Rudkin

[ElusiveEd]

They are so tone deaf they will probably announce they are celebrating ten years with a toast "To the next 10 Years"

 

 

Edited 3 February by ElusiveEd

[Dan]

15 hours ago, moore_94 said:

There has usually always been something every season that makes him look like a clown - what else have I missed?

 

Also when you actually look at how much we have spent on players that have then been able to leave for free in the last 4-5 years... £213m!!

 

17/18

Adrien Silva - 14 seconds late

 

18/19

Danny Ward - £12m on a backup keeper

 

19/20

Ryan Bennett - only signing in January on deadline day whilst fighting for Champions League

 

20/21

Islam Slimani left for free (cost £28m)

Adrien Silva released by mutual consent (cost 22m)

 

21/22

Jannick Vestergaard

Ryan Bertrand

We genuinely signed half of the defence we stuck 9 past previously

Filip Benkovic released by mutual consent (cost £13m)

 

22/23

Sold Kasper

Fofana dragged on until the end of the window

Only signed Wout Faes

Unable to sign Lookman

1 permanent first team signing and 0 loans in

Finally decided to spend in January and spent it on shite and a fake Brazilian

Rodgers in charge for WAY too long

 

23/24

£107m worth of players left for free

Tielemans left for free (cost £40m)

Soyuncu left for free (cost £19m)

Amartey left for free (cost £5m)

Perez left for free (cost £30m)

Mendy left for free (cost £13m)

Had to sell Maddison and Barnes under their value

Conor Coady 3 year contract

 

24/25

Hired Steve Cooper

Had to sell KDH who didn't want to leave

Iheanacho left for free (cost £25m)

Praet left for free (cost £18m)

De-Cordova Reid - 3 year contract

Jordan Ayew - 2 year contract + £5m

Oliver Skipp - £20m - bench player

Caleb Okoli - £13m - bench player that might leave already

Odsonne Edouard - loan with no option to terminate and apparently expensive loan fee/wages covered

As of 2nd February whilst under serious threat of relegation again we have only signed 1 player - a back up right back for £2m

It's absolutely astounding. You lay it out you can only assume there's some sort of foul play at work. There's no way he's in this job based on his competence.

[The Doctor]

7 hours ago, Nolucklcfc said:

Genuinely don’t know the answer to this but how long do directors of football generally stay in their roles? Can’t be 10 + years surely? 

it can be pretty long. Brentfords dof is also coming up on 10 years towards the end of this season, Txiki Begiristain at man City has been there for nearly 13 years. It's a role with longevity because it sets the style and recruitment strategy for players and managers in a well run club 

[Royston.]

Wow, all those players leaving for free

[Mickyblueeyes]

Top twats programme notes on the day of the anniversary are going to be an awesome read. 
 

[Dames]

19 hours ago, moore_94 said:

There has usually always been something every season that makes him look like a clown - what else have I missed?

 

Also when you actually look at how much we have spent on players that have then been able to leave for free in the last 4-5 years... £213m!!

 

17/18

Adrien Silva - 14 seconds late

 

18/19

Danny Ward - £12m on a backup keeper

 

19/20

Ryan Bennett - only signing in January on deadline day whilst fighting for Champions League

 

20/21

Islam Slimani left for free (cost £28m)

Adrien Silva released by mutual consent (cost 22m)

 

21/22

Jannick Vestergaard

Ryan Bertrand

We genuinely signed half of the defence we stuck 9 past previously

Filip Benkovic released by mutual consent (cost £13m)

 

22/23

Sold Kasper

Fofana dragged on until the end of the window

Only signed Wout Faes

Unable to sign Lookman

1 permanent first team signing and 0 loans in

Finally decided to spend in January and spent it on shite and a fake Brazilian

Rodgers in charge for WAY too long

 

23/24

£107m worth of players left for free

Tielemans left for free (cost £40m)

Soyuncu left for free (cost £19m)

Amartey left for free (cost £5m)

Perez left for free (cost £30m)

Mendy left for free (cost £13m)

Had to sell Maddison and Barnes under their value

Conor Coady 3 year contract

 

24/25

Hired Steve Cooper

Had to sell KDH who didn't want to leave

Iheanacho left for free (cost £25m)

Praet left for free (cost £18m)

De-Cordova Reid - 3 year contract

Jordan Ayew - 2 year contract + £5m

Oliver Skipp - £20m - bench player

Caleb Okoli - £13m - bench player that might leave already

Odsonne Edouard - loan with no option to terminate and apparently expensive loan fee/wages covered

As of 2nd February whilst under serious threat of relegation again we have only signed 1 player - a back up right back for £2m

I fully believe the Ryan Bennett signing was the start of the inevitable downfall. 

