Director of Football replacement

[andrewjohnsmith]

Eddie Gray

Ye know - he's ok

Ye know - He's not bad

Ye know - He'll do for us

Ye know - I used to play

Ye know

Wasn't advocating him as a DOF. Just hoping that Radrizzani spoke with him occasionally as he's still around the club.

[malcolmw]

So far.

Norwich City Director of Football Stuart Webber mentioned.

Positives.
Has had a major success with Emi Buendia sold for a £30mil profit.

Players signed for very low fees like Teemu Pukki, Tim Krul, Moritz Leitner etc were good value for money.

Lead Norwich to multiple promotion winning sides.

Was DOF of Huddersfield when they were promoted so has 3 to his name.

David Wagner and Daniel Farke were successful Championship appointments.

Negatives

Very divisive figure.

Prone to controversial and downright stupid comments (compared the abuse he got to racism).

Likes to be the centre of attention.

Is a failure at Premier league level having been in charge of 3 awful sides at that level.

Has only really had one major success in terms of profit, Buendia and that was years ago.

Furthermore his record has tumbled and its been years since any success.

According to Norwich fans his Recruitment success to failure ratio is very heavy on the negative side


Another name mentioned is Kieran Scott at Middlesbrough

Positive

Was also part of the recruitment team at Norwich which won multiple promotions (with Stuart Webber)

Has won praise for his willingness to engage with the Middlesbrough fanbase with open and honest discussion.

Doesn't seem to be controversial or narcissistic.

Has had great success this season with signings like Marcus Forss providing 10 goals and 5 assists for just £3mil. Loan starts Cameron Archer and Aaron Ramssy providing 23 goals between them. And £2.75m striker

His appointment of Michael Carrick showed he can spot talent in in coach.

Negatives

He's only been a Director of Football since 2021, very inexperienced therefore it's a very small sample size.

Hasn't actually achieved anything of note, no promotion, nothing.

Hasn't had any major profits as the man in charge yet

Final name mentioned today is KRC Genk Director of Football Dimitri De Conde.

Positives

Definitely has an eye for talent, was a youth Coach at Genk for 5 years and that academy has seen Leandro Trossard, Kevin De Bruyne, Thibaut Courtois and others pass through it.

During his time as Director of Football the top 14 record sales for Genk have happened for profit.

Familiar names have been signed and sold to Premier league clubs under him. Sander Berge, Wilfried Ndidi, Leandro Trossard, Leon Bailey,.Timothy Castagne

His philosophy of finding young gems in all corners of the world is very similar to Brighton and they do it just as well.

Firmly believes in attractive and high pressing football being implemented throughout the age groups.

Negatives

No experience of English football.

Very little room for error with the young gem policy.

Fans are probably sick of this flogging our best players philosophy.

I've also heard Kieran Scott's name mentioned. But know little about him.

Given how vital this role will be for us in the coming couple of seasons, I wonder if it makes sense to have someone who the new manager has experience with? (Didn't Bielsa and Orta dislike one another - part of the reason behind recruitment issues in 2nd PL season?? Can someone confirm that?)

So which role should be hired first right now??

[JoeDenver]

I wouldn't mind a former manager as DOF. Not Sam. But someone like O'Leary. There are plenty of older managers out there that are done with the riguors of day to day training but could do a decent job at board level.

For me that was a lot of what was wrong with the Orta situation. Radz should have had an experienced football brain on the board. Someone that could call Orta's bullshit. I said a couple of times last season that I hoped he was getting advice from other people around - people like Eddie Gray.

I'd make a board position for an experienced football man. DOF would be an ex football manager. Orta's position would be below that - Head of Recruitment. Head of Recruitment and Manager are appointed by and report to DOF. DOF finalizes all signings and contracts.

Not a bad logic to it. The career progression also makes a lot of sense.

[malcolmw]

I don't think you can have a manager with that much power anymore.

A manager effectively choosing his boss.

A Director of Football should be in charge overall but only when he is working with his manager.

So it's an odd one really.

The DOF should be in charge but doing what his manager requires.

But ultimately you need Football people making football decisions and we don't have that now.

We have an executive, a physio and a man who was a furniture salesman less than a decade ago giving advice to a faceless investment group based thousands of miles away ran by an accountant.

For me DOF was vital because we need that person.

We have no Football knowledge at the club now.

I hope they have someone lined up and that person is being consulted on managers and stuff.

