The case for a Director of Football

[Rock the Boat 0]

Apologies for reposting on a subject I first brought up over two years ago, but it is even more relevant today than when I first wrote it.

We''re a club without a CEO and Chairman and currently drifting along rudderless. While we definitely need a CEO to run the club, I don''t think the position of Chairman is so necessary.

A far more worthwhile appointment would be a Director of Football. The board needs someone who can combine both footballing experience with a broader directional view of the club and where it is going in the longer term. When you look at the makeup of the City board there never have been any footballing people on board. We need a Director of Football because Delia and husband have shown that they haven''t a clue about managing a football club.

In the past we have been lucky with our owners. Perhaps it is because they ran real businesses that they understood what was required to run a football club.

Choosing the right person is notoriuosly difficult. We want someone who has no lingering desires to be a football manager. That part of their career must be definitely over. On the other hand we don''t need a burnt-out has been who is just looking to ramp up his pension. It has to be someone with plenty to offer but outside the cut and thrust of daily management. To be honest I don''t think our current major shareholders have the ability to appoint the right kind of person.

Nevertheless this is what I said over two years ago about the skillset required for a Director of Football (Technical Director).

So what value would a Technical Director add to NCFC?

1. Manage the long-term footballing strategy of the team. Like all well-run businesses, a football club needs a strategy to reach its desired aims. What is the correct strategy to get out of the Championship, to consolidate a position in the Premiership, to bring silverware to Carrow Road? Managers are result-based and there can be a conflict of interests between long-term goals and short term gains. A technical director can act as a counterweight to short-termism, take the Board’s objectives and develop a strategy to achieve them..

2. Measure performance. Performance is everything. No matter what division you are in, so long as you consistently out-perform your opponents then success will follow. Yes there will be blips along the way but consistency and continuous improvement is the keystone to winning trophies. Performance is far more than goals scored, shots saved and the speed at which it is all carried out. It covers the whole gamut of successful passes, tackles made, possession of the ball, ability to follow the game plan, positional sense, concentration and a hundred and one other measurements that footballers should be getting right every time they play, and I don’t have space to elaborate on. So a technical director sets the performance expectations for each player, plus each playing zone (ie. forwards, midfield, defence, goalie) while the manager is responsible for delivering the performance. As it stands at the moment I suspect that performance is not a Board issue, whereas results almost certainly are. The great advantage of having a technical director of football at Board level is that managing perormance is a pro-active task and fixes can be applied before too much damage is done. Being results-driven is a re-active task, by which time the points have already been lost. So make the manager accountable for performace and not just results by reporting to a Director of Football who understands the issues.

3. Review the manager’s transfer dealings. It is crucial that the right players are brought in to fill the requirements as determined by the footballing strategy. For example, do we need to play a certain style in order to get out of this division and do the manager’s transfer targets meet those criteria? While the manager has to have the final say (financial constraints notwithstanding) the Board still needs to rely on someone with good technical knowledge to ratify those decisions

4. Manage the footballing academy. Just what kind of footballers do we want to produce in five years time, when the current manager probably will not be around to call upon their services?. Bringing kids through the system is a long-term activity and should be separated from the day-to-day pressures of modern football management. Again, I’m not suggesting the TD gets involved in the coaching side, but that the TD develops a long-term Academy strategy and the coaches are accountable to the TD rather than the first team manager.

[BroadstairsR 0]

All boards need a Chairman to function.

Gunn could have been moved upstairs as a TD.

[Nuff Said 5,088]

[quote user="BroadstairsR"]All boards need a Chairman to function.

Gunn could have been moved upstairs as a TD.[/quote]I think you miss the (excellent) point. The Director of Football needs to be highly experienced. Having an inexperienced manager like Gunn would be less of a risk with an experienced head to offer advice and gently steer the club in the right direction.And Rock The Boat - I think we''ve already found a strategy to get out of the Championship!

[BroadstairsR 0]

Gunn should be experienced enough in footballing matters. He has been in the game long enough in various capacities.

He is just not a very good manager eg. selection, tactics and motivational skills.

This is the impression I get from his tenure so far. I hope I am wrong.

It would have also been a face saver for him and in line with Delia''s wish for continuity.

[Yelverton Yella 0]

Rock The Boat,Given that, whether we like it or not, we have a very

inexperienced Manger, I absolutely agree with you on this. There needs

to be somebody on the Board who can review Gunn''s proposals for

football logic and also, maybe, act as his mentor.

[yellow hammer 0]

Some good points

 

[Ian 1,129]

An interesting thread - I personally believe with the direction that football is taking, you will clearly see a lot more sugar daddy corporate owners who aren''t really prepared to give free reign to one man. It is likely that we will see more "Technical Directors" who will act as a buffer between the team manager and the board.Having said that, it''s clear to see it will take a hugely disciplined manager to work with somebody who perhaps is a competitor to the role - perhaps reducing the value of the manager, and certainly increasing friction at a club. It will certainly be interesting to see how things pan out in both the short and long term - and whether we see a move away from the traditional structure of a club.

[Syteanric 1]

isnt it funny how we go on about a director of football but no one actually knows what 1 does...

the manager picks and signs the players.. the DOF sits in his office all day, drinking tea, thinking its still 1992 when they last managed a team themselves.. step forward Davey Stringer!

what we need is a buisness man on the board with a knowledge of football... not someone who pulls in a wage for doing sod all! theres too many of them at the club as it is!

jas :)