[Stadt]

On 02/02/2025 at 11:53, moore_94 said:

There has usually always been something every season that makes him look like a clown - what else have I missed?

 

Also when you actually look at how much we have spent on players that have then been able to leave for free in the last 4-5 years... £213m!!

 

17/18

Adrien Silva - 14 seconds late

 

18/19

Danny Ward - £12m on a backup keeper

 

19/20

Ryan Bennett - only signing in January on deadline day whilst fighting for Champions League

 

20/21

Islam Slimani left for free (cost £28m)

Adrien Silva released by mutual consent (cost 22m)

 

21/22

Jannick Vestergaard

Ryan Bertrand

We genuinely signed half of the defence we stuck 9 past previously

Filip Benkovic released by mutual consent (cost £13m)

 

22/23

Sold Kasper

Fofana dragged on until the end of the window

Only signed Wout Faes

Unable to sign Lookman

1 permanent first team signing and 0 loans in

Finally decided to spend in January and spent it on shite and a fake Brazilian

Rodgers in charge for WAY too long

 

23/24

£107m worth of players left for free

Tielemans left for free (cost £40m)

Soyuncu left for free (cost £19m)

Amartey left for free (cost £5m)

Perez left for free (cost £30m)

Mendy left for free (cost £13m)

Had to sell Maddison and Barnes under their value

Conor Coady 3 year contract

 

24/25

Hired Steve Cooper

Had to sell KDH who didn't want to leave

Iheanacho left for free (cost £25m)

Praet left for free (cost £18m)

De-Cordova Reid - 3 year contract

Jordan Ayew - 2 year contract + £5m

Oliver Skipp - £20m - bench player

Caleb Okoli - £13m - bench player that might leave already

Odsonne Edouard - loan with no option to terminate and apparently expensive loan fee/wages covered

As of 2nd February whilst under serious threat of relegation again we have only signed 1 player - a back up right back for £2m

Ghezzal for £12m was also a gross overpayment in 18/19.

 

He was unwanted after a single season at Monaco, he signed on a free and they shifted him for £12,000,000 - such a philanthropist.

 

That was £24m we could have used towards a proper right winger to replace Mahrez. IIRC Raphinha scored 17 goals for Vitoria Guimaraes in 17/18 before moving to Sporting for about £7m.

 

Naturally, Ghezzal went for about £2.5m after we loaned him out for two years, so on those two dossers we spent £24m, made a loss of £21.5m and paid them probably circa £20m in wages too.

 

It’s the classic Rudkin cycle of 

1. Be in for a player that no one else is, that 75% of us wouldn’t sign 

2. Still take a long time to get the deal over the line 

3. Overpay on the fee and wages to actually get the deal over the line

4. The player is predictably rubbish 

5. Try and sell, can’t because the wages are too high 

6. Get an offer but reject because it’s £500k too low

7. Loan the player out (repeat step 6 if the loan club put an offer in)

8. Leave on a free 

Edited 3 February by Stadt

[CL Fox]

The Coady transfer alone is a sackable offence. They couldn't believe what we offered for him. 

 

100k a week is genuinely laughable for an average centre half.

Edited 3 February by CL Fox

[Babylon]

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. "

[Lionator]

2 hours ago, Royston. said:

Wow, all those players leaving for free

In the above post, £130m worth of players left for free. We didn’t even get 10% of what we paid for them. They left for free. That’s why we’ve struggled around PSR, we broke our own system through incompetence. If we sold Tielemans for the £30m, look how much leeway that would’ve given us. 

[Le Renard]

It is clear the club looks for a certain player profile, but what worked 10 years ago doesn't seem to work at this moment in time.  The club has let valuable assets go for free, and rewards players who don't seem to merit it, and now they are shopping around in the bargain bins for a potential jewel that doesn't seem to exist anymore.  Other clubs have seen what we did and usurped us, done it better, and are still doing it better.

