John Stephenson- Head of Football Operations

With my very supportive hat on of everything BFC does, I say all credit to the club. Nice to see the club growing.

On a personal note though, it does make me wonder why football clubs need so many people involved. So what will the Head of Football Operations do?
 
I reckon Simon is delivering on his and his wife's expressed commitment to developing a strong academy. Lovely stuff. This makes great business sense long term as well as being good for us as fans. In the EFL you're surely always likely to make more money on the players you develop and sell on than through the turnstiles etc?
 
I welcome the professionalism as contrast to the cowboy operation of the past but on the other hand, it does make you wonder how many people are needed to support a 11 lads kicking a ball around twice a week and some people coming to watch them for a bit...
 
I welcome the professional approach to having people in with the competence to do the job in hand.
But it does make you think how much overhead can be supported by a business the size of a couple of corner shop Tesco Express convenience stores!
 
Weren't Fleetwood derided on here a few years ago for making a rash of appointments just like this?
It's good to see SS investing again but let's hope he's got Pilley's golden touch for getting the right people in.
 
The heads-up for this appointment came at the structured dialogue meeting the other week and was mentioned in the SLO's Gazette column today.
 
I’m not sure why anyone would be upset with this appointment it shows the club are putting a great structure in place.

I’m not sure if it was BM or SS who said when they first came to the club that they wanted to bring structure to the club with the intention of when anyone leaves it doesn’t effect the club in a big way. It seems we’re doing this and it makes perfect sense that someone else can fit into a slot if a void occurs.
 
Martonmosser said:
He ties everything together on the footballing side and reports directly to the CEO Ben Mansford I would think. Allows Ben Mansford to concentrate on running the rest of the club for Simon 👍🏼 Another big step in the right direction 😀
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Shouldn’t Critchley report to Mansford or is that too obvious? As Dalglish said when he was Director of Football he had nothing to do all day so just played Golf. Seems a waste of money and an unnecessary bureaucratic tier to me.
 
Memphisboy said:
Shouldn’t Critchley report to Mansford or is that too obvious? As Dalglish said when he was Director of Football he had nothing to do all day so just played Golf. Seems a waste of money and an unnecessary bureaucratic tier to me.
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Good job Simon knows his business better than you hey? I’m sure there’s a reason why he’s a multi millionaire and you’re not 😉
 
td53 said:
I welcome the professionalism as contrast to the cowboy operation of the past but on the other hand, it does make you wonder how many people are needed to support a 11 lads kicking a ball around twice a week and some people coming to watch them for a bit...
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The article confirms that he will not just be involved with the first team but also the Academy.
 
A bit of searching found this post on a Sheffield United forum from 2013.

Not exactly universal praise...

www.s24su.com

John Stephenson - Head of football operations

Can anyone shed any light on role this useless ** plays at the Lane. I can remember McCabe speaking about him in glowing terms at the fans forum at Handsworth back in April saying he had helped us bring in quality players such as McMahon and oddly Westlake who he said would be a top...
www.s24su.com www.s24su.com
 
Sounds a good appointment, but I feel that this whole idea of having all these job titles is one of the necessary things about modern football due to the amount of work required to run a club.
 
And I wonder if Simon Sadler has read this Amazon bestseller?

The Scouting & Recruitment of Professional Footballers and the Recruitment Service: The Player Recruitment Service and the Recruitment Process: Volume 1: Amazon.co.uk: Stephenson, Mr John J: 9781477470343: Books

Buy The Scouting & Recruitment of Professional Footballers and the Recruitment Service: The Player Recruitment Service and the Recruitment Process: Volume 1 by Stephenson, Mr John J (ISBN: 9781477470343) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
www.amazon.co.uk
 
onedavebamber said:
A bit of searching found this post on a Sheffield United forum from 2013.

