Still no announcement of any sort? God this is tiresome, and what’s worse we all know it’ll take us a week or two to announce a replacement, transfer targets missed out on due to fannying about!
It took us a couple of months to hit our stride in the league to which Duff blamed it on pre season upheaval and yet here we are days from the beginning of pre season training and we’re on the verge of the same thing happening again.
You’d hope we’ve used this delay all week to sort out Duff’s successor. Why am I thinking that won’t have happened….?
Interesting how Michael Duff has been labelled a liar and vilified on here. Him getting all the blame and the club none may be indicative of the success in reconnecting with fans. Had this happened in the Conway / Lee era I think some would have been saying he's going because he disagreed with the recruitment strategy, the refusal to sign experienced players and signing young players who may not be ready and as a result feeling he's not in control of the team and can't put a team on the pitch that would compete effectively. There were comments of that sort when Heckingbottom left, when Struber left and to a degree when Stendel left. So I'm asking myself why his commitment to the project has waned? I don't buy that it's all about money and / or travelling time to Swansea. I also don't believe that he would talk about being here for the long term if he didn't mean it. He appears to choose his words carefully and deliberately and I don't see him as someone who would be afraid of telling it how it is. And so I'm wondering what's happened to change his view. Who'd have thought Darren Moore would be out at Wednesday but his departure seems to be as a result of a difference of opinion about transfer policy. Could it be that Michael Duff has had conversations with Khaled Al-Ahmad and doesn't feel that the outcome enables the 'project' to be successful and so he feels the the story he was told when he joined has changed? We have been told that the primary aim is to win football matches. And yet when Khaled gave the interview on the Swedish podcast, he didn't talk about that first. Instead he talked about being data / process led and financially self sufficient. And being established in the Championship was third. And he also said that the transfer policy remains focused on young players with minimum older players plus the head coach had been given targets about the minutes to be played by academy players. Could it be that Duff's been told Andersen and perhaps others are going and that incoming transfers will be young players who he doesn't feel will enable success this season and / or that academy players must play a bigger part? And if these are changes to what he was told this time last year then why should he remain as committed when the terms of the engagement have been changed. None of us know whether this is the case of course and I acknowledge I may be wrong. But we may get a better indication over the coming weeks as outgoing and incoming transfers proceed. I'm not willing to throw mud at Michael Duff and question his character and integrity when I know nothing about what might have happened behind the scenes. When he goes I hope that the statements might cast some light on it, but suspect they won't.
Assume so, we can't say anything until they've finalised and ready to announce. Khaled looking for the password for the spreadsheet, Conway changed it and now they can't get in.
The sticking point with Reading was his insistence on bringing in his own backroom staff. The problem he would have at Oakwell is that he would be expected to be Head Coach operating within the parameters set for him by the Suits in the Boardroom. Can't see him agreeing to those terms and conditions.
6 managers (not including caretakers) in 5 years would suggest that there's a lot of previous wallpaper to strip off before they can slap some more on. Given that turnover they'd be better off stapling the wallpaper to the walls rather than pasting it.
A very good post. It had occurred to me that after coming so close to winning promotion in the season just gone, Duff might have hoped for just a bit of team strengthening, rather than starting next season potentially with a worse squad than the one with which he did so well. The fact that he made reference to "losing one or two, because that's how the club works", immediately after the Wembley game, made me think he may not be very happy about that, even though he did seem to have accepted the club's policy before.
People saying they don't want Moore because they watched him against us last season and he played hoof ball. But suggesting Nathan Jones.. Jesus wept.
Was actually announced by Swansea before we had even said he was leaving. Be interesting to find out why the club didn’t say a word beforehand.