Maybe Rudkin isn't 100 % at fault and he could be just the yes man and I suspect it is a "don't bite the hand that feeds you scenario".  Everyone hates the emperor's lackey or needs a Terry Thomas-style villain to vent their anger/frustration on, maybe that is why Rudkin is kept in his job, and Top evades most of the criticism.  Either way, this club needs a reset, some fresh eyes, and maybe a Director of Football who can turn around and tell Top some home truths.

[Vazman]

6 hours ago, ElusiveEd said:

They are so tone deaf they will probably announce they are celebrating ten years with a toast "To the next 10 Years"

 

 

[Fazzer 7]

I would like to know why Top won't fire him. He can't be that thick as to not understand the failings of the hapless bloke Rudkin. Letting him get away with it for this long is unfathomable.

[mod hero]

45 minutes ago, Babylon said:

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. "

 

Bore off

[st albans fox]

7 minutes ago, Fazzer 7 said:

I would like to know why Top won't fire him. He can't be that thick as to not understand the failings of the hapless bloke Rudkin. Letting him get away with it for this long is unfathomable.

Because he trusts him 100%.

its clearly the most important thing to him. 

he knows that Rudkin won’t do anything not already sanctioned without checking first. 
 

And we all are paying the price 

[brownfox]

When I watch Top and Rudkin watching a game it’s like Top is asking Rudkin what is going on? And Rudkin is like “well they are kicking in that direction and when the ball goes in the net it’s a goal!” So Rudkin is hardly going to tell Top that you actually need to sack me as I’m the problem. 
 

Top don’t have a clue how to run the club hence he’s solely reliant on Rudkin. So many poor decisions over the years. You can add building a flashy new training and then getting PE teachers to run it!  Poor decisions all round, some of the decisions are almost criminal.

Edited 3 February by brownfox

[Ethan RL]

Quote

 

Will he even be there against Arsenal? Wouldn't surprise me if he isn't given what's being planned before the game.

[Tommy G]

1 hour ago, CL Fox said:

The Coady transfer alone is a sackable offence. They couldn't believe what we offered for him. 

 

100k a week is genuinely laughable for an average centre half.

You really think Coady is on £100K a week?

[CL Fox]

1 minute ago, Tommy G said:

You really think Coady is on £100K a week?

It was reported as him being unless you know differently?

[Tommy G]

Just now, CL Fox said:

It was reported as him being unless you know differently?

None of us actually ''know'' I just find it highly unlikely we would offer an over the hill CB a mega contract like that whilst in the Championship. Despite our struggles in that dept, I just don't believe it. 

[CL Fox]

6 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

None of us actually ''know'' I just find it highly unlikely we would offer an over the hill CB a mega contract like that whilst in the Championship. Despite our struggles in that dept, I just don't believe it. 

So it's not him but it's someone else who doesn't play regularly and was with us in the championship?

 

Percy is pretty reliable, I doubt he's made it up personally. And we all know our total wage budget is way bigger than it should be.

[Ethan RL]

8 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

None of us actually ''know'' I just find it highly unlikely we would offer an over the hill CB a mega contract like that whilst in the Championship. Despite our struggles in that dept, I just don't believe it. 

Wasn't he allegedly on 70k in the champ? I might be wrong

[Gav_LCFC14]

The thing that's hard to comprehend is anyone with this track record of continuous mistakes would have been given their marching orders in any other job. It's rotten to the core and we've given up.

[FoxinNotts]

What is he doing right now? I'd love to know. You can't tell me there isn't something.. something, any small thing going on! He must have some small chance of an 'iron in the fire'. Absolutely pathetic.

I'd love to have his job during a transfer window. The man should thank his lucky stars that he has the job he has. What a nob.

[Tommy G]

27 minutes ago, CL Fox said:

So it's not him but it's someone else who doesn't play regularly and was with us in the championship?

 

Percy is pretty reliable, I doubt he's made it up personally. And we all know our total wage budget is way bigger than it should be.

Percy is reliable but he doesnt have access to our payroll - it's all guesswork