What exactly does a DoF have to do to get sacked?

[Kurtzen]

Thanks Joey....only reinforces my view of him as, with no apology for the pun(cringe), a 'trumped up boy scout'.

 

[SpursManChris]

I agree, Comolli does seem completely bulletproof, in that he has never taken the fall for anything at the club.

But no-one really knows exactly what a Director of Football does... / Until it's made clear exactly who sanctions the purchase and sale of specific players...

It has been made clear what Comolli's role at the club is and how the acquisition of players work whenever Levy has been 'open' on the website, interviews etc., even though many of us feel that towards the end of Jol's reign he was undermined by L & C. We really started to suspect that the hierarchy of it all was a little off and Levy wasn't being 100% honest.

Of course, the last time we have heard from Levy on this was in the clubs 'Open Letter' posted on the website in October.
Here is the extract:

I should like to once again outline how the acquisition and disposal of players works at the club. We have a Football Management Group which meets on a regular basis – this is constituted by myself, Damien Comolli (Sporting Director), John Alexander (Club Secretary) and the Head Coach, now Juande Ramos. This group meets to discuss, identify and acquire players in targeted positions and to consider possible disposals. No player is brought into the Club or sold who is not approved by the coaching staff – it would be counter-productive to buy players that won’t be played. It is a system that Juande has worked with for years, which allows him to specify his needs and to concentrate on coaching the team whilst Damien and his scouting network seek options. This process clearly relies on accurate briefing and good decision making. It has a collective responsibility.

The segment that I have highlighted is the part that most concerns me. To me, it conveys that Ramos will not be actively involved in the scouting and 'shortlisting' of suitable players, but is merely there to tell Comolli the sort of players he wants and then sit in a corner somewhere while Comolli does all the work. I would have thought a class coach like Ramos, with his identity in the footballing world would be used a bit more pro actively at a club than what Levy has explained.

Whatever Levy may say, I suspect the power has now shifted and Comolli is basically Ramos' Chief Scout and Contract Negotiator.

I have hoped for a while now that this will be the case, that Comolli will take a step back in his role and let Ramos take the majority of control.

My take on it all is it doesn't hurt to have Comolli around the place as long as it IS JUST 'having him around' and he doesn't take over what really should be managerial responsibilities. He would be very useful acting as the Chief Scout, like yanno above me said. And I for one hope this will be the new system, because with a coach like Ramos, it really is the blatantly obvious system.

 

[TaoistMonkey]

Joeypedia :lol: seriously, your brain must be like....huge!

 

[AnotherSpursFan]

Contrary to some people's belief, we had our best season when we do not have a DOF. When we still have Carrick and Davids.
Last season was not our best. If Berba had behaved then like he did now, we would've been playing in Division 1 by now.
Comolli's worst signing? Zokora, we start leaking goals when we brought him in..just think bout it.

 

[joey55]

Joeypedia :lol: seriously, your brain must be like....huge!

You really don't need a big brain. Take Toure for example. The BBC say he was Arsenals European scout and then credit him for signing an African. Yet Panorama, a BBC programme, dedicated a whole show to Arseanls recruitemnt of players from the IC and listed about 30 names of people involved. Comolli was not listed. It's just lazy journalism.

 

[yanno]

You really don't need a big brain. [...] It's just lazy journalism.

Absolutely true. Pires had been French Player of the Year, Henry has been Wenger's player at Monaco etc etc.

The problem is that many journalists have no time for original research so they end up simply rehashing biased press releases.

That said, Joey55 does have rather a large brain, does pay attention, and, crucially, can spot bullsh*t a mile off.

 

[N10toN17]

This system is perfect for a leader who hasn't got the balls to be a leader, it's a muddying of responsibility which leaves both Levy and Comolli sitting pretty while the coach/ manager gets it in the neck.

First team players should be sanctioned by Ramos, he is the professional, it's his job to build the squad, he'll then live and die on his sword so to speak, but it has to be this way.

If Ramos has the interferance that Jol had, we can forget improvement in results and if that is the case, I hope Ramos walks and tells Levy and co to shove it.

I don't have a problem with Comolli being the dof, but his remit should be to purchase players for the future who will go into our reserves or academy side, ie Berchiche, leave Ramos to take care of all first team matters, here we will have clear lines of responsibility, can Levy cope with that, very doubtful?

 

[sheringmann]

Buying Bent for 17 mill???

 

[SpurSince57]

Levy has made the position abundantly clear. If anything goes wrong, it's not his fault.

