the shops were closed.

[brian green]

I would use a different metaphor. I would compare the assessment of our summer with a Dad who wants to know why his son did not win any medals at the school sports. The Mom has to point out that the lad spent the summer in hospital.

I think that not only were the bulk of our summer signing more than adequate the incumbent manager given his way would have brought in a bulk buy of Tottenham has beens and misfits. The summer could have been very much worse than it was.

[bertlambshank]

I welcome any new blood on to the board.
I still don't get Tom Fox when he talks about the progress we have made.
Hopefully we hear a lot less from him.

[themossman]

Randy has consistently provided financial backing no less so than last year.

Am I being thick or is that a hilarious Freudian slip.

[Goldie.7]

Not about us but he seems pretty clued-up to me. Time will tell, obviously.

[Concrete Tom]

I never know why people are so keen to appoint people that have been out of the game for ages. I like Taylor but his last spell was poor and he's only going to have become more out of touch since.

You are completely summising and have nothing to back that up.

 Taken from Wikipedia; "Taylor served as chairman of Watford F.C. from 2009 until 2012 with whom he still holds position of honorary life-president"
Doesnt sound to me like someone completely out of touch with the game. And looking at Watford now, I know which club I think is in a better state.

I have utmost respect for Graham Taylor but that during that period of 2009-2012, Watford were in the duldrums under the ownership of Bassini who bled the club dry for his own personal gain. He left many parts of the stadium unfinished and there are rumours that he took money from the clubs petty cash safe towards the end of his reign.

It has only been since the Pozzo family bought the club that their fortunes have changed, largely through loans and cheap/free transfers from the other clubs that they own.

Taylor was used throughout Bassini's reign and during the start of the Pozzo ownership to empathise and placate the fanbase. It is often him who answers the fans Q&As.

[Risso]

Does anyone know of an organisation that has both a chairman and a CEO? How can a CEO be a CEO when he reports to a chairman?

Whatever Hollis' (and Fox's) capabilities are, we have a structure in place that lends itself to conflict and politics and not to good corporate management.

They are completely different positions in most organisations, and for examples of companies having both I give you:

M&S
British Airways
Arsenal
Easyjet

Etc. In fact I'd be surprised if most big companies didn't have both.

[stuart r]

I've been following these threads on here all day and I'm absolutely staggered that Aston Villa Football Club, This Great Club of ours, has stooped so low as to employ a Maltese policeman to get OUR players making tins of soup out of toenails.

I don't go to matches any more but if I did I'd stop going.