Julian Winter interview

[KenMcnaughtsNuts]

if we got rid of him to cut costs...and we now need to save even more money...you see where im going with this...

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Redacted

And there I was having a little hope.

 

[Bladesway]

To everyone going on about his corporate speak, what the fuck did you expect. I dont think its fair to beat the bloke up for being what he is. Talk of visions and balance sheets is part of his life. He's better than Dave Green but so is a manky old bit of cut out carpet.

Just another McCabe stooge but why be shocked by that?

 

[raul]

No one is Bladesway, the reason for the genral is dismay is twofold.

We're in a terrible place in our relationship, hence are conditioned to react badly as Alco has said, (however saying he must be good because he's been here before doesn't stack up - shall we get Quickfix in?) and also - and for me ther major reason for the disssent - is it's yet ANOTHER fresh start where we've learned lesons and it's all going to get better now etc etc.

When someone does rather than talks, they'll get the credit they deserve. Until then it's (yet more) free beer tomorrow -esque hot air.

 

[LSF]

Redacted

Strong words!
Possibly the words of someone who was affected personally by Winter's last tenure?

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

Yep, he's talked the talk and it all makes perfect sense but actions speak louder than more promises of a brave new world. The appointment, whoever it is, will tell us more than anything Winter or McCabe say in the meantime.

 

[SotonBlade]

As alluded above, all fans want is actions and tangible solutions. Not talk of actions and tangible solutions. It's time to walk the walk.

 

[Railway Blade]

It's going to be very difficult to be self sustaining. Turnover £10m, wages with the protocol £6m (max) , admin exps £6m (approx) Loan interst £2.5m. Somewhere we need to lose £4.5m per year. If it's off the wages then we operate with a budget of £1.5m. And this also doesnt take into account other direct costs of turnover.

Until we get rid of deals like these we are going nowhere

"On 7 February 2011 land held within Sheffield United plc, with a net book value of £250 was sold to The
Scarborough Group Foundation for £500,000. The land was subsequently leased back on an operating lease
over 10 years at a rental of £60,000 per annum."

 

[super_pig]

how do yeovil operate on a budget of 4k crowds then??

 

[alcoblade]

(however saying he must be good because he's been here before doesn't stack up - shall we get Quickfix in?) .

I think you misunderstood. He's been here before. We knew his capabilities. We considered it and asked him back.

That's not the same as having someone back who failed. I'm just suggesting we didn't need to get him back, and as such those in the know must have rated his abilities.

UTB

 

[FleaPitBlade]

how do yeovil operate on a budget of 4k crowds then??

£2m+ (guesstimate) a year to run the academy, which is a bill that most of our current contemporaries don't have to find, for one.

Plus the level of staff and overheads is much bigger than, i'd guess, anybody else in League One and many in the Championship.

We're a club that has been set up to run on Championship/Premiership revenue (plus some extra from the McCabe family pocket) for the past decade and now we don't have that income.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

It's going to be very difficult to be self sustaining. Turnover £10m, wages with the protocol £6m (max) , admin exps £6m (approx) Loan interst £2.5m. Somewhere we need to lose £4.5m per year. If it's off the wages then we operate with a budget of £1.5m. And this also doesnt take into account other direct costs of turnover.

Until we get rid of deals like these we are going nowhere

"On 7 February 2011 land held within Sheffield United plc, with a net book value of £250 was sold to The
Scarborough Group Foundation for £500,000. The land was subsequently leased back on an operating lease
over 10 years at a rental of £60,000 per annum."

Can anyone on here have a good guess at whet it would cost McC to draw a line in the sand.

We lose the debts/loans to him, get the ground back and a £7M player/admim budget.

How much would that cost him?

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

£2m+ (guesstimate) a year to run the academy, which is a bill that most of our current contemporaries don't have to find, for one.

Plus the level of staff and overheads is much bigger than, i'd guess, anybody else in League One and many in the Championship.

We're a club that has been set up to run on Championship/Premiership revenue (plus some extra from the McCabe family pocket) for the past decade and now we don't have that income.

Turn two players out per year, sell one and keep one, its self funding?

 

[kingston RAWW]

Have we got rid of ties with those other clubs yet? Chengdu. Chinese for S**t.
http://wildeastfootball.net/2012/09/chengdu-blades-the-failed-experiment/

 

[alcoblade]

£2m+ (guesstimate) a year to run the academy, which is a bill that most of our current contemporaries don't have to find, for one.