As BC and Joey have said, Comolli has to work within a framework dictated by Levy in order to maximise profits for ENIC shareholders. As far as I understand it, on the Continent a Sporting Director is given a budget and allowed to get on with the job, so the situation isn't the same. It's perfectly possible that both Comolli and Jol were in agreement that we needed an experienced CB and that Levy baulked at paying Distin £40k a week and told them to go away and think again. We may have had a similar scenario with Petrov. Fact is, we don't know.

As for £16.5m for Bent, no, it isn't. It's £15m plus £1.5m in possible add-ons. In addition, we've got him on the never-never. We paid £5m down and are paying the rest in two instalments, so that's £10m gathering a fair chunk of interest. Subtract the £2m profit we made on Mido and whatever we get for Defoe, we aren't going to be shelling out that much in the end.

Has Torres looked like £25m' worth so far? And Henry's hardly been setting the world on fire at Barca.

 

[yanno]

As BC and Joey have said, Comolli has to work within a framework dictated by Levy in order to maximise profits for ENIC shareholders. As far as I understand it, on the Continent a Sporting Director is given a budget and allowed to get on with the job, so the situation isn't the same. It's perfectly possible that both Comolli and Jol were in agreement that we needed an experienced CB and that Levy baulked at paying Distin £40k a week and told them to go away and think again. We may have had a similar scenario with Petrov. Fact is, we don't know.

Absolutely true. All I would add is that the comments and leaks about Distin came from Jol (and/or his people). And the super duper ghosted autobiography where "Martin gives us the inside story on both his love of Clacton on Sea, AND who really wore the trousers at Spurs" will hit all fine booksellers in the near future...

For those who missed the original flyer:

"Amid all the recrimination and intrigue, Harry Harris followed every twist and turn, with exclusive access to Jol himself as he revealed his inner-most thoughts on his turbulent time at Spurs, his managerial techniques, his childhood in rural Holland, his fondness for Clacton-on-Sea and his passion for art. He also discusses how he once turned down Alex Ferguson, a unique insight into his managerial motivational techniques, his love of Kafka and Hemingway - and an incredible story of international smuggling!"

I believe SC has a link they'd like you to use if purchasing this product...

 

[SpursManChris]

As for £16.5m for Bent, no, it isn't. It's £15m plus £1.5m in possible add-ons. In addition, we've got him on the never-never. We paid £5m down and are paying the rest in two instalments.

How do we 'know' this????

 

[PYiddy]

ahhhhhhh. noted

thanks for clearing that up :lol:

im gonna give u some rep for recognising the genius that is elf. not spurs related, but its christmas, so what the frig!!

 

[SpurSince57]

It was pretty well publicised over the summer when we made the deal.

 

[themanwhofellasleep]

In terms of the cost of Bent, £15 million is £15 million. Saying that we've sold Mido and might sell Defoe doesn't change anything. You might as well say that he cost £15 million but if we sold Keane, Berbatov, Lennon, King and Robinson we'd made £75 million. No amount of talk changes the fact that we paid an absolutely ridiculous price for him. And comparing him to Torres is ridiculous. Torres has scored plenty of goals and Liverpool fans and neutrals alike think Benitez is nuts to ever leave him out of the starting team. Whereas Bent is rubbish so far. I'm not saying he'll never be a good player, but no way is he worth what we paid for him.

I basically agree with what N10toN17 said. The role muddies the waters, and you end up with a situation where one individual has vast power but isn't held accountable in the same way as the manager.

 

[worcestersauce]

Apparently if Ramos doesnt work out then Comolli goes.

I think the DOF and managers fates should for the most part be tied together

Surely that's the whole point of the coach/DOF set up so that if one goes the other is there to offer the continuity and stability.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Levy has made the position abundantly clear. If anything goes wrong, it's not his fault.

As BC and Joey have said, Comolli has to work within a framework dictated by Levy in order to maximise profits for ENIC shareholders. As far as I understand it, on the Continent a Sporting Director is given a budget and allowed to get on with the job, so the situation isn't the same. It's perfectly possible that both Comolli and Jol were in agreement that we needed an experienced CB and that Levy baulked at paying Distin £40k a week and told them to go away and think again. We may have had a similar scenario with Petrov. Fact is, we don't know.

As for £16.5m for Bent, no, it isn't. It's £15m plus £1.5m in possible add-ons. In addition, we've got him on the never-never. We paid £5m down and are paying the rest in two instalments, so that's £10m gathering a fair chunk of interest. Subtract the £2m profit we made on Mido and whatever we get for Defoe, we aren't going to be shelling out that much in the end.

Has Torres looked like £25m' worth so far? And Henry's hardly been setting the world on fire at Barca.

