Nothing at all to do with your post - but I wonder do you actually live in Tintwistle? I drive through it quite often and I have never ever seen any sign of human life there- no matter what time of day or night it is. The place is monumentally deserted by the look of it -- so I wondered does anyone live there?
I got the impression the role changed when GG arrived and the day to operations were already Rob Zuk’s responsibility. GG looked after the recruitment / player side and was the face of the club. I may be doing him a disservice but its the impression I got with limited contact with the club. I also heard that he wasn’t actually at the club very much. He certainly had big ideas around the commercial side of the club with sponsorship for example. I doesn’t look like he delivered on those. The big well known shirt sponsor we were supposed to get this year, for example.
I promised i'd reply when laptop was in front of me again. I'll start with the two caveats. If a CEO doesn't have shareholding, in a small business, they are essentially an employee. Football is unusual as a business structure with small businesses often having part corporate structure, but having to fulfil duties as an owner managed business, but the owner often having less input operationally than an SME. The 2nd caveat, obviously, we're on the outside looking in so it's largely perception rather than being able to assess actual operations and milestones. My perception was that GG had more about him than BM. I felt BM was fur coat no knickers and generally just blew smoke up the arses of fans. I recall a really bad run we had and he vanished for something like 8-9 weeks from his regular radio Sheffield interjections. I got the strong impression he was a trader. Not surprising given he was an ex sports lawyer "poacher turned gamekeeper" as he kept reminding us. Whereas GG was less forthcoming but when he had something to say, he generally made himself available. The way he conducted himself around a number of things where we made the headlines I thought was impeccable. For me a good leader/CEO doesn't take plaudits, they don't covet attention, they go about their business behind the scenes. Likewise, if something goes wrong, they don't point the finger of blame either. I thought he did this well. And I'd suggest that's precisely what the owners thought too taking him to Nice.
Nice finished in a Champions League position for the first time in their history under Chien and Conway , they brought in Viera as manager, it was all hunky dory with the fans and former owner, then they wouldn’t spend millions on name players like PSG have done , finished mid table and the former owner started under mining the regime . If they think the Ineos **** is the answer to their dreams they are deluded
Ultimately none of us know whether Ganaye or Mansford did a good job. In terms of recruitment we don’t know how many of our targets we landed or missed out on & we don’t know whether we got them on the best contracts or not as we don’t know what wages we pay players. When people say one or the other did a good job what they really mean is they liked their personality. Some preferred Mansford as he gave constant interviews & some preferred Ganaye as they preferred a quieter ceo who didn’t publicise what he was doing.
Could you list the things he achieved ??? I’ll start: 1) undermining the managers authority when he first entered the club. 2) A summer recruitment that left only one recognised striker (Tom Bradshaw) at the club. 3) Quietest CEO we have ever had - who was very slow at promoting and selling the club. 4) Underhand dealing that saw Hecky jump ship. 5) Morais. 6) Relegation. Anymore you want to add to the list ???
1 - did he? Any proof? 2 - 2 with Ugbo, still don’t know whether it was our fault or not with the McBurnie deal but yes there should’ve been another striker as well as McBurnie coming in 3 - as far as I’m aware we’ve never had a CEO in the public eye apart from Mansford who loved to be on radio Sheffield as much as possible. Is that a good thing? What was he actually promoting? All I ever heard was him been cryptic about transfers, 8 minutes talking with nothing of any note been said. 4 - any proof? Hecky wanted to leave before Ganaye joined the club, he was entertaining offers from January 17 onwards after the team was ripped apart 5 - could be true but who’s to say Ganaye recommended Morais? For all we know he might not have even wanted him & it could’ve been an owners decision 6 - 2 major factors in relegation for me were not having McBurnie August - January & then appointing Morais. I don’t know whether either was Ganaye’s fault or not so it’s impossible to judge
That's an interesting list you've come up with there. You don't seem to understand the role of a CEO.
1) Listen to Hecky BBC Sheffield interviews during the transfer window after Ganaye had been appointed. And - I’ve asked Hecky about this Ganaye involvement. It’s not good. 2) Exactly - Ganaye left us with Bradshaw and a young Ugbo as the only strikers at the club. Was this done purposely to undermine ‘one of our own’. And was that the problem - that he was one of our own - and as such was well liked. 3) The appearance of Ben Mansford on the radio was always hotly received by presenters. And how Mansford sold the club to people listening was a credit to him. Obviously Leeds saw this and lifted his wages to move to Leeds. 4) Hecky received a number of offers from other clubs that he turned down to stay at the place he loves - Barnsley. But Ganayes involvement scuppered all that. 5) Who else appoints the manager other than the CEO ??? 6) Ganayes recruitment of players and manager was a disaster. Fortunately he got the Stendel appointment right. Although we are told James Cryne had an involvement there. I have nothing personal against Ganaye - but he comes over on the radio as a dull person who is a plodder with little enthusiasm. His track record while at the club is quite inconsistent.
No football club purposely weakens it’s own squad to undermine a manager, not when £6m’s at stake. I’m pretty certain Leeds didn’t give Mansford a job due to him appearing on a radio station. It’ll be word of mouth or an agent like most things in football. I’m sure it was hotly received by radio Sheffield, they’ve got an hour to fill each night, they’re always happy to get someone on from a club. He had interest & there were rumours, none of us know what offers Hecky did & didn’t receive. We also don’t know whether he stayed because of love for Barnsley or because the terms of the deal weren’t right. It’s widely reported that he got a substantial pay off from Leeds & he took several staff with him when he joined. Maybe Leeds were the first club that offered him such favourable terms? Again we don’t know. The manager might sit alongside the manager at the contract signing but we don’t know he’s specifically chosen him. Who’s to say Morais wasn’t known to our owners already through their contacts in football or scouting at Nice & they recommended him? It seems as likely as a young French CEO who’d only worked in France & had 5 months in the championship recommending a random foreign manager who’d never coached in either of them leagues. He doesn’t individually choose the players, we have scouts & analysts that do that & a coach who has some involvement. His jobs to negotiate the best deals for the club & to get as many main targets in as possible. We don’t know whether he did that or not. We do know that Williams & Barnes were good loans, McCarthy, Pearson & Knasmulner were all apparently sold for a profit, Pinnock, Lindsay, Potts & Moore did well & made us money. Bradshaw struggled a bit at championship level but made us money. Sure not all the signings were good but taking into account the clubs criteria for new signings I think we did pretty well.
