He said that when Conway was in charge didn't he? I think the goalposts may have moved on that front. For example, the shambles of a new sponsor.. we have US influence now, i don't think that's all down to Khaled. Just a hunch. To answer your question, I'm on the fence. I thought the west stand issue was an absolute farce, and his explanation questionable. As for these latest behind the scenes decisions, until we know exactly who spoke to who and who authorised what, I'll reserve judgement.
What do you think that .1 % is? A few of the 100s of daily/weekly decisions he makes or a few, big decisions that go to the board once or twice a month? Neerav clearly stated the board take the big decisions. No idea who would have taken the sponsorship decision. I can see arguments for either, but you'd think at the very least it would have been discussed with the board. There's no doubt the gaffes are stacking up though, either way.
I'm absolutely certain that the sponsorship deal would have at the very least involved a conversation with the board or someone from the board at least but with the way the club's statement was worded and with his own claims of 99.9% it looks to me like he organised the sponsorship and probably just got the board to sign off on it based on his proposal. As you say the gaffes are stacking up. My worry is I haven't seen any big, customer facing, decision made by him that's been successful. It's a massive worry.
Don’t we have less US influence now? Conway and Lee, two Americans replaced by Neerav and Quay an Indian and an Australian?
If you check my posting history I’ve never once said he’s done a good job or doing a good job. Last time I was asked if he was a good CEO I said it was far too early to tell given the state of the club when he came through the door and who he was working for. ‘Work to do’ was my general tone. I think positive steps are being made with fan engagement, recruitment, the head coach we’ve employed. Season ticket sales went better than anyone expected and we had 10,000 for the first home game. Reality is though that none of that matters, as they’re all baby steps. When you get a whopper wrong like this sponsorship deal appears to be, it’s a case of three steps forward and five steps back. No CEO can be judged positively if that is happening. However I’ll reserve judgement until we hear more of an explanation and what the output/action from the club is.
People with serious money invested in the club and who have just have much interest in it being successful as we do won’t allow a rogue CEO to run the club into the ground so let’s not get over dramatic about this just yet.
I’m with you, I don’t believe he has 99.9% autonomy of running the club in its entirety, but can see how he has 99.9% autonomy of the day to day running of the club, 2 different things.
It’s also just a phrase used by many of us at different points in life. It isn’t meant to be dissected down like this really, and is just an indication that the day to day running of the football club, and accountability for the football club, falls on his shoulders. I wouldn’t want to blindly speculate, but given the board of directors were all in town on Friday, and the announcement came on Friday, it’s entirely plausible it was presented to be rubber stamped at the same time.
I'm not sure rogue is the word I would use to describe him, I just think he's not very good at his job/out of his depth. When can we start getting dramatic then? How many more PR disasters do we have to witness to warrant getting abit 'dramatic'?
I thought Khaled was a disaster last season. Since the changes at Board level there have been three main areas of focus. Securing the new manager, generating enough money in transfers/wage reductions and bringing in adequate new players and Sponsorship. The manager replacement was a slightly long winded success. Players in/out is still a work in progress. Sponsorship is a clusterf**k. We just don't know what the extent of Khaled's involvement has been in these. There's too many errors being made though. It's unbelievable no alarm bells were ringing when they were doing the deal with Hex. One of the main guys involved from their side, Morrisey, you only have to do a quick google search to start seeing red lights.
Absolutely, was point I was trying to make. As an Operations Director in a previous life, I had what I would describe as 99.9% autonomy for the day to day performance of the business but I still had to work to certain parameters and check in with the owners over the big stuff. I would imagine in your day job you also have similar autonomy, it’s quite common in todays world. In terms of the sponsorship, there is no doubt Khaled was involved but until the club come back to us there are too many gaps to appoint blame yet. I personally don’t think it would have been instigated by him and more likely to be at Director level, but like I said on a different post it could even have been started by Conway or Chien. I know little about Hex etc, but it doesn’t sound good(based on here), but I’ll reserve judgement until a few more facts come out.
Not sure to be honest, although yes we did have US influence before of course (my oversight that one mate, long day ). I'm not sure if Chien was born in the US or China, obviously he's US-based. But then so is JAQ. And she is obviously more down with the kids and likeable than Messrs Conway and Lee, so i reckon she has more sway in business. I'm basing that solely on my gut feeling and how Conway and Lee have tore through European football like a freight train and left only sadness and broken promises in their wake. I like JAQ, though naturally i wonder who she represents (the silent partners), and the connections she has, and the connections of connections that could have brought about this HEX deal. That is all very much conjecture, i have no clue beyond my own opinion. I feel i need to say that because it feels very sensitive right now. Maybe Khaled did the deal, a very modern, risk-taking CEO, signed on the back of a Chicken Flatbread. The point is we don't know.
I think Chien was born in the USA from what I read previously, not that it really matters. Unfotunately, in my opinion, JAQ’s interest in us only exists because she wants to further her influence in the UK using football as a vehicle. That isn’t to say that the relationship can’t be mutually beneficial, it may well be, and she might fall in love with the club and it’s people and be with us for the next 20 years. Neerav is the one with the personal investment in the club and he claims to be a fan now, so hopefully he is learning from everything that is going wrong around him. Hopefully he surrounds himself with footballing people and allows them to guide him. Hex aside, I thought we were at least making positive movements on the pitch/with the team. We could do with a positive spin coming out of this.