Eduardo Macia to Bordeaux

[Poznan34]

Bloke sacked by Macia has bad things to say about Macia!

[vanity]

On 09/04/2019 at 07:40, Lambert09 said:

I'd agree with most of this but for me, whatever way you look at it... 19 mill for Soyuncu seems a bad deal. 

 

He may end up improving and being a decent player, but there's been nothing to suggest hes anywhere close to a 19 million pound player.  For 19 mill you expect something pretty damn special, whatever their age. 

I am sure we are both delighted to see Soyuncu making 19 mill look like a bargain on Sunday. Here's hoping he and Benkovic stay healthy all season, and that Soy keeps developing next to Evans. If he plays like he did in the 2h this season, he will be a 40 mill+ CB by the summer. Probably  more bc of what he can do on the ball.

[Foxxed]

1 hour ago, brucey said:

Why, out of interest? Those 3 were bought at 21 yo and we know Puel loves youth. Macia bought Iborra and Silva under Shakespeare.

With Benk and Soy it looks more strategic from the club: we know we may lose Maguire so let's buy backups. And I find it hard to think Puel would target Benk and immediately loan him to Celtic and play Morgan instead when we know Puel had a horrific relationship with the senior players. He could have targeted Maddison I guess but I'm assuming our scouts already have a pretty good knowledge of the young and talented in the Championship and Maddison would have stood out a mile to our existing recruitment policy.

[Lambert09]

19 minutes ago, vanity said:

I am sure we are both delighted to see Soyuncu making 19 mill look like a bargain on Sunday. Here's hoping he and Benkovic stay healthy all season, and that Soy keeps developing next to Evans. If he plays like he did in the 2h this season, he will be a 40 mill+ CB by the summer. Probably  more bc of what he can do on the ball.

Very solid start, but he still has a lot of work to do. I'm hoping I can hold my hands up by January and admit my doubts were wrong but at the moment I have a niggling feeling he wont be solid enough for what we want to achieve. Lets come back to this after 10 games. 

[Babylon]

2 hours ago, Nicolo Barella said:

If we're to believe that Macia did nothing at Leicester, then yeah. That is what I want to believe (as it suggests that Congers is just in a puppet role), but it also kind of seems like it was just made up to fit the "Macia is useless narrative" these guys are pushing to Bordeaux fans.

I’m sure he’s embellished the story a little, but I could see his actual involvement not being as much as others have.

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

I’m sure he’s embellished the story a little, but I could see his actual involvement not being as much as others have.

Why make him work the January transfer window and all the way up until March in anticipation for getting all our targets locked down for the summer? I see no reason to have a role like his if he wouldn't be leaned upon heavily for his recommendations, however hopefully Pongerton is just there to have a laugh with Rodgers 😂

[Fox in the North]

Eduardo Macia has been sacked by Bordeaux after just one season. After all that effort to get him 

 

https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2020/paulo-sousa-makes-departure-u-turn-sporting-director-eduardo-macia-sacked/

[Jam orton]

I'd bring him back if we could , had a decent summer transfer window when we signed Maddison, Evan's and Ricardo in the same window 

[jeffschlupp]

He took Ollie Waldron with him who had been here a long time as head of technical scouting, I wonder if there is a role for him back at Leicester if he is also out the door with Macia.

 

In general I think heads of recruitment tend to be an overrated appointment - by and large our recruitment has been pretty consistently good under Walsh and Macia, while Congerton has made a decent start.

Some clubs are just poorly run in general and it's difficult for heads of recruitment/sporting directors to change that - and in other clubs there is too much involvement from the manager, which we learned from when Ranieri had too much control in 2016.

 

For all the stick he took for that summer, it never was Rudkin's fault and the bloke is one of the most important reasons why we have been so successful in the last five years. There is a reason he is Top's right hand man and that's because he knows what it takes to run a club properly. So when we appoint a recruitment chief, things largely stay the same because Rudkin and co know the value of their current scouting setup and will make sensible judgements on the type of player we bring in.

 

As for Macia himself, his 'track record' appears pretty rubbish if you take us off his CV. Bordeaux fans thought his signings were awful. Or, more likely, the signings Bordeaux made would have been crap no matter who was in charge, because their manager is Paulo Sousa and in that case the club is probably run by lunatics...

[brucey]

1 minute ago, jeffschlupp said:

He took Ollie Waldron with him who had been here a long time as head of technical scouting, I wonder if there is a role for him back at Leicester if he is also out the door with Macia.

