How Can McNally Stay?

[morty 0]

Ricardo gets it.

[City 2nd 191]

morty wrote the following post at 2016-05-08 2:30 PM:

Jim Smith wrote:

OldRobert wrote:

At the risk of getting shot at, which I''m quite prepared for, where would the club be if McNally hadn''t joined when he did, and helped to pull us round financially so we didn''t sink into oblivion?

Who knows. Bowkett would probably still have come in and sorted out the situation with the banks. The reality is that it was the promotions to the premier league that ultimately sorted out our finances. How much of that was down to great leadership and how much was down to Lambert and the club just being a great fit at the right time is open to debate.

Team game fella.

McNally has been part of a lot of success, however much you might want to write him out of it.

That success being what?! I would suggest Bowkett, Lambert, Adams and Neil might argue with that statement.

[morty 0]

[quote user="City 2nd"]morty wrote the following post at 2016-05-08 2:30 PM:

Jim Smith wrote:

OldRobert wrote:

At the risk of getting shot at, which I''m quite prepared for, where would the club be if McNally hadn''t joined when he did, and helped to pull us round financially so we didn''t sink into oblivion?

Who knows. Bowkett would probably still have come in and sorted out the situation with the banks. The reality is that it was the promotions to the premier league that ultimately sorted out our finances. How much of that was down to great leadership and how much was down to Lambert and the club just being a great fit at the right time is open to debate.

Team game fella.

McNally has been part of a lot of success, however much you might want to write him out of it.

That success being what?! I would suggest Bowkett, Lambert, Adams and Neil might argue with that statement.[/quote]So he wasn''t part of it all?Four seasons in the last five in the hardest league in the world is in spite of McNally being utterly useless?

[Canaries north 151]

I would not say he''s useless but is his level yo yo club at best. We have a rookie manager who is learning his trade. A coaching set up that would not look out of place in league 1. Players who fit the yo yo bill to a tee. Owners who look happy as a yo yo club so what more should we expect. I think we are at the level we deserve for what we have. The big question is should we show some ambition we would need a clear out at every level.

[Well b back 3,182]

For all the rights and wrongs and ups and downs social media has allowed protesting to go to a personal level. People are happy to say things that there is no way they would dare to say if they were face to face with somebody. By all means discuss who is good / not so good ect but in my opinion personal insults to people that over step the mark should not be made to club officials / players by their own fans. Reading through various posts on here you sense the remarks made to McNally on his twitter were a minority view. You can only guess what is sent to him privately ? These sort of comments should be saved for the likes of Fred West.

On here yesterday somebody started a thread calling Bassong a c**t. I offered a face to face meeting for him but he then disappeared ?

Debate and moan yes but to throw personal insults at people ? dont think anybody deserves that. That''s what makes our club look small.

[morty 0]

[quote user="Canaries north"]I would not say he''s useless but is his level yo yo club at best. We have a rookie manager who is learning his trade. A coaching set up that would not look out of place in league 1. Players who fit the yo yo bill to a tee. Owners who look happy as a yo yo club so what more should we expect. I think we are at the level we deserve for what we have. The big question is should we show some ambition we would need a clear out at every level.[/quote]You do know that David McNally doesn''t single handedly run and define Norwich City though?So what form should this clear out take exactly, sack everyone?

[Canaries north 151]

That''s my point. We are who we are and without someone coming in with a lot of money and a slash and burn attitude this will not change. I''m not anti anyone at the club players or staff but can see why a lack of ambition would upset people. We are set up to get promoted and try to hang on. In the grand scheme of things I see a lot of bigger clubs doing a lot worse than us. I also see some smaller clubs who are doing a lot better. It''s all about expectations. I start a championship season with hope of promotion and a prem season with dread of relegation. That''s just where we are.

[Bury Yellow 2]

I agree with Morty and similar comments.

Why do people keep banging on about McNally.

He is a servant of the board and does his job with one hand tied behind his back.

The final decision makers are the owners. They can do what they like and out vote everybody when a decision has to be made.

Further more the changes to the board since Mr Bowkett resigned, remain a big worry.

[Calle 16]

[quote user="morty"][quote user="Calle"]The thing is that it might seem a bit unprofessional to first resign, and then take it back like he obviously did. Especially when we''re not actually relegated yet, it kind of looks like he (like the most of us) have given up.[/quote]What do you want of him? To tell you everything is okay, and it''ll all be alright?If he said nothing he would be accused of being aloof and not caring.

