This transfer window/Marwood

[Prestwich_Blue]

So because he can get a job as a marketing manager at a sportswear manufacturer, we should value him as the overseer of the academy, the scouting, the performance analysis, the medical, and all other technical departments?

And giving a manager near total control hasn't hurt the two biggest clubs in England has it?

I am only saying he has options, and that if he leaves, it isn't automatically evidence that he was screwing up the transfers in the eyes of our ownership.

I didn't recruit Marwood for the job. I've just spent some time with him, and personally found him intelligent, and to have an impressive grasp of his portfolio of responsibilities. Might someone else do it better? Maybe. I'm pretty sure someone could do my job better than me most days. I do assert that this transfer market is not Marwood's "fault."

Let's throw it open.

Genuine question - How would the critics of Marwood & our transfer policy change things?

 

[Blue Haze]

So because he can get a job as a marketing manager at a sportswear manufacturer, we should value him as the overseer of the academy, the scouting, the performance analysis, the medical, and all other technical departments?

And giving a manager near total control hasn't hurt the two biggest clubs in England has it?

I am only saying he has options, and that if he leaves, it isn't automatically evidence that he was screwing up the transfers in the eyes of our ownership.

I didn't recruit Marwood for the job. I've just spent some time with him, and personally found him intelligent, and to have an impressive grasp of his portfolio of responsibilities. Might someone else do it better? Maybe. I'm pretty sure someone could do my job better than me most days. I do assert that this transfer market is not Marwood's "fault."

Let's throw it open.

Genuine question - How would the critics of Marwood & our transfer policy change things?

1. Get to this stage at least 1 month earlier. Scrambling at the last minute ensures our bargaining position for players who aren't out of contract is weakened, ex: players like Nastasic, Javi Garcia, etc.

2. Do not leak the club's transfer strategy to the media. Telling every journo who would listen about 'sell before buying' is foolish beyond belief. It gives the upper hand to every agent and opposing DoF. They can effectively exact concessions out of us because they know that otherwise it will disrupt our transfers. Did we think Platini would give us brownie points?


These are universal negotiating principles- do not bargain from a position of desperation if it can be avoided (2 days to go), and do not show your hand to your opponent (sell before buying). Is Marwood responsible for these fundamental errors? I don't know. But whoever is responsible shouldn't be part of a negotiating team where strategy is important.

 

[burning blue soul]

if someone told me on the 14th May that the only addition to our squad this summer with 2 days of transfer window left, is rodwell (who has spent a lot of time on the bench at everton, nothing wrong btw - a good future prospect!) and no-one else i would literally have shit my cornflakes back up out of my mouth!!!

i would indeed be asking who is in charge of transfers and what the fuck has he been doing all summer.

the transfer window in football is like xmas to santa inpersonators - you work your fucking bollocks off. looks like he hasnt been doing that or has bottled it when the going got tough in the negotiating stages.

 

[BringBackSwales]

So because he can get a job as a marketing manager at a sportswear manufacturer, we should value him as the overseer of the academy, the scouting, the performance analysis, the medical, and all other technical departments?

And giving a manager near total control hasn't hurt the two biggest clubs in England has it?

I am only saying he has options, and that if he leaves, it isn't automatically evidence that he was screwing up the transfers in the eyes of our ownership.

I didn't recruit Marwood for the job. I've just spent some time with him, and personally found him intelligent, and to have an impressive grasp of his portfolio of responsibilities. Might someone else do it better? Maybe. I'm pretty sure someone could do my job better than me most days. I do assert that this transfer market is not Marwood's "fault."

Let's throw it open.

Genuine question - How would the critics of Marwood & our transfer policy change things?

For me PB the issue is we can only go on what we see - at a club of our size and stature I would expect us to employ someone in such a senior role who has a suitable CV and experience - to the best of my knowledge BM does not have this - we are talking about someone having a key role in transfers and the academy and the running of the club. I do not know of any suitable high level experience or exposure to this that BM has had - a decent but not special player, a bit part commentator on lower league games with Sky, and an office job with Nike. He has not got paticularly good communication skills, does not seem overly sharp or intelligent, does not (as far as I am aware) have great contacts with other major clubs; he would not appear to be either inspirational nor a natural leader. I read an article in the summer in one of the broadsheets who were interviewing Khaldoon and his comment (which did not seem malicious) was that BM came into the room with the air of a junior school boy who has been summonsed by the head teacher - maybe Khaldoon likes him because he does exactly what he is told, and maybe for that reason we simply have to put up with him - but that does not necesarilly make him the right person for the job.

If I could tuen the question the other way, what does BM bring to the party, why exactly is he the right person for such a senior role at such a large club, what are his major strenghts and achievements?

 

[Anonymous]

We're going round in ever decreasing circles here. Abu Dhabi have decided they aren't spending until certain players have been sold. Simple. People continuing to blame Marwood are in complete denial.

 

[whipper]

We're going round in ever decreasing circles here. Abu Dhabi have decided they aren't spending until certain players have been sold. Simple. People continuing to blame Marwood are in complete denial.

If the Chairman wasn`t who he was,they`d be having a go at him.

Marwood is easy meat

 

[Lancet Fluke]

That is an incredibly generous view of how things have gone recently imo. Of course all teams are looking out for themselves and want to buy when they want to buy and want sell when they want to sell. But it should work both ways and surely the same for us? Nobody thinks negotiating/timing transfers is easy but that doesn't mean that negotiating in such a way that we end up selling a player before we get a replacement (this late in the window) is good or acceptable negotiating/timing, does it?

You know going on your theory Sunderland couldn't force us to sell at a time that only suited them either, but Marwood (unless of course it was someone else at the club?) chose to and, whether you like to accept it or not, it has left us needlessly exposed to some extent. For me that was a mistake.

As I said to you yesterday, I'm pretty sure it will all get sorted when the owner throws money at it this week to correct what has happened but that does NOT mean it was the right thing to do to sell Johnson on Friday before we had sorted ourselves out. I don't expect City to be able to call other clubs' tune but I certainly don't expect us to let them call our tune!

I don't think it's nearly as significant as you make out. We sold AJ because we wanted to, not because we were forced to. And the sale of AJ does not force us to pay one penny more for Sinclair than we want to.

Lets say we held on to AJ until the deal with Sinclair was done. Do you really think Swansea would have just bent over and accepted our bid? Of course they wouldn't and while we were pissing about we would have forked out another £160k in wages with the potential for more if we then couldn't shift him before the end of the window.

You seem to think that buying late in the window is for desperates, it's the other way around IMO. It means much more to Swansea to sell Sinclair than it does to us to buy him, and I'm pretty confident that they'll be the ones that blink come Friday. That is if we haven't moved onto other rumoured targets already.

My opinion is definitely that buying at the end of a window is generally a false economy. By and large you are going to get players who were not originally at the top of your list and you are going to pay over the odds. I recognise the Sinclair situation is different due to his contractual situation but still, if we had not sold AJ first then we massively had the upper hand in those negotiations. We held all the aces, they were desperate because of his contract and to all intents and purposes we still had a winger so didn't need to buy. As soon as we sold AJ then imo that changed because our need to buy a winger/impact sub became greater. That will have been the perception at Swansea I reckon and that perception is important. I don't really see how you can deny that tbh although I'm sure you will. I know you think it isn't important whether we have AJ or not and if we had a replacement then of course it wouldn't be important. But it is certainly important that we have a player like AJ (or Sinclair or Walcott etc) in the squad and if you don't think it is then you should tell Mancini because he threw AJ on enough times last season to make me think that he values having a winger on the bench as an option. As I have said, I know it will get sorted, we will probably still get Sinclair, and if we hold our nerve and Swansea don't hold theirs then we might even still get him for 6.2 million but none of that means that selling AJ first was prudent, it would just mean we got away with it, which is something entirely different. And worst case scenario, if we don't get a winger in, I reckon Mancini would go fucking ape shit and Marwood would have some serious quastions to answer as to why he left us exposed like that with days left of the window. More likely though is that we will just get Sinclair but pay a bit more as Swansea recognise that our need is greater than it was a week ago so they fleece us accordingly. All only my opinon obviously.

 

[Pam]

We're going round in ever decreasing circles here. Abu Dhabi have decided they aren't spending until certain players have been sold. Simple. People continuing to blame Marwood are in complete denial.

But we've left it so late, Billy.

 

[Chippy_boy]

We're going round in ever decreasing circles here. Abu Dhabi have decided they aren't spending until certain players have been sold. Simple. People continuing to blame Marwood are in complete denial.

I agree Billy. But playing devils advocate for just one moment, if that is the case, then why haven't they been sold much, much earlier. An asset is only worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it, and if that is fuck all, then so be it. If we had to shift the deadwood before we could concentrate on new signings, we should have offloaded the hangers-on ages ago at whatever price we could get.

To end up 48 hours from the end of the window with only 1 b-list signing is a little disappointing to say the least.

 

[moomba]

Genuine question - How would the critics of Marwood & our transfer policy change things?

Quite clearly I would have signed every player that our rivals (and some non rivals) have signed, while at the same time reducing our squad size, wage bill and exposure to FFP regulations.

I would pay whatever it takes to get world class, young and proven talent to the club, so long as it doesn't cost more than £10m. If selling clubs have a problem with this price I would use negotiating skills to convince them that they are wrong.

I will of course have no say in the selection of any of our targets, unless of course they turn out to be rubbish in which case I will take full responsibility for the selection, recruitment, pay packet and bad haircuts.