BRILLIANT

[The Rock]

It's a shame the Chairman didn't sack his son, whose stats recruitment regime is undermining the club.

Not a bad post. But, post-Kline, it is still vague how much responsibility SJ had vs. Khan. Did Khan pick the players pretty much full stop? You indicate this may be the case, and I thought it was in fact pretty clear not only the buck stopped with him, but that he was overwhelmingly responsible for recruitment.

Anyone have any colour on this?

[Fulham1959]

I am impressed with the Chairman's actions here. I know he did the dreaded 'full support to the manager' thing, but you have too really, and the statements he was giving out (and today) did seem well thought out, not some generic stuff. Also he did seem to keep his apparent numerous interviews and chats with other managers fairly hush hush in this period.

He possibly caught other struggling teams by surprise by getting in so early, and picking one of the best possible appointments rather than having waiting till January and scrambling about between the usual suspects.

The two really strong weaknesses Jokanovic had were Premiership Experience, and Defensive Setup, and in the new man we have a guy who SHOULD be able to provide both.


I was incredibly surprised when I saw the thread announcing the news here earlier though, had to read it a couple of times to believe Joka was gone.

Interesting . . .

[KJS]

It's a shame the Chairman didn't sack his son, whose stats recruitment regime is undermining the club.

Didn't he recruit Slavisa???

[IKnowNothing]

It's a shame the Chairman didn't sack his son, whose stats recruitment regime is undermining the club.

The sad part is nobody knows what goes on behind the scenes or who's responsible for what. All I know is that the Khans will pay the ultimate price if they don't get this right. Its their money.

[Jims Dentist]

It's a shame the Chairman didn't sack his son, whose stats recruitment regime is undermining the club.

Spot on as usual Woolly.
The so called stats did not show that Zambo had a DMF minder looking after him last season, and we spent £30m on him after his 1st full first team season.
As said before T Khan has no football background or experience and his continuation in the DOF role is what is undermining the efforts of others to make the progress that the chairman's investment should produce.

[hovewhite]

i have to disagree.
ranieri's whole career is less than spectacular and he was aprt of a unique set of circumstances at leicester that raised his stock. the season after winning the league was a disaster that saw him sacked.....

I think our problem remians, changing the manager is not going to alter the insane puchasing policy we are still employing... the wrong players too late, and not the ones we needed or the manager wanted.

V liverpool we seemed a bit more like it and I thought if we beat southampton that would be the start of the recovery... the change now is crackers. I am not a great fan of ranieri although he is a lovely man, but I will give him the benifit of the doubt and see if he can get us promoted next season.

firstly I think there could have been worse appointments ,big Sam,Moyes no thanks so will back ranieri and hope the move works for us all.
Still think slav would have turned it round.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Slav may very well have turned it round, but unfortunately we will never know, now that he is no longer with us.
With Claudio, I feel we have as much chance of turning it round than anyone else who may have been available, and more chance than most.  So let's wish him well for all our sakes.
But sadly at the end of the day we are only as strong as the weakest link, and you don't need to be Inspector Clueso to work that one out.

[nose returns]

Slav may very well have turned it round, but unfortunately we will never know, now that he is no longer with us.
With Claudio, I feel we have as much chance of turning it round than anyone else who may have been available, and more chance than most.  So let's wish him well for all our sakes.
But sadly at the end of the day we are only as strong as the weakest link, and you don't need to be Inspector Clueso to work that one out.

I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes. nd if he does he learns very slowly. I have no doubt he is one of us, no doubt at all that he wants the best. However, year on year our recruitment is poor, the amount was amazing and impressive but the wrong players save for Mitro. An obsession with lightweigt midfielders rather than a midfield enforcer, and a tough center half (maybe Mawsom will be OK but buying an injured man is a Mitroglu risk). the system doesn't work because we should have brought ion players to compliment and improve our squad and yet we do not have a decent full back in the place, bryan is just OK but hardly a step up. Not learning we need a completely new way to bring inm players not based on metrics run by young man with no real experience of football. When Man Utd recruited Best it was on the say so of older scouts who had seen it and done before. Times may be different but experience is what is needed in scouting, what you see with your eyes, not what the stats may or may not tell you. Stats can point in a direction you may not have thought of but how did we spend so much on two french players that have no experience of the Prem.. they may have talent but have taken far to long to settle. It is the not learning lessons that I find dispiriting and I do think Joca is paying the price, I am sure he would have come good, but certainly would have left it three more games....  rene went after a top class performance agonat liverpool, a point snatched away by a suitable late tackle.... joca had a point snatched away against liverpool by a bent ref and linesman,, and joca paid the price......  I suspect when we play liverpool at hiome ranieri better worry he will be with us the week after,.

