Financiers, investors and white knights: What next for FV?

[Worthy4England]

I don't think "everyone" said. £11m pretty chunky in L2...but for sure there was some narrative that suggested they were "way ahead," like Portsmouth were supposed to be...

Not sure I remember anyone saying that on Pompey. Weds, Derby and Birmingham yes (and rightly so). Wrexham spending top end L1 a division below and have since brought in plenty more.

This was from Jan, I think...

Again, I’d have to do more research to prove this, but my intuition is that we haven’t had an abnormal number of injuries this season.

We came in with a very light squad. We discussed it at the time.

In other seasons some clubs have had a similar number of injuries (or more) and gone up, but when you look at how many players they have USED in those seasons you see how they solved that issue. As Pompey's manager said, "We took the decision to front-load the squad in January" and they pumped millions into their wage budget to do it.

Evatt pointed out today we are 8th in the division for wages. We are spending money on fees, but those assets retain value on the books. Wages are just lost money, which we won't write off.

[BWFC_Insane]

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... ge-season/

Rare that we hear FV speak these days. But interesting stuff from Nick Lucock. Acknowledging mistakes. I think that’s a first too.

“This evening is also a chance to reflect on a year that tested us and ultimately has led to some recent disappointments. Last summer we decided to support the existing leadership team, heavily invest in the infrastructure and playing squad and strive in every way to achieve promotion.

“Everyone in this room supported the club in some way, be it through record season ticket sales, hospitality, away fan support, renewed sponsorship, or just those little things that help each other and the club out.

“We all wanted the same thing. It didn’t happen, so we are learning the lessons, being smarter, making the necessary changes, and with your help we will go again.”

[jmjhb]

As well as being on the board, Nick is also the 'face' of the BMLL (aka the Swiss) group

[jmjhb]

Likely to be an announcement today. Nothing huge or particularly exciting from a fan's point of view though.

[TonyDomingos]

Likely to be an announcement today. Nothing huge or particularly exciting from a fan's point of view though.

New pope?

[TANGODANCER]

Likely to be an announcement today. Nothing huge or particularly exciting from a fan's point of view though.

New pope?

Let's stick with football. Since England have no Cardinals and C of E isn't Catholic, I hope he's Irish.

[TANGODANCER]

Sounds a dumb question asked in relation to the title, but what exactly does a Sports Director actually do? I mean, broken down to its basics, someone directing sports? It's all a bit like a fabricated position without any direct usage unless directly involved in directing, ie as in traffic as a comparison. Again, is it another can carrier for when things go wrong?

My reason for the question doesn't even sound sensible for the asking...but I'll ask anyway as footy talk's a bit scarce right now.

[Worthy4England]

^^ TBF, TD, that's been the subject of conversation over many pages. In old money, there was a manager, who was pretty much in charge of "football" they hired who they needed and it was pretty clear who carried the can if it all went belly up. Sure there were usually other people, coaches, scouts and the like..but "customers" generally knew who was the boss.

Spin forwards, there's football departments, recruitment departments, analyst departments, medical departments. Other than a departmental "badge," no problem with that particularly but then there are Sporting Directors/Directors of Football etc. and it's now genuinely unclear (to me, and others judging from other comments), where the buck stops. Schumacher is described (I think) as Head Coach, whereas if memory serves IE started as Head Coach then changed to Manager and Markham started as Technical Performance Director and was "promoted" to Sporting Director where he oversaw "football operations," including recruitment, Academy, performance, medical, analysis and data science...

So when we look at some of our signings, the data science behind them, the fact they pretty much all landed and pulled hamstrings, we're always left with the question was the bag of jigsaw bits more down to Evatt or Markham? Guess we might never know...

[jmjhb]

Worthy has basically covered it. It's more of an executive role than head coach, and he's responsible for the direction of all things football (not just the first-team but the academy, Bs, women's team) and to make sure they're all singing from the same hymn sheet.

[BWFC_Insane]

Worthy has basically covered it. It's more of an executive role than head coach, and he's responsible for the direction of all things football (not just the first-team but the academy, Bs, women's team) and to make sure they're all singing from the same hymn sheet.

I think though there are depending upon club and personnel involved differences in what an ‘executive role’ means.

At a basic level there is ‘I’m the exec I manage all areas that are football related people report to me and I make sure there is coordination across and that every football dept has what it needs within budget’

And there is the ‘Im the exec and I have a theory about football player recruitment that will be implemented across the club regardless of the personnel underneath.’

They may day to day boil down to similar tasks and roles but on a broader basis are somewhat different.

Some sporting directors for example will dictate the system and style to be adopted at all levels of the club and recruit their teams accordingly. Others may have no input into that and simply recruit teams to sort that out.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Also worth noting that this is just one club. Elsewhere, the jobs may differ. (EDIT as BWFCi suggests.)

