Guy Luzon has revealed he never had the final say on transfers at Charlton.
The former Addicks boss, who was sacked last October, says "the network scout" was behind the signings.
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/sport/charlton/14379470.Former_Charlton_Athletic_boss_reveals_he_never_had_final_say_on_transfers/
Comments
Move on.
But who to believe? Who to believe...
Do we have a name for this all-powerful and much travelled individual with such great knowledge of the need of five clubs in five different leagues?
The manager not having control of signings undermines his authority
I went from severe antipathy towards him to liking him personally when I met him. Not sure if he was any good as a manager though, but can anybody be here?
I reckon Riga is as under the thumb as all the others, the recent Lookman shenanigans indicate that.
Managers will always bang the table asking for signings with a near term impact rather than consider the longer term implications for the club.
The concept here is not flawed only the execution.
A constant presence above the manager who remains in place regardless of short term results, aligns the playing side of the club the whole way through it including academy the academy, and has a long term vision to work towards. Think Les Reed at Southampton. Ideally this person would also be heavily involved in management and coaching staff recruitment.
But RD will never cede control to someone who might tell him what he's doing is wrong, or won't work, or tells him he needs to spend more money, so we're left with some faceless Belgian laptop scouter who clearly has no idea of the nuances of different leagues having the final say and a Head Coach who reports into Katrien.
I strongly suspect that it is not how it works in Watford's network.
After all, he is a visionary, and how much work can it really be?
There are so few teams in English football who do well by refusing to give the manager the last say of signings. Brendan Rodgers for all his faults had Suarez sold and then saw him replaced by millions of pounds of dross. The same for Villas-Boas at Spurs when Bale was sold. Conversely, managers like Ferguson and Wenger have always been given latitude on their signings and you can't say they haven't planned for the future. Two other managers who always demand the final say on signings are Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis, and their claim to fame is that they've never been relegated. The reason? They know what they want to do with the club and they sign the right player to achieve their aims. Sunderland have improved a lot since they brought in Kirchoff, Kone and Khazri.
Some teams like Swansea and Southampton work with a system where the manager isn't so directly involved, but they have a tactic and require a certain profile of player in each position, and then make a list of possible candidates for the role which they regularly update. The same goes for the manager, and he is brought in to specifically fit this plan, so he's aware of it when he signs up. And even then the manager still gets the sign-off, and gets to recommend players - Jordy Clasie at Southampton as an example. Our whole concept of having some idiot wandering round and recommending seemingly random footballers that the manager has no say in is absolutely nuts - and it's being borne out with our place in the table. 'The club's interests and the manager's interests are not aligned'. I mean, honestly..
Sounds like they were listening.
And no one with an ounce of knowledge or experience of the Championship, or the contacts that come with the years, has had any input or been in a position to point out to Roland that he has put in place a system that is guaranteed to fail unless he gets very, very lucky.
There's a man around currently kicking his heels that would have solved this problem overnight and would also have instantly brought the fans back onside but sadly RD and KM knew better.
And no, I don't mean Dowie...