Football Operations Revamp - Hiring Technical Director, CEO, and Commercial Director - Rudkin moving 'upstairs'

[st albans fox]

This thread suddenly worth looking at  …..

 

[1972 Fox]

10 hours ago, st albans fox said:

This thread suddenly worth looking at  …..

 

No, nothing to see here, as expected.

[ozleicester]

On 07/01/2026 at 22:51, Wasyls Pec Deck said:

Perhaps Rudkin will interview himself by standing in the mirror and wear a fake moustache when he answers his own questions in his persona of Ron Judkin (am sure I’ve heard that name before…).

 

[Oldblueyes]

On 06/01/2026 at 22:12, Corky said:

Genuinely- what is our fascination with Southampton about?

Is Top about to start up a Cruise Liner division into his holiday experiences. Having Scummers around will make him feel at home and part of his crew..

[teblin]

No saying they should appoint him, but listening to Barraclough he has a sporing director role in Scotland. You don't think they'll have him on their list do you?

[st albans fox]

6 hours ago, 1972 Fox said:

No, nothing to see here, as expected.

Plumbing puns 

[Claudio Fannieri]

2 hours ago, teblin said:

No saying they should appoint him, but listening to Barraclough he has a sporing director role in Scotland. You don't think they'll have him on their list do you?

Thought the same myself would be very good in the Technical Director role. 

[MattFox]

Wouldn’t surprise me if they appointed someone from Thailand

 

Who heads up the Thai FA?

[Tommy G]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cyv5m6ylrjmo

 

Interesting and positive approach 

[Muzzy_no7]

36 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cyv5m6ylrjmo

 

Interesting and positive approach 

I like that.

 

Id say they have under achieved for a while now. 

[CornwallFox]

2 hours ago, Tommy G said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cyv5m6ylrjmo

 

Interesting and positive approach 

One to watch I suppose but it does have echoes of Clive Woodwood at Southampton.

[coolhandfox]

1 hour ago, CornwallFox said:

One to watch I suppose but it does have echoes of Clive Woodwood at Southampton.

People seem to forget that.

 

Also the lack of success of Dave Brailsford at Man U.

 

Not sure the switching sports things works.

Edited 13 January by coolhandfox

[bald reynard]

7 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

People seem to forget that.

 

Also the lack of success of Dave Brailsford at Man U.

 

Not sure the switching sports things works.

It doesn't, Warwickshire Cricket took on a Director of Cricket at the start of last season, who's only experience was in Athletics & Rugby (good though it was). He took a whole Summer getting to grips with the peculiarities of Cricket management and either left it to others to make decisions, or made the wrong ones (eg with choice of Captain, or the recruitment of players way past their sell by date). The jury is still out on whether he's got it sorted yet. 

[RedSoxUK]

Brighton are due a collapse soon tbh 

[LcFc_Smiv]

13 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

People seem to forget that.

 

Also the lack of success of Dave Brailsford at Man U.

 

Not sure the switching sports things works.

Its not necessarily the switching of sports thats the issue, rather the willingness of those in the environment to embrace the ideas and change. Clubs make these appointments but fail to go all in.

[The Fosse Way]

Regardless of whether it works, at least they’re doing something vaguely interesting rather than just filtering by “has worked for Southampton”.

Edited 14 January by The Fosse Way

[Donwebbio]

Our resident numpties can't even think in the box - nevermind outside it.

Edited 14 January by Donwebbio

[Tommy Fresh]

13 hours ago, RedSoxUK said:

Brighton are due a collapse soon tbh 

Why are they?

[Finnegan]

16 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

One to watch I suppose but it does have echoes of Clive Woodwood at Southampton.

 

15 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

People seem to forget that.

 

Also the lack of success of Dave Brailsford at Man U.

 

Not sure the switching sports things works.

 

I know it was sacrilege at the time to say this out loud but Clive Woodward isn't any kind of genius. He was a pretty meh coach who was already something of a rugby dinosaur at the time who took an extremely strong England side who were all peaking to a world cup in which they were the best team. 

 

Because of what that meant to the English public he became some sort of mythical sports hero for a while. 