 

In general I think heads of recruitment tend to be an overrated appointment - by and large our recruitment has been pretty consistently good under Walsh and Macia, while Congerton has made a decent start.

Some clubs are just poorly run in general and it's difficult for heads of recruitment/sporting directors to change that - and in other clubs there is too much involvement from the manager, which we learned from when Ranieri had too much control in 2016.

 

For all the stick he took for that summer, it never was Rudkin's fault and the bloke is one of the most important reasons why we have been so successful in the last five years. There is a reason he is Top's right hand man and that's because he knows what it takes to run a club properly. So when we appoint a recruitment chief, things largely stay the same because Rudkin and co know the value of their current scouting setup and will make sensible judgements on the type of player we bring in.

 

As for Macia himself, his 'track record' appears pretty rubbish if you take us off his CV. Bordeaux fans thought his signings were awful. Or, more likely, the signings Bordeaux made would have been crap no matter who was in charge, because their manager is Paulo Sousa and in that case the club is probably run by lunatics...

I think Congerton's first transfer window was January (where we got Bennett). It was said by various sources that the targets for the last summer window (which was decent - eg Justin) were arranged by Macia before he left.

 

Our last bad transfer window was after winning the league, where we had no head of recruitment at all (in between Walsh amd Macia). Even if Macia's transfer record is not great anywhere else, it was still amazing while with us. Congerton has no good track record anywhere. It seemed we were stalling for months advertising the post first before finally settling on Congerton. It's a shame the post is now filled because I'd be much more confident with Macia here. 

[jeffschlupp]

1 minute ago, brucey said:

I think Congerton's first transfer window was January (where we got Bennett). It was said by various sources that the targets for the last summer window (which was decent - eg Justin) were arranged by Macia before he left.

 

Our last bad transfer window was after winning the league, where we had no head of recruitment at all (in between Walsh amd Macia). Even if Macia's transfer record is not great anywhere else, it was still amazing while with us. Congerton has no good track record anywhere. It seemed we were stalling for months advertising the post first before finally settling on Congerton. It's a shame the post is now filled because I'd be much more confident with Macia here. 

Given the leaked target list from Celtic at the start of 2019 where Justin was their top RB target, I would suggest Justin was at worst someone Congerton also liked, which is a tick next to his name at least.

 

We can be pretty confident the club wanted Merih Demiral, who looks a great player and is the sort of signing we'd all be pretty happy with. I think the club did the sensible thing once they realised they couldn't get their first target, and decided to hold their cash until the summer when they'd have a better pick - hence the loan bids for Vestergaard and Bennett. Of course nobody predicted Chilwell, Ricardo and Fuchs would get injured, forcing us to a back three, nor Cags going street fighter on Wilson. But the idea was that Bennett wouldn't play just as Benkovic hadn't in the first half of the season.

 

We saw the club take a similar sensible decision in 2017 - they couldn't get Acerbi so they took Wague on loan, who wasn't required anyway apart from that fun afternoon at Millwall. They waited until the summer when the market was easier and more players were available, and struck early to get Maguire who was a real success.

 

I've got no worries about Congerton. Rodgers is less Brent than he used to be and he's not about to throw away what could be his one and only chance to get back to a big six job by appointing a complete headcase as his main recruitment guy. And Rudkin would not have that either. Rodgers has known the guy for 15+ years and he has worked at some appallingly run clubs, including Sunderland who have been horrendously organised for the last 10 years or more.

 

As I've said before, Congerton also could have insisted he brought his guys from Celtic who worked with him at Sunderland like Mick Doherty and Laban Scott Libby. Instead, the club kept hold of its trusted scouts and promoted Callum Smithson to Waldron's position. They promoted in-house again with the appointment of a first team video scout.

 

Having said all that, I think we're all extremely interested to see what direction the club take recruitment this summer. How much money they have to spend, what sort of character they go for etc. We'll see.

[Ric Flair]

26 minutes ago, jeffschlupp said:

Given the leaked target list from Celtic at the start of 2019 where Justin was their top RB target, I would suggest Justin was at worst someone Congerton also liked, which is a tick next to his name at least.

 

We can be pretty confident the club wanted Merih Demiral, who looks a great player and is the sort of signing we'd all be pretty happy with. I think the club did the sensible thing once they realised they couldn't get their first target, and decided to hold their cash until the summer when they'd have a better pick - hence the loan bids for Vestergaard and Bennett. Of course nobody predicted Chilwell, Ricardo and Fuchs would get injured, forcing us to a back three, nor Cags going street fighter on Wilson. But the idea was that Bennett wouldn't play just as Benkovic hadn't in the first half of the season.