[/quote]

Well, surely he must be professional enough to not resign and a minut later take it back. This is not intended to be like a dig at him or something, I really think he has done a great job so far, and that we really need some stability right now. I just think that it looks unprofessional to act like he did. Why even say it in the first place?

[morty 0]

[quote user="Calle"][quote user="morty"][quote user="Calle"]The thing is that it might seem a bit unprofessional to first resign, and then take it back like he obviously did. Especially when we''re not actually relegated yet, it kind of looks like he (like the most of us) have given up.[/quote]What do you want of him? To tell you everything is okay, and it''ll all be alright?If he said nothing he would be accused of being aloof and not caring.

[/quote]

Well, surely he must be professional enough to not resign and a minut later take it back. This is not intended to be like a dig at him or something, I really think he has done a great job so far, and that we really need some stability right now. I just think that it looks unprofessional to act like he did. Why even say it in the first place?[/quote]The guy wears his heart on his sleeve, he''s passionate about Norwich City.I find it difficult to criticise that. The people making a fuss over this are ones who never liked him before.

[Katie Borkins 1]

I would also argue that the point about the quality of signings is not McNally''s accountability.

Houghton was given plenty of money and signed RvW, Hooper & Fer as 3 "big" signings.  When did we last have a Dutch world cup player in our side?

Adams was backed to help shape the Championship squad and bought pretty well to be fair.  Then Alex Neil was given significant investment.

If the players aren''t up to the job then this is down to the scout and the manager (and obvs the player themselves) - the CEO is responsible for approving the transfer i.e. supporting his manager.  On this point I think McNally has done a very good job.

It''s a long long way from when O''Neill walked out over Dean Windass and the Chase era began to unravel.

[Samwam27 519]

Totally agree Bor.

I wouldn''t even say our signings have been a disaster this season. Everyone rates Klose, Brady has been good, Pinto finally looks like he''s adapting (Wasn''t O''Neil under the AN regime???). Wth the good comes the poor. We''ve struggled, as we always do, in finding a decent strikeforce. Mbokani has the attributes, but hasn''t quite succeeded for me, and the one gripe is really over not getting Afobe, we because we wanted to haggle, and ultimately lost out. It was odd that we "lost interest" in him when we hadn''t secured much else, buts that gone.

Afobe may not have been the answer, but I feel he would have been a step up on Jerome, Laffs & Grabs.

Under McNally, he''s overseen back to back promotions, and 4 out of 5 seasons in the top flight,and really helped stabilise the club.

IMO it would be a disaster to see him go.

[Ginja 26]

[quote user="ricardo"]We are Norwich City, ups and downs is what we do. You don''t have to look far to see how much worse it could be.[/quote]

[Y] [Y] [Y]

[Jim Smith 2,314]

[quote user="morty"][quote user="Canaries north"]I would not say he''s useless but is his level yo yo club at best. We have a rookie manager who is learning his trade. A coaching set up that would not look out of place in league 1. Players who fit the yo yo bill to a tee. Owners who look happy as a yo yo club so what more should we expect. I think we are at the level we deserve for what we have. The big question is should we show some ambition we would need a clear out at every level.[/quote]You do know that David McNally doesn''t single handedly run and define Norwich City though?So what form should this clear out take exactly, sack everyone?[/quote]

But the point is that he pretty much does run it single handed and that may well be part of the problem. He set up this "football board" which failed and then Neil has admitted we had no structure in place to recruit in the summer. I don''t care how many players turned us down at the end of the window the failure to get in defenders in the summer was a major, major c**k up and one that was a major contributory factor to our relegation.

The tweets last night are also indicative of other issues as well if you ask me.

[komakino 272]

[quote user="Katie Borkins"]I would also argue that the point about the quality of signings is not McNally''s accountability.

Houghton was given plenty of money and signed RvW, Hooper & Fer as 3 "big" signings.  When did we last have a Dutch world cup player in our side?

Adams was backed to help shape the Championship squad and bought pretty well to be fair.  Then Alex Neil was given significant investment.

If the players aren''t up to the job then this is down to the scout and the manager (and obvs the player themselves) - the CEO is responsible for approving the transfer i.e. supporting his manager.  On this point I think McNally has done a very good job.

It''s a long long way from when O''Neill walked out over Dean Windass and the Chase era began to unravel.

[/quote]

AN was given ''significant investment''? - Have you been on the sauce?