But it doesn't sound like it.

The other less obvious role a DOF could play right now for us is to be something of a buffer between a board made up of venture capitalists (zero football knowledge) and a CEO who is mainly a marketing guy. if DOF and manager/coach have a good relationship he can keep all the political nonsense off the manager's desk.

If I was Kinnear, I'd ensure I had my DOF in all board meetings. because you know how it goes - when you become a billionaire you suddenly know everything about everything. I can just imagine the "advice" he is given by board members about how to improve our footballing fortunes.

[geronimo]

i dont believe in a dof, its just a middle man between the owners and manager . the manager is the one who should decide which players he wants and whether the owners are prepared to spend the necessary money on the players that he wants . the ludicrous appointment of orta cost this club millions of pounds over the years , because we had an owner in radrizaani who did not know anything about football , despite been a successful business man

we now have the yanks in charge and again the appointment of the right people will be crucial , because they certainly wont be throwing money around like confetti indefinately unless serious progress is made over a relatively short period of time , been back in the championship certainly narrows down the quality of candidates that can be brought to the club . it will be a case of the owners deciding on the best choice that is available . i for one dont envisage a quick return to the premier league overnight , the playing squad alone will need a massive overhaul , and who the new manager will be is anybodies guess , it certainly wont be rogers or potter as they will be looking to progress their managerial careers in the premier league not the championship ..

[Jimang]

I think the DOF and Manager need to be a partnership singing off the same hymn sheet. They need to decide on the type of system and players they want, then the DOF with the aid of Scouts, looks around for these players, while the Manager concentrates on coaching the team and day to day preparation for games. The DOF and Manager then assess the players available and agree who to go for. I can't see its right for the DOF just to go out and buy players and give them to the Manager, without his buy in.

[Jimstorrie]

I think the DOF and Manager need to be a partnership singing off the same hymn sheet. They need to decide on the type of system and players they want, then the DOF with the aid of Scouts, looks around for these players, while the Manager concentrates on coaching the team and day to day preparation for games. The DOF and Manager then assess the players available and agree who to go for. I can't see its right for the DOF just to go out and buy players and give them to the Manager, without his buy in.

Agree entirely, this is now, like it or not, the most important relationship in the club.

[White Riot]

I think the DOF and Manager need to be a partnership singing off the same hymn sheet. They need to decide on the type of system and players they want, then the DOF with the aid of Scouts, looks around for these players, while the Manager concentrates on coaching the team and day to day preparation for games. The DOF and Manager then assess the players available and agree who to go for. I can't see its right for the DOF just to go out and buy players and give them to the Manager, without his buy in.

Agreed mate.

We're in the unique position of being able to appoint both at the same time, which should facilitate a good relationship.

[Cjay]

Norwich fans absolutely delighted

Definitely was there Victor Orta

So with that in mind

giphy-3.gif (4.67 MiB) Viewed 467 times

[Jaydog]

He’s on his way with Farke

[weasel]

He’s on his way with Farke

And Pukki too who is a free agent?

[Jaydog]

And Pukki too who is a free agent?

Yeah let’s bus in all the Norwich rejects. Maybe Delia can be the new owner.
I was behind her and her husband in our Waitrose once. They were looking in the aisle that had books.
I said to the Mrs “oooh look there’s that Delia book, absolute load of s**t”.

[Overman]

Have we learnt nothing from Orta debacle. The Boro fans despised him and it looks like we're bring in another megalomaniac, who the majority of the Norwich fan base despise. Avoid like the plague.

[1964white]

Yeah let’s bus in all the Norwich rejects. Maybe Delia can be the new owner.
I was behind her and her husband in our Waitrose once. They were looking in the aisle that had books.
I said to the Mrs “oooh look there’s that Delia book, absolute load of s**t”.

[Prisoner37]

Of the three I'd only want to take Pukki.

Norwich fan I play footie with rates Webber but he seems to be in the minority.

I can see the logic of bringing in a ready-made team to push on quickly but if the level of our ambition is to become a Norwich look-a-like; that is very disappointing.

[weasel]

Of the three I'd only want to take Pukki.

Norwich fan I play footie with rates Webber but he seems to be in the minority.

I can see the logic of bringing in a ready-made team to push on quickly but if the level of our ambition is to become a Norwich look-a-like; that is very disappointing.

I think it is the same everywhere, those who complain/moan make the most noise so their view seems to become accepted as the view of the fans despite some fans, such as the aformentioned Norwich fan, holding a different view. That said we have one person on here who rates Orta....

