Having reflected on it

I'm not sure whether its "a good thing" he's leaving or not. Maybe the wheels are really going to come off when he's gone. Maybe they won't. But I'm definitely not shedding any tears at his departure.

No doubt he had a very positive impact when he first arrived, and he and Farke (a Webber signing) did transform the squad on a tiny budget over a few windows. Debate will rage on about whether, in the end, he just lucked out on Emi (and maybe Pukki), or whether he had a much deeper role in creating our much vaunted culture, and deserves more credit. Ultimately, you can't complain at two promotions as champions. Also worth saying that he's tended to sell people for top dollar, so that's to his credit.

However, on balance, his performance hasnt been THAT good.

- His track record of recruitment apart from the first couple of seasons, has been poor.
- He's failed to provide a balanced squad over a number of seasons since the Skipp loan. When the squad was desperate for a CDM, we signed two left and a young striker with a poor goals record for 30m, probably above half our transfer kitty. It looked stupid at the time, and history hasnt made that set of decisions look any better.
- He's signed a number of players with questions over their fitness that have then gone on to have horribly disrupted seasons and contributed very little.
- Maybe harsh, but i'm not seeing the youth talent come through the academy under his watch. All those early youth breakthroughs were already here before he arrived.

I get that he would argue that he's sunk money into the infrastructure of the club, when he could have just bought more/better players, and we're now better off as a result. Well, lets see shall we? If we get stuck in the champs, or League 1, because the squad is s**t, we might have facilities like the Savoy, but no f**ker who is any good will sign for us.

The killer for me though is that, as one of the most senior figures at the club, he was responsible for generating and perpetuating a lot of toxicity over the last couple of years. Sure, its his "style", I get that. A straight talking Northerner that isnt afraid to tell it like it is. But for quite a long time now, it seems to me that he has kept grudges going, been petty, bitter. He's antagonised, when it would have been easy to take the heat out. He's basically given off the impression that he thinks he's a genius - amazing. And we, and the local media, are ungrateful ignorant t**ts for not recognising it. That whole dynamic has been deeply unhelpful for the club - it has harmed us, and as a director of the club his actions have been poorly advised and detrimental to the club he is supposed to nurture.

People that create that level of friction need to be REALLY good in order to make it worth any organisation living with it. And overall, he just isn't THAT good.

Posted By: Under soil heating, Jun 13, 21:01:49