[KJS]

Slav may very well have turned it round, but unfortunately we will never know, now that he is no longer with us.
With Claudio, I feel we have as much chance of turning it round than anyone else who may have been available, and more chance than most.  So let's wish him well for all our sakes.
But sadly at the end of the day we are only as strong as the weakest link, and you don't need to be Inspector Clueso to work that one out.

I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes. nd if he does he learns very slowly. I have no doubt he is one of us, no doubt at all that he wants the best. However, year on year our recruitment is poor, the amount was amazing and impressive but the wrong players save for Mitro. An obsession with lightweigt midfielders rather than a midfield enforcer, and a tough center half (maybe Mawsom will be OK but buying an injured man is a Mitroglu risk). the system doesn't work because we should have brought ion players to compliment and improve our squad and yet we do not have a decent full back in the place, bryan is just OK but hardly a step up. Not learning we need a completely new way to bring inm players not based on metrics run by young man with no real experience of football. When Man Utd recruited Best it was on the say so of older scouts who had seen it and done before. Times may be different but experience is what is needed in scouting, what you see with your eyes, not what the stats may or may not tell you. Stats can point in a direction you may not have thought of but how did we spend so much on two french players that have no experience of the Prem.. they may have talent but have taken far to long to settle. It is the not learning lessons that I find dispiriting and I do think Joca is paying the price, I am sure he would have come good, but certainly would have left it three more games....  rene went after a top class performance agonat liverpool, a point snatched away by a suitable late tackle.... joca had a point snatched away against liverpool by a bent ref and linesman,, and joca paid the price......  I suspect when we play liverpool at hiome ranieri better worry he will be with us the week after,.

"I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes" ??

Yes and he is absolutely minted because he hasn't a clue about anything!!  051 

[Woolly Mammoth]

Slav may very well have turned it round, but unfortunately we will never know, now that he is no longer with us.
With Claudio, I feel we have as much chance of turning it round than anyone else who may have been available, and more chance than most.  So let's wish him well for all our sakes.
But sadly at the end of the day we are only as strong as the weakest link, and you don't need to be Inspector Clueso to work that one out.

I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes. nd if he does he learns very slowly. I have no doubt he is one of us, no doubt at all that he wants the best. However, year on year our recruitment is poor, the amount was amazing and impressive but the wrong players save for Mitro. An obsession with lightweigt midfielders rather than a midfield enforcer, and a tough center half (maybe Mawsom will be OK but buying an injured man is a Mitroglu risk). the system doesn't work because we should have brought ion players to compliment and improve our squad and yet we do not have a decent full back in the place, bryan is just OK but hardly a step up. Not learning we need a completely new way to bring inm players not based on metrics run by young man with no real experience of football. When Man Utd recruited Best it was on the say so of older scouts who had seen it and done before. Times may be different but experience is what is needed in scouting, what you see with your eyes, not what the stats may or may not tell you. Stats can point in a direction you may not have thought of but how did we spend so much on two french players that have no experience of the Prem.. they may have talent but have taken far to long to settle. It is the not learning lessons that I find dispiriting and I do think Joca is paying the price, I am sure he would have come good, but certainly would have left it three more games....  rene went after a top class performance agonat liverpool, a point snatched away by a suitable late tackle.... joca had a point snatched away against liverpool by a bent ref and linesman,, and joca paid the price......  I suspect when we play liverpool at hiome ranieri better worry he will be with us the week after,.

I share your concerns.

