NOW I am getting worried. The club are trying to buy players with no manager in place. That is either an audacious far-sighted move to introduce a European style structure where the chairman buys and the coach coaches, or a foolhardy adventure fraught with danger.
What if the new manager doesn't want these players? What if the gift-wrapped welcome presents do not suit the playing style or mental requirements of the subsequent supremo? What if the freelance spending spree uses up all the player budget? Won't it make it far harder to attract a 'top drawer' boss if the transfer coffers are empty? And won't it make it harder to attract top quality players if they don't know who the manager will be?
Boro intend to press ahead with negotiations for Robert Huth, seemingly after the Chelsea man had been identified as a target by the previous manager. They are working on other targets too. Keith Lamb will confirm this exclusively in the Gazette later today and add that final approval on these mooted transfers will rest with the new manager.
Let's hope the new boss is just as keen on them or it is back to square one and Boro may be left with no option but to renege on deals prematurely agreed with all bad blood and bad publicity that entails. No player would sign a contract that could be vetoed later by an as yet unknown third party. Why would they agree to be left in limbo? Selling clubs won't agree either; they want the cash now so they can spend it not a promise of payment at some later date providing the new boss still wants the player.
It is bizarre. Last year with a full management structure in place and no distractions Boro struggled to get their targets in before the deadline. This year, with the dugout noticeably empty and a major soccer shopwindow display to be unveiled in Germany this month, the club are pressing ahead earlier than ever.
But they must be wary they do not paint themselves into a corner. This double-edged development could well be another major obstacle to Boro's hopes of recruiting a top notch coach. Now not only is a prospective boss being told which coaching staff he must retain, use and groom but also having players bought for him too.
Very few established coaches would willingly accept those shackles. The best have carved out their reputations by shrewd market interventions and arrive at clubs with their first few purchases already in mind and see them as key to their entire strategy for the coming years. Hiring a quality coach but then placing such restrictions on the way they work, the way that has brought success, can only be counter-productive.
But it will be good news for Steve Round. With every new development that militates against a top drawer boss arriving his own hopes of getting the job soar. He is not only willing to work within the structure, he is already part of it. Indeed, he has helped shape it. He will be more than willing to work with Gareth Southgate, more than willing to sign targets on a list he may well have been party to drawing up and more than willing to buy into the chairman's ambitious vision of continuity and a bootroom culture.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »