The Barca Boys

jrb said:
Yes, something has happened over the past 18 months where those in charge at City took their eye off the ball. For me the waste of money on average and panic signings has been the greatest concern. Not addressing the obvious need for a right back. The growing discontent between the club and the fans. And the continuing style of play and similar tactics to last season that wasn’t working anymore, which is being repeated again this season.
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My view is that what happened was £1billion project in NY which got all the CFG attention. For eg, Khaldoon was gobsmacked by the ticket pricing fuck up. Did he not know about it in advance?
 
Gordyola said:
Chief Operations Officer not Director of Operations different roles

If you read the below he was in fact appointed to the role before Berrada left

"Omar Berrada, who was previously Manchester City’s Chief Operating Officer, takes the newly created global role of Chief Football Operations Officer"

www.cityfootballgroup.com

CFG appoint Roel De Vries to the post of Group Chief Operating Officer

City Football Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Roel De Vries, former global Nissan executive, to the post of Group Chief Operating Officer (GCOO).The newly created position, which reports directly to CFG Chief Executive Officer Ferran Soriano, will see Roel take responsibility for...
www.cityfootballgroup.com www.cityfootballgroup.com
Already determined that CFG reflect MCFC
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Confusion reigns. That is a CFG appointment, not MCFC.
Whatever, it seems clear that CFG is king and Clty is just a profit centre.
 
halfcenturyup said:
Of course they have a succession plan. Begiristain retired at 60 and was properly replaced with a minimum of fuss. I imagine Soriano will also retire when he is 60 in a couple of years and I think Guardiola would have left already if it wasn't for the 115.

But Mansour is never sacking Guardiola. He has earned the right to go when he wants and it's pretty clear he doesn't want to while the 115 is ongoing.

He is never sacking Soriano either, Mansour can wait a couple of years until he retires (or is persuaded to retire). Chances are de Vries will take over.

The big question is who will replace Guardiola, but if you think Mansour and Khaldoon have no plan - no, I can't have that.
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They certainly have a plan and it is one which benefits CFG. What they have in mind for MCFC I have no idea.
 
KS55 said:
Confusion reigns. That is a CFG appointment, not MCFC.
Whatever, it seems clear that CFG is king and Clty is just a profit centre.
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There is no confusion unless you want it to be
The board of both is identical Soriano is CEO of both you said MCFC has no CEO
It’s clear that CFG is MCFC all the other clubs have a their own board and CEO
 
I've just started reading Steven Covey's 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People' and he talks about a restaurant that served great clam chowder. It was always busy but then changed hands. The new owner tried to squeeze extra profit out of the chowder and watered it down, lowering the cost but maintaining the revenue. In the short term profits increased but people realised the chowder wasn't as good as it had been, and customers drifted away as they'd lost trust in the product.

Soriano, despite having an MBA (or possibly because he has an MBA) has basically watered the chowder down to maximise income. People bought tickets while the football product on offer was top-class, and were prepared to overlook other factors. But some customers drifted away even so. Now the product isn't quite so alluring, the watering down is much more apparent.

Project management has a concept called the RACI matrix, where stakeholders are deemed to be either Responsible, Accountable, Consulted or Informed. Accountability is the highest category, and is usually the senior executive(s) who are ultimately held accountable for the success of the project. People directly working on it, including the Project Manager, are responsible for delivering it.

You can try to put clear blue water between the Sheikh/Khaldoon and their executives but those two are ultimately accountable for the dilution of the offering.
 
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Prestwich_Blue said:
You can try to put clear blue water between the Sheikh/Khaldoon and their executives but those two are ultimately accountable for the dilution of the offering.
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You see, this is where I differ from the sages and luminaries on here.

Of course, Mansour and Khaldoon are ultimately responsible for the actions of their management team. They are the people who appointed the cunts in the first place and have the power to remove them.

But you can't expect them to be aware of the effects of the executives' actions over and above what they are presented with in board and face-to-face meetings.

This is where I have my one criticism of them and that is that there seems to be no mechanism for monitoring the executives' actions in a football sense. Sure, they may be meeting the high-level targets set by the Board, but how are they doing it and what effect is it having on other high-level targets set by the Board such as, for example, fan engagement.