[toshes mate]

I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes. nd if he does he learns very slowly. I have no doubt he is one of us, no doubt at all that he wants the best. However, year on year our recruitment is poor, the amount was amazing and impressive but the wrong players save for Mitro. An obsession with lightweigt midfielders rather than a midfield enforcer, and a tough center half (maybe Mawsom will be OK but buying an injured man is a Mitroglu risk). the system doesn't work because we should have brought ion players to compliment and improve our squad and yet we do not have a decent full back in the place, bryan is just OK but hardly a step up. Not learning we need a completely new way to bring inm players not based on metrics run by young man with no real experience of football. When Man Utd recruited Best it was on the say so of older scouts who had seen it and done before. Times may be different but experience is what is needed in scouting, what you see with your eyes, not what the stats may or may not tell you. Stats can point in a direction you may not have thought of but how did we spend so much on two french players that have no experience of the Prem.. they may have talent but have taken far to long to settle. It is the not learning lessons that I find dispiriting and I do think Joca is paying the price, I am sure he would have come good, but certainly would have left it three more games....  rene went after a top class performance agonat liverpool, a point snatched away by a suitable late tackle.... joca had a point snatched away against liverpool by a bent ref and linesman,, and joca paid the price......  I suspect when we play liverpool at hiome ranieri better worry he will be with us the week after,.

Absolutely concur that our owner and his son, as the figureheads of FFC, have not handled recruitment at all well, managers or players, as a cursory read of my post dated today on the 'Ranieri and Transfer'  thread demonstrates.  Ranieri may prove to be as lucky to be got as Targett and Mitro were last January, and the alter-ego doesn't bear thinking about.

[Twig]

Slav may very well have turned it round, but unfortunately we will never know, now that he is no longer with us.
With Claudio, I feel we have as much chance of turning it round than anyone else who may have been available, and more chance than most.  So let's wish him well for all our sakes.
But sadly at the end of the day we are only as strong as the weakest link, and you don't need to be Inspector Clueso to work that one out.

I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes. nd if he does he learns very slowly. I have no doubt he is one of us, no doubt at all that he wants the best. However, year on year our recruitment is poor, the amount was amazing and impressive but the wrong players save for Mitro. An obsession with lightweigt midfielders rather than a midfield enforcer, and a tough center half (maybe Mawsom will be OK but buying an injured man is a Mitroglu risk). the system doesn't work because we should have brought ion players to compliment and improve our squad and yet we do not have a decent full back in the place, bryan is just OK but hardly a step up. Not learning we need a completely new way to bring inm players not based on metrics run by young man with no real experience of football. When Man Utd recruited Best it was on the say so of older scouts who had seen it and done before. Times may be different but experience is what is needed in scouting, what you see with your eyes, not what the stats may or may not tell you. Stats can point in a direction you may not have thought of but how did we spend so much on two french players that have no experience of the Prem.. they may have talent but have taken far to long to settle. It is the not learning lessons that I find dispiriting and I do think Joca is paying the price, I am sure he would have come good, but certainly would have left it three more games....  rene went after a top class performance agonat liverpool, a point snatched away by a suitable late tackle.... joca had a point snatched away against liverpool by a bent ref and linesman,, and joca paid the price......  I suspect when we play liverpool at hiome ranieri better worry he will be with us the week after,.

"I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes" ??

Yes and he is absolutely minted because he hasn't a clue about anything!!  051 

Nose makes some fair points. You may or may not agree but that is a puerile response.   The fact that the owner is a highly successful businessman does not necessarily mean that he will exercise good judgement or demonstrate the ability to learn lessons in running a football club.  There are plenty of successful businessmen who have failed spectacularly in their stewardship of their club. 

Nose says he does not doubt Khan's good intentions so this is not just a knocking post.  It deserves a more considered response.

[Neutral Zone Ultra]

Slav may very well have turned it round, but unfortunately we will never know, now that he is no longer with us.
With Claudio, I feel we have as much chance of turning it round than anyone else who may have been available, and more chance than most.  So let's wish him well for all our sakes.
But sadly at the end of the day we are only as strong as the weakest link, and you don't need to be Inspector Clueso to work that one out.

I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes. nd if he does he learns very slowly. I have no doubt he is one of us, no doubt at all that he wants the best. However, year on year our recruitment is poor, the amount was amazing and impressive but the wrong players save for Mitro. An obsession with lightweigt midfielders rather than a midfield enforcer, and a tough center half (maybe Mawsom will be OK but buying an injured man is a Mitroglu risk). the system doesn't work because we should have brought ion players to compliment and improve our squad and yet we do not have a decent full back in the place, bryan is just OK but hardly a step up. Not learning we need a completely new way to bring inm players not based on metrics run by young man with no real experience of football. When Man Utd recruited Best it was on the say so of older scouts who had seen it and done before. Times may be different but experience is what is needed in scouting, what you see with your eyes, not what the stats may or may not tell you. Stats can point in a direction you may not have thought of but how did we spend so much on two french players that have no experience of the Prem.. they may have talent but have taken far to long to settle. It is the not learning lessons that I find dispiriting and I do think Joca is paying the price, I am sure he would have come good, but certainly would have left it three more games....  rene went after a top class performance agonat liverpool, a point snatched away by a suitable late tackle.... joca had a point snatched away against liverpool by a bent ref and linesman,, and joca paid the price......  I suspect when we play liverpool at hiome ranieri better worry he will be with us the week after,.

