Susan Whelan steps down as CEO

[PhillippaT]

4 hours ago, Clever Fox said:

Yes, I guess it's all about how it's used. For Good or Bad. Sometimes they forget who they are really working for.

Unfortunately, most of them now are the selfish ones that solely want the power, not the responsibility...

[South Shire Fox]

6 hours ago, ALC Fox said:

You only have to look at how Emma Hayes analyses a game of football after 22 minutes and how she communicates that across with intelligence, never resorts to cliches, never belittles her audience and comes across as very insightful, to know that she'd be a success in the men's game.

 

She's got the knowledge and the delivery. With proper backing she'd do very well in my opinion.

Waffling on TV does not mean you’re going to be a top manager in the mens game. Everyone was raving listening to Russell Martins analysis on Monday night football a few years back before being sacked as Rangers manager 10 games later. Its like saying Ange Postecoglou is a top manager because he dominated a crap league with the club with the most resources by a mile, like Emma Hayes did at Chelsea ladies. 

[Lionator]

Emma Hayes is evidently a great coach and I’m sure would be a success in the right environment (not ours).

 

As for Whelan, she was part of the success and infrastructure Pearson built, maybe she’ll regret no quitting earlier but ultimately she was never the issue. I guess captain driving the titanic comes to mind.

[TheGoldenGod]

If anyone thinks Emma Hayes wouldn't have been eaten alive by the crop of players we've been subject to the past 3-4 years then you've gone mad! She'd be laughed out the building, that's the reality. A complete nonsense from Lineker.

[davieG]

Whoever the first female football Manager of men is they will need to be very careful which club they choose as they absolutely must not fail, it doesn't mean winning a cup or trophy but above average  at least because if they are seen to fail it'll be a long long time before any other men's club hires a woman manager.

[RichardGearman]

Gary Lineker has a tendancy to kiss arse to prove how feminist he is. I imagine Susan probably rolled her eyes when he called her and made that suggestion. 

[Clever Fox]

5 hours ago, PhillippaT said:

Unfortunately, most of them now are the selfish ones that solely want the power, not the responsibility...

100% correct.  

[Stevosevic]

Gary Lineker is pretty insufferable isn’t he 

[The Doctor]

On 26/06/2026 at 14:53, Stadt said:

We've been a Championship operation off the pitch for about 20 years. I think Whelan did a reasonable job but the shittier we are the more lionised Whelan will be. She oversaw a lot of the poor functions. Ticketing, especially away ticketing has been the same crap system for about 16 years? The catering has consistently been crap and so on.

 

She probably kept things ticking over, especially post Vichai and I neglected to mention Seagrave which was a big achievement - but then we've never had a control on our costs like still operating Belvoir Drive. We acted as if we'd always have the revenue of a club in the top 6 or 7. The hubris was pervasive:

 

"Having achieved finishing positions in the Premier League of fifth, fifth and eighth in the three preceding seasons, our targets and associated budgets for 2022/23 were entirely reasonable. However, for a club such as ours, whose sustained sporting achievements have justified the levels of investment required to compete with the most established clubs and pursue our ambition, a season of such significant under-performance on the pitch presents financial challenges, particularly from the perspective of the game's current profit and sustainability rules."

 

We were living far beyond our means and we never addressed that, we never cut our coth off the pitch.

 

I mean, that quote isn't wrong? budgets were set based on what the sporting set up was delivering and was forecast to deliver, unless we're saying that it was up to her to sack Rodgers when it was obvious that he was under delivering rather than Rudkins, it's once again an example of the PE Teacher grossly failing at his role

[Jimmy]

Lineker had the chance to take a moral stance 4 years ago but instead he willing went to a human rights abusing country for a pay check, I'm sure if he had refused to go the BBC would have done what they have for this tournament run their coverage from Manchester

[Leicesterpool]

On 01/07/2026 at 11:43, RonnieTodger said:

Any harder than being better than Cooper, RVN, Cifuentes and Rowett?

Well controversially Cooper is probably a better coach than Neville, can't imagine Neville being capable guiding a team from the championship to premier league. Neville is kidding himself thinking he's a good coach. He took the lionesses backwards when he took over, thankfully Weigmann got us back on track and better.

[Kitchandro]

Women should manage women and men should manage men. They are two separate disciplines of football than need to stand on their own feet. Otherwise just make it a mixed gender sport. Which obviously wouldn’t work.

 

On a similar note I also think if you’re gonna have international football, it defeats the object to allow foreign coaches. 

