Iwan Roberts article

[Deptford Yellow 260]

Iwan Roberts being pretty blunt in his Pinkun article this morning, both about the players and the new sporting director appointment … He implies Rob Newman wanted the job … but says the club overlook proper football people for this and prefer ‘school teacher’ types … yikes

[yellow 63 23]

1 minute ago, Deptford Yellow said:

Iwan Roberts being pretty blunt in his Pinkun article this morning, both about the players and the new sporting director appointment … He implies Rob Newman wanted the job … but says the club overlook proper football people for this and prefer ‘school teacher’ types … yikes

''Yikes'' indeed if this all goes **** up.

[cambridgeshire canary 6,776]

12 minutes ago, yellow 63 said:

''Yikes'' indeed if this all goes **** up.

Nothing can go wrong. After all, all we have done is hire someone for one of the most important jobs in our clubs with that someone having no experience whatsoever in said job.

Which is rather like hiring a McDonalds worker to sail a cruise ship but hey we must "trust the process" and all that

Edited November 10, 2023 by cambridgeshire canary

[Capt. Pants 4,274]

Newman is more of a scout and is Head of Recruitment at West Ham. He's also 60 years old, but I guess he would be better matched to Dad's Army here.

I'm happy we give Knapper the opportunity above him quite honestly. 

Have to say I'm a bit disappointed at Sutton's and Iwan's **** stirring - very lazy 'journalism'.

[Mello Yello 2,301]

Rob Newman was sat in the Directionless Box last Sunday.....

[Capt. Pants 4,274]

Just now, Mello Yello said:

Rob Newman was sat in the Directionless Box last Sunday.....

He seems to spend more of his time here than at Wet Spam. He may of course been watching Sara and Rowe.

[Mello Yello 2,301]

3 minutes ago, Capt. Pants said:

He seems to spend more of his time here than at Wet Spam. He may of course been watching Sara and Rowe.

Who knows?.....

[Cowboy 197]

38 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Nothing can go wrong. After all, all we have done is hire someone for one of the most important jobs in our clubs with that someone having no experience whatsoever in said job.

Which is rather like hiring a McDonalds worker to sail a cruise ship but hey we must "trust the process" and all that

...at an absolutely critical knife edge moment in the club's history too. Quite the gamble.

[yellow 63 23]

1 hour ago, Capt. Pants said:

He seems to spend more of his time here than at Wet Spam. He may of course been watching Sara and Rowe.

Probably was.

[shefcanary 2,444]

4 minutes ago, yellow 63 said:

Probably was.

I assume he still lives locally and if Wet Spam are not playing it is convenient to pop along to the Carra and have a nice afternoon watching football in an unpressured environment. I am not convinced he is ever there to seriously watch our players, especially this season.

As Head of Recruitment his job is to manage the team of scouts and ensure they watch valid targets; his direct role is to read and discuss their reports, make a follow up visit on those decided as being worthy of a deeper look, then make the ultimate decision on whether to recommend their signing or not.

[Branston Pickle 3,678]

Well, I’m sure everyone will give young Knapper a chance before judging….

[ricardo 7,396]

8 minutes ago, Branston Pickle said:

Well, I’m sure everyone will give young Knapper a chance before judging….

a triumph of hope over experience.

[mrdi 373]

I think we need to temper our expectations somewhat with Knapper; while many are happy to see back of Webber, there's zero guarantee that Knapper will even be a step sideways, let alone forwards. 

What I have is a strange cocktail of hope and trepidation. 

[repman 635]

47 minutes ago, yellow 63 said:

Probably was.

Newman is on the outs at West Ham I think. His appointment there was essentially to help get the deals done that Moyes wanted, he wasn't leading the recruitment in the way Webber would do when he was in charge here. This summer though West Ham appointed a SD from Germany who has already made a few signings and seems to be at odds with Moyes over the transfer business too. It wouldn't shock me if he's waiting for them to be doing just about bad enough that he can sack Moyes and get someone new in.

[Google Bot 3,298]

9 minutes ago, mrdi said:

I think we need to temper our expectations somewhat with Knapper; while many are happy to see back of Webber, there's zero guarantee that Knapper will even be a step sideways, let alone forwards. 

Agree, he's learning on the job effectively so it will take time. 

But despite people always pointing the finger at one man, it's not actually a one man job.  

Webber was great in his early period because of the support around him, and the same will hopefully apply to Knapper.  Take the advice, experience and current plans  that the club has and apply some drive and fresh perspective to it.   

