- May 20, 2005
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Personally I've always thought it a little more blurred than that. lets take Zokora for example. A regular international for - at the time - Africas most exciting nation The Ivory Coast. So had had plenty of TV coverage playing in the ACN, then appeared at the World Cup - which Jol attended and commented on for TV I think. Add in that French league games are fairly easily accessable. Could Jol really have had no idea exactly what he was getting with Zokora ?
Transversly, take Bent. Of course, as your list shows, Jol must have known and sanctioned this purchase, maybe even requested it ?
But as DOF I've always held Camolli very responsible for this massive waste of money on such a limited player as even if Jol demaded him, at 16m Comolli should have known better and realised that as DOF he would have to sign off on such a huge mistake.
When I look at that list I can pretty much understand why a club like ours, in our position, made most of them.
You yourself have argued with me that young players often mature after 20-22+. I think in tandem with those easy purchases (ie the Berbatovs, Modric's, Gomes's and Woodgate's) we have run a policy of trying to find an uncut diomond here and there.
If we consider that Devitte and Kaboul were France under 18 and 21 captains respectively we can easily understand this kind of purchase.
I still don't think we should have binned Kaboul quite so quickly.
There actually aren't too many complete turkeys on that list when taken from the viewpoint of the logic at the time not the all knowing hindsight.
The ANC happens during league time for Europe and there is a big difference between watchinga tournamnet on TV and scouting a particular player. Though we officially signed him after the WC, Zokora had said he knew he was coming when we played West Ham. Also, Jol mentioned Zokora (and BAE) by name at the Q&A and it was clearly Zokora, Jol was talking about the other day when he spoke of the French based players we was told were better than Carrick.
Also, it's unlikley Jol would have demanded Bent and got him. That summer, they were clearly already planning to get rid of Jol. Jol said the other day, in his newspaper interview, that he knew Comolli wanted Ramos that summer. There was also itk that said it at the time and then 2 games into the season the club are caught in Sevilla. You don't go to Sevilla and speak to another coach on a whim, after losing 2 games. They'd clearly been thinking of changing coach for a while. So it's unlikely they'd have been that keen to spend £16 million on a player that a coach they want out is "demanding." Levy isn't stupid.
But ultimately the point is that in our system the coach is responsible for coaching. He isn't the manager. A manager like Ferguson or Wenger wouldn't often sign a player with limited knowledge, be it from TV or just seeing them live once. Not only would they want to know the player, but they'd also employ the scouts. In our system, it's the D of F who is responsible for the scouting network. So our coach often has to rely on the opinion of the D of F.