 

 

[Gamble92]

10 hours ago, The Doctor said:

I mean, that quote isn't wrong? budgets were set based on what the sporting set up was delivering and was forecast to deliver, unless we're saying that it was up to her to sack Rodgers when it was obvious that he was under delivering rather than Rudkins, it's once again an example of the PE Teacher grossly failing at his role

We were running way beyond our means even without the relegation. Which was just about as catastrophic as it gets. 

 

The way in which it unfolded was entirely avoidable but it first started to unravel because we couldn't sign a player. As a result, the players became demotivated and we know Brenda distanced himself for self preservation etc etc

 

But the way in which we were being run was unsustainable without all that. It was effectively Europe or bust and a team like us can't operate like that. Even Tottenham can't bank on it. Those decisions fall with her.

 

I don't disagree with what you say about Rudkin. He, and Top will always be the biggest issues, but there's no way Susan Whelan should escape all blame just because she isn't those two. 

[RumbleFox]

8 hours ago, Kitchandro said:

Women should manage women and men should manage men. They are two separate disciplines of football than need to stand on their own feet. Otherwise just make it a mixed gender sport. Which obviously wouldn’t work.

 

On a similar note I also think if you’re gonna have international football, it defeats the object to allow foreign coaches. 

 

 

Christ. Come on. Really? 

[Leicesterpool]

If you think of it there's already female coaches working within the mens game. Notts County had two female coaches doing warm ups i noticed. 

Edited Friday at 07:05 by Leicesterpool

[The Doctor]

17 hours ago, Gamble92 said:

We were running way beyond our means even without the relegation. Which was just about as catastrophic as it gets. 

 

The way in which it unfolded was entirely avoidable but it first started to unravel because we couldn't sign a player. As a result, the players became demotivated and we know Brenda distanced himself for self preservation etc etc

 

But the way in which we were being run was unsustainable without all that. It was effectively Europe or bust and a team like us can't operate like that. Even Tottenham can't bank on it. Those decisions fall with her.

 

I don't disagree with what you say about Rudkin. He, and Top will always be the biggest issues, but there's no way Susan Whelan should escape all blame just because she isn't those two. 

eh, every football club is losing money, have been for decades. Living beyond your means is the footballing pyramid these days. There are plenty of fair criticisms for her around the commercial aspects, the dodgy crypto sponsors etc, but I don't think "we set budget based on this delivery, Jon shit the bed and let a manager actively undermine the planned delivery" is a bad reflection on her.

[PegguyArphexad]

On 02/07/2026 at 16:01, Jimmy said:

Lineker had the chance to take a moral stance 4 years ago but instead he willing went to a human rights abusing country for a pay check, I'm sure if he had refused to go the BBC would have done what they have for this tournament run their coverage from Manchester

Just to test the logic on your thinking, that means if you ever do something morally questionable you should just double down and continue to do the same thing forever more? I have no issue with people being a hypocrite if they are contrasting their own morally dubious behaviour with better future behaviour backed up by a reason and logic. 

[Gamble92]

1 hour ago, The Doctor said:

eh, every football club is losing money, have been for decades. Living beyond your means is the footballing pyramid these days. There are plenty of fair criticisms for her around the commercial aspects, the dodgy crypto sponsors etc, but I don't think "we set budget based on this delivery, Jon shit the bed and let a manager actively undermine the planned delivery" is a bad reflection on her.

I agree if that's what happened. 

 

Just feel like she's getting away with far too much on here. Every bad decision was someone else's. Like you say, the sponsors are a big issue for us and I just find that indicative of the club as a whole. Of which she was firmly at the centre.

 

I just feel like she's another who rode this wave of success, the wheels fell off and she didn't have the answers. 

[MPH]

You just have to listen to those on the fringes of the club ( who are not bound by privacy clauses)  and what they say about her to  see who is the one with dignity and with business sense.  The concept that she never made a mistake doesn’t exists ( who can truly say they haven’t?), but her contribution was invaluable and is sorely missed.

[Jimmy]

4 hours ago, PegguyArphexad said:

Just to test the logic on your thinking, that means if you ever do something morally questionable you should just double down and continue to do the same thing forever more? I have no issue with people being a hypocrite if they are contrasting their own morally dubious behaviour with better future behaviour backed up by a reason and logic. 

I don't moralise about things like human rights like Lineker does, he didn't put his money where his mouth was though did he...

[gerblod]

On 01/07/2026 at 14:11, South Shire Fox said:

Waffling on TV does not mean you’re going to be a top manager in the mens game.

I've watched her analyses on the box a couple of times now - she doesn't 'waffle'. It's clear she understands, better than more than a few male pundits I've seen, what's happening on the pitch.

What she does summating for TV and how she would perform as a manager are two different issues. Best not to use a biased view about the TV job to use as an indicator of her management skills.