Just a reminder that the club made a profit in the summer, so that was a net lack of investment.

Some money was spent in January, but we got around £9M for Hooper/Grabban, so the myth that AN was well funded was a myth and as a reminder:

Walker left - Lack of ambition at NCFC and lack of finance.

O''Neill left - ditto (+ Windass)

Lambert left - ditto

Norwich never had, have or will fund their managers adequately.

[PurpleCanary 5,553]

[quote user="komakino"][quote user="Katie Borkins"]I would also argue that the point about the quality of signings is not McNally''s accountability.

Houghton was given plenty of money and signed RvW, Hooper & Fer as 3 "big" signings.  When did we last have a Dutch world cup player in our side?

Adams was backed to help shape the Championship squad and bought pretty well to be fair.  Then Alex Neil was given significant investment.

If the players aren''t up to the job then this is down to the scout and the manager (and obvs the player themselves) - the CEO is responsible for approving the transfer i.e. supporting his manager.  On this point I think McNally has done a very good job.

It''s a long long way from when O''Neill walked out over Dean Windass and the Chase era began to unravel.

[/quote]

AN was given ''significant investment''? - Have you been on the sauce?

Just a reminder that the club made a profit in the summer, so that was a net lack of investment.

Some money was spent in January, but we got around £9M for Hooper/Grabban, so the myth that AN was well funded was a myth and as a reminder:

Walker left - Lack of ambition at NCFC and lack of finance.

O''Neill left - ditto (+ Windass)

Lambert left - ditto

Norwich never had, have or will fund their managers adequately.[/quote]No it didn''t. The club made a loss of £5m in the last financial year, ending on June 30, and the club spent more than it received on transfers in the summer window.

[komakino 272]

[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="komakino"][quote user="Katie Borkins"]I would also argue that the point about the quality of signings is not McNally''s accountability.

Houghton was given plenty of money and signed RvW, Hooper & Fer as 3 "big" signings.  When did we last have a Dutch world cup player in our side?

Adams was backed to help shape the Championship squad and bought pretty well to be fair.  Then Alex Neil was given significant

investment.

If the players aren''t up to the job then this is down to the scout and the manager (and obvs the player themselves) - the CEO is responsible for approving the transfer i.e. supporting his manager.  On this point I think McNally has done a very good job.

It''s a long long way from when O''Neill walked out over Dean Windass and the Chase era began to unravel.

[/quote]

AN was given ''significant investment''? - Have you been on the sauce?

Just a reminder that the club made a profit in the summer, so that was a net lack of investment.

Some money was spent in January, but we got around £9M for Hooper/Grabban, so the myth that AN was well funded was a myth and as a reminder:

Walker left - Lack of ambition at NCFC and lack of finance.

O''Neill left - ditto (+ Windass)

Lambert left - ditto

Norwich never had, have or will fund their managers adequately.[/quote]No it didn''t. The club made a loss of £5m in the last financial year, ending on June 30, and the club spent more than it received on transfers in the summer window.[/quote]

The summer window was an absolute shambles and is the main - though far from the sole reason - why the club is in the manure.

Once Johnson was sold - I said very unwisely at the time - we made a headline profit. The club hardly bought anyone! Mainly loan signings.

A club that comes up from the Championship needs to spend at least £20M in the summer window and NCFC had no net spend what what I can see.

[Nuff Said 5,082]

Don''t argue finances with Purple mate, a sure way to blow any credibility you might hope to have out of the water!

[Jim Smith 2,314]

[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="komakino"][quote user="Katie Borkins"]I would also argue that the point about the quality of signings is not McNally''s accountability.

Houghton was given plenty of money and signed RvW, Hooper & Fer as 3 "big" signings.  When did we last have a Dutch world cup player in our side?

Adams was backed to help shape the Championship squad and bought pretty well to be fair.  Then Alex Neil was given significant investment.

If the players aren''t up to the job then this is down to the scout and the manager (and obvs the player themselves) - the CEO is responsible for approving the transfer i.e. supporting his manager.  On this point I think McNally has done a very good job.

It''s a long long way from when O''Neill walked out over Dean Windass and the Chase era began to unravel.

[/quote]

AN was given ''significant investment''? - Have you been on the sauce?

Just a reminder that the club made a profit in the summer, so that was a net lack of investment.

Some money was spent in January, but we got around £9M for Hooper/Grabban, so the myth that AN was well funded was a myth and as a reminder:

Walker left - Lack of ambition at NCFC and lack of finance.