Close it then. Rely on buying young talent from elsewhere. Last season that was Blackman and Miller - not bad.


UTB

 

[Sothall_Blade]

£2m+ (guesstimate) a year to run the academy, which is a bill that most of our current contemporaries don't have to find, for one.

Plus the level of staff and overheads is much bigger than, i'd guess, anybody else in League One and many in the Championship.

We're a club that has been set up to run on Championship/Premiership revenue (plus some extra from the McCabe family pocket) for the past decade and now we don't have that income.

They told us the Academy was going to be self-sustaining. I can't believe it's really costing £2M a year!

Regarding the staff and overheads. I've said it before but do the ticket office and club shop really need to stay open 9-5 every weekday + Saturday mornings + longer hours on matchdays?

They could easily reduce that to 3 days opening, slashing those costs by 50%, without losing any business.
(Fans will simply fit their ticket and tat buying habits around the new opening hours).

 

[Sothall_Blade]

As far as I can see Julian Winter didn’t actually “duck” any of the questions he was asked.
The problem is, some of the most important ones were never raised.
I would be very interested to know the answers to these for example:-

1) Who are the three people interviewing the potential new managers? What is Kevin McCabe’s involvement? Will he make the final decision?

2) What were the criteria that have been used to identify those on the shortlist?

3) Did all those on the shortlist apply for the job? Or are manager’s who haven’t applied being considered also?

4) Are any of the manager’s on the shortlist currently with another club?

Any ideas on the above? I've only listened once, so I might have missed something.

 

[FleaPitBlade]

1) Who are the three people interviewing the potential new managers? What is Kevin McCabe’s involvement? Will he make the final decision?

I'd guess the three would be Julian Winter, Dave Green & Dave McCarthy who will then make their recommendations to the board (Kevin McCabe included) and they'll be the ones who will make the decision.

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

I'd guess the three would be Julian Winter, Dave Green & Dave McCarthy who will then make their recommendations to the board (Kevin McCabe included) and they'll be the ones who will make the decision.

and then Kev will pick who he wants, someone, no doubt, whos career he's been following for a while.

 

[UnitedBlade]

I'd guess the three would be Julian Winter, Dave Green & Dave McCarthy who will then make their recommendations to the board (Kevin McCabe included) and they'll be the ones who will make the decision.

Scott McCabe surely has to be involved given he is the only one on the football club board and the plc board.

Why involve McCarthy ? He isn't actually a board member.

It's time for Kevin to stop making football decisions, trust his son who he has appointed to the FC board and get on with it.

There's bound to be a meeting for the preferred candidate with KM as a second stage to ensure the new manager understands the brief and the (monetary) constraints.

I can't tell how big an appetite the sons have for the club. I know their main jobs are with Scarborough but let's see if they can do any better. I think it's Scott who has the responsibility for the Academy so he is actually better placed than some to know what's needed.

I want KM to move away from football decisions, he doesn't really have a talent in this area does he ?

 

[Sothall_Blade]

I'd guess the three would be Julian Winter, Dave Green & Dave McCarthy who will then make their recommendations to the board (Kevin McCabe included) and they'll be the ones who will make the decision.

See this is where it gets confusing. Dave McCarthy is the "Operations Director" in charge of ticketing and such like. Why on earth would he be involved in choosing the team manager?

Winter, Green and Simon McCabe are the Football Club Board. So it might well be those three who are doing the interviewing. But then if they're in charge of the football side why would the decision need to be approved by the PLC Board (A property developer + An Estate Agent + A carpet salesman + Jacob Esan)?

To my mind it should be Winter and two "football" people doing the interviewing, probably the 2 current Academy leaders Cox and Stephenson. Then their decision to be approved by the McCabe's and Green.

 

[FleaPitBlade]

It was only a bloody guess!

 

[Toronto Blade]

The club continues to bring in recycled executives ,ex players and friends of McCabe. Is Arnold another Australian mate ,what a list of candidates for the manager's job the rest that were cut must have been truly scary.When will the club ever learn.

 

[UnitedBlade]

See this is where it gets confusing. Dave McCarthy is the "Operations Director" in charge of ticketing and such like. Why on earth would he be involved in choosing the team manager?

Winter, Green and Simon McCabe are the Football Club Board. So it might well be those three who are doing the interviewing. But then if they're in charge of the football side why would the decision need to be approved by the PLC Board (A property developer + An Estate Agent + A carpet salesman + Jacob Esan)?