"I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes" ??

Yes and he is absolutely minted because he hasn't a clue about anything!!  051 

Nose makes some fair points. You may or may not agree but that is a puerile response.   The fact that the owner is a highly successful businessman does not necessarily mean that he will exercise good judgement or demonstrate the ability to learn lessons in running a football club.  There are plenty of successful businessmen who have failed spectacularly in their stewardship of their club. 

Nose says he does not doubt Khan's good intentions so this is not just a knocking post.  It deserves a more considered response.

He does say that our recruitment every year has been poor which is complete rubbish though.

[Statto]

Slav may very well have turned it round, but unfortunately we will never know, now that he is no longer with us.
With Claudio, I feel we have as much chance of turning it round than anyone else who may have been available, and more chance than most.  So let's wish him well for all our sakes.
But sadly at the end of the day we are only as strong as the weakest link, and you don't need to be Inspector Clueso to work that one out.

I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes. nd if he does he learns very slowly. I have no doubt he is one of us, no doubt at all that he wants the best. However, year on year our recruitment is poor, the amount was amazing and impressive but the wrong players save for Mitro. An obsession with lightweigt midfielders rather than a midfield enforcer, and a tough center half (maybe Mawsom will be OK but buying an injured man is a Mitroglu risk). the system doesn't work because we should have brought ion players to compliment and improve our squad and yet we do not have a decent full back in the place, bryan is just OK but hardly a step up. Not learning we need a completely new way to bring inm players not based on metrics run by young man with no real experience of football. When Man Utd recruited Best it was on the say so of older scouts who had seen it and done before. Times may be different but experience is what is needed in scouting, what you see with your eyes, not what the stats may or may not tell you. Stats can point in a direction you may not have thought of but how did we spend so much on two french players that have no experience of the Prem.. they may have talent but have taken far to long to settle. It is the not learning lessons that I find dispiriting and I do think Joca is paying the price, I am sure he would have come good, but certainly would have left it three more games....  rene went after a top class performance agonat liverpool, a point snatched away by a suitable late tackle.... joca had a point snatched away against liverpool by a bent ref and linesman,, and joca paid the price......  I suspect when we play liverpool at hiome ranieri better worry he will be with us the week after,.

"I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes" ??

Yes and he is absolutely minted because he hasn't a clue about anything!!  051 

Nose makes some fair points. You may or may not agree but that is a puerile response.   The fact that the owner is a highly successful businessman does not necessarily mean that he will exercise good judgement or demonstrate the ability to learn lessons in running a football club.  There are plenty of successful businessmen who have failed spectacularly in their stewardship of their club. 

Nose says he does not doubt Khan's good intentions so this is not just a knocking post.  It deserves a more considered response.

He does say that our recruitment every year has been poor which is complete rubbish though.

It is completely subjective and debatable, far from complete rubbish.

For a start I reckon well under 50% of our signings by value (ie price paid) have been regular starters. Off the top of my head Kebano, Kamara, Sigurdsson, Rui Fonte and Jozabed account for about 60% of our spending up to this season.

And obviously this season none of the big names except Mitrovic are holding down a starting XI at the moment.

Doesn't seem at all unreasonable to me to call that "poor".     

[Neutral Zone Ultra]

Slav may very well have turned it round, but unfortunately we will never know, now that he is no longer with us.
With Claudio, I feel we have as much chance of turning it round than anyone else who may have been available, and more chance than most.  So let's wish him well for all our sakes.
But sadly at the end of the day we are only as strong as the weakest link, and you don't need to be Inspector Clueso to work that one out.

