Director Of Football

[DTG]

In my opinion this season has shown up the complete lack of Football knowledge of our Board. Mrs Bristow has been appointed Chairman and admits that she has no managerial of football skills. I believe she will make an excellent Figurehead and spokesman for TUFC because of her inexperience ( a bit like Delia if you will). Now that brings me on to how do we bridge these obvious skill shortages? Clearly the 2/3 advisors Baker/Phillips/Rowe are out of their depth and lack any credibility or competence as we have witnessed over the last few seasons. They have consistently botched things up and quite frankly are responsible for the poor relationship between club and fans of late. Finally a good decision has been forced on them with the promotion of Andrew Candy who along with Tim Herbert and Dean Edwards come out of the backroom management with any credit. If the running of TUFC is left in the hands of Baker,Phillips and Rowe then I fear for next season and I'm sure I am not alone.

A clear out is needed. The 3 Amigos should be asked to step down and a Director Of Football appointed. To those who would say we can't afford it....I would say we can't afford not to. Relegation to the Conference would have cost us 650,000 quid in lost revenue. Baker and Phillips will take us there again next season if they are left anywhere near an advisory capacity.

So who's in the frame? Well, the obvious candidate would be Neil Warnock but I think he's casting green eyes towards Cornwall. Who else would be up for it? We had Colin Lee but the accountants saw him off. Maybe Alan Knill as a reward for his efforts? I'm struggling to come up with any other names, but we are in desperate need of someone who knows what the hell they're doing!

[DevonYellow]

Neil Warnock expressed an interest in such a role in a recent tv interview. Lives in Cornwall, is fond of the club, but wouldn't be cheap.

[Plymouth Gull]

Heard several links with Warnock going down to Home Park. ^

[PhilGull]

Warnock has hinted at wanting an 'upstairs' role but however fond he is of TUFC his heart really lies down the road.
I do like the idea of a 'footballing' person on the board but it has to be done carefully. They need a very specific job spec that is made clear to the manager to avoid any toe stepping. Also, we would need to be sure none of the Colin Lee mistakes are made again, for a start he cannot be given an unlimited expenses account!

[tauntongull]

Warnock has hinted at wanting an 'upstairs' role but however fond he is of TUFC his heart really lies down the road.
I do like the idea of a 'footballing' person on the board but it has to be done carefully. They need a very specific job spec that is made clear to the manager to avoid any toe stepping. Also, we would need to be sure none of the Colin Lee mistakes are made again, for a start he cannot be given an unlimited expenses account!

I agree PhilGull. A defined role with accountability and clear deliverables are what is required here. Notoriously DOF's command high salaries but I personally do not want the club simply paying for a name. Equally if we have to pay for a reasonable package I want us to enure we handle the contracts correctly to ensure we protect ourselves well.

[Bloggy]

How about offering Martin the role and moving him 'upstairs'. We still have to honor his rolling year long contract and if they offer Knill/Brass the manager/coach roles, they'd have to pay up on Ling anyway.

[SuperNickyWroe]

how about we dont bother.

and spent the money on one or more players.

[Dave]

Relegation would have cost us £400k year one and £600k every year there after, so you will not find me dissagreeing with you on that point there is serveral things we can't afford to get wrong this summer, otherwise will find ourselves in another firefight next term.

However we do not nor should not need what would be a very expensive D-O-F there is enough people around our club with the football experience like Dean Edwards and buinsness experience like Andy Candy and the entire board of directors to start getting things right.

There has been two main problems to me this season, one the squad as a whole just was not good enough and two when things started to go wrong it seemed to me that no one on our board was prepared to stand up and take some responsibility until it was nearly to late.

I am not in favour of of chairman and directors who are forever poking their noses into the football side of things, however when you hear Simon Baker say after Lingy went sick, we have asked Shaun Taylor if he wants coaching help and he says he is happy with the team around him, yet we were losing game after game, even went 3 games with out barely mustering a single shot on goal, it took another 3 games for Baker and co to take the decision out of Taylor's hands.

All that needs to change, and this view point is formed from me reading between the lines, is our board of directors have to realize that decision making on all aspects of running the club including the football side of things are down to them, their in charge.

Our directors stand on the popside, some sit in the bench, some even sit in the directors box, they do see what we see, if they are not happy with what they see on the pitch it is the right thing for them to offer help to coahing staff in whatever form they can, however if the manager can't make the decisions required then step up and make it for them.

We can not afford to go through this again, I know the club runs of a limited budget, however it's about making the best of what you have, we did not do that this season, not even close.

Back to your point, if we did appoint a D-O-F it probably would cost us 1 maybe 2 big signings, I would rather our club take a long hard look at it's finances and draw every little £ they can lay their hands on and back who ever our manager is for next term.

[DTG]

Ling has worked alongside Barry Hearn so will have picked up a few tricks that's for sure. Would he have the stones for the job tho? Telling the chuckle brothers to jog on would be his first job. The whole point is that we don't leave the afore mentioned undynamic duo in charge. Not unless we want to be jumping up and down on the relegation trapdoor with concrete boots next season. Maybe a DoF isn't what's needed, just competent management.

[Gullscorer]

Perhaps a Director of Football could work from home, part-time, and combine duties with scouting and spying on opponents' games..

[SuperNickyWroe]

Perhaps a Director of Football could work from home, part-time, and combine duties with scouting and spying on opponents' games..

sounds like a bigger waste of money than a DOF!

[Dave]

Ling has worked alongside Barry Hearn so will have picked up a few tricks that's for sure. Would he have the stones for the job tho? Telling the chuckle brothers to jog on would be his first job. The whole point is that we don't leave the afore mentioned undynamic duo in charge. Not unless we want to be jumping up and down on the relegation trapdoor with concrete boots next season. Maybe a DoF isn't what's needed, just competent management.

Again you will not find me dissagreeing with that, pretty much all of us think the board pre christmas thought everything would be ok and the team would get through to the end of season and secure a comfortable midtable finish. I think there was certain amount of heads buried in the sand through Jan and Feb.

As as club we can't go sacking managers everytime we hit a prolonged winless run, however thats when communitaction between the board and manager has to be at it's best, both manager and board have to pull in the same direction, and if the manager asks for help bring that help in, if the manager will not ask for help and board think he needs it, make the manager accept the help, what we can't do in the future is nothing.

[Sunnysideup]

There has been two main problems to me this season, one the squad as a whole just was not good enough and two when things started to go wrong it seemed to me that no one on our board was prepared to stand up and take some responsibility until it was nearly to late.

Not wishing to quote a long post just to comment on one little bit but the last 4 or 5 performances have been pretty much the squad we started with (plus Benyon?). They play a different style, look more solid and try and pressure the opposition. Perhaps the squad was mostly good enough (though I think Eunan was certainly missed) and it was the way they were set up to play?

[MF68]

This is Torquay United. Why do we need a DOF? We need a clearout of the deadwood, and I mean Players and Board.