 

Redknapp hated him, they fell out, Redknapp left and they made Woodward Director of ****ing Football. A bang average rugby coach. What. 

 

In contrast, Brighton are hiring a guy responsible for fitness, conditioning and team culture and asking him to do a similar role in a different sport. Other than understanding that footballers need different body types to rugby players, I don't really think there's much difficulty there transitioning to the new job. 

 

Some things are applicable across all sports and some things aren't, really. If there was an incredible sports psychologist that had helped, say, Lewis Hamilton or Roger Federer win countless titles then you wouldn't object to them coming and working with LCFC right? 

 

But if we tried to hire Bill Belichick to replace Cifuentes you'd be rightly horrified. 

 

Edited 14 January by Finnegan

[coolhandfox]

29 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

 

I know it was sacrilege at the time to say this out loud but Clive Woodward isn't any kind of genius. He was a pretty meh coach who was already something of a rugby dinosaur at the time who took an extremely strong England side who were all peaking to a world cup in which they were the best team. 

 

Because of what that meant to the English public he became some sort of mythical sports hero for a while. 

 

Redknapp hated him, they fell out, Redknapp left and they made Woodward Director of ****ing Football. A bang average rugby coach. What. 

 

In contrast, Brighton are hiring a guy responsible for fitness, conditioning and team culture and asking him to do a similar role in a different sport. Other than understanding that footballers need different body types to rugby players, I don't really think there's much difficulty there transitioning to the new job. 

 

Some things are applicable across all sports and some things aren't, really. If there was an incredible sports psychologist that had helped, say, Lewis Hamilton or Roger Federer win countless titles then you wouldn't object to them coming and working with LCFC right? 

 

But if we tried to hire Bill Belichick to replace Cifuentes you'd be rightly horrified. 

 

Remember when City employed an ex tigers rugby player to be fitness coach in the early 2000s and it was a bit of a disaster.

 

Can't remember his name? 

Edited 14 January by coolhandfox

[davieG]

39 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

If there was an incredible sports psychologist that had helped, say, Lewis Hamilton or Roger Federer win countless titles then you wouldn't object to them coming and working with LCFC right? 

 

But if we tried to hire Bill Belichick to replace Cifuentes you'd be rightly horrified. 

Sounds like the intro to Tenable 

[Finnegan]

30 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Remember when City employed an ex tigers rugby player to be fitness coach in the early 2000s and it was a bit of a disaster.

 

Can't remember his name? 

 

Sure and remember when we hired Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was one of the most iconic figures in football, and he turned out to be shit?

 

You can come from anywhere and be good or bad, what matters is whether or not you were qualified. Clive Woodward was in no way qualified to be the Director of Football at a Premier League football club.

 

In fact, having looked again at what he's being tasked with at Brighton, I don't even think fitness is a large part of it. I think he's more there to drive culture and mentality to sustain high level performance over time which is something the All Blacks (and Crusaders) are pretty much famous for, it's not really a surprise that people from other sports would be looking for consultants and asking how the ABs kept that up for so long. 

 

Thomas Frank and Brentford's recruitment team have spoken multiple times about taking philosophy from the ABs when it comes to picking characters / personalities they want to bring in to the club, quoting "No Dickheads" as a cultural pillar. 

 

I just don't think it's that comparable to the Woodward situation, other than the fact they both had a rugby background and that makes it a snappy story for the tabloids. If Woodward had never been best mates with Southampton's owner, nobody would be batting much of an eyelid about Brighton now.

 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

16 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

People seem to forget that.

 

Also the lack of success of Dave Brailsford at Man U.

 

Not sure the switching sports things works.

Which is why KPFC are so forwarding thinking. Not only do we appoint someone to the interim MD role with no sporting experience outside of football, we also play it super safe and appoint someone with no experience in football either, just to be sure. 

 

True visionaries. 

[AjcW]

Confirmation statement now 2 months overdue   

[Aleksz]

47 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Remember when City employed an ex tigers rugby player to be fitness coach in the early 2000s and it was a bit of a disaster.

 

Can't remember his name? 

Fitness coaches aren't really comparable in this conversation, sport cross over jobs happen all the time within that sector. A couple of our S&C coaches during the Pearson era came from a rugby background.