Langers
Active Member
- Jul 22, 2003
- 127
- 57
Right now something quite disastrous is happening to our once great club. We're two and half games away from completing the first quarter of the season and we have two measly points.
The natural reaction is to blame someone, a scapegoat if you will. If you've spent £70 million quid and you have two points at this point in the season it must be somebody's fault, right?
The press and fans alike seem to be pointing that finger of blame at mostly one person. That's right, you've guessed it. One Damien Comolli.
The muppets in the press hate anything foreign, and insist 'this director of football thing don't work'. They'll print you a list of the clubs who the system has failed for, but will quite happily omit the hundreds of clubs this system works for (mostly abroad to be fair).
They also seem to have a complete lack of understanding of what this job entails. It seems the majority of them have this daft notion that the chairman gives him a cheque and says 'there you go mate, go and buy some players'.
This seems to now be filtering down to the fans and Mr. Commoli seems to be enemy number one.
But how responsible is Comolli? If you take a look at what the club insist are his duties, is he really to blame?
Damien Comolli has overall responsibility for the medical, academy, scouting and club secretarial departments.
Medical Department
I'd deem his work in this department a resounding success. The Spurs of old would have a list of injuries as long as your arm by now. This season we have two of note. I'm not sure how much of this is directly down to Comolli's work, but it's certainly an area we have improved upon since his arrival.
Academy
Again I'd have to say since Comolli's arrival the work done in this area seems to look like it's of the highest standard. Not only have we bought in the likes of Dean Parrett, John Bostock and Danny Rose. Players which were chased by Europe’s elite. We also have a host of academy products out on loan, to name a few Tomas Pekhart, Troy Archibald-Henville and Andrew Barcham.
The Academy team last year was also very successful in the tournaments they took participated in, playing against some of the world’s best clubs.
We are also building a state of the art academy training facility, which seemed to take an age to get planning permission for.
It would be difficult to suggest things weren't looking particularly rosy in this area.
Scouting
Hmmm....Okay a grey area. My understanding of scouting is identifying players from around the world with the talent or potential talent to succeed at the highest level.
Damien Comolli worked for the other lot from down the road for seven years as European scout. This would suggest that he has the credentials to fulfil this part of his job to the highest standard.
Herein lays the problem. His job description suggests he identifies players. It does not state he chooses which ones to purchase, how much money to spend on them and which ones we should retain. Which seems to be the common misconception.
You could say look at some of the utter bobbins we've bought in of late, he must have identified them as players that would improve our squad. To which I would agree, although all players have some degree of risk. Let us also remember for every Kevin Prince Boateng (German young player of the year when purchased) there is a Gareth Bale. Perhaps in another thread someone could create a list of who they feel have been positive and negative signings (I personally can't be arsed and it's all about personal opinion).
The club have 35 academy scouts alone. He can't be accountable for every failing in this area, just like he shouldn't take all the praise for the areas of his duties that have been successful.
Therefore I'm not sure if you can say he's been unsuccessful in this role. I think we have signed some real talent of late. Perhaps if we had signed one of the left wingers, defensive midfielders or strikers on his list of suggested candidates we may not be in the mess we are in now.
Secretarial department
I’m not really sure what this job entails, perhaps someone could elaborate? Perhaps this is where he is incompetent. Is this the area where he is supposed to close deals? (perhaps the reason we have no strikers).
To me it sounds like he should be taking minutes and leaning over the desk provocatively (errgh, what a horrible vision). But what do I know!
In conclusion to this pointless rambling thread. I’m not sure why Comolli is the villain. I’m not sure who is to be honest. But scapegoating someone because you don’t understand their role seems a little unfair.
If you do understand his role better than I and he is directly responsible for signing players, spending money and closing deals. Then I’ve just wasted half an hour of my life.
Perhaps someone can put me right here, and explain to me why this man is the reason for our current plight?
The natural reaction is to blame someone, a scapegoat if you will. If you've spent £70 million quid and you have two points at this point in the season it must be somebody's fault, right?
The press and fans alike seem to be pointing that finger of blame at mostly one person. That's right, you've guessed it. One Damien Comolli.
The muppets in the press hate anything foreign, and insist 'this director of football thing don't work'. They'll print you a list of the clubs who the system has failed for, but will quite happily omit the hundreds of clubs this system works for (mostly abroad to be fair).
They also seem to have a complete lack of understanding of what this job entails. It seems the majority of them have this daft notion that the chairman gives him a cheque and says 'there you go mate, go and buy some players'.
This seems to now be filtering down to the fans and Mr. Commoli seems to be enemy number one.
But how responsible is Comolli? If you take a look at what the club insist are his duties, is he really to blame?
Damien Comolli has overall responsibility for the medical, academy, scouting and club secretarial departments.
Medical Department
I'd deem his work in this department a resounding success. The Spurs of old would have a list of injuries as long as your arm by now. This season we have two of note. I'm not sure how much of this is directly down to Comolli's work, but it's certainly an area we have improved upon since his arrival.
Academy
Again I'd have to say since Comolli's arrival the work done in this area seems to look like it's of the highest standard. Not only have we bought in the likes of Dean Parrett, John Bostock and Danny Rose. Players which were chased by Europe’s elite. We also have a host of academy products out on loan, to name a few Tomas Pekhart, Troy Archibald-Henville and Andrew Barcham.
The Academy team last year was also very successful in the tournaments they took participated in, playing against some of the world’s best clubs.
We are also building a state of the art academy training facility, which seemed to take an age to get planning permission for.
It would be difficult to suggest things weren't looking particularly rosy in this area.
Scouting
Hmmm....Okay a grey area. My understanding of scouting is identifying players from around the world with the talent or potential talent to succeed at the highest level.
Damien Comolli worked for the other lot from down the road for seven years as European scout. This would suggest that he has the credentials to fulfil this part of his job to the highest standard.
Herein lays the problem. His job description suggests he identifies players. It does not state he chooses which ones to purchase, how much money to spend on them and which ones we should retain. Which seems to be the common misconception.
You could say look at some of the utter bobbins we've bought in of late, he must have identified them as players that would improve our squad. To which I would agree, although all players have some degree of risk. Let us also remember for every Kevin Prince Boateng (German young player of the year when purchased) there is a Gareth Bale. Perhaps in another thread someone could create a list of who they feel have been positive and negative signings (I personally can't be arsed and it's all about personal opinion).
The club have 35 academy scouts alone. He can't be accountable for every failing in this area, just like he shouldn't take all the praise for the areas of his duties that have been successful.
Therefore I'm not sure if you can say he's been unsuccessful in this role. I think we have signed some real talent of late. Perhaps if we had signed one of the left wingers, defensive midfielders or strikers on his list of suggested candidates we may not be in the mess we are in now.
Secretarial department
I’m not really sure what this job entails, perhaps someone could elaborate? Perhaps this is where he is incompetent. Is this the area where he is supposed to close deals? (perhaps the reason we have no strikers).
To me it sounds like he should be taking minutes and leaning over the desk provocatively (errgh, what a horrible vision). But what do I know!
In conclusion to this pointless rambling thread. I’m not sure why Comolli is the villain. I’m not sure who is to be honest. But scapegoating someone because you don’t understand their role seems a little unfair.
If you do understand his role better than I and he is directly responsible for signing players, spending money and closing deals. Then I’ve just wasted half an hour of my life.
Perhaps someone can put me right here, and explain to me why this man is the reason for our current plight?