To my mind it should be Winter and two "football" people doing the interviewing, probably the 2 current Academy leaders Cox and Stephenson. Then their decision to be approved by the McCabe's and Green.

The OS seems to think it's Scott not Simon on the FC board.

http://www.sufc.co.uk/news/article/20130509-blades-announce-board-changes-422910.aspx

 

[Grecian2000]

I think I preferred him as a player.

 

[Bladesman]

Pretty chilling listening. Certainly puts paid to my fantasies of a change of culture at the club. Like the current squad, this guy failed and has been invited back to do exactly what he was doing before. Could not have sounded more clueless about how to attract investment, other than to put a big 'Open for Business' sign up for our youngsters. Oh, and Jacob Esan was full of shit. Colour me amazed.

To hear this guff about not standing in the way of our youngsters' careers when we accept bids from higher-placed clubs from blades is one thing, to hear it from the chief exec, whose priority, you would think, should be to maximize the effectiveness of our playing squad, well it kind of sticks in my craw.

I knew he was just a spam e-mail.

"I am from Nigeria and can bring many many pounds to you Mr McCabe. Please give me your bank details and I will transfer the monies."

 

[Bergen Blade]

2) What were the criteria that have been used to identify those on the shortlist?

It seems they are going to be more specific and honest when it comes to what they want the new man to do.

• Lower budget
• Looking for lower league talents
• More playing time for our own talents
• A desire to get rid of some current squad members
• An emphasis on developing players and building a team

This is very much the opposite of what happened under Wilson.

The above may require patience, but Winter still seemed to expect promotion next season. We'll have to see if the board and fans will remain patient if it takes time to get a new team to gel.

Would it help a new manager to make more long term decisions if the club tried to remove some of the focus on the neccessity of getting promoted next season?

We may have had loads of managers the past few years, but the strategy has been pretty much the same - desperate, expensive, short sighted attempts at bouncing back. I welcome a new era, a new plan and would accept it taking time if I felt we were heading in the right direction.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

If you have a clear remit, know what direction you are wanting to go and have a very good idea of how you want the manager to operate, surely the sensible way to go is to identify the best person available that fits the profile and go after them. Publicising exactly what you want in a public interview prior to a selection process just gives all the candidates the chance tell you exactly what you want to hear when they are seen, whether they believe it, can work with it or even have the capabilities to deal with the work involved. Seems to be a cock-eyed way of recruiting to me!

 

[Staffs_Blade]

It seems they are going to be more specific and honest when it comes to what they want the new man to do.

• Lower budget
• Looking for lower league talents
• More playing time for our own talents
• A desire to get rid of some current squad members
• An emphasis on developing players and building a team

This is very much the opposite of what happened under Wilson.

The above may require patience, but Winter still seemed to expect promotion next season. We'll have to see if the board and fans will remain patient if it takes time to get a new team to gel.

Would it help a new manager to make more long term decisions if the club tried to remove some of the focus on the neccessity of getting promoted next season?

We may have had loads of managers the past few years, but the strategy has been pretty much the same - desperate, expensive, short sighted attempts at bouncing back. I welcome a new era, a new plan and would accept it taking time if I felt we were heading in the right direction.

I agree with most of this but I remember when Wilson was appointed after quite a lengthy interview process McCabe said he had had enough of short term fixes, we need to look at the longer term, using academy players, cutting budgets etc etc - everything that Winter has just reiterated that the new man will have to follow.

As has been said elsewhere the Swansea way is the way to go. Put a nice footballing philosophy in place and stick to it - managers may not work, leave, poached by other clubs but whoever comes in will be able to continue the process, players will know what's expected and the academy players also. Swansea have got to the Premier League, playing arguably some of the best football in the division and have done all this without breaking the bank. It can work.

The problem at United is the seemingly scatter gun approach to appointing managers, varying budgets, etc. There is no continuity in the whole process. It shouldn't have been like this as off the field at the top it has been at its most stable for years with McCabe now being in place for nearly 15 years.

 

[JohnDenver]

Some good news:

"Kevin (McCabe) has spoken at becoming more distant and this restructuring helps him do so. Given he lives abroad and is regularly travelling around the world, this move genuinely makes it easier for him to step back both in geographical and operational terms. "

The only reason for him to stick his oar in is if he's chucking money at it. If we're genuinely going to be run without his subsidy then he needs to go as far away as possible from the decision making.