I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes. nd if he does he learns very slowly. I have no doubt he is one of us, no doubt at all that he wants the best. However, year on year our recruitment is poor, the amount was amazing and impressive but the wrong players save for Mitro. An obsession with lightweigt midfielders rather than a midfield enforcer, and a tough center half (maybe Mawsom will be OK but buying an injured man is a Mitroglu risk). the system doesn't work because we should have brought ion players to compliment and improve our squad and yet we do not have a decent full back in the place, bryan is just OK but hardly a step up. Not learning we need a completely new way to bring inm players not based on metrics run by young man with no real experience of football. When Man Utd recruited Best it was on the say so of older scouts who had seen it and done before. Times may be different but experience is what is needed in scouting, what you see with your eyes, not what the stats may or may not tell you. Stats can point in a direction you may not have thought of but how did we spend so much on two french players that have no experience of the Prem.. they may have talent but have taken far to long to settle. It is the not learning lessons that I find dispiriting and I do think Joca is paying the price, I am sure he would have come good, but certainly would have left it three more games....  rene went after a top class performance agonat liverpool, a point snatched away by a suitable late tackle.... joca had a point snatched away against liverpool by a bent ref and linesman,, and joca paid the price......  I suspect when we play liverpool at hiome ranieri better worry he will be with us the week after,.

"I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes" ??

Yes and he is absolutely minted because he hasn't a clue about anything!!  051 

Nose makes some fair points. You may or may not agree but that is a puerile response.   The fact that the owner is a highly successful businessman does not necessarily mean that he will exercise good judgement or demonstrate the ability to learn lessons in running a football club.  There are plenty of successful businessmen who have failed spectacularly in their stewardship of their club. 

Nose says he does not doubt Khan's good intentions so this is not just a knocking post.  It deserves a more considered response.

He does say that our recruitment every year has been poor which is complete rubbish though.

It is completely subjective and debatable, far from complete rubbish.

For a start I reckon well under 50% of our signings by value (ie price paid) have been regular starters. Off the top of my head Kebano, Kamara, Sigurdsson, Rui Fonte and Jozabed account for about 60% of our spending up to this season.

And obviously this season none of the big names except Mitrovic are holding down a starting XI at the moment.

Doesn't seem at all unreasonable to me to call that "poor".     

I suppose it isn't massively unreasonable, however my view is that you have to sign a lot of players in order to have a respectable hit rate of players. As much as I believe in stats when it comes to signing players, I feel there is always an element of luck and pleasant and unpleasant surprise, i.e. the big money players who you expect to do well end up being crap, and vice versa. So for every Jozabed you have a Scott Malone, for every Rui Fonte you have a Stefan Johansen, etc. and they end up cancelling each other out. And obviously this isn't the case all the time, e.g. Ross McCormack, big money and was good, Gabor Kiraly cheap and crap. And yes, obviously in an ideal world we'd be psychics who could tell whether a player will be good or not beforehand but in practise it's hit and miss. It's the same at pretty much any club, they all have their good signings and the flops, like at the scum in the 00s, signed Drogba who was class and Shevchenko who was crap. Even under Hodgson we had plenty of flops, Kallio, Elm, Stoor, Eddie Johnson, Litmanen etc.

[Neutral Zone Ultra]

Slav may very well have turned it round, but unfortunately we will never know, now that he is no longer with us.
With Claudio, I feel we have as much chance of turning it round than anyone else who may have been available, and more chance than most.  So let's wish him well for all our sakes.
But sadly at the end of the day we are only as strong as the weakest link, and you don't need to be Inspector Clueso to work that one out.

I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes. nd if he does he learns very slowly. I have no doubt he is one of us, no doubt at all that he wants the best. However, year on year our recruitment is poor, the amount was amazing and impressive but the wrong players save for Mitro. An obsession with lightweigt midfielders rather than a midfield enforcer, and a tough center half (maybe Mawsom will be OK but buying an injured man is a Mitroglu risk). the system doesn't work because we should have brought ion players to compliment and improve our squad and yet we do not have a decent full back in the place, bryan is just OK but hardly a step up. Not learning we need a completely new way to bring inm players not based on metrics run by young man with no real experience of football. When Man Utd recruited Best it was on the say so of older scouts who had seen it and done before. Times may be different but experience is what is needed in scouting, what you see with your eyes, not what the stats may or may not tell you. Stats can point in a direction you may not have thought of but how did we spend so much on two french players that have no experience of the Prem.. they may have talent but have taken far to long to settle. It is the not learning lessons that I find dispiriting and I do think Joca is paying the price, I am sure he would have come good, but certainly would have left it three more games....  rene went after a top class performance agonat liverpool, a point snatched away by a suitable late tackle.... joca had a point snatched away against liverpool by a bent ref and linesman,, and joca paid the price......  I suspect when we play liverpool at hiome ranieri better worry he will be with us the week after,.

