Thinking somebody is incompetent and feeling hatred are not one and the same. His track record to date has not been great and his media attempts have been poor. I think the club have wasted resources but at no point can I hate a guy for being poor at their role. I hope he gets it right but I don’t have much confidence.
No one hates him. That's a bit lazy tbh. Just as lazy as it would be for someone to call you a Mladen fanboy. It's possible to be objective and absolutely fair to question poor judgment when it happens.
That's fair. I guess it's perfectly possible that all these multiple offers came after Conor said no offers had come in.
I feel like both of the following are true: Last summer/January windows were ***** This summer window has been good I don't think you can selectively ignore or deny either of those based on a pro/anti-Sormaz agenda. I was calling for his head, but after the summer I'm happy for him to stay for now.
I'd like to add it was his 3rd transfer window and the man how hasn't made mistakes hasn't been born yet.
He explained the delay at last minuteness he didn’t explain why we failed to get out contingency plan over the line. You’d assume that we would have done all the groundwork if he was the failsafe.
I think because Mladen has made mistakes (which he admitted) some won't give him any lee way He's been Judged and thats it.Same when some don't rate a player and say so after a couple of games.Said player could win the POTY award but some won't let their pride accept that they were wrong. 3 transfer windows the recent one being very good but because some don't like him he'll never do anything right in their eyes.Each to there own I suppose.
No one ever thought it was 1+1=2, surely Sormaz didn't. He's supposed to mitigate those variables, that's why he gets paid a decent whack, so that we come out with a solution at the end of the window and don't have to rely on luck in order to achieve success. How many windows is he going to be allowed to say we were unlucky and the dice didn't quite roll for us.
it’s his job to mitigate those variables and forward plan. i wouldn’t say a transfer window which left us with a 38 year old as our only forward is very good. I thought it was good. The others were a complete disaster DKD aside. If I were to score him as of now overall it would be a C- or a D. I think he has deserved much of the push back but he can turn that perception around. Most people don’t want him to fail they want him to succeed.
And people forget that our success in the transfer market, like every other club, has been variable. Sometimes we've had more successes than failures and sometimes the opposite.
So who does all the signings then - negotiations and pulls it all together? It’s been made clear over the years that a lone CEO can’t do it all alone. The business needs someone Directing the business side and someone Directing the football side. In any other business that’s how it would have to work.
Decent interview when you watch the video. Some fair points about McAtee etc. All makes sense. An injury to either strikers essentially means we pull a CAM into that role instead. By sending our unwanted players out on loan, getting decent lads in for reasonable money, has meant we could keep our best ones. As Conor said the other month, some good players out there out of contract or cheap enough, just got to look for them.
I definitely think there was sense in splitting the role, from a pure business POV. Although we have excelled with just one person overseeing all things in the not too distant past. In fact, we didn’t even have a CEO when promoted in 2016 and 2019. Both Mansford and Ganaye departed mid-season and others stepped in on an interim basis. Although running without a CEO can present issues as we saw summer 2021… I think it was great to hear from Mladen and I hope more comms like this is forthcoming.
I can’t say I’m a fan to be honest. Saying Mcatee signing was all on Bolton signing someone isn’t great. Basically let’s them take their time and if it happens it happens and if it doesn’t it’s us who’s left in the lurch (which we are). We’ve got to hope Lady Luck blesses us and we don’t get any injuries upfront or in defence (I think our midfield depth is fine) because if we do who are the relaxements? Especially up front we needed at least another body could’ve even been 2
Sorry found his answer about mcatee very confusing really - we explored it early but couldn’t get it done due to the ins at Bolton but if it had all been done early surely the deal would have been done despite them getting the players in late. So erm yeah not sure he’s answered that very well really and then to throw in he was the backup option that we had also failed to land already makes if sound even more unconvincing really - also relying on luck doesn’t really sound like something that a professional football club should be counting on either.
FFS give it a rest. You used to slag off Mladen all the time before you doffed your cap in a car park. Stop attempting to belittle people for behaviour you used to exhibit. It's so crass. Others aren't as spineless as you are, they judge Mladen on our recruitment, not because they've been charmed. I'm not saying they're right or wrong, but at least they have some integrity. Now just stop. Anyway, to this interview. I thought some difficult questions were asked, and they were answered pretty well. And to look into those answers... If your director of football says we've got to be lucky with injuries up front, then he knows we're very light in those positions. Of course he does, he's not daft. Anyone who argues we are OK up front is daft. He mentioned the conversation he had with Neerav. In short, we don't have much money. You can't blame anyone if we don't have the money to fund an incoming transfer. That's the situation we're in, and that's that. However, we did fund the recruitment of Patrick Kelly. Of our available funds, we used a chunk of that to pay the wages of Patrick Kelly. We didn't need him. We've played 8 games and he's only started 3 of them. We have lots of midfield players and we're lucky enough to have a couple more, in Bland and Yoganathan, good enough to make the first team after coming through the youth set-up. Both Bland and Yoganathan have started more games than Kelly. You spend money on Kelly and it means you can't afford a forward because that money has gone. I'm not, for a minute, suggesting Kelly isn't a good player. He looks a great prospect to me. But did you want another midfielder or did you want a forward? If you're fine with Kelly, then don't complain about not getting a forward. The money for a forward was spent on Kelly. Personally, as much as I like Kelly, I believe a much greater priority was another forward. I wanted that money spent on another forward and I still think Mladen is getting things badly wrong.