Oh, tons of factors

They themselves - Smith and Jones I mean - are 'soft'. They have their own idea of what they want the club to be, and have probably eliminated very good managers from their thinking in the past because they didn't fit that largely self-defeating image.

Their relative lack of means then means we can't recruit enough real quality, with our geographical location playing a major part too. But location is only an easy excuse for players not to come here because of our lack of finance - we're as close to London as Bournemouth, and it doesn't stop them, does it? Ditto, to an even greater extent, Southampton - a club I'd argue to be more or less identical in size to us.

To our credit, I don't think we indulge agents as many other clubs do - but agents have never been more powerful, which seriously impacts on our recruitment.

Finally, there's the basic point which they've often admitted to: that they don't understand football. Therefore, they've no idea what makes any manager good or not, so have often stuck by the bad ones and not properly backed the better ones. But that also means they're bound to give a lot of power to the likes of Doncaster, McNally or, now, Webber: whoever runs the football operation is the most important appointment, and I'd be surprised if they do enough due diligence on that.

Bottom line? They're good natured, well meaning patricians - but without the dosh to attract the best, and without the knowledge to recruit the best either. Meaning we've probably been bloody lucky to have achieved what we have under their watch overall.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Aug 28, 09:22:39