O''Neill left - ditto (+ Windass)

Lambert left - ditto

Norwich never had, have or will fund their managers adequately.[/quote]No it didn''t. The club made a loss of £5m in the last financial year, ending on June 30, and the club spent more than it received on transfers in the summer window.[/quote]

Not arguing with you Purple but how does that work out? Is it because all monies were not paid up front or something? In the summer we signed:

Brady

Wisdom (loan)

Mbok (loan)

Jarvis (loan)

Mulumbu (free)

Am I missing anyone?

We sold Johnson. Can''t recall if we got a fee for anyone. The bet result was as I recall if we did not make a profit then our net spending was very low.

[Syteanric 1]

[quote user="Jim Smith"][quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="komakino"][quote user="Katie Borkins"]I would also argue that the point about the quality of signings is not McNally''s accountability.

Houghton was given plenty of money and signed RvW, Hooper & Fer as 3 "big" signings.  When did we last have a Dutch world cup player in our side?

Adams was backed to help shape the Championship squad and bought pretty well to be fair.  Then Alex Neil was given significant investment.

If the players aren''t up to the job then this is down to the scout and the manager (and obvs the player themselves) - the CEO is responsible for approving the transfer i.e. supporting his manager.  On this point I think McNally has done a very good job.

It''s a long long way from when O''Neill walked out over Dean Windass and the Chase era began to unravel.

[/quote]

AN was given ''significant investment''? - Have you been on the sauce?

Just a reminder that the club made a profit in the summer, so that was a net lack of investment.

Some money was spent in January, but we got around £9M for Hooper/Grabban, so the myth that AN was well funded was a myth and as a reminder:

Walker left - Lack of ambition at NCFC and lack of finance.

O''Neill left - ditto (+ Windass)

Lambert left - ditto

Norwich never had, have or will fund their managers adequately.[/quote]No it didn''t. The club made a loss of £5m in the last financial year, ending on June 30, and the club spent more than it received on transfers in the summer window.[/quote]

Not arguing with you Purple but how does that work out? Is it because all monies were not paid up front or something? In the summer we signed:

Brady

Wisdom (loan)

Mbok (loan)

Jarvis (loan)

Mulumbu (free)

Am I missing anyone?

We sold Johnson. Can''t recall if we got a fee for anyone. The bet result was as I recall if we did not make a profit then our net spending was very low.[/quote]someone else may well remember but i seem to recall we signed Brady for the fee we sold Johnson for.. in Essence we spent nothing?

[PurpleCanary 5,553]

[quote user="Jim Smith"] Not arguing with you Purple but how does that work out? Is it because all monies were not paid up front or something? In the summer we signed:

Brady

Wisdom (loan)

Mbok (loan)

Jarvis (loan)

Mulumbu (free)

Am I missing anyone?

We sold Johnson. Can''t recall if we got a fee for anyone. The bet result was as I recall if we did not make a profit then our net spending was very low.[/quote]Jim, Dorrans, the forgotten man, cost £3m+.

[93vintage 16]

I''ve been critical of McNally for a number of reasons in previous posts, whether it''s transfer strategy or running the club in too much of a corporate fashion.But I think there''s still time for him to learn from his errors and rectify them, maybe look back and learn from what we did successfully from before our post-Chase decline.The alternative to McNally, ie someone who''s been in the job, made mistakes and learned from them, is someone who has zero experience and hasn''t had the chance to learn from their mistakes.With McNally it could be a case of ''better the devil you know''.

[Yorkshire Canary 118]

The Board always does just as it wants until the fans turn then they throw someone to the mob. It will be the same again just a question of who and when

[Mr Sausage 0]

[quote user="Yorkshire Canary"]The Board always does just as it wants until the fans turn then they throw someone to the mob. It will be the same again just a question of who and when[/quote]

I agree and the fans will want a blood sacrifice

[PaulineFowler 4]

The fact that the club haven''t come out with any sort of comment about this saga, despite all the media coverage it is getting says all we need to know about how well this club is run.

It is an embarrassing mess.

