Breaking - Tony Khan Appointed

[alfie]

I do find it somewhat presumptuous that some people accuse others of not knowing anything about football when they themselves have no knowledge of what that other person knows.

How do you know?  :005: See what I did there?
The
The fact that apparently Tony Khan has been working behind the scenes with the transfers since the Summer and the general running of the club. Seeing that we are in a spell of being our most successful since relegation despite those of us who moan about the lack of a forward being signed. I tend to see this as only a positive. Better a toy play thing than being ignored. Did we all learn nothing from Toy Story?

I do see what you did, and my answer is none of us know what we don't know.
Not really sure that is an answer actually, just a mere statement.

[nose]

I do find it somewhat presumptuous that some people accuse others of not knowing anything about football when they themselves have no knowledge of what that other person knows.

How do you know?  :005: See what I did there?
The
The fact that apparently Tony Khan has been working behind the scenes with the transfers since the Summer and the general running of the club. Seeing that we are in a spell of being our most successful since relegation despite those of us who moan about the lack of a forward being signed. I tend to see this as only a positive. Better a toy play thing than being ignored. Did we all learn nothing from Toy Story?

I do see what you did, and my answer is none of us know what we don't know.
Not really sure that is an answer actually, just a mere statement.

Just to be clear... IMO family businesses and appointing family members into important places is not a bad thing. Many pundits agree that this type of thing actuially adds levels of long term stability and security, and for that I am a bit more happy because my views on the owners lack of interest (not showing up) are well known. So ti be clear I thnik the appointment of Tony shows good intent for the future.

However, there is always a counter argument to concern us. Director of football is a very specialised position, not a general management role. at 34, from the USA (and unfortunately for those that think otherwise it really does count against him just based on cultural and instinct judgement type matters), I do not see that such an inexperienced person would normally be appointed to such a position, even in a family company.

My concern (not negative but a genuine concern) is that tony is not sufficently experienced for the specialist role. clearly what happened in January and his failure to discuss that in his interviews is a worry. I repeat what i said above, if he was anything but hios dad's sonm he would not even have made it to an interview. I think to take on this role he needed much more experience.

I am happy to get behind him and see how itr pans out because what has won me over, for the moment, was his interview on the offal, he says we WILL get back to the prem....  I like the sound of that and so hopefully ambition will trump inexperience.... I think his heart is in the right place.

Hopefully he will also give some more visible leadership, and that will be good too. 

[rogerpbackinMidEastUS]

I do find it somewhat presumptuous that some people accuse others of not knowing anything about football when they themselves have no knowledge of what that other person knows.

Tony Khan was at pains to point out in the offal video how little involvement he'd had in the two seasons preceding this one and he'd had no football experience at all before that. So he's got about a year's experience in this field at the most. I don't think you have to be Sherlock Holmes, Stephen Hawking or "presumptuous" to say, on that basis, his football knowledge is probably still quite limited.

But surely he doesn't have to know about 'playing football' just about business, and then surround himself with the right
people which seems to be the case.
On a similar/smaller scale, I knew nothing about Dementia, Alzheimer's or Parkinson' 12 months ago and now I am department
head of a 23 resident facility.
Dedication, acumen, a good and knowledgeable team, people management, fiscal knowledge, compassion and training have been the key to this old fools diversification.

WE are definitely on the up, let's just enjoy this chapter in our history and remember Clay/Bulstrode

[nose]

I do find it somewhat presumptuous that some people accuse others of not knowing anything about football when they themselves have no knowledge of what that other person knows.

Tony Khan was at pains to point out in the offal video how little involvement he'd had in the two seasons preceding this one and he'd had no football experience at all before that. So he's got about a year's experience in this field at the most. I don't think you have to be Sherlock Holmes, Stephen Hawking or "presumptuous" to say, on that basis, his football knowledge is probably still quite limited.

But surely he doesn't have to know about 'playing football' just about business, and then surround himself with the right
people which seems to be the case.
On a similar/smaller scale, I knew nothing about Dementia, Alzheimer's or Parkinson' 12 months ago and now I am department
head of a 23 resident facility.
Dedication, acumen, a good and knowledgeable team, people management, fiscal knowledge, compassion and training have been the key to this old fools diversification.

WE are definitely on the up, let's just enjoy this chapter in our history and remember Clay/Bulstrode

MAF got keegan
you would normally assume that you need a specialist for a spcialist position
for the minute I can accept tony Kahn is facing oin the right diirection and has ambition and will eb a proper link to his dad the owner, thus proper leadership. but to suggest the director of football, who by his own admission has about 1 year experience at a football club, is concerning. A director of football is usually an elder statesman with wise words. Our man cannot be that.

what we have here is an unkown that may work, but it is not what one would normally expect.

Personally I think it has a reasonable chance of success.... but if we fail as a result (and by that I mean not return to the prem as tony himself has set as the goal) , what will happen, will he get the sack? No he will not, will he walk, maybe. What will his dad do then? what will the club be worth then? Such comments are the 'the other hand' As I said before I think this has chances, but it also has dangers too. The extension to joca's contract was a boost and a suprise (timing) and may mean summer transfers will be rather better than what we have done to date, but that is my guess.

[MJG]

I think some are clearly getting too hung up on his title.
As he says he has basically been doing this job since start of last summer.
I'd expect not much to change that's already been going on except that Talbot will have much more of a hands on role running the 'football' related stuff such as scouting, facilities and other things that are not player signing related, maybe input into whats required at youth levels and training ground facilities.