I think the idea of an older manager semi-retiring as Director of Football is becoming much less prevalent, not least as it's an obvious Damocletian sword hanging over the gaffer's neck. (The classic example of this was Pompey's DoF Harry Redknapp replacing the manager - Graham Rix, so save the sympathy - and then, when Milan Mandaric appointed another DoF, flouncing off to Southampton, of all places.)

The "player till 35 -> manager till 60 -> DoF" career path seems to have dwindled as yer modern DoF (or sporting director) is now more likely to have beaten a different, quicker path to the job. (Harkin's 48, Markham's a decade younger.) Even Monchi, the Villa and ex-Sevilla guy who's widely seen as one of the very best at the role, is only 56 and he's been at it for a quarter of a century. Last of the old guard is probably Barry Fry – and it would be wrong to label Posh's structure a throwback.

[TANGODANCER]

An ex C.E.O of a company I worked for once told me "Learn to delegate" . To use Worthy's "old money" term, it actually meant much back then as it does now, effectively, Cover your ass. It really means as ever, by having somebody to blame if things go wrong, and grab the glory when they go right. Story of life I suppose.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Couple of Plymouth sites are saying we're talking to Argyle's chief finance officer David Ray about becoming our new CEO. Source could be Nixon, considering his Patreon headline this morning is "Bolton swoop for another Argyle backroom man."

He's a Yorkshireman: https://www.alixpartners.com/our-firm/a ... david-ray/
Podcast interview: https://soundcloud.com/analytics-fc-pod ... uth-argyle

[The_Gun]

Didn’t we hire a bloke from City as our CEO?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Didn’t we hire a bloke from City as our CEO?

Niaz Shazad is CFO, but since we sold Neil Hart he has been joint interim CEO with Phil Mason, who has been the club chaplain for years and headed the club's community sector, before also becoming Chief Operating Officer in July 2023.

[BWFC_Insane]

Couple of Plymouth sites are saying we're talking to Argyle's chief finance officer David Ray about becoming our new CEO. Source could be Nixon, considering his Patreon headline this morning is "Bolton swoop for another Argyle backroom man."

He's a Yorkshireman: https://www.alixpartners.com/our-firm/a ... david-ray/
Podcast interview: https://soundcloud.com/analytics-fc-pod ... uth-argyle

Slightly concerning that we seem to be importing a load of people from Plymouth. I guess to an extent it makes sense they were well run and got out of this league without breaking the bank and are in some ways similar to us. But I hope it’s not all built around Schumacher as the plan was not to do that.

[The_Gun]

Would Schuey really be recommending CFOs? It would be a big coincidence if there wasn’t some kind of connection with SS, but seems a bit weird.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Slightly concerning that we seem to be importing a load of people from Plymouth. I guess to an extent it makes sense they were well run and got out of this league without breaking the bank and are in some ways similar to us. But I hope it’s not all built around Schumacher as the plan was not to do that.

I hear you on both counts. It did strike me thusly. If it does go wrong, removing a CEO is a different ball game to removing an assistant kit man.

Would Schuey really be recommending CFOs? It would be a big coincidence if there wasn’t some kind of connection with SS, but seems a bit weird.

The titles are a bit confusing, here. Here's how I understand it, although others (perhaps especially jmjhb) can probably refine/correct me.

You've got your CEO (Chief Executive Officer). That's basically the club's boss, answerable only to the ownership.
There's the CFO (Chief Financial Officer), who's in charge of the money and making it last/grow.
Then there's the COO (Chief Operating Officer), who's basically the day-to-day get-shit-done person.

What's confusing is that David Ray is Plymouth's Head of Finance (ie CFO) but is linked with being our next permanent CEO. We haven't had one of those since Hart left but it's been jobshare-interimmed by our CFO Niaz Shazad and COO Phil Mason.

Clearly there's overlap between CEO and CFO, and between CEO and COO. They're all in the boardroom, decision-making business rather than the toilet-cleaning, reception-manning, grass-cutting game. But as noted, Ray's appointment would be another familiar face from Plymouth for Schumacher - and in a much more prominent role than Jimmy Dickinson, who is just as answerable to sporting director Fergal Harkin as Schumacher is.

One other thing - apparently Nixon says "Bolton Wanderers are bringing in David Ray", which is stronger language than "talking to" or "lining up" or "considering". He's presenting that as a done deal.

[The_Gun]

Yeah, I meant that Schuey would’ve known Ray as a CFO.

I guess he may have just suggested he was someone we might want to interview, and then the bloke’s impressed Sharon et al. I doubt he’s been hired solely based on SS’s recommendation anyway.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Yeah, I meant that Schuey would’ve known Ray as a CFO.

I guess he may have just suggested he was someone we might want to interview, and then the bloke’s impressed Sharon et al. I doubt he’s been hired solely based on SS’s recommendation anyway.

No worries, sorry if that felt like egg-sucking but it's all a bit alphabetti spaghetti.

You would very much hope that they wouldn't simply take Schumacher's recommendation when making one of the most important hires at the club, and indeed a role the guy hasn't done before. You have to assume he's ready for the step up. Only the interviewers will know.