In terms of what we support, I think the most critical aspect, and what Webber got right, was getting a good head coach in who was hungry and brought in a brand of football that set the tone for youth development and incoming transfers and I think that's where his previous experience paid off.

[hogesar 9,720]

To be fair, Iwan also went on a drunken rant on twitter recently essentially saying we shouldn't expect to do better than Huddersfield in the league so I'm not sure he's a fantastic fountain of knowledge.

[......and Smith must score. 1,355]

2 hours ago, shefcanary said:

I assume he still lives locally and if Wet Spam are not playing it is convenient to pop along to the Carra and have a nice afternoon watching football in an unpressured environment. 

If he wanted to have a nice afternoon watching football in an unpressurised environment Carrow Rd would be the last place to come 

[Nuff Said 5,157]

11 minutes ago, ......and Smith must score. said:

If he wanted to have a nice afternoon watching football in an unpressurised environment Carrow Rd would be the last place to come 

I thought that was that was the philosophy of half our first team?

[BigFish 1,988]

5 hours ago, Deptford Yellow said:

Iwan Roberts being pretty blunt in his Pinkun article this morning, both about the players and the new sporting director appointment … He implies Rob Newman wanted the job … but says the club overlook proper football people for this and prefer ‘school teacher’ types … yikes

Football has changed a lot since Roberts was a player. Clubs are employing legions of "school teacher" types who are actually trained for these roles. The idea that being an ex-pro gives you equivalent skills is nonsense.

[Google Bot 3,298]

23 minutes ago, BigFish said:

The idea that being an ex-pro gives you equivalent skills is nonsense.

Totally, the old school are more likely to hide behind cliches too.  I think this would be a far too comfortable job for someone like Newman.  I'm sure he's a top guy and good at his work, but we need a young fresh perspective who's not going to have mates knocking on the door for jobs or in his ear.

Edited November 10, 2023 by Google Bot

[The Raptor 1,231]

16 minutes ago, Google Bot said:

but we need a young fresh perspective who's not going to have mates knocking on the door for jobs or in his ear.

Wiltshire better not get the job in that case!

[Coneys Knee 984]

I can’t deny that have those exact same concerns. Zoe Webbers “couldn’t believe the calibre of candidate” appointment m” and then delivers Ben knapper “could” back fire on her big time

[Corbs1 90]

5 hours ago, hogesar said:

To be fair, Iwan also went on a drunken rant on twitter recently essentially saying we shouldn't expect to do better than Huddersfield in the league so I'm not sure he's a fantastic fountain of knowledge.

Missed that, but I’m not sure why we should be entitled to be better than, for instance, Huddersfield. 

[hogesar 9,720]

1 hour ago, Corbs1 said:

Missed that, but I’m not sure why we should be entitled to be better than, for instance, Huddersfield. 

I think entitlement and expectation can be different things 

[Rolf Harris 31]

https://trainingground.guru/articles/ben-knapper-why-loan-manager-is-a-mini-sporting-director

He's been molded into the role. 

Old fart or young up and comer.

[KeiranShikari 1,426]

I'd imagine Knapper's background in analytics and statistics made him a fairly obvious choice for the Attanasio's. The club have been building that department up over the last couple of years and the new ownership obviously come from a background in stats heavy baseball.. 

Interesting times ahead.

 

[Kenny Foggo 1,116]

13 hours ago, Capt. Pants said:

Newman is more of a scout and is Head of Recruitment at West Ham. He's also 60 years old, but I guess he would be better matched to Dad's Army here.

I'm happy we give Knapper the opportunity above him quite honestly. 

Have to say I'm a bit disappointed at Sutton's and Iwan's **** stirring - very lazy 'journalism'.

The new guy did Neil Adams job at Arsenal.. from baby sitting loanees to Sporting Director is a big jump and a huge risk for one of the most important roles at the club in a crucial time... I would have had Newman as he has more experience and knows the club. But I didn't know Farke either....

[Capt. Pants 4,274]

It will be interesting to see if Knapper will be as high profile and forthright as Webber. 

We achieved promotion here in only our 2nd season 'under Webber' but that's on the back of his experience at Huddersfield. Knapper arguably inherits a far stronger squad and infrastructure, but on balance we might have to be patient.

If Wagner were to be sacked I'm not sure Newman or Knapper have the right experience to quickly get us a replacement that is an upgrade on Smith and Wagner. 

This process would be so much easier had Wagner not gone back to being hopeless.