Babylon

But he is isn’t he though. Having already lost one winger to injury, another injury and he’s going to be involved more than he already has been.

They are the obligated if promoted and not obligated if they aren’t. Not sure what people are arguing here. They would have no option, the contract would stipulate if they go up they must buy him. Hence an obligation Obligation just means legally bound to do something. There could be any number of stipulations in a legally binding contract.

Kasey has played 16 games this year in some capacity. So that would suggest we do need him; even if it’s just as back up. It’s not even an obligation either, it’s based on promotion apparently. So we could weaken ourselves and get nothing. We also are hardly blessed with options at full back. We’re an injury away from either of them needing to play more than we’d probably want them to be.

Why would we accept it if there is little chance of getting a replacement? People would soon moan if it was accepted and then we couldn’t turn around a signing in a few hours.

It saves face doesn’t it, if they can actually look like they’ve won and we’ve not got away with it… that was my thinking!

We’ve been one step ahead (for once) at each turn. I’d imagine us being in mediation will suddenly yield an agreed points deduction as soon as we are nailed on relegated. Hopefully with it taking away the EFL’s chance of any claim in the process.

It's so weird and leftfield that I can only imagine there has been a lot go on behind the scenes, we want him gone for whatever reason and a swap is just a very quick way of facilitating that. A large percentage of Glovers signings have been bob, but he's also operating with one hand tied behind his back. Whether that's financially, or with a manager wanting "premier league experience". Which on our budget means signing old past it players, or very expensive squad players. Who knows, Coady is shite so might as well roll the dice as it ain't working currently.

Soon changes, not long ago it was all on Cooper and we had a good squad. I think the fact remains a better manager than either of them gets more from what we have. Maresca would have been getting more in my opinion, but then even he struggled at times in the Championship. But at least the playeres would have fit his philosophy that we signed.

bAbYlOn tHiNks rUdkIn iSn'T tO bLame for anything... August 2024 "Pointless moaning at him about players signed, focus on the bigger decisions of installing heads of recruitment suggested by the manager, a head of recruitment who had a track record of total failure." September 2024 "That's why I always say I'd rather focus on what is likely his decision, in putting the head of recruitment in place. Eg. Getting Congerton despite a clear history of rubbish. He allowed the manager to dictate a key position in the club. Those for me are the failings there. I can see him falling for all the bluster Rodgers used to come out with about Congerton spotting X and Y players. We don't know for sure, but I suspect there isn't a great deal of forward planning. You'd like to think the scouting team were tasked with watching managers and signings of other clubs so see who is building a reputation for great work, so that we can keep them in mind. But it doesn't really feel like that with some of our decisions. Again, I think that forward planning is a potential failure point." August 2024 "I just want him to do the due dilligence on the head scout and get the very best we can, not bend over backwards for a manager and get his mate in. I also want them to set a direction... eg. We want a focus on younger players with sell on value, and to focus on if we go down we have a talented team proven at that level, that might also stay up. And let the scouts do their job. We failed with Congerton and it has sowed many bad seeds. We let the manager have too much power with Rodgers and it's looking that way again under Cooper and we don't seem to have much of a direction in terms of signings and so far his "passing" ideal seems like bluster. I'm far more concerned about this big decision stuff. Rather than moaning about x or y player getting paid too much, when if they were actaully any good, people wouldn't give two hoots what they were paid. " Augsut 2024 "John Rudkin is not a scout, he does not scout players, he's not there to know every single player in world football and what they are valued at. The club literally employ "experts" in their field who are meant to spend their time looking at all of this stuff. Walsh used to talk about building links with players and clubs etc long before we bid. That they've basically hand the club a player and an already partially done transfer deal. What he is going to be responsible for is hiring the wrong people in the wrong positions at the head of the scouting department. Hire the wrong people there... eg. A certain managers mate who was useless at his previous clubs, then they might give you duff info because they are rubbish at their job, or because the manager has too much inflluence on them. One wrong decision can lead to dozens and dozens of poor decisions down the chain. " February 2024 "You see, it's shit like this that makes me think what's the point. Do you even bother to read the posts? I've said god knows how many times, that Rudkin is clearly going to take a portion of the blame. I've said numerous times in the last two pages, I think he's culpable for appointing a poor head of recruitment (a huge problem as most of the others stem from it). I've said times over the years, I believe there has, at times, been a serious lack of forwarding planning, amongst numerous other things. Just because I don't join in with the sad little bandwagon of trying to put the blame at one man's feet, doesn't mean I like him, or that he's good at his job. " February 2024 "I mean, I literally just said he’s to blame for installing a shit head scout, so it’s pretty clear I don’t think incoming transfers were working." August 2023 "So the reality is, KP, Top, The board, Whelan, the manager, his head of recruitment etc all share an element of responsibility. The reality is, we don’t know the facts of any situation. For all we know, Rudkin advised the board and they overruled him. Alternatively he could have badly advised them. This is exactly why I’m not interested in pointing fingers at individuals. " I could go on and on, but people will just ignore it and I'll get blocked for defending myself. May 2023 "We hired Rodgers 4 years ago and won the FA Cup two years ago and finished 5th twice. Whether you like it or not we had a successful start to his reign and played some great stuff. The problems started to mount because we let him dictate the head of recruitment and dictate we get rid of an established and successful fitness team. It was a good decisions to hire him originally IMO, a bad decision to give him too much power and a poor decision to not act sooner to replace him. But by the time we realised the damage was done. This happened under Vichai also, see giving Ranieri too much power after the title win to start dictating to the club. The club needs to get a plan back in place asap and buck up its ideas on recruitment. I’m massively concerned do not get me wrong, there just seems to be a huge lack of detailed planning. The hiring of the guy from Saints, who had hardly pulled up trees recruitment wise just stinks of hiring someone who applies for the job. See Ranieri, see Puel… There should be people continually monitoring other teams recruitment, their successes and then then you try and poach them, like people do to us. The same goes for managers also. But we very rarely, other than Rodger’s ever seen to do some research and get someone with a good recent track record. Perhaps Rudkin is too busy buying horses, perhaps he’s just stupid. But his position needs analysing asap, but he’s so far up Top and Whelans arse I doubt either of them will. "