I think Tony will concentrate on the analysis side of the club working on pre and post match data and of course player scouting using the data they have.

The finance side will I think still be in the hands of the CEO and that dept.

So his 'knowledge' as it is I dont think will harm the running of the club, and hopefully(and I think he will having meet with him) he will listen to advice offered to him.

[alfie]

My comments were not specifically aimed at Nose, but it just gets me when something is aimed at someone without really knowing about them, what they know, how they feel, what they think.

[nose]

My comments were not specifically aimed at Nose, but it just gets me when something is aimed at someone without really knowing about them, what they know, how they feel, what they think.

i know that. and if you read what I say in its entirety you will see I am more positive than not. i have honestly tried to be even handed.... familly businesses sound good for the long term....   but by the young man's own admission he is not that experienced. BUT he spoke in very positive and enthsiastic terms , the sky being the limit approach and I really like that.

i know some people are 100% negative , and despite some of what i feel obliged to  say, that just isn't me, the more i think about it the more relaxed i get..... but time will tell we shall see.

[Jimmy Hill]

If anyone hasn't watched moneyball with Bradd Pitt nows the time (its on netflix). I'm not saying it will work in football but it makes sense to put him in charge if you are going down that route. Liverpool's owners are mentioned in the film and coincidently they have a statistical approach to making signings. Sorry if this has already been mentioned havent had time to read through the thread yet.

[filham]

Difficult to come to a definite conclusion about all of this because we do not know what the actual set up is and who has the most influence in playing and transfer matters.
Re assuring to hear the name of Brian Talbot on the Board but still worrying that we have no idea of the relative power of Stats Boy and The Head Coach in transfer matters.
To say that the summer transfer deals were successful when the single most expensive signing (£4m) is struggling for a place on the bench is questionable.

The big positive is that today the Telegraph reported that Jocanovic has signed a new contract keeping him at Craven Cottage until 2019.
The positive 

[MJG]

but still worrying that we have no idea of the relative power of Stats Boy and The Head Coach in transfer matters.

I posted this a few weeks ago, have had it explained to me in two different meetings and in conversation with those involved


In short it works like this..

A name lands on the desk from whatever route... Be that agent, manager/coach, scout, stats, tea lady, another manager.

Scouting report is done
Stats report is done

As long as both say yes it goes to SJ... Does he want him?

If yes then onto the money side of things and negotiating to sign.

That's it in a nutshell.

EDIT: Actually Stuart has nailed it at http://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?topic=58412.0

[Forever Fulham]

When I was 34, I had an unjustifiably  high opinion of myself.  Much wiser now than I was then.   k

When you're the son of the owner, how much harder is it to be fairly judged?  I hope he went to great schools, got a superior education, some real life experience, and wasn't pampered and protected as the son of a billionaire...

As to Kline.  An attorney who decided to open a performance stats analytics biz and had the good fortune to befriend the billionaire's son.  Maybe he's been a key contributor to our come back this season.  I hope so. 

[WolverineFFC]

If anyone hasn't watched moneyball with Bradd Pitt nows the time (its on netflix). I'm not saying it will work in football but it makes sense to put him in charge if you are going down that route. Liverpool's owners are mentioned in the film and coincidently they have a statistical approach to making signings. Sorry if this has already been mentioned havent had time to read through the thread yet.

Better yet, read the book "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis. I read it in my early 20's and it gave me a completely different way of looking at professional sport franchises. A large proportion of the information was arcane at the time, but is common knowledge for any serious baseball fan today. The basic premise was to try to remove the bias and inaccuracies of scouting by replacing it with cold, hard statistics. In doing so, they were able find the inefficiencies in baseball's talent evaluation system at that time and exploit it for their competitive advantage.

Kline and Tony Khan are apparently trying to create something similar at Fulham.

[alfie]

My comments were not specifically aimed at Nose, but it just gets me when something is aimed at someone without really knowing about them, what they know, how they feel, what they think.

i know that. and if you read what I say in its entirety you will see I am more positive than not. i have honestly tried to be even handed.... familly businesses sound good for the long term....   but by the young man's own admission he is not that experienced. BUT he spoke in very positive and enthsiastic terms , the sky being the limit approach and I really like that.

i know some people are 100% negative , and despite some of what i feel obliged to  say, that just isn't me, the more i think about it the more relaxed i get..... but time will tell we shall see.

As always you answer in a clear and understanding way.

[dannyboi-ffc]

Haven't had time to read the whole discussion. But for what it's worth I'll give my view on the appointment. Actually I say appointment, in actual fact from my perspective it's just an announcement.

I don't know why it's been confirmed now or why it wasn't confirmed  at the end of last season but IMO this isn't new news. He's been doing this role all season anyway. He confirmed that in his interview on Talksport but using common sense I gathered that anyway.

At least he's got Talbot assisting as well as Kline, for me that's reassuring knowing that he takes the football aspect as seriously as the laptop side.

He said in his interview that he wasn't happy with the way we were being run as a club  which is why he became more hands on end of last season and suggested prior to this he had next to no involvement. The fact he wasn't happy suggests an issue with Rigg possibly which would make sense with his departure.

And if this is the case, after 2 seasons of despair we are finally turning it around. I ignorantly put that down to just Jokanovic being a great manager but maybe Tony is making a difference behind the scenes?

The most important factor for me is the fact this has been the way it's been all season. If Jokanovic wasn't happy with it he wouldn't have committed to the club with the new contract.

So my view will always be, if Joka is happy with it..........then so am I.