Nebulous nomenclature

Beachcomber

Beachcomber

Well-known member
What’s the exact purpose of a Sporting director? Wouldn’t it be much clearer and practically cohesive to have (a) a Head of Recruitment & Scouting, and (b) a Head of Coaching a.k.a. Director of Football on the board? The duties of the former are obvious. The duties of the latter would suit a Bowyer, Thompson, or, even, a Critchley. Someone to watch over the coaching infrastructure of our club, while being available as a sounding board for the management team, dispensing wise counsel if required. Surely, the day-to-day running of the team should be in the hands of Dobs plus one or two shrewd coaching choices?
 
To me it makes perfect sense to have a sporting director. The business of football has three basic sides to it, administrative, including legal and financial management, the commercial side and the sporting side.
 
Costero Poderoso said:
To me it makes perfect sense to have a sporting director. The business of football has three basic sides to it, administrative, including legal and financial management, the commercial side and the sporting side.
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It’s amazing how many directors of this that and the other a football club needs. I often wonder how they managed to function for the first 150 years or so.😀
 
Albert Ross said:
It’s amazing how many directors of this that and the other a football club needs. I often wonder how they managed to function for the first 150 years or so.😀
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The money wasn’t the same, nor were the wages. A football club is a complex business now.
 
Beachcomber said:
What’s the exact purpose of a Sporting director? Wouldn’t it be much clearer and practically cohesive to have (a) a Head of Recruitment & Scouting, and (b) a Head of Coaching a.k.a. Director of Football on the board? The duties of the former are obvious. The duties of the latter would suit a Bowyer, Thompson, or, even, a Critchley. Someone to watch over the coaching infrastructure of our club, while being available as a sounding board for the management team, dispensing wise counsel if required. Surely, the day-to-day running of the team should be in the hands of Dobs plus one or two shrewd coaching choices?
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Impressive title, I must say! Began to prepare myself for an announcement being made relating to the discovery of new planetary body in the night sky. Therefore, bit of an anticlimax when I got to the actual subject matter being covered... Impressive piece, Beachcomber, nevertheless.
 
Personally I wouldn't have a clue and would leave it up to those that do.

A lot has changed in modern football. Gone are the days of Chairman, manager, team.
 
Dr Hfuhruhurr said:
😅 thought for a moment this was another foreign manager we had interviewed
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When i was teaching i came across African kids called Marvellous, Gracious, Precious etc. And an Excellent. I'd have been more entertained if they'd been christened Nebulous tbh. Or Ludicrous. Enormous. Erogenous. Heinous. Bigamous. Ravenous.

So many options going to waste.
 
Albert Ross said:
It’s amazing how many directors of this that and the other a football club needs. I often wonder how they managed to function for the first 150 years or so.😀
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The club 100 years ago had a board of directors, and while they might not have had titles, I'm pretty sure they would have had areas of responsibility.
 
voyeur said:
When i was teaching i came across African kids called Marvellous, Gracious, Precious etc. And an Excellent. I'd have been more entertained if they'd been christened Nebulous tbh. Or Ludicrous. Enormous. Erogenous. Heinous. Bigamous. Ravenous.

So many options going to waste.
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I work with someone called Precious. Also recently had an email from someone called Happiness.
 
Wizaard said:
The club 100 years ago had a board of directors, and while they might not have had titles, I'm pretty sure they would have had areas of responsibility.
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They now have a board of directors, well at this minute they have a board of director, and still a crewe with fancy titles. The also have sports scientists, fitness coaches, physios etc. Yet still we have more long term injuries than ever.🤷
 
voyeur said:
When i was teaching i came across African kids called Marvellous, Gracious, Precious etc. And an Excellent. I'd have been more entertained if they'd been christened Nebulous tbh. Or Ludicrous. Enormous. Erogenous. Heinous. Bigamous. Ravenous.

So many options going to waste.
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I remember the weightlifter Precious Mackenzie. Nowadays, Androgynous is a likely option…
 
voyeur said:
When i was teaching i came across African kids called Marvellous, Gracious, Precious etc. And an Excellent. I'd have been more entertained if they'd been christened Nebulous tbh. Or Ludicrous. Enormous. Erogenous. Heinous. Bigamous. Ravenous.

