Our club is inherently broken, but current on-pitch issues are distracting from the bigger picture.

[Carlton Blade]

Broken is a euphemism for not minted.
But the DoF will magically sort that

I don't understand your point of view on this. It seems to be "we don't have much cash so let's do nothing to maximize the value of what we do have by employing people who know how to make that cash go further"

 

[Danetheblade]

I don’t see the plan. Just adding a DoF is a sticking plaster on a gaping wound.

The plan is set a DOF on, the DOF then finds candidates suited for the other roles that are needed. It’s pretty evident the board haven’t got a clue when it comes to what’s required.

 

[Upton_Blade]

I don’t see the plan. Just adding a DoF is a sticking plaster on a gaping wound.

You're contradicting yourself here. You've quoted Roygbiv post about the structure at Sunderland. I don't know for a fact but I'd hazard a guess that the DOF was the 1st through the door and then set about getting the right people for all the other roles.

Not one person is suggesting we just employ a DOF and no one else but if the DOF isn't the 1st through the door to then facilitate the uplift in staff and roles then who does?

Whether you agree or not the DOF role, or whatever version of the same role, oversees the entire football function bar coaching the 1st team so it makes sense for him to get the people he thinks best in the various roles behind the scenes.

 

[Keen Blade]

The owners are expert business men, they will have a short term, medium term and long term strategy.
The appointment of Selles proves this but they wanted to run before they could walk…..introduced change too quickly and it backfired
But thankfully they’ve realised their error and took the brave decision to going back to the system they know works in the short term.
However as mentioned its like putting a sticky plaster over a wound…..it deals with the situation for this season but doesn’t really lay foundations for the future.

To be honest a lot of the problem is fan expectation and pressure.
People talk about medium and long term but I’d say over 80% couldn’t care about our long term future….they only care about this season (short termism).

So many of our fans say they don’t care about our style of play, don’t care about entertainment…for them it’s win at any cost.
It’s more difficult to build for the future with that fan mentality?

Think part of the problem in Sheffield is Unitedites (and most Sheffielders in general) are generally a negative doom and gloom bunch who hate ambition and change.
And it doesn’t help when you have plenty of Wednesday fans pretending to be Blades trying to turn anything positive into a negative.

So it's the fans fault that the club has mis-spent £400m in 6 years ?
Gimme a break.
The figures show that SUFC is an incompetently run business.
The fans have no involvement in setting the woeful structure or recruitment.
Look at that Mackems structure mentioned above and think what Bettis is supposed to shoulder on his own.
It's risible.
A £400m business run for remote foreign owners & board members (under both the Prince & CoH) by an inadequate local duo with no hope of being a PL club despite the claimed aspirations of the owners.
Inspiring the dreams of fans and then shattering them with 2 abject relegations and finishing up in another relegation battle to avoid L1.
With a demoralised and disjointed squad thrown together in a mad panic.
Embarrassing really.

 

[Kenilworth]

It is if we stop there. What a DoF does though, and this is echoing what has been said to you a lot on this thread, is set the agenda and strategy for the club from top to bottom, identifying the gaps and filling them as appropriate.

If the alternatives are Chris Wilder trying to do everything or a DoF taking the reins for everything above the first team then I know what I’d prefer.

I get that. We are no where near that. COH need to sort it out and have a plan. Like SwissBlade says, no one has seen what the plan is. They are silent. That’s what draws the speculation.
All it is is idle speculation about a DOF without the slightest clue of how that pans out in reality. What is clear is that such a change is a huge investment and there are no signs at all that this is the direction the COH fellers wish to travel towards. So far, all they have done is sack Wilder, appoint the rookie Selles without any consideration of what that entails, fuck up the recruitment, panic buy a load of dross at the end of the tranny window, sack Selles cos he was shite and they didn’t have a clue what they were doing, appoint Wilder again as an admission of how clueless they are about English football, hide from the consequences and we still don’t know what the fuck they are planning to do.
It’s a cluster fuck of almost Chanser proportions and all the sheep can do is laud the advent of a DoF as though that solves everything in a heartbeat.

It’s laughable.

 

[Kenilworth]

You're contradicting yourself here. You've quoted Roygbiv post about the structure at Sunderland. I don't know for a fact but I'd hazard a guess that the DOF was the 1st through the door and then set about getting the right people for all the other roles.

Not one person is suggesting we just employ a DOF and no one else but if the DOF isn't the 1st through the door to then facilitate the uplift in staff and roles then who does?

Whether you agree or not the DOF role, or whatever version of the same role, oversees the entire football function bar coaching the 1st team so it makes sense for him to get the people he thinks best in the various roles behind the scenes.

Contradicted yourself.

“I'd hazard a guess that the DOF was the 1st through the door”

That’s pure speculation. The DoF is one cog in a wheel. It requires commitment to a long term plan, which in turn demands a plan on the first place. There is absolutely no sign of a plan. You are doing the same as everyone else. This magical DOF is a catalyst to all the change that is good in the world. In reality, if a DoF is appointed on their own it’s just another single point of failure in a line of epic fails.
It’s all too simplistic. Without a massive commitment to spend a huge amount of money on the changes to create the sort of infrastructure they implemented at Sunderland, as an example, there’s absolutely no point in changing from a manage led football club.

