LCFC - What would YOU change?

[Raspