As expected there has been another mini controversy surrounding the owners and David Sullivan in particular following the announcement that there was to be no director of football at West Ham.
And one of the first things pointed out by those who would prefer to see new owners anyway was that Karren Brady had told the Supporters Advisory board at a recent meeting that the hunt was on for one.
Quite simply she got it wrong – her terminology was incorrect – simple as that!
Any doubts on that can be checked against the March 13 by Sullivan in which he said:
“I want to set something in, a procedure, a set up that will long term deliver better. Only the manager can sign players. Going forward, we are going to completely re-jig it.
I am going to delegate the whole thing to a huge new analysis system and a new head of recruitment, massive video analysis department, increase the scouting, where every player will be looked at five or six times.
“We we won’t be signing a player based on who the manager has never seen play.”
In fairness to those who would prefer to claim he was lying – a difficult and much abused word – he did on one occasion say that he may consider the idea of a director of football but at no stage did he say it was definitely a starter.
David Moyes has never worked with a director of football – a confusing role which sometimes causes conflict with the team boss. He prefers, he says, to work alongside a recruitment ‘officer’
Thus we arrive at the situation we are in although there will be different views on which is the best way forward. Personally I’d have liked to see a Director of Football who in my view should be the deal-doer.
As things stand I don’t see a lot of change although I’m ready to wait until the new season when hopefully I’ll be proved wrong.
But pedantic arguments about who said what as a new means of slapping people and claiming they are liars and cheats as has been the case are wrong, unhelpful and counter productive.
Let’s at least do people the courtesy – however much we may dislike them – of judging them on what they said rather than what somebody else may have said or what we would have liked them to say because it suits our personal prejudices.
I used the word lies yesterday in a comment under the previous article, so I assume this was in part, directed at me.
A direct quote from your source yesterday
“But today our own source said: A director of football was never mentioned by us. It was a media myth”
“Us” being the operative word.
The fact is, a Director of football WAS mentioned by Brady, surely included in ‘us’. It was not a myth started by the Evening Standard, it was a factual report, based on misinformation provided to supporters by our Vice-Chairman. If I accept that she was mistaken, that’s a monumental bo bo, by the Vice Chair, compounded by another factually incorrect statement by yesterday’s source.
In short, I DID judge them by what they said.
And btw her reference to a Dof from Brady came about three weeks after the new set up was announced. The Standard reported DoF at the same time as that happened so I am afraid you are wrong too. I know pet prejudices became important but monumental? really? . I understand however ‘Ray’ that when you don’t like people or the way they operate it’s important to squeeze as much dramatic effect as possible..
Taken from the minutes of the meeting between David Sullivan and representatives of WHUISA on 20th March.
Have interviews been held for the DOF position and what is the scope of the role?
DS said that the club have hired a top, global sports headhunting company to identify possible candidates but it’s not possible to place someone at the moment and expand the role, as we don’t know what division we will be in next season. But even that appointment might not be a miracle cure and that player recruitment can be difficult. He gave some examples of players that have failed to settle in the Premier League citing luck as a contributory factor.
You’re right Hugh, I don’t like them. They continue to lie to us and take us for fools.
Is there a recognition that the current Chairmen need to take a step back and for a full time experienced CEO to be appointed to work alongside a DOF and Manager?
DS touched upon the points again that he gave to his previous answer. Adding again there is always an element of luck with any appointment. He said that he would take a step back over the summer.
Ray,all I have seen is his March 13 statement. Thanks for the update and I’m aware he hinted at the possibility of a DOF whilst never specifically saying so. It became the accepted situation and in my view was perhaps unintentionally media driven. I understand yours and other people’s dislike of Sullivan. I find myself as I get older discovering it is difficult for me to hate anyone. i agre we need a CEO or DOF. It’s too much of a one man band. I get it but I really can’t get out of my tree over it after the most shocking for three months of my life. However, I meet the Rolling Stones backstage on March 19 so as my obsession this is gonna make me life a who;e lot better LOL
I think Keef (my ultimate hero) is the coolest guy in the world. We are all second to Keef. Be more like Keef LOOOOL
Hugh, thank you for that comment, I appreciate it.
Have a great time at the Rolling Stones concert, backstage wow! I’m dead jealous.
For starters, the fact that Brady got it “wrong” is no less concerning than Sullivan “lying”. So whatever way you want to redress this issue it doesn’t look good.
As for you criticising people for daring to misread what Sullivan actually said really does take the proverbial.
It was this very blog on March 13 that reported Sullivan’s quote under your own headline “West Ham To Sign Experience Director of Football.”
Pots. Kettle. Black and all that?
Thus we were wrong too which is unimportant tbh and for which I’ll apologise on behalf of whoever was responsible for it. That she is remains a fact and I’m really not sure why that should be such a concern. Sullivan’s words are clear. He’s responsible for appointments and didn’t use the title. I wish he had because as you progress through the blog you will discover that I ain’t happy with it either.
And given that the source as neither of the two people mentioned the word us is not quite as important as you wish to make it. Also no, it wasn’t directed at you. Completely forgotten you commented when I wrote this .
I think a recruitment head and team will be good if they do good research find out the character of the player as well as the technical ability and they fit our style of play, we aren’t a big draw, I would be happy to see DS at the negotiating table to keep things above board but not actually deal making, I am sure he is half of the problem in why we don’t get deals done.