 

[Kenilworth]

I don't understand your point of view on this. It seems to be "we don't have much cash so let's do nothing to maximize the value of what we do have by employing people who know how to make that cash go further"

No. It’s quite simple. A DoF is. It in isolation without a plan and a lot of investment. If we have no plan then there is no investment. If there is no money there is no plan. Its impotence. It’s easy to comprehend. If there is money then where is the bloody plan?

 

[103SecondsOfMagic]

I still don’t get it.
Who?
Who is this mystery man?
A single man at the helm?
How is that different from a manager based club, now?
It makes no sense.
Why would that make any difference to a deaf and blind and inexperienced board of AI bot buddies?
You appear to be mesmerised by the DOF cult.

Where has it worked so miraculously without a massive parallel investment?

Did Bournemouth and Brighton and Brentford find a DOF and all of a sudden blossom as though Percy thrower added a tipple of miracle grow to a sad set of geraniums?

Given the level of our investment capacity and the board we have we’d be lucky to become a crap Watford mark 2. Always changing head coach, always wallowing in a mid table mediocrity mode. Zero identity and as bland as beige.

Like most modern, well run clubs Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth all have Directors of Football/Sporting Directors of some kind.

Brighton had Dan Ashworth followed by David Weir, Brentford has Phil Giles, Forest have Edu, Arsenal have Andrea Berta, Man Utd have Jason Wilcox etc etc.

We're lacking the continuity a DoF would bring across managerial changes. You can call it a Director of Infrastructure if you like, but as CarltonBlade pointed out, that would be the role of a DoF.

 

[Ned the Donkey]

I've seen various debates of late over certain things we should or shouldn't do. The primary topics being around whether Wilder should remain in place as manager, or if we should cast our net out for someone else, as well as whether we should change to playing 2 forwards.

While there is certainly merit to debating these topics, I think it misses the bigger picture. Which is that we currently look like a club that has zero clue of what it wants to be.

Over the last 15 years, we've made multiple attempts to break away from the pigeonhole we'd established for ourselves over multiple decades prior. The "Bladey Blade" method, of running harder, working harder, showing more "pashun" than the opponent. An approach which has occasionally borne fruit, but since the departure of a certain Mr Warnock, has only delivered success via Wilder and Hecky, a pair you can effectively view as master and disciple.

Now, if we look at the attempts to correct course, it becomes blatantly clear that there has always been a failure to truly commit to the alternate path:

2025: Hire Selles. A man with a significantly different tactical outlook to his predecessor. Club proceeds to recruit the bare minimum, until Selles throws the board under the bus in a press conference. After which we make a number of last ditch signings to bolster the squad. Poor performances, as a result of a combination of the above, plus a lack of uptake on Selles' strategies, result in his early departure. We re-hire Wilder and return to the status quo.

2021: Slav. A man with a significantly different tactical approach to his successor. Club proceeds to make zero recruitment (our only permanent signings were Adam Davies and Adlene Guedioura), and wonder why Slav was unable to get Wilder's many square pegs, to fit into 11 newly-rounded holes. The response is to dismiss Slav, and bring in mini-Wilder, and return to the status quo.

2015: Adkins. A man with a significantly different tactical approach to his successor. A true failure in all regards. We recruited badly, except for the re-signing of Billy Sharp. Adkins' past tactics that brought success at the likes of Scunthorpe and Southampton, were almost entirely absent. The board, in contrast to all other examples here, did actually give him time to turn things around. But it never came. Instead we held out to the end of our worst season in decades.

2013: Weir. A man with a significantly different tactical approach to his successor. The club did a few things right on this one. Brought in staff at Weir's behest. Separated the Assistant Manager role into tactics and fitness. Hired a number of players to be moulded around the centrepiece of Weir's tactic: Kevin MacDonald. Oh wait, what was that? A 200k release clause? Wolves are paying it? Oh, bugger. Well, here's Jose Baxter to make up for it. I know he's a totally different type of player, but you'll make it work, won't you? (Spoiler: He didn't make it work). Weir proceeds to flounder without a midfield maestro to build his team around, and we tumble down the league until he's dismissed, and replaced by Nigel "I need a right back" Clough.

The archaic approach of "Outrun. Outright. Outplay." isn't sustainable. We need a Director of Football. We need the club to have a focused tactical approach, at all levels, to ensure prolonged exposure to one method of playing for senior players, and an easier, less jarring path to the first team for youth prospects. We need a thoroughly defined recruitment strategy. At present, everything feels like we're throwing shit at a wall to see what sticks.

Regardless of where we end up this season, we need to be employing a long-term strategy for the club. We cannot carry on in this manner - making a half-arsed effort to set ourselves up for the future, only to bail on it immediately and go back to what we did before. It might take a bit of suffering to get there, but we're already suffering as it is. At least if we commit to change, the pain might become worth it.

Yes let's gentrify the club. It's far too vulgar.

 

[Balham]

Kenilworth that’s a big old post explaining that you’ve not read mine. Where do you propose we start modernising the structure if it with a DoF?