 

We saw the club take a similar sensible decision in 2017 - they couldn't get Acerbi so they took Wague on loan, who wasn't required anyway apart from that fun afternoon at Millwall. They waited until the summer when the market was easier and more players were available, and struck early to get Maguire who was a real success.

 

I've got no worries about Congerton. Rodgers is less Brent than he used to be and he's not about to throw away what could be his one and only chance to get back to a big six job by appointing a complete headcase as his main recruitment guy. And Rudkin would not have that either. Rodgers has known the guy for 15+ years and he has worked at some appallingly run clubs, including Sunderland who have been horrendously organised for the last 10 years or more.

 

As I've said before, Congerton also could have insisted he brought his guys from Celtic who worked with him at Sunderland like Mick Doherty and Laban Scott Libby. Instead, the club kept hold of its trusted scouts and promoted Callum Smithson to Waldron's position. They promoted in-house again with the appointment of a first team video scout.

 

Having said all that, I think we're all extremely interested to see what direction the club take recruitment this summer. How much money they have to spend, what sort of character they go for etc. We'll see.

I thought there was also a scout/analyst who came with Congerton? Perhaps it was just rumoured but I tend to agree with all this. I think we have a good set up and it should remain, regardless of Congerton's whiffy past gigs.

[jeffschlupp]

12 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

I thought there was also a scout/analyst who came with Congerton? Perhaps it was just rumoured but I tend to agree with all this. I think we have a good set up and it should remain, regardless of Congerton's whiffy past gigs.

As far as I know they brought in Jack Lyons who was a Celtic blogger who Rodgers decided to take on as an opposition analyst/scout, he has come with him to Leicester, but I don't believe he has a role in recruitment as such.

[Xen]

34 minutes ago, jeffschlupp said:

Given the leaked target list from Celtic at the start of 2019 where Justin was their top RB target, I would suggest Justin was at worst someone Congerton also liked, which is a tick next to his name at least.

 

We can be pretty confident the club wanted Merih Demiral, who looks a great player and is the sort of signing we'd all be pretty happy with. I think the club did the sensible thing once they realised they couldn't get their first target, and decided to hold their cash until the summer when they'd have a better pick - hence the loan bids for Vestergaard and Bennett. Of course nobody predicted Chilwell, Ricardo and Fuchs would get injured, forcing us to a back three, nor Cags going street fighter on Wilson. But the idea was that Bennett wouldn't play just as Benkovic hadn't in the first half of the season.

 

We saw the club take a similar sensible decision in 2017 - they couldn't get Acerbi so they took Wague on loan, who wasn't required anyway apart from that fun afternoon at Millwall. They waited until the summer when the market was easier and more players were available, and struck early to get Maguire who was a real success.

 

I've got no worries about Congerton. Rodgers is less Brent than he used to be and he's not about to throw away what could be his one and only chance to get back to a big six job by appointing a complete headcase as his main recruitment guy. And Rudkin would not have that either. Rodgers has known the guy for 15+ years and he has worked at some appallingly run clubs, including Sunderland who have been horrendously organised for the last 10 years or more.

 

As I've said before, Congerton also could have insisted he brought his guys from Celtic who worked with him at Sunderland like Mick Doherty and Laban Scott Libby. Instead, the club kept hold of its trusted scouts and promoted Callum Smithson to Waldron's position. They promoted in-house again with the appointment of a first team video scout.

 

Having said all that, I think we're all extremely interested to see what direction the club take recruitment this summer. How much money they have to spend, what sort of character they go for etc. We'll see.

Nail on the head.

 

Congerton may yet prove to be a bad choice but so far there's been little to judge him on, and what there has been seems to broadly be positive or at the very least, sensible.

 

The Demiral situation was unfortunate (assuming we were indeed after him), but as a club we didn't panic and try to buy someone else last-minute for a ridiculous sum. Maybe there's an argument that we should've had a backup option of a similar level, but we all know January is a difficult time to buy so maybe we wanted to avoid 'settling' for someone else, or they might've already been snapped up. It'll be interesting to see how we handle the CB position in this window, whether we go back in for Demiral or if we've used the time to fully scout a more long-term alternative.

 

Not much else to level at him really; if he had involvement in the Justin deal then that's looking positive and a bargain, Perez was expensive but has been reasonable if not spectacular, and similar can be said for Praet who has been reliable and fit in well to the squad. 

 

The scouting work will no doubt already have been done for the most part, so it'll be interesting to see how things unfold over the next couple of months and if missing out on CL will have a significant impact on our shopping list and ability to bring in players. And of course, Covid throws everything up in the air anyway.