Once again, I’m not given the right to reply to people saying I’ve said x or y and blatantly lying about my opinions on people. I can back up my opinions with posts I’ve made one, two, three years ago. And yet it’s me who gets blocked and not people talking out of their arses. Sort it out.

Based on other people’s selections. Deciding if they are good enough should not be under his remit.

And all of that I agree with, I’ve said it myself a dozen times. But if someone comes on here saying he picked x player, I’m going to say that’s not his f***** role.

He. Isn’t. A. Scout. He has zero experience of being a scout, zero experience of picking players. Why would anyone want him involved in that? We literally employ a team of people to make those decisions on a players ability. Having watched god knows how many hours of video or in person, pouring over data for days. And you expect him to rock up and just make a decision on a hunch or something? Now, can you say he’s employed shit scouts, yeah. Can you say his strategy has been shit in allowing managers to dictate too much, yeah. But making out he should be involved in saying yes or no on a player based on HIS opinion of their level of skill, is frankly stupid. If the club wanted someone to make those decisions as the top, then they’d employ someone to make those decisions with experience of doing so. As it is, we employ a team of people below him with more experience and knowledge to suggest x or y player. Of course he’s still responsible for shit direction, but once again people saying he picked x or y player or shouldn’t have picked x or y player are just wrong. I don’t see people saying well done for any good players we sign… funny that .

Yeah that’s it. Quite amazing how many people on here can’t actually read.

You can’t even get his job title right so that says all you need to know. He doesn’t pick players, he’s not a scout. What part of that do you not understand? Does he pick the head of recruitment yeah, does he get invoked in strategy, he should be. Will he be involved in financials, obviously to a degree… but he doesn’t pick a player. He should absolutely not be getting involved in either selecting a player and saying no to a player on the grounds of his opinion of their skill or worth. He’s not qualified to make that judgement.

We have a head scout and a scouting team for a reason. You made out he selected a certain player, he won’t, it’s total nonsense.

That’s not the point is it, that’s an entirely different discussion. I’ve said continuously that people need to focus on the actual issues such as that. Rather than trying to blame him for everything, like picking a certain player, which he doesn’t do. Don’t believe me, search it. I’ll start you off…

Oh look another one who doesn’t actually bother to read. You know he doesn’t pick the players don’t you?

We needed bodies whether you like it or not. Good championship players cost a lot of money, money we didn’t have that much of. They said nobody would touch them, they offered a contact. End of story, the point wasn’t amounts so it’s got nothing to do with it.

Well firstly Fulham offered him a contract so year they would touch him. Secondly, if we weren’t so limited with what we can do financially it’s unlikely we’d have picked up either of them.

You know he doesn’t pick the players don’t you.

We've already signed someone, we've paid off a manager (again), and we're rumoured to be after at least one more... what were you expecting?

Just checking you’ve not missed the entire last three years and us struggling to pass PSR continually?

Well I'd disagree there and just say our decision-making was still hit and miss (as many clubs are). Yes there were issues, but as I say we lurch from good decision to bad decision. You mention the early indicator being high wage to turnover ratio, that was a decision taken by all of them, no one person can sign that off. And at the time, the sell an asset to cover the costs was working just fine. At the start of the FA cup winning season we were still sticking to that. We sold Chilwell and bought Fofana. The squad was littered with talent and it shouldn't have been an issue. Yeah there were still BIG issues afoot, like giving managers too much power and letting them install their own heads of recruitment. That ended up being a disaster, so did trying to back him and not sticking to what served us so well before and selling an asset. That summer is that tipping point moment IMO. Chuck in the UEFA rule changes about wage to turnover needing to be at a certain amount to ever hope to play in Eurorpe. Anyway, I'm not going through all this again. It's far more complex than people like to make out and a whole plethora of decisions over the span of years, plus some bad luck.

It was a miracle, you take out any part of it and it wouldn't have happened IMO. So yes, they had a huge impact on what happened here, but so did Pearson, Walsh, Ranieri, Rennie etc.