So many options going to waste.
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Facetious 😀
 
tarantula said:
Impressive title, I must say! Began to prepare myself for an announcement being made relating to the discovery of new planetary body in the night sky. Therefore, bit of an anticlimax when I got to the actual subject matter being covered... Impressive piece, Beachcomber, nevertheless.
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😂👏
 
In business terms, BFC is tiny. Lots of paid directors would not sit right if it was my business. TBH, a decent CEO should deal with ALL the high level stuff, recruitment, commercial, etc. The Manager should be able to stand on his/her own two feet, with the whole footballing team reporting in to him/her. Recruitment should advise the Manager, with the CEO doing the heavy lifting of negotiation. Whilst I am keen on the Dobbs getting the job, if he needs a lot of advice from above, for me he isn't ready. Advice from an experienced number two, spot on, but not yet another director.

In League 1, we are not financially big enough to have a football Director, head coach, assistant coaches, etc. We need to be focusing on getting the manager the best players we can afford, losing a director gets us another decent player.
 
The key questions on Directors are :

  • to what extent should they drive aspects of the business? and
  • how complex is that business?

You'd hope that between them the Board would have a good grasp of all facets of the business and the ability to lead them. And, like it or not, the business of running a football club is about to become regulated to a much greater degree, which will bring new managerial demands with it.

I think that said greater regulation is badly needed, and worth the price that it comes at. But it does make the Director role more important and given how competitive an industry it is, it will never be an easy role to perform.
 
The basic point I was making is that while I don’t think it necessary to appoint a new CEO - given that we have two people covering Ops and Finances, plus a traditional Club Sec - I do believe we need both a head of recruitment & scouting, and a head of coaching. I’m not saying the jobs wouldn’t or couldn’t overlap, but seeking out new talent (all age groups), and overseeing the coaching set-up from seniors (1st team/Dev Squad) to juniors are essentially different briefs. With two experienced people in place to perform such tasks, the work of the coaching staff would be greatly facilitated and strengthened. And the likes of Dobs and Blinks, say, would benefit directly from having a coaching supremo on hand to mentor them if required.
 
Beachcomber said:
The basic point I was making is that while I don’t think it necessary to appoint a new CEO - given that we have two people covering Ops and Finances, plus a traditional Club Sec - I do believe we need both a head of recruitment & scouting, and a head of coaching. I’m not saying the jobs wouldn’t or couldn’t overlap, but seeking out new talent (all age groups), and overseeing the coaching set-up from seniors (1st team/Dev Squad) to juniors are essentially different briefs. With two experienced people in place to perform such tasks, the work of the coaching staff would be greatly facilitated and strengthened. And the likes of Dobs and Blinks, say, would benefit directly from having a coaching supremo on hand to mentor them if required.
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The problem is money. 8000 season tickets at £350 is 2.8m. There's other ticket income and other income streams but i think our squad wage bill is around 12m? We are trying live above our means, it would appear to me. Not to the extent other clubs do, but the economics of football do not add up. How do we pay for all the stuff we would like to have?
 
voyeur said:
The problem is money. 8000 season tickets at £350 is 2.8m. There's other ticket income and other income streams but i think our squad wage bill is around 12m? We are trying live above our means, it would appear to me. Not to the extent other clubs do, but the economics of football do not add up. How do we pay for all the stuff we would like to have?
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If last season’s squad are worth, or rather not worth but getting paid, an average 10k per week. They should be sued for obtaining money by deceit.🤣
 
voyeur said:
The problem is money. 8000 season tickets at £350 is 2.8m. There's other ticket income and other income streams but i think our squad wage bill is around 12m? We are trying live above our means, it would appear to me. Not to the extent other clubs do, but the economics of football do not add up. How do we pay for all the stuff we would like to have?
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In terms of average attendances, we were 48th in the League this year. Behind 19 EPL clubs, 20 in the Championship, 7 in L1 and 1 in L2. It's a useful benchmark.
 
Albert Ross said:
If last season’s squad are worth, or rather not worth but getting paid, an average 10k per week. They should be sued for obtaining money by deceit.🤣
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Our squad is more than 25 players. I tbink our average weekly wage is 5.9k? According to Kieran Maguire. But maybe 12m is the entire club wage bill. I dont know.
 
voyeur said:
Our squad is more than 25 players. I tbink our average weekly wage is 5.9k? According to Kieran Maguire. But maybe 12m is the entire club wage bill. I dont know.
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Our Squad is 25 players. It’s probably more if you include the passengers.😉
 
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