It does seem that the Webber/Farke partnership was a good one. Webber had faith to keep Farke despite a poor first season and a poor start to the second season. How much blame you attach to Webber and Farke for their relegations is tricky as Norwich seemed to be of the view that if they stayed up it was a bonus but they were happy to go down and have the parachute payments and as such not spend any significant money strengthening the squad. As such if you aren't spending money then the signings really do become more of a lottery (a bit like us with Orta's recruitment for the youth squads). You probably then end up going down the route of trying to back 10 long shots instead of making 1 signing that would have a better chance of succeeding. If all ten fail then it is disappointing but hardly a surprise.

When Norwich sold Buenida after getting promoted it really did highlight their lack of ambition. For me Farke wasn't given much of a chance to do well in the Premier League, he had a first team that was probably only marginally better than the teams Bilesa could put out towards the end of his reign. Whether Farke would have done better with better players in the prem is unknown. What we do know though is that he is as proven as it gets in terms of getting a team promoted. Obviously question marks as to whether he could do it with a different team but until he tries you can't really hold it against him.

Also worth noting Pukki was a lot less efficient this season without Farke. Now it may be age has caught up with him but it may also be that Farke had the team playing a way that suited Pukki and created better chances for him - hence the good xg for Norwich under Farke.

So who knows but Webber and Farke have both got the experience of getting promoted which is our priority at this time.

[The Subhuman]

Of the three I'd only want to take Pukki.

Norwich fan I play footie with rates Webber but he seems to be in the minority.

I can see the logic of bringing in a ready-made team to push on quickly but if the level of our ambition is to become a Norwich look-a-like; that is very disappointing.

Where would Norwich be now if they spent money.. The ownership model at Norwich is not condusive to long stays in the prem. But it's the ownership model we don't compare with

[Cjay]

I think it is the same everywhere, those who complain/moan make the most noise so their view seems to become accepted as the view of the fans despite some fans, such as the aformentioned Norwich fan, holding a different view. That said we have one person on here who rates Orta....

It does seem that the Webber/Farke partnership was a good one. Webber had faith to keep Farke despite a poor first season and a poor start to the second season. How much blame you attach to Webber and Farke for their relegations is tricky as Norwich seemed to be of the view that if they stayed up it was a bonus but they were happy to go down and have the parachute payments and as such not spend any significant money strengthening the squad. As such if you aren't spending money then the signings really do become more of a lottery (a bit like us with Orta's recruitment for the youth squads). You probably then end up going down the route of trying to back 10 long shots instead of making 1 signing that would have a better chance of succeeding. If all ten fail then it is disappointing but hardly a surprise.

When Norwich sold Buenida after getting promoted it really did highlight their lack of ambition. For me Farke wasn't given much of a chance to do well in the Premier League, he had a first team that was probably only marginally better than the teams Bilesa could put out towards the end of his reign. Whether Farke would have done better with better players in the prem is unknown. What we do know though is that he is as proven as it gets in terms of getting a team promoted. Obviously question marks as to whether he could do it with a different team but until he tries you can't really hold it against him.

Also worth noting Pukki was a lot less efficient this season without Farke. Now it may be age has caught up with him but it may also be that Farke had the team playing a way that suited Pukki and created better chances for him - hence the good xg for Norwich under Farke.

So who knows but Webber and Farke have both got the experience of getting promoted which is our priority at this time.

Thing is Webber and Farke were on record for being proud of being a top 26 club in the country.

That's the level of ambition at Norwich.

The pressure there to here isn't comparable.

Just to me seems like scraping the barrel, narrow view lead by Clueless executives.

Webber is living off a crop of players signed 4, 5 years ago.

A broken clock is right twice a day, he's done nothing of note since.

Even by Championship standards.

His signings haven't worked.

As for Farke until he does something elsewhere he could just be the benefactor of perfect circumstances.

Buendia and Pukki and Krul having seasons of there lives, that's the impression the xG gives

Webber seems far to much like Victor Orta for me.

A self obsessed ego maniac.

Talks far to much.

The fact he and Victor Orta were two of the names in an Athletic article just a few months ago regarding celebrity DOF's (with the recently banned Fabio Paratici) is enough for me to want to stay well clear.

[weasel]

Thing is Webber and Farke were on record for being proud of being a top 26 club in the country.