If I may be so bold, I would suggest some high level football experience on the Board (I just pray to God it isn't Soriano when he retires) and an annual meeting between Khaldoon and fan representatives. That would be a start.

Is it time for a change in the executive? Have they taken their eye off the City ball, become complacent? Possibly, but let's face it, Mansour isn't sacking Soriano and he isn't sacking Guardiola after all they have achieved. And nor should he. They take decisions for the long-term, not the short-term.

I set out what I think will happen in the next two years. Imho, we just have to suck it all up in the meantime.
 
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KS55 said:
They certainly have a plan and it is one which benefits CFG. What they have in mind for MCFC I have no idea.
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This is what confuses me with your pov.

You are suggesting that CFG have taken all the brains out of the club and put them at the CFG level and so there is nothing left in the club, or at least that the people who duplicate their roles at CFG have taken their eye off the City ball.

That seems to me to be hugely simplistic. What would you expect to happen? CFG to appoint a team that is more experienced than the City team to tell them what to do? It doesn't exist. CFG to appoint a less experienced team to tell the City team what to do. Never going to happen and, if it did, things would be much worse.

My point is that it's perfectly normal for an organisation that is dominated by a single, successful brand to duplicate the executive roles of that brand at the holding level. That leads to various stress points in the organisation (resentment in the other brands that they are being told what to do by the executives of the dominant brand, for example) but I have no idea what else you expect them to do.

If your point is that the executive structure of the club has been weakened by the time spent on CFG matters by the club's executives, then that is a different matter.

That would be a catastrophic failure of Soriano and I doubt it. I would argue the opposite. That they are carrying out Soriano's operational instructions perfectly well and to the letter.

I just can't see that as a real issue.
 
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Lavinda Past said:
I wouldn't be remotely surprised if the 'Board' have been blagging the whole football side of things since day one.

Mansour will be far more interested in horseracing/ bloodstock than football. It's just another sideline business for him.

As for Khaldoon, he's just a figurehead. He's got far more important things to work on in relation to Abu Dhabi than football.
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Not surprisingly, I don't agree with any of that.
 
mexico1970 said:
The way the club thinks is that the better we become the less of us get to see it, I see a dip in form as a good kick in the bollocks for the club who appear to think that showboating on the pitch gives them the right to be blasé off the pitch :)
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Watch them roll back the restrictions on ticket transfers etc when the day trippers suddenly stop coming, although they’ll spin it to say we listened to your concerns and have changed things, bullshit. I do think there is maybe some tension at the top, Pep not having his mate Tixi there anymore and a possibly a DoF who see things differently.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
I've just started reading Steven Covey's 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People' and he talks about a restaurant that served great clam chowder. It was always busy but then changed hands. The new owner tried to squeeze extra profit out of the chowder and watered it down, lowering the cost but maintaining the revenue. In the short term profits increased but people realised the chowder wasn't as good as it had been, and customers drifted away as they'd lost trust in the product.

Soriano, despite having an MBA (or possibly because he has an MBA) has basically watered the chowder down to maximise income. People bought tickets while the football product on offer was top-class, and were prepared to overlook other factors. But some customers drifted away even so. Now the product isn't quite so alluring, the watering down is much more apparent.

Project management has a concept called the RACI matrix, where stakeholders are deemed to be either Responsible, Accountable, Consulted or Informed. Accountability is the highest category, and is usually the senior executive(s) who are ultimately held accountable for the success of the project. People directly working on it, including the Project Manager, are responsible for delivering it.

You can try to put clear blue water between the Sheikh/Khaldoon and their executives but those two are ultimately accountable for the dilution of the offering.
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Great book. See my post about strategy from the other day. Is the aim to compete or to win?

Without a decent team, the new seating capacity will be redundant and the hotel won't be full.
 
halfcenturyup said:
This is what confuses me with your pov.

You are suggesting that CFG have taken all the brains out of the club and put them at the CFG level and so there is nothing left in the club, or at least that the people who duplicate their roles at CFG have taken their eye off the City ball.

That seems to me to be hugely simplistic. What would you expect to happen? CFG to appoint a team that is more experienced than the City team to tell them what to do? It doesn't exist. CFG to appoint a less experienced team to tell the City team what to do. Never going to happen and, if it did, things would be much worse.

