Interview/podcast with Khaled El Ahmad today

Let's be honest we are never going to establish ourselves in the Championship with that philosophy...... Enforced minutes of academy players? Enforced by who?...... Didn't Conway get the flack for that in the relegation season?

Very surprised more hasn't been spoke of in regards to this interview, maybe some things don't come across well in translation. Still in Khaled out camp unfortunately.

 

Thanks DT - interesting read. I see being process / data led and self financing as good guiding principles. It's also good that the aim to be established in the championship is specifically mentioned although interesting that he said it after the other two and I wonder if he unwittingly communicated a prioritisation when he did that? If so then the lower level supporting actions mentioned re having just 1 older player and giving the Head Coach a target for academy players minutes played become more important strategically as strong player sales are more likely to address the financial short-fall and make the club self-sufficient, providing of course they can continue to unearth young players to sell on. It's a continuation of the Conway / Lee strategy but with a greater focus on data to identify emerging talent to prevent some of the poor signings made under their ownership.

Whilst I doubt they would ever say so, it may therefore be that they feel getting back to the championship remains an objective but with a lower immediate priority attached to it than becoming self-financing?

I now wonder whether Duff leaving (if it happens and I'm still in the glass half full camp of he'll turn Swansea down - although I am increasingly questionning if there can be this much smoke without there being a fire!) may be a reflection of post season conversations about the squad. He may have been willing to accept Mads going but may also have been told he can't add players he wants (including an older head or two) and given a list of potential signings he doesn't think are ready to compete successfully in League One this season. And so his decision to go (again, if he does) is not because his level of commitment to the project has changed, more that he disagrees with the prioritisation of strategic objectives.

All purely speculation on my part of course. Although Khaled's words have made me worry about whether winning games is the clear priority or whether the words we hear a year ago about that were used in isolation rather than in their full context.

In my experience businesses often have strategic objectives that are misaligned and then unintended consequences of the decisions they make in support of them. I'm not sure we'll ever know for certain but suspect the next few months may give us a better idea. We will see. Spectamur Agendo again.

 

I wouldn't blame Khaled for enforcing minutes for Academy players. After all, you then go on to say it was a philosophy that Conway followed. Khaled wasn't around then and, as a Club employee, he's probably only doing what his paymasters want him to do.

 

And by enforcing the academy rule on the first team could be why Duff seems to have gone back on his original statement of not being here for just 5minutes...and is rumoured to be joining Swansea
Singing from 2 different song sheets it now appears.well done barnsley football club ...once again we shoot ourselves in the foot
Another own goal I'd say.

 

???
If it was such an issue for him, why has he all season talked about long term goals and aspirations, in it together etc.
It’s not lie,mit is something new for next season.

 

Can’t have been much of a rule enforced about academy players. How many of our regular match day squad were from our academy last season?

 

I’ve been trying to think that and also trying to think who will have these minutes in the upcoming season? Surely it can’t be a strict rule for coaches to follow, more of an aspirational target.

 

Unless there is some loss in translation. Who is being lied to? This reporter or the fans at various forums?

We have been told the process for player recruitment is data led and they then look at hours of footage on each player before making a decision.

Khaled here if original post is correct is suggesting it is entirely data and they recruit without even watching people play?

So which one is it?

 

I think it may be worth another read.

 

Marsh, Wolfe, Helliwell, Jalo were all given game time last season. I think Jordan Williams joined our Academy before progressing into the first team.

 

Both Wolfe & Williams are listed as first team players so wouldn’t think they could be included in Academy players the others completed around 1150 mins between them so would imagine with others in cup games probably did achieve the 2000 minutes used as an example.

 

Ah yeah, so video is in there.

But still crazy not to look at a live game to get an immediate assessment of a player at current time. You can watch hours of footage from the past and think yeah there's a player. But what is the situation live? Might be like a Winnall after he left us, popping his hamstring every 10 mins.

 

Thanks for posting this. I've not listened to it myself, so this is a very helpful summary.

Based on your notes, I'm generally supportive of most of what he says, with two exceptions. One is an opinion, but the other is more of a concern to me.

Poya did a terrible job, albeit in difficult circumstances. He was totally unsuited to the role, and the wrong type of appointment in a situation where the season could have been salvaged, as most of the fanbase were screaming out at the time. This feels very much like an arse-covering statement from the person who was most directly involved in recruiting him. However, its history now and we'll all have our own opinions on this.

This one really bothers me. In the depths of our darkest days under Conway I pointed out that this sort of thing had been going on and it was essentially prioritising enhancing player transfer value above putting out the most competitive available team on the pitch. I'm shocked to read that it's still happening. Perhaps the success of last season masked it, compared to the previous one where players were being exposed by it, to the extent that it was impacting their development.

At best the club should be asking the head coach to consider the development of academy players, but mandating to them that certain players have a minimum quota of playing minutes to be fulfilled is a huge concern for me.

Perhaps instructions such as this are contributing the to likelihood that we're unable to retain a head coach for more than one season at a time.

In general terms, I'm hugely supportive of the new board and their commitment to the cause, but this policy is a throwback to all the things that went wrong with Conway in charge and it needs to be ditched immediately, IMO. Non-coaching staff, however senior, should not be mandating who the head coach gets to select on any given day.

 

A good season in League 1 is 100% masking alot of it. Can see through it a mile off

 

I agree completely but it's a politician's answer. Khaled will wish to position himself in the best light and will therefore put a positive spin on things. Given that he was responsible for appointing him it's better for him personally to say Poya did a good job in the circumstances. If he'd told the truth then the obvious next question is "So was it a poor appointment by you?"

 

Thought you had misread it. If it was me I would do initial research using video to narrow down the search and do live checks if required. Depends really on the risk equateded to the layout cost.

 

A lot of assumptions in there about a mandate TBH.
You’ve assumed that he is being told he has to, it could be that but equally it could be that it’s just a KPI that he’s measured against it even a wish list.
It is also possible that given the interview was in Swedish and translated to English that the word orders is not an accurate translation.

For what it’s worth I agree no Manager should be getting dictated to whom to play, he should be judged on his results which includes selection.