If I Were a Director (2)...

nickbrod · Post by **nickbrod** » 16 Nov 2013, 22:26

....I would be getting together over the weekend and working out (1) the financial implications of relegation to non-league football,(2) the financial implications and acceptance of making a huge mistake in appointing and now dismissing the managership duo and (3) going through a proper selection process for a new, hungry young manager looking to make a name for himself. Chris Hargreaves should certainly be interviewed. In the interim let Mansell & Veysey or even Geoff Harrop take charge.

wodger of awabia · Post by **wodger of awabia** » 16 Nov 2013, 23:32

I don't doubt that the Directors are very worried about Knills performance as the manager. We should be re-assured by the sacking of Ling that they will act when they see fit. My worry is that they will not do it in good time. They have provided a new stand ( Bristow's Bench ) & much improved facilities at the training ground, I just can't see that they will let this investment go to waste & allow Knill to take us into the Conference.
I.M.O. the time for the sacking is now, there are still 30 games left, plenty of time for the new manager to turn things around

AustrianAndyGull · Post by **AustrianAndyGull** » 16 Nov 2013, 23:56

Why can't we just have a manager capable of keeping us comfortably mid table? It's not really that difficult. Employ someone with some life in them for Gods sake.

arcadia · Post by **arcadia** » 17 Nov 2013, 20:19

AustrianAndyGull wrote:Why can't we just have a manager capable of keeping us comfortably mid table? It's not really that difficult. Employ someone with some life in them for Gods sake.

If it was that easy all the teams who had no money would play safe. If this manager could set up a team properly we would be midtable

arcadia · Post by **arcadia** » 17 Nov 2013, 20:30

Look at the young top non-league managers and see if you can pair them with an ex-gull player with contacts. The club needs an injection of fresh idea's running the side. Someone who can change formations during the game. Everyone needs to believe again.

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 17 Nov 2013, 20:39

A perfectly fair thread and OP. It has a snag, sadly, and I shall demonstrate it thus.

You're tied into a mortgage. You owe the bank £500/month for 25 years. It's mortgage day. The implications of not paying your mortgage are: eviction, destitution, divorce, loss of job, loss of possessions, loss of access to children. The likelihood is that you will have killed yourself within a year.
Now, we all see that the best situation is to pay the mortgage. Sadly, there's a hitch: you only have 76p in your account.

Suddenly, your choice really is no choice at all.

Matt.

usagullmichigan · Post by **usagullmichigan** » 17 Nov 2013, 20:43

The board are a bunch of doughnuts for signing a dud who had crappy record in the first place. Poor business decisions are costly.

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 17 Nov 2013, 20:59

The Board signed Ling: everyone sighed and said he was shit and that they didn't know what they were doing.
Ling took us to the playoffs: Ling is a managerial genius. You couldn't find a single person to say a bad word about him.
We start the year badly because Ling is drunk: everyone says Ling is a **** and that the Board never should have signed him.
Ling gets sacked: Ling is a managerial God, the Board are now c****.

That's what we like to see, consistency.

Matt.

ADMIN EDIT - removed swearing

usagullmichigan · Post by **usagullmichigan** » 17 Nov 2013, 21:01

ferrarilover wrote:The Board signed Ling: everyone sighed and said he was sh*t and that they didn't know what they were doing.
Ling took us to the playoffs: Ling is a managerial genius. You couldn't find a single person to say a bad word about him.
We start the year badly because Ling is drunk: everyone says Ling is a **** and that the Board never should have signed him.
Ling gets sacked: Ling is a managerial God, the Board are now c****

That's what we like to see, consistency.

Matt.

I thought Ling was always ok. It's just a few morons who think having an illness makes him an arse. Ling should never have been fired and now we are paying for the BIG mistake. Again poor judgement but Thea wanted him out.

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 17 Nov 2013, 21:15

Ok Edd, here's the thing.
Unless he's done something illegal or very, very wrong, sacking a bloke is breaching his contact. That's the very strict legal reality. To sack a bloke without sufficiently tangible reason is a breach of contract.
It's the same everywhere. It's why you're always seeing stories on the news about BBC or NHS or Council bosses being sacked, but being given millions of pounds as a result.
With football managers, it's no different. If we want a bloke to leave, but he hasn't done anything seriously wrong, then we have to pay him off. Now, that payoff could be anything. It could be a packet of pork scratchings, it could be a voucher for a wash and blow dry at the local hair salon, it could be £100, 000, 000 cash.
What will happen is that Knill will be called into the Boardroom and will be told that he is being let go
The club, knowing that he won't simply walk out with nothing, offer him, say, 6 months salary. He can accept or reject. What they're doing at this point is creating a new contract. They are essentially paying him not to take them to an Employment Tribunal.
The form that the payment takes is entirely up to the parties involved.
Your correct in that, sometimes, the deal is that a manager will be paid his salary exactly as though he were still employed by the club, until he finds another job. This is the case with Bobby Di Matteo at Chelsea.

Regardless of what happens with anyone else, Knill will want paying. Standard with football that he'd get a full years money. If you watch 'The Damned United' (BRILLIANT film), you'll see Cloughy negotiating his way out of Leeds. He demands the remainder of his salary, plus his tax and NI paid for a year, plus his club car, plus some other stuff. It might well be that's what Knilly would want. He'd want his Toyota, he'd want his salary, he'd want £20, 000 in 'moving expenses' plus God knows what else (please don't take this as my suggesting that Knill is somehow of flawed character, if I'd done what he's done and moved my life down here, worked for months for almost nothing, done my best etc, then I'd be demanding all sorts).
This is the trouble with the 'Just Sack Knill' brigade. It's not that simple.
As for Brassy, he'd probably leave too, in reality, but even if he stayed, we'd still have to pay Knill, for the reasons that the rest of this post makes clear.

Got it?

Matt.

AustrianAndyGull · Post by **AustrianAndyGull** » 17 Nov 2013, 21:26

If Knill can't be sacked then we get behind the players but barrack Knill until he gets the message and leaves. I'd rather that than have someone like Knill fail, take us down to the conference and then p*ss off never to be seen again when his contract is up. I know it's a far from ideal scenario but if he stays we go down so it's either accept it now or do the one thing we can and that is to make his job so uncomfortable it becomes untenable for him. I don't mean dump a horses head in his bed but just make managing us in games a horrible experience. He can avoid this by being a better manager and not taking the p*ss of course if he wants to.

I'm not ashamed to say it, I've never done anything like this before and it goes against my better judgement but if it needs doing then it needs doing. The club is more important than Mr Knill and for those who say why don't we just give him our full support instead. Do you REALLY think that is going to work with this idiot?

Look at the last 16 games, we've been shocking in just about all of them.

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 17 Nov 2013, 21:29

How to win friends and influence people. He won't leave. When was the last time a manager really left a job?

Matt.

usagullmichigan · Post by **usagullmichigan** » 17 Nov 2013, 21:30

Maybe that will turn him to drink Andy so then they will sack him...good plan! lol

AustrianAndyGull · Post by **AustrianAndyGull** » 17 Nov 2013, 21:31

So what's the most viable answer then Matt?

AustrianAndyGull · Post by **AustrianAndyGull** » 17 Nov 2013, 21:39

I'm happy to support him so long as we get nobody moaning when it goes pear shaped. If we all accept conference football now then we can support Knill to the hilt knowing it doesn't really matter anymore. If everyone is happy with that we can now enjoy the rest of our season.

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