My point is that it's perfectly normal for an organisation that is dominated by a single, successful brand to duplicate the executive roles of that brand at the holding level. That leads to various stress points in the organisation (resentment in the other brands that they are being told what to do by the executives of the dominant brand, for example) but I have no idea what else you expect them to do.

If your point is that the executive structure of the club has been weakened by the time spent on CFG matters by the club's executives, then that is a different matter.

That would be a catastrophic failure of Soriano and I doubt it. I would argue the opposite. That they are carrying out Soriano's operational instructions perfectly well and to the letter.

I just can't see that as a real issue.
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My point is that City is being neglected as an entity and becoming a mere profit centre for CFG. This will lead to an alienation between City fans and the policy dictated by CFG. In short, CFG will be happy for City to finish top 4 every year and rarely win the title. Wenger’s Arsenal is the model. It is possible to make more profit this way by avoiding the costs associated with recruiting the world class players you need to win the title.
There is plenty of evidence for this:

1. Accused by the PL with 130 charges, we are defended by a team that reports to CFG not MCFC. Ultimately, what happens when the interests of MCFC and CFG diverge? No lawyer can serve two masters.
2. Our senior team appear to be doubling up as execs of CFG and MCFC.
I don’t think Soriano, for example, can properly oversee both City and The NY £1billion project.
He zips in to City and lays down first a ticket pricing policy that cuts out many trad fans. He has to back track but replaces the policy with a set of rules which amount to war on trad fans. Have two bouts of sickness and lose your ST, eg. All this is in aid of getting more income from tourists mostly via so-called ticketing partners, who filled City’s end with Real supporters, last year.
3. The apparent abandonment of the “Blue Wall” in the new North Stand.
4. The complete lack of football expertise and City participation on our board. No local football board.
There are other signs too, but you get my drift.
There are worries for the future and the greatest is: What will happen when the financials align and we exercise our option to acquire the freehold of the stadium? CFG are likely to become the freeholder. Will City be paying rent to CFG?

I have no inside knowledge, I am just drawing conclusions from what I observe. It is my fear rather than a forecast. I hope I am wrong. Come back at me if you want.
 
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A huge mistake was made and the club acted in January and this summer to address it. We're so much closer to where we need to be than we were. Next summer we will go again, offloading players we need to and selling those that underperform and we'll be right back up there.

Our success had been record breaking and unprecedented. Everyone assumed stability and harmony within that group was the best strategy but didn't appreciate that there was always likely to be a mental and physical toll and that we were desperately lacking in depth in the critical areas. Coupled with the decision to allow players like Alvarez and Palmer to leave we were in a bad place. So bad we made a cup final and finished 3rd!

This season I'd expect us to challenge for the domestic cups, go further in the CL and finish 3rd.

Next season we'll be ready to fight for the big prizes again. Not too bad. 6 titles in 8 years becomes 6 in 9 which is still outstanding. 8 in 14 seasons turns to 8 in 15. Again pretty damn good.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
I've just started reading Steven Covey's 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People' and he talks about a restaurant that served great clam chowder. It was always busy but then changed hands. The new owner tried to squeeze extra profit out of the chowder and watered it down, lowering the cost but maintaining the revenue. In the short term profits increased but people realised the chowder wasn't as good as it had been, and customers drifted away as they'd lost trust in the product.

Soriano, despite having an MBA (or possibly because he has an MBA) has basically watered the chowder down to maximise income. People bought tickets while the football product on offer was top-class, and were prepared to overlook other factors. But some customers drifted away even so. Now the product isn't quite so alluring, the watering down is much more apparent.

Project management has a concept called the RACI matrix, where stakeholders are deemed to be either Responsible, Accountable, Consulted or Informed. Accountability is the highest category, and is usually the senior executive(s) who are ultimately held accountable for the success of the project. People directly working on it, including the Project Manager, are responsible for delivering it.

You can try to put clear blue water between the Sheikh/Khaldoon and their executives but those two are ultimately accountable for the dilution of the offering.
Click to expand...
Spot on,Colin.
Football is not just a business it has an element of what I call community and it is this which is the chowder being watered down.
 
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