"I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes" ??

Yes and he is absolutely minted because he hasn't a clue about anything!!  051 

Nose makes some fair points. You may or may not agree but that is a puerile response.   The fact that the owner is a highly successful businessman does not necessarily mean that he will exercise good judgement or demonstrate the ability to learn lessons in running a football club.  There are plenty of successful businessmen who have failed spectacularly in their stewardship of their club. 

Nose says he does not doubt Khan's good intentions so this is not just a knocking post.  It deserves a more considered response.

He does say that our recruitment every year has been poor which is complete rubbish though.

It is completely subjective and debatable, far from complete rubbish.

For a start I reckon well under 50% of our signings by value (ie price paid) have been regular starters. Off the top of my head Kebano, Kamara, Sigurdsson, Rui Fonte and Jozabed account for about 60% of our spending up to this season.

And obviously this season none of the big names except Mitrovic are holding down a starting XI at the moment.

Doesn't seem at all unreasonable to me to call that "poor".     

Also, would you not agree, that, in terms of players in the squad, quality has been on an upward trend since 2015?

[Statto]

Slav may very well have turned it round, but unfortunately we will never know, now that he is no longer with us.
With Claudio, I feel we have as much chance of turning it round than anyone else who may have been available, and more chance than most.  So let's wish him well for all our sakes.
But sadly at the end of the day we are only as strong as the weakest link, and you don't need to be Inspector Clueso to work that one out.

I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes. nd if he does he learns very slowly. I have no doubt he is one of us, no doubt at all that he wants the best. However, year on year our recruitment is poor, the amount was amazing and impressive but the wrong players save for Mitro. An obsession with lightweigt midfielders rather than a midfield enforcer, and a tough center half (maybe Mawsom will be OK but buying an injured man is a Mitroglu risk). the system doesn't work because we should have brought ion players to compliment and improve our squad and yet we do not have a decent full back in the place, bryan is just OK but hardly a step up. Not learning we need a completely new way to bring inm players not based on metrics run by young man with no real experience of football. When Man Utd recruited Best it was on the say so of older scouts who had seen it and done before. Times may be different but experience is what is needed in scouting, what you see with your eyes, not what the stats may or may not tell you. Stats can point in a direction you may not have thought of but how did we spend so much on two french players that have no experience of the Prem.. they may have talent but have taken far to long to settle. It is the not learning lessons that I find dispiriting and I do think Joca is paying the price, I am sure he would have come good, but certainly would have left it three more games....  rene went after a top class performance agonat liverpool, a point snatched away by a suitable late tackle.... joca had a point snatched away against liverpool by a bent ref and linesman,, and joca paid the price......  I suspect when we play liverpool at hiome ranieri better worry he will be with us the week after,.

"I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes" ??

Yes and he is absolutely minted because he hasn't a clue about anything!!  051 

Nose makes some fair points. You may or may not agree but that is a puerile response.   The fact that the owner is a highly successful businessman does not necessarily mean that he will exercise good judgement or demonstrate the ability to learn lessons in running a football club.  There are plenty of successful businessmen who have failed spectacularly in their stewardship of their club. 

Nose says he does not doubt Khan's good intentions so this is not just a knocking post.  It deserves a more considered response.

He does say that our recruitment every year has been poor which is complete rubbish though.

It is completely subjective and debatable, far from complete rubbish.

For a start I reckon well under 50% of our signings by value (ie price paid) have been regular starters. Off the top of my head Kebano, Kamara, Sigurdsson, Rui Fonte and Jozabed account for about 60% of our spending up to this season.

And obviously this season none of the big names except Mitrovic are holding down a starting XI at the moment.

Doesn't seem at all unreasonable to me to call that "poor".     

Also, would you not agree, that, in terms of players in the squad, quality has been on an upward trend since 2015?

Yes ok. But we've spent about £150m in that time. And once you take out Rigg's players (Cairney, Ream et al), youth players (Sessegnon) and players who are only here on loan, have the residual players been worth that?
Ultimately due to the sheer scale of the Seri and Anguissa transfers compared to most of the others, I suppose ultimately this sort of analysis will depend on how those two signings turn out.   