I think it is too easy, and an oversimplification to just say that our transfer policy is purely geared to make profits for shareholders. Of course profitavility is a strong element of the strategy, but shit football and poor results are not condusive to profitability, therefore, to a large extent, one goes hand in hand with the other. It is after all a truism that the regular CL sides are creaming vast amounts by being in the CL. The debate is what actually is Levy/ENIC's short/mid/long term strategy and does it concur with what we as football fans want or is it heavily biased towards their exit profitability.

As far as Bent goes, as someone else said, 16 mil is 16 mil. For a one dimentional player who doesn't even offer the same skill set as someone like Anelka, it was silly money.

And I laughed when you said in the summer you'd rather have Bent than Torres. It's still slightly amusing, only the jokes on all of us really isn't it.

 

[Stoof]

In terms of the cost of Bent, £15 million is £15 million. Saying that we've sold Mido and might sell Defoe doesn't change anything. You might as well say that he cost £15 million but if we sold Keane, Berbatov, Lennon, King and Robinson we'd made £75 million.

True - but accounting deals with income as well. A gross figure can be misleading, but a net spend reduced by our outgoings is more indicative of the total progression of the club.

It's blinkered to just focus on his fee. The reason for it was an inflated market (7/8 million for Mido??!?), he's English and a striker. And a bloody good one at that.

And as SS57 said, it's planned out over years with add-ons all over the place.

It's like people yelling and screaming about Dawson and Reid costing us £8m - when in fact they cost us £1m each up front. We easily made that back on Reidy, and Dawson at a maximum of £4m? Snip.

Look at the price we paid for Jenas - English players (and those with a cap or two - unlike Lennon who was an unknown quantity to most) - they go for more money, it's just the trend. The money we got for Carrick was outrageous too.

And. To be perfectly honest, if West Ham had got him, how many of you would have been saying things like: "we never push the boat out for players", "we never put our hands in our pockets" and "Levy is a tight **** - spend our Carrick money".

So you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't really, with some.

No amount of talk changes the fact that we paid an absolutely ridiculous price for him. And comparing him to Torres is ridiculous. Torres has scored plenty of goals and Liverpool fans and neutrals alike think Benitez is nuts to ever leave him out of the starting team. Whereas Bent is rubbish so far. I'm not saying he'll never be a good player, but no way is he worth what we paid for him.

Bent hasn't been rubbish so far, in fact he's had better games than Berbatov has this year. He offers something different to ShiftAndShoot and Keano. And actually plays on the last man. You've seen with the goals he's scored that he's a predator - and given a stretch of games he'll show that. You don't score the number of Premiership goals in that poor a team [Charlton] for no reason.

Torres is class - but comparing him isn't ridiculous. Bent's a proven Prem goalscorer - Torres isn't. Yet.

 

[joey55]

I think it is too easy, and an oversimplification to just say that our transfer policy is purely geared to make profits for shareholders. Of course profitavility is a strong element of the strategy, but shit football and poor results are not condusive to profitability, therefore, to a large extent, one goes hand in hand with the other. It is after all a truism that the regular CL sides are creaming vast amounts by being in the CL. The debate is what actually is Levy/ENIC's short/mid/long term strategy and does it concur with what we as football fans want or is it heavily biased towards their exit profitability.
.

I don't think it is. ENIC are an investment vehicle and every single action they take will be geared towards achieving the best return possible on the investment. This usually isn't a bad thing for a club, as like you point out, increase in investmement value and success on the pitch usually go had in hand. I don't think SS57 meant profitability in terms of trading profits, but as in return on investment. It' very unusual for dividends to be paid, so profits in that sense have little interest to ENIC. Any profit the club makes, they want to use to add value to the club and therefore increase the value of their investment, hence a transfer policy that ensures a minimal level of depriciation. I can't see them changing this in an effort for us to achieve CL football. Say for example we signed Anelka and Petrov in the summer and still failed to get into the CL in the following seasons. This would have minimal effect on the club itself, but it would probably hit Levy personally, for around £3 million (he essentially owns about 40% of the club).

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Fuck me. Even when I agree with you you fucking argue. You know exactly what I was saying. We all know ENIC are an investment vehicle and even if they weren't, any board of a PLC has a duty to it's shareholders anyway.

When I said it's an oversimplification and explained why i assumed even you could understand it. It's a fairly simple equation. On pitch success increases profitability and added to having a squad full of players that have retained or increased value makes the "company" more valuable and thus is more likely to increases the return on their investment.

Therefore whilst profitability (or investment return) is ever present there is always a by-product of on pitch gain as well. Hence it is not a simple case of Comoli's job is to maximise ENICS profits. His job is to improve our chances of on pitch success too.

 

[tony0379]

we all know if ramos fails DC will still be tere despite what they say