Comolli-Is he doing an Inside Job on us?

[hashmander]

there is no such thing as proven at 14-16 or even 17. you can't even predict whether or not a player will become great. if that was possible barca wouldn't have treated cesc like he's just another prospect at 15. for those age groups it's ALL about development and avoiding injury.

and comolli discovered clichy in the french 3rd division and he went directly from 3rd division to arsenal's 2nd string left back. that's an excellent find.

 

[alpha]

Oh, so you've seen a lot out of Taarabt, have you? I'm not granting your premise that the others are all crap, and I don't think Taraabt is (or is going to be) crap, but that's a ridiculous statement.

I also love the players that get mentioned every time this is brought up - it really highlights the element of xenophobia that comes into this.

"Commoli speaks French --> Ekotto, Kaboul, Zokora, and Taraabt are his signings, and they're all crap."

We've also bought Chimbonda, Bale, Malbranque, Berbatov, Bent, Alnwick, and plenty of others during Commoli's term as DoF.

"Commoli's crap! Look at the garbage he's bought: Berbatov and Bale are worthless! Out with that French ****!"

:roll:

Can you credit Commoli with seeking these signings?

 

[SpursManChris]

Can you credit Commoli with seeking these signings?

Can you?

Seriously, we will never be able to tell with any great deal of accuracy who was Comolli's signings and who wasn't. We are never told.

 

[donny1013]

Players like Berba and Bale were very well known before we signed them. Zoko, BAE etc were not exactly house hold names, unless you had a good knowledge of Ligue 1. I would have liked Arnesen to have stayed at the club but he also made a few dodgy signings, Atouba, Davis etc Rather than sign Kaboul for example i feel Distin on a free would have been a much better option, that is my only gripe with Commoli

 

[rem01]

Can you credit Commoli with seeking these signings?

Of course not. Can you reliably credit Commoli with being the driver behind any of those other buys? The point is that if you're going to hold Commoli directly responsible for what you consider to be bad buys, when you have no information about who actually drove the transfer, you have to give him credit for the good buys, too.

Just as I don't give big internet kisses to Commoli whenever Berbatov scores a goal, I don't shout curses at his picture on the tv when Kaboul cocks up.

 

[joey55]

Something that slighlty concerns me about Comolli is that he was so easily allowed to leave Arsenal. He didn't leave for a big job, so it surely would have been fairly easy to convince him to stay. He left to become head of youth development at a then Ligue 2 club. Surely if you have a scout that you think is a real asset to a club the size of Arsenal, they should easily be able to get him to stay as oppossed to doing Clive Allens' job in the French second division. I'd never thought about it that way before, but it does seem as if Arsenal didn't really care that he was leaving. He only got the job of Director of Football because the previous guy left because the President employed Baup.

 

[nickspurs]

I agree that he's not delivered. Concur with comments above that we'll never truly know which signing we can pin on whom but there are some decisions that I believe that he's made that have been awful.

It's widely written that he contributed to the Carrick out disaster. Zokora has yet to deliver anything close to the price paid and he was earmarked as a replacement.

On a standalone basis I think Kaboul, BAE and Taarabt could still be good buys. The real issue I have is that the obvious needs of the squad were not addressed in the last window, e.g. a good-to-go, experienced CB to stand-in for Ledley, a left winger for balance, etc. This criticism has to sit squarely at Comolli's door.

It's his job to persuade the board to change the policy on signings if it truly is that we won't pay more that £XM for players older that Y. It's clear that the current policy is not going to get us into the CL on the cheap. We nearly got away with it but as it stands we need to recognise that we have to make strategic exceptions. Hopefully Ramos will be strong enough to make this case too.

 

[donny1013]

Liverpool for instance have invested in youth, with Lucas and Babel already in the first team setup. But they also have that mixture of youth and experience, and that experience is at the back where they happen to have one of the best defences in the prem. We on the other hand have just really invested in youth this summer and brought in no experience, and in that sense you have to lay the blame at DC. It is great to get young players coming through, Bale for instance is looking every bit of £10mill so far. But missing out on Distin and Petrov IMO has really cost us.

 

[rem01]

I agree that he's not delivered. Concur with comments above that we'll never truly know which signing we can pin on whom but there are some decisions that I believe that he's made that have been awful.

It's widely written that he contributed to the Carrick out disaster. Zokora has yet to deliver anything close to the price paid and he was earmarked as a replacement.

On a standalone basis I think Kaboul, BAE and Taarabt could still be good buys. The real issue I have is that the obvious needs of the squad were not addressed in the last window, e.g. a good-to-go, experienced CB to stand-in for Ledley, a left winger for balance, etc. This criticism has to sit squarely at Comolli's door.

It's his job to persuade the board to change the policy on signings if it truly is that we won't pay more that £XM for players older that Y. It's clear that the current policy is not going to get us into the CL on the cheap. We nearly got away with it but as it stands we need to recognise that we have to make strategic exceptions. Hopefully Ramos will be strong enough to make this case too.

Nothing there I disagree with.

 

[Babylon22]

how does commolli sleep at night knowing we spent a combined 16 million on kaboul and Zokora.

 

[Spursking]

What is this nonsense? Comolli has done a great job for THFC.

 

[jolegend]

What is this nonsense? Comolli has done a great job for THFC.

:bang: