How Can McNally Stay?

[Katie Borkins 1]

How do I get you alone?

[Year of the tiger 54]

Just a point on spend on transfers, I think Jim is being very naive if he thinks loans or ''frees'' come without a very substantial cost. Whether any were value for money is a totally different story

[OldRobert 38]

[quote user="Jim Smith"][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.[/quote]Nail on head from both of you..................good posts.

[morty 0]

Official club statement, he''s resigned.

[Indy 3,297]

Now before being attacked for being negative, but the club is in a mess again.

A squad of players who will be dismantled, relegation, a board made up of friends and family, the two driving forces behind the clubs success both gone, the manager not happy with some aspects of the club and we will go into a key summer now looking to replace the only real footballing brain on our board.

It''s not great is it?

[lincoln canary (& Golden Coppel) 0]

We are in a right mess.

transition period coming up.... hopefully we can stabilize and not slip further beyond the championship. Last time we we''re relegated from the premiership we had a great championship squad and kept everyone together. Next season will be much different.

[Jim Smith 2,317]

[quote user="Indy"]Now before being attacked for being negative, but the club is in a mess again.

A squad of players who will be dismantled, relegation, a board made up of friends and family, the two driving forces behind the clubs success both gone, the manager not happy with some aspects of the club and we will go into a key summer now looking to replace the only real footballing brain on our board.

It''s not great is it?[/quote]

The timing is not great no. The irony being that Mcnally''s strengths (i.e. tough negotiating and not giving in to player power) are probably what we need this summer.

All depends on who we can get as his successor though.