Not exactly universal praise...

www.s24su.com

John Stephenson - Head of football operations

Can anyone shed any light on role this useless ** plays at the Lane. I can remember McCabe speaking about him in glowing terms at the fans forum at Handsworth back in April saying he had helped us bring in quality players such as McMahon and oddly Westlake who he said would be a top...
www.s24su.com www.s24su.com
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"I'd go a little deeper into his remit, but is there any point, given that you've decided to abuse him whilst supposedly asking a question to find out what he does?"

I think that poster nails it.
 
onedavebamber said:
And I wonder if Simon Sadler has read this Amazon bestseller?

The Scouting & Recruitment of Professional Footballers and the Recruitment Service: The Player Recruitment Service and the Recruitment Process: Volume 1: Amazon.co.uk: Stephenson, Mr John J: 9781477470343: Books

Buy The Scouting & Recruitment of Professional Footballers and the Recruitment Service: The Player Recruitment Service and the Recruitment Process: Volume 1 by Stephenson, Mr John J (ISBN: 9781477470343) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
www.amazon.co.uk
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Hell of a snappy title that is!
 
so reading a bit about him there briefly sounds like he will be bringing more technology into the recruitment process. AI systems with modelling to bring in players suited to the squads playing style. Im imagining more so for the youth squad? Interesting, I can see this sort of stuff being big business in the coming years.

saw this linked on that twitter feed

About Us - Ai Abacus

ai-abacus.co.uk ai-abacus.co.uk
 
Bispham_Seasider said:
The article confirms that he will not just be involved with the first team but also the Academy.
Click to expand...

voyeur said:
I like the way our fans criticise the Oystons for not having any staff and not paying them enough etc and then we get an owner who appoints specialist staff etc and guess what....?! 🤣
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I'm not criticising them, I'm just observing the way football has become an increasingly complex business where it takes more and more people to support what is, at its heart a very, very simple game. I'm reading a lot of stuff about the early days of professionalism and it's striking how the game has evolved to involve tiers of management and analysts, whole swathes of people that supporters never see or really understand what they do.

Any yet, the game is still basically the same (give or take a few rules) as when the manager was also the masseur and the player just chucked their kit in their own bags and jumped on the train to games.

It's an observation about the game, not a critique of Sadler for bringing us in line with the competition.
 
I hope it all works out 👍
But I can’t help thinking about the similarity with where I worked, we ran a tight ship with good people, then there was a policy change & they brought in lots of other bods to manage what we’d already been doing & it became impossible to get things done, without authorisation from him, signature from her etc & they could never be got hold of, due to always being in meetings. Maybe this is how the world has become. Like I say hopefully this all works out well.
 
Sooty59 said:
I hope it all works out 👍
But I can’t help thinking about the similarity with where I worked, we ran a tight ship with good people, then there was a policy change & they brought in lots of other bods to manage what we’d already been doing & it became impossible to get things done, without authorisation from him, signature from her etc & they could never be got hold of, due to always being in meetings. Maybe this is how the world has become. Like I say hopefully this all works out well.
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The other thing you find when you increase tiers of management is then people start doing stuff to justify their position. So you get initiative after initiative and each different manager pushing that agenda and if you're not careful, you forget what it actually is you are there for and end up just in maelstrom of confusion over which initiative is the important one!

I'm sure that Sadler's thought it through and we'll win the Premier League in 2022/23 at a canter.
 
He's perm, but is he full time?

I read this as 95%+ an Academy/reserves appointment and nothing to do with the first team directly, so not in the DoF mode.
 
Sooty59 said:
I hope it all works out 👍
But I can’t help thinking about the similarity with where I worked, we ran a tight ship with good people, then there was a policy change & they brought in lots of other bods to manage what we’d already been doing & it became impossible to get things done, without authorisation from him, signature from her etc & they could never be got hold of, due to always being in meetings. Maybe this is how the world has become. Like I say hopefully this all works out well.
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I can so relate to that 👍

For us it happened after a takeover when we had been pursued for literally years. Our good profitable lean company was merged with a monolith, everything slowed down, cost when up, profit down, and they got rid of the original talent. A few years later the whole monolith went bust.

I hope this appointment is to fulfil a vital role in the whole business, and wish there fella all the best in his new position.
 
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