David Sharpe appointed Head Of Football Operations

I spoke with Dave Whelan once and asked him about it, he said his mother was just visiting Bradford and went into labour

 

Great shout

 

I always liked Jewell as a player, he struck up a decent partnership with Sean McCarthy.
And we will never see a manager take us to and keep us in the premier league again, My god Richmond should have shoved his ego in a dark place and let Jewell carry on the good work.
I would not mind him coming in to advise Sparks on football matters.
But i don't think it will be a director of football, more likely different medical and fitness staff etc.

 

I think it's a well established fact that they aren't up to it. Why do you think we are where we are?

 

My concern is that Jewell's role at Swindon didn't appear to stretch much beyond the scouting/recruitment part of the club.

I believe our issues are border and deeper than that. We have issues with 'Identity', direction, fitness, youth player pathway to first team, training facilities, player confidence/psychology, recruitment, scouting, injuries prevention, injury recovery, loan in policy, loan out policy to name but a few.

I think we are in need of fresh ideas all throughout the club, and Jewell feels a little like a move backwards than setting up the club for the next 120 years.

The fact our youth players ar regularly getting snapped up tells us that's an area we really need to look into making work for us.

 

Problem is that approach costs you a small fortune and there is no guarantee it will pay off unless you do with 100% commitment. A huge financial pledge even between academy 2 and 3 categories.

 

I don’t know if anyone noticed it (don’t think it’s fake) that city we’re advertising for an international scout… yes if they haven’t done a bad enough job picking shite up from the UK… they’re casting net

https://www.lightningboltcareers.com/job/international-football-scout-officer/

 

I posted before that when Colchester went from Cat 3 to Cat 2 it added £800k p.a. To their costs and has produced little or nothing except relegation from L1 and possible relegation to NL during all this time their owner has put £30 million in.

 

Bradford f.c?

 

I suspect Jewell knows the division very well through his experience at Swindon

 

That’s an eye watering amount. Is football slowly dying a financial death do you think?

 

As is the case in most walks of life..

The rich get richer......

 

Twas ever thus

 

I'm not knowledgeable on any of this of course but is it really necessary. What I mean is that all the players we have sold on so far have come through our system 'as is' so we must be doing something right.

I think where we are failing as a club is getting the more talented of the crop left into our first team. Bobby's slow progress is perhaps symbolic of that failure.

I dont know the solution to this of course but to my eyes its a glaringly issue at our club.

 

Seems to only apply in football if you are in the Premier league? QPR losing over a million a month. How is that good for the game?

 

'Little' Fleetwood lost £500k a month and £31m in the red

 

Director of football.
Just a waste of resources in a sustainable organisation.

 

Jewell isn't known for tempering what he says and how he says it. He calls a spade a spade.

I'd love to be in the room if he's appointed and then told he has to report to someone young enough to be his son.

 

There's a disconnect there.

Sparks says he wants the youth system to supply the first team, but appoints 'men not boys' managers. Graham Alexander has barely played Bobby, and yet he's clearly good enough in the opposition half - perhaps not in the defensive side, but does that really mean we can't accommodate him?

Unfortunately it's literally those huge decisions - managerial appointments - that keep making no sense. Every time we seem to close in on some ethos, we undermine it.