[Suffolk7 0]

You can not argue that what McNally "seemingly" did/said on Saturday (still no confirmation it wasn''t hacked, although looks more and more like it wasn''t.) was unprofessional and lacked any class whatsoever. However, I''m gobsmacked with some of the fans views on him. When he arrived at this football club, it was quite frankly a mess. No direction, no discipline, no identity and heading only one way. He has turned the club around (with help from others) and gave us some of our most joyful and exciting times of our recent history. We are what we are, and under the current ownership we will always be limited to just how far we can go. I''m not suggesting Delia and Michael should sell, or vacate the club, I''m merely stating the facts. under McNally we have grown as a football club, and he has given us structure, and regardless of how you feel about him, he has been our leader. He''s added a bit of steel to our board room. The guy cannot do right for doing wrong. He goes on twitter and keeps the fans informed, he gets accused of having an ego, or is told somebody in his position shouldn''t be on that type of platform. He removes himself from Twitter, and another section of the fan base then claims he only tweets when we are winning, or he gets accused of not keeping us fans in the loop. He digs his heels in a shows a steely determination to get the best money for our club for players like Johnson, Fer etc. we call him a hero, he then try''s to do the same when bringing players in, he''s hammered for showing a lack of ambition or making our club look a bit amateur. Yes he gets paid a lot of money, yes he receives a bonus, but none of us have access to his contract or personal terms. To him, this is a job, we all have one, and we all go to work for one reason don''t we? pay the bills. If he is meeting the criteria of his objectives set out in his contract, then rightly he deserves whatever financial return he is entitled to. he never has struck me as a mercenary, in fact far from it. I''ve had very few dealings with him, but on the occasions I have met him, he has always come across really well. As a business, we are in really good shape, as a football club, maybe not so much, but again, under the current ownership we will always have restrictions. If McNally walked out of this club, with the current board in place, trust me, it would not end well. We would be lacking of any real leadership in the boardroom. Would you trust Delia, Michael or Ed to be conducting our negotiating? Yes we could employ somebody equally as good if not better, but we could also find another Doncaster. I think David McNally carry''s out an incredibly difficult job very well. For me, I choose to aim my frustrations at the players themselves, take Robbie Brady for example, he was a world beater up until a month ago, now he looks totally disinterested and lacking of any fight. That''s not Alex Neil''s fault, or David McNally''s fault, that is quite simply down to the attitude of a player. We have invested more millions this season, than any other. I remember many of this board being quite excited at the prospect of Naismith, but now, well its the board and Alex Neil''s fault for wasting millions on a dud. The Klose injury is a real piece of bad luck, I genuinely believe had he not got injured, we would be safe by now. We would have beaten Sunderland for sure. If we beat the drop this year (not quite over yet) then everybody involved would have performed superbly, if we are relegated, then it will be by what, 3 or 4 points? such fine margins. Luck, a refereeing decision, a poor performance away at Villa or Swansea. As a club we are ok, we must not hit the panic button!

[Buh 0]

How can we be lovers of we can''t be friends?

[Donkey dangler 0]

Time for McNally to move on. Overrated and overpaid.

[Jim Smith 2,314]

[quote user="Suffolk7"]You can not argue that what McNally "seemingly" did/said on Saturday (still no confirmation it wasn''t hacked, although looks more and more like it wasn''t.) was unprofessional and lacked any class whatsoever. However, I''m gobsmacked with some of the fans views on him. When he arrived at this football club, it was quite frankly a mess. No direction, no discipline, no identity and heading only one way. He has turned the club around (with help from others) and gave us some of our most joyful and exciting times of our recent history. We are what we are, and under the current ownership we will always be limited to just how far we can go. I''m not suggesting Delia and Michael should sell, or vacate the club, I''m merely stating the facts. under McNally we have grown as a football club, and he has given us structure, and regardless of how you feel about him, he has been our leader. He''s added a bit of steel to our board room. The guy cannot do right for doing wrong. He goes on twitter and keeps the fans informed, he gets accused of having an ego, or is told somebody in his position shouldn''t be on that type of platform. He removes himself from Twitter, and another section of the fan base then claims he only tweets when we are winning, or he gets accused of not keeping us fans in the loop. He digs his heels in a shows a steely determination to get the best money for our club for players like Johnson, Fer etc. we call him a hero, he then try''s to do the same when bringing players in, he''s hammered for showing a lack of ambition or making our club look a bit amateur. Yes he gets paid a lot of money, yes he receives a bonus, but none of us have access to his contract or personal terms. To him, this is a job, we all have one, and we all go to work for one reason don''t we? pay the bills. If he is meeting the criteria of his objectives set out in his contract, then rightly he deserves whatever financial return he is entitled to. he never has struck me as a mercenary, in fact far from it. I''ve had very few dealings with him, but on the occasions I have met him, he has always come across really well. As a business, we are in really good shape, as a football club, maybe not so much, but again, under the current ownership we will always have restrictions. If McNally walked out of this club, with the current board in place, trust me, it would not end well. We would be lacking of any real leadership in the boardroom. Would you trust Delia, Michael or Ed to be conducting our negotiating? Yes we could employ somebody equally as good if not better, but we could also find another Doncaster. I think David McNally carry''s out an incredibly difficult job very well. For me, I choose to aim my frustrations at the players themselves, take Robbie Brady for example, he was a world beater up until a month ago, now he looks totally disinterested and lacking of any fight. That''s not Alex Neil''s fault, or David McNally''s fault, that is quite simply down to the attitude of a player. We have invested more millions this season, than any other. I remember many of this board being quite excited at the prospect of Naismith, but now, well its the board and Alex Neil''s fault for wasting millions on a dud. The Klose injury is a real piece of bad luck, I genuinely believe had he not got injured, we would be safe by now. We would have beaten Sunderland for sure. If we beat the drop this year (not quite over yet) then everybody involved would have performed superbly, if we are relegated, then it will be by what, 3 or 4 points? such fine margins. Luck, a refereeing decision, a poor performance away at Villa or Swansea. As a club we are ok, we must not hit the panic button![/quote]