 

[Sydney_Blue]

1 hour ago, jeffschlupp said:

Given the leaked target list from Celtic at the start of 2019 where Justin was their top RB target, I would suggest Justin was at worst someone Congerton also liked, which is a tick next to his name at least.

 

We can be pretty confident the club wanted Merih Demiral, who looks a great player and is the sort of signing we'd all be pretty happy with. I think the club did the sensible thing once they realised they couldn't get their first target, and decided to hold their cash until the summer when they'd have a better pick - hence the loan bids for Vestergaard and Bennett. Of course nobody predicted Chilwell, Ricardo and Fuchs would get injured, forcing us to a back three, nor Cags going street fighter on Wilson. But the idea was that Bennett wouldn't play just as Benkovic hadn't in the first half of the season.

 

 

Brilliant! 👏👏 just had to mop up my beer that I spat out!!

[Foxhateram]

I'd say Bennett is a pretty damning start to Congerton's reign. Hope his next signing is better. 

[CosbehFox]

People place too much emphasis on the bloke at the top - it’s the analysts and the scouts who deserve the praise/stick 

[Stadt]

I have no faith in Congerton at all but you can forgive the Bennett loan imo. I’m more more concerned about signing some wardrobe like Vestergaard 

[Stadt]

2 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

People place too much emphasis on the bloke at the top - it’s the analysts and the scouts who deserve the praise/stick 

They identify players and can recommend them but they don’t have the jurisdiction to sign them, that decision will be made by Rudkin and Congerton 

[Gerard]

5 minutes ago, Foxhateram said:

I'd say Bennett is a pretty damning start to Congerton's reign. Hope his next signing is better. 

 

Bennett was alright, he was what he was.

 

We'd tried to get Demiral in but when that avenue was closed we didn't panic buy an inferior option but brought in a loan with PL experience. Bennett was only cover for Evans and Soyuncu who were probably expected to play every minute of every PL game in a back four system. 

 

That's loanees for you, there's a reason why Wolves were happy to be without him.

[Foxhateram]

8 minutes ago, Gerard said:

 

Bennett was alright, he was what he was.

 

We'd tried to get Demiral in but when that avenue was closed we didn't panic buy an inferior option but brought in a loan with PL experience. Bennett was only cover for Evans and Soyuncu who were probably expected to play every minute of every PL game in a back four system. 

 

That's loanees for you, there's a reason why Wolves were happy to be without him.

You'd still expect a better level of scouting though. He got done time and again by players who aren't exactly world beaters. He was terrible.

[CosbehFox]

39 minutes ago, Stadt said:

They identify players and can recommend them but they don’t have the jurisdiction to sign them, that decision will be made by Rudkin and Congerton 

And it’s a joint decision across on average three to four people as the manager will have input too. Therefore the pinpointing and scapegoating of a Congerton or a Macia is unfair. 
 

As much as I dislike Rudkin, it’s in our benefit that he’s been at a football club for sometime now and will have a contacts book which helps him. 
 

At Sunderland when Congerton was there, it was certainly the case that there was a lack of footballing nous at the middle level of the club. 

Edited 31 July 2020 by Cardiff_Fox

[CosbehFox]

26 minutes ago, Foxhateram said:

You'd still expect a better level of scouting though. He got done time and again by players who aren't exactly world beaters. He was terrible.

I bet any bottom dollar Bennett was not a scouted player. 
 

We’d have tried about three to five options before Bennett (three we know about). We’d like to have been tipped off by agents for his availability. Had no options left to us and we could agree a risk free deal with Wolves. Analysts take a quick look to say on paper, he’s okay. 

[Stadt]

2 hours ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

And it’s a joint decision across on average three to four people as the manager will have input too. Therefore the pinpointing and scapegoating of a Congerton or a Macia is unfair. 
 

As much as I dislike Rudkin, it’s in our benefit that he’s been at a football club for sometime now and will have a contacts book which helps him. 
 

At Sunderland when Congerton was there, it was certainly the case that there was a lack of footballing nous at the middle level of the club. 

It's hard to ascertain who is responsible for an individual signing, you're right that responsibility is shared but one individual can make a huge difference - Congerton was clearly involved in two disasters at Hamburg and Sunderland, there's only so much diffusion of responsibility. What's even more worrying is that even without Congerton Rodgers' signings have been a point of criticism so together they have more collective sway at the club. I'm not a fan of how we seem to be linked with a greater degree of domestic targets which is something I'd mostly like to avoid at the best of times.