[Neutral Zone Ultra]

Slav may very well have turned it round, but unfortunately we will never know, now that he is no longer with us.
With Claudio, I feel we have as much chance of turning it round than anyone else who may have been available, and more chance than most.  So let's wish him well for all our sakes.
But sadly at the end of the day we are only as strong as the weakest link, and you don't need to be Inspector Clueso to work that one out.

I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes. nd if he does he learns very slowly. I have no doubt he is one of us, no doubt at all that he wants the best. However, year on year our recruitment is poor, the amount was amazing and impressive but the wrong players save for Mitro. An obsession with lightweigt midfielders rather than a midfield enforcer, and a tough center half (maybe Mawsom will be OK but buying an injured man is a Mitroglu risk). the system doesn't work because we should have brought ion players to compliment and improve our squad and yet we do not have a decent full back in the place, bryan is just OK but hardly a step up. Not learning we need a completely new way to bring inm players not based on metrics run by young man with no real experience of football. When Man Utd recruited Best it was on the say so of older scouts who had seen it and done before. Times may be different but experience is what is needed in scouting, what you see with your eyes, not what the stats may or may not tell you. Stats can point in a direction you may not have thought of but how did we spend so much on two french players that have no experience of the Prem.. they may have talent but have taken far to long to settle. It is the not learning lessons that I find dispiriting and I do think Joca is paying the price, I am sure he would have come good, but certainly would have left it three more games....  rene went after a top class performance agonat liverpool, a point snatched away by a suitable late tackle.... joca had a point snatched away against liverpool by a bent ref and linesman,, and joca paid the price......  I suspect when we play liverpool at hiome ranieri better worry he will be with us the week after,.

"I think the problem is that the owner does not seem to learn from mistakes" ??

Yes and he is absolutely minted because he hasn't a clue about anything!!  051 

Nose makes some fair points. You may or may not agree but that is a puerile response.   The fact that the owner is a highly successful businessman does not necessarily mean that he will exercise good judgement or demonstrate the ability to learn lessons in running a football club.  There are plenty of successful businessmen who have failed spectacularly in their stewardship of their club. 

Nose says he does not doubt Khan's good intentions so this is not just a knocking post.  It deserves a more considered response.

He does say that our recruitment every year has been poor which is complete rubbish though.

It is completely subjective and debatable, far from complete rubbish.

For a start I reckon well under 50% of our signings by value (ie price paid) have been regular starters. Off the top of my head Kebano, Kamara, Sigurdsson, Rui Fonte and Jozabed account for about 60% of our spending up to this season.

And obviously this season none of the big names except Mitrovic are holding down a starting XI at the moment.

Doesn't seem at all unreasonable to me to call that "poor".     

Also, would you not agree, that, in terms of players in the squad, quality has been on an upward trend since 2015?

Yes ok. But we've spent about £150m in that time. And once you take out Rigg's players (Cairney, Ream et al), youth players (Sessegnon) and players who are only here on loan, have the residual players been worth that?
Ultimately due to the sheer scale of the Seri and Anguissa transfers compared to most of the others, I suppose ultimately this sort of analysis will depend on how those two signings turn out.

Apologies, I meant to say between then and this summer window (i.e. before any of this season's lot came in) which is about 50 million you claim. (I personally think it's more around the 35-40m mark) And in all honesty, yes I think it was, given that it helped transform our squad from Championship whipping boys to the ones doing the whipping. And yes, I put a lot of that down to Joka, don't for a second think I don't appreciate the job he did for us, but I think in that time the raw quality of the players we had in our squad significantly improved from how it was beforehand and that is down to the transfer system. Was it worth it? Well given that Premier League status is the most valuable asset an English club can have I would say, yes, absolutely.

[Statto]

If it is 35-40m... As I said about 16-17m of that (almost half) went on Fonte, Jozabed and Sigurdsson who added absolutely nothing. Another 9-10m (another quarter) went on Kebano and Kamara who were no more than squad players. Sorry but that is definitely "poor" IMO

[filham]

The summer signings have not proved to be a great success and the chairman should look at how the decisions to buy these players were made, I can't believe the coach had no input into the matter but he has now paid the price for his errors, the digital boys must now face the music.

We really can't afford more of the same and should revert to the system of the manager with help from football scouts deciding on the players they want and the chairman saying whether or not the club can afford the chosen players.