That's the level of ambition at Norwich.

The pressure there to here isn't comparable.

Just to me seems like scraping the barrel, narrow view lead by Clueless executives.

Webber is living off a crop of players signed 4, 5 years ago.

A broken clock is right twice a day, he's done nothing of note since.

Even by Championship standards.

His signings haven't worked.

As for Farke until he does something elsewhere he could just be the benefactor of perfect circumstances.

Buendia and Pukki and Krul having seasons of there lives, that's the impression the xG gives

Webber seems far to much like Victor Orta for me.

A self obsessed ego maniac.

Talks far to much.

The fact he and Victor Orta were two of the names in an Athletic article just a few months ago regarding celebrity DOF's (with the recently banned Fabio Paratici) is enough for me to want to stay well clear.

Webber and Farke are probably quite right to be proud of being a top 26 club given that the owners made it near impossible for them to do any better. Don't get me wrong an elite DoF or an elite Manager and maybe they would have stayed in the prem and pushed for midtable. So Farke isn't an elite manager but we aren't going to get an elite manager again at this level, we had one and we got rid of him. How many elite DoFs are there? Brighton have done really well and Chelsea have poached him. We had an average DoF and because we had an elite manager his shortcomings weren't exposed for a while but equally you can buy players that have the ability but the manager doesn't like him. We saw that with Klich under TC and Marsch yet Bielsa, despite being willing to let him go originally, played him every match.

A bit of a contradiction when you suggest Farke could have been the benefactor of perfect circumstances - either Webber was able to create the perfect circumstances or Farke did well - one of them has to have done a good job, they can't both have been poor if Norwich got promoted twice under them. If the players have outperformed their xGs then is that good scouting, did the stats used to chose them work? Or did the manager play a way that made it easy to create good chances and make it harder for the opposition to create good chances? You can maybe upset the odds once with the same players but to do it twice suggest it wasn't just down to luck or a random sequence of events such as a coin landing on heads 10 in a row but where if you tossed the coin 100 times it would likely be close to 50/50.

I'm not sure how much of a celebrity Webber is. If you'd asked me who Webber was a few days ago I wouldn't have known. If you'd given me more clues such as he as DoF I still wouldn't have known. I think we are maybe tarring him becuaseof what Orta was like.

[Cjay]

Webber and Farke are probably quite right to be proud of being a top 26 club given that the owners made it near impossible for them to do any better. Don't get me wrong an elite DoF or an elite Manager and maybe they would have stayed in the prem and pushed for midtable. So Farke isn't an elite manager but we aren't going to get an elite manager again at this level, we had one and we got rid of him. How many elite DoFs are there? Brighton have done really well and Chelsea have poached him. We had an average DoF and because we had an elite manager his shortcomings weren't exposed for a while but equally you can buy players that have the ability but the manager doesn't like him. We saw that with Klich under TC and Marsch yet Bielsa, despite being willing to let him go originally, played him every match.

A bit of a contradiction when you suggest Farke could have been the benefactor of perfect circumstances - either Webber was able to create the perfect circumstances or Farke did well - one of them has to have done a good job, they can't both have been poor if Norwich got promoted twice under them. If the players have outperformed their xGs then is that good scouting, did the stats used to chose them work? Or did the manager play a way that made it easy to create good chances and make it harder for the opposition to create good chances? You can maybe upset the odds once with the same players but to do it twice suggest it wasn't just down to luck or a random sequence of events such as a coin landing on heads 10 in a row but where if you tossed the coin 100 times it would likely be close to 50/50.

I'm not sure how much of a celebrity Webber is. If you'd asked me who Webber was a few days ago I wouldn't have known. If you'd given me more clues such as he as DoF I still wouldn't have known. I think we are maybe tarring him becuaseof what Orta was like.

Webber did well early on to find players like Krul, Buendia and Pukki who then had great seasons.

But since then he has done nothing.

Likewise regarding xG for Farke as soon as promoted and Pukki wasn't able to keep up his ridiculous scoring record they dropped like a stone.

They are at best one hit wonders until they prove otherwise.

Webber stumbled upon the whole gegenpress German thing a few years after Klopp made it big and it worked briefly.

But since then 0 big successes?even Victor Orta managed to find 1 or 2 after Raph.

He has never moved on even trying to recreate it now with David Wagner

He's like Victor Orta and random Spanish players.

Oh Webber is very much an English Orta when it comes to talks to much.

Google him.