Some good points there. the fundamental point from this season for me is that our current ownership structure/resources and success at premier league level do not appear compatible. As such, the board (and (perhaps the fans) need to make a decision as to who and what we are as a club. Are we happy to accept our lot as a "yo-yo" club or are they prepared to be genuinely receptive to outside investment because frankly, I simply do not believe they have ever seriously sought or considered such investment or selling up. Yes they may have made token efforts but I do not believe there has ever been any genuine intent. If the answer is the former then in my view we, as a club, need to:

(i) be putting in place a recruitment/scouting/coaching structure that gives us the very best chance to succeed; and

(ii) be putting more resources and focus into our academy (and giving home grown players more opportunities) which frankly has not been producing the goods for a number of years now in terms of producing players capable of playing regularly at first team level and/or being sold to big clubs for money that can be re-invested into the first team. That''s not to say we don''t have some good youth team players but they simply don''t seem to make the transition to the first team. This needs to change soon and maybe the young Middleton kid playing in the U21s may be the one who breaks through (plus perhaps one of the Murphy''s next season if Redmond leaves).

I do not believe, over the last few years, we have done either of the above although admittedly the last 9 months seem to have seen a change in focus with the recruitment of a number of young players "for the future" which may well start to bear fruit. In short, we seem to have adopted a transfer strategy of a club that has resources, without actually having the resources to pull it off.

In terms of McNally, I personally believe that the first three or four years of his time with us he was excellent, even if his abrasive style is not to everyone''s taste. However, since the Hughton season he seems to have lost his way a bit and things have become hit and miss. Whether that''s due to stress/factors outside the club (the sort of things that lead to ill advised late night tweets to fans) as well as perhaps boardroom politics within it I don''t know but the judgment has not been as sharp and the strategy lacking coherency. If he can recover the clarity of thought of the first 4 years then he remains what we need to keep the bulk of the squad together and come back from this inevitable relegation and put in place a proper strategy for the future but if he can''t then perhaps its best for all if we have a change. Ultimately, as the CEO he is responsible for recruitment, scouting and strategy. He made himself even more responsible for these matters by putting himself at the head of the "football board" and it is that structure/system which appears to have failed badly last summer with people removed from roles (or it appears just not good enough). The lack of focus/strategy and the reliance on loan signings perhaps makes more sense now that Neil has admitted there was no recruitment team/structure in place and perhaps it was that desperation that led to us bringing in a man as head of recruitment (now moved aside) who had so conspicuously failed to get players into Burnley just 12 months before. McNally should shoulder the blame for these issues just as he gets the credit for the appointment of Lambert and questions should rightfully be asked. Morty has claimed that what he gets paid is irrelevant but you cannot have a CEO earning the sort of money he does who then fails to put in place very basic structures/systems necessary for the club to succeed. At the very least he needs to be given a performance review which makes it clear that this can never happen again and he needs to seriously up his game.

Purple - apologies for forgetting Dorrans but i would respectfully suggest that a net spend of £3m on Dorrans is hardly the stuff that successful premier league campaigns are built on.

[Donkey dangler 0]

Can we have more paragraphs please.