I have almost literally dodged this site for the entire premier league experience, but as this has now come to a close, i felt a poignant urge to come on and share some thoughts about the next chapter in our collective experience. It'll probably be long, so i'd quit while i was ahead if i were you.
Firstly, shame isn't it? We have fallen into a trap that is so bloody avoidable. We haven't failed as a result of foreign ownership losing interest and then pulling the financial plug, a fate commonplace in the Premier League (Sunderland, Villa, Pompey, Fulham etc), nor is our financial model unsustainable. We failed because of a heady mixture of misplaced loyalty, hesitancy and a bewildering inability to see what for us all of us was as clear as day. We were done as an effective force in this league in January 2016, and wholesale changes were required not only with the playing staff, who many were as unfit as they were disinterested, but of those who were in charge of overseeing and steering the club, and it is there i would like to place my focus.
Firstly, the myopic position taken on the playing situation. I don't blame Peter Coates, not in the slightest. Peter has few faults, but those he does have have been brutally exposed this season. Peter has openly said that he and his family place loyalty and stability high on their professional agenda, and in the wider business context this is to be applauded; these are the bedrocks upon which good companies are founded. But football is a business unlike any other, and you cannot simply transpose those qualities within a footballing context and expect success. The Coates family have continued to bend over backwards for their customers', ensuring a season ticket costs no more today than it did a decade ago despite the significant expenditure associated with Premier League football, and have supplemented that with offering free coach travel to supporters who are already financially burdened by an extremely expensive hobby. This has been rightly applauded throughout the football community, but whilst he was happy to offer customers (supporters) these concessions, what he failed to do was to address concerns, legitimate concerns being very vocally shared by supporters who are known to prefer to take a calm, measured approach to their club.
As supporters, i genuinely believe that we are among the easiest to please, certainly given our tenure in the Premier League. We don't expect tens of millions invested every window, nor did any sensible fan cry out for "the next level", what we expected, and would happily applaud, is endeavour, fitness, passion and a bit of flair if the opportunity arises. That's basically it. And as far back as spring 2016 it was apparent to a large section of our support, myself included, that we were losing significant compenent elements of this mixture. We were unfit, struggling in the latter stages of games, departing players were openly dismissive of our approach to defensive work and players who were coming in looked not to have the essential "DNA" of our club to make a significant impact, either on the pitch or in the dressing room. As supporters, we are consumers of the product. It is churlish to dismiss supporters because they "have never played". A good chunk of the people who are reading this will have seen upward of 500 matches, some many, many more. If Apple made an IPhone and their core consumers don't like it, you can be sure they would make the changes necessary to retain their custom, and support. Peter's "what's all the fuss about" was a flippant comment that has gained too much leverage, but it does speak to a boardroom who didn't understand that the supporters knew something was rotten, and it wasn't addressed. That's criminal in my book and somebody needs to carry the can for that.
My final point relates to the strategy for onboarding players, and this is where we have been most exposed as a football club. Footballers are, in a business context, assets to their company, no more, no less. We get emotive about players, because football is an emotive business, but for those who are tasked with bringing players to the club, it is imperative to be as dispassionate as possible. We haven't been. We have been guilty of loyalty to players who would never extend us the same courtesy (Johnson, Affelay, Ireland) when it was clear that their days were beyond numbered as professional footballers, let alone those plying their trade at the highest, most brutal level. We have given contracts to players like Darren Fletcher that their existing club would not..why is that? Because Albion knew it was very likely that his legs had gone, and they were only prepared to offer a contract befitting a 35 year old who has had ongoing issues from a medical perspective. That warning that we failed to heed will cost north of a million pounds most likely in cancelled contracts. It's no longer small fry and we seek to reduce our budget significantly.
The biggest, and most desperate area of failure has been big-name player recruitment, and this is where we have been negligent to the point of malfeasance. Aside from wages, we have paid
£54,000,000 on 4 players (Imbula, Witter, Berahino, Jese) who have absolutely no interest in the profession, or the club who were paying them so handsomely. Going back to my earlier point regarding assets, what the hell happened? was any due diligence undertaken? if you're paying £18 Million for an asset, surely it is worth paying an extra £100,000 to a consultant to ensure you understand the person, as well as the talent? Imbula, Jese & Berahino all had documented off-field problems, and whilst you might be prepared to take a risk on 1, would you do it for three? in a dressing room that was widely known for not suffering fools gladly? Of course it was doomed to failure, and the cost of that failure is going to have a massive impact on our ability to compete next year. The Coates family might have huge wealth, but they still have to abide by FFP, and for the 3 assets still on our books, we'd be lucky to recoup half of the £48 Million spent. It's a disgrace.
And so, to conclude. Lambert has to go. He had the time and a transfer window to paper the cracks to keep us in the poorest Premier League i have seen us feature in, and he has spectacularly failed to do so. No loyalty, no hesitancy, he's gone after the Swansea game. he's not a bad man, he's just got an air of failure about him, and i'm frankly sick of having someone like that at the helm.
Tony Scholes has to go. Whilst he is not primarily responsible for player recruitment, the CEO has to carry the can for failure. He's been handsomely rewarded for his efforts, far more than he would have earned in a normal CEO role. Failure begets failure, and he's failed.
But the people i hold almost entirely responsible are Hughes and Cartwright. Hughes stopped caring, made bewilderingly stupid decisions knowing as he did that he would be cocooned by owners who hate confrontation. His choice of player, formation, squad and tactics are nothing short of disgraceful, and whilst i refuse to bit at Robbie Savage's twitter remarks, i understand those who do. The only saving grace is that he is bound to fail again at Southampton, because it is all he knows how to do. I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire because of what he has done to my club. Cartwright is a disgrace to the role, his lack of due diligence, his failure to understand what sort of
man we were buying, as well as what sort of player, is a mistake that will hamper the club for years. He will never work in football again after we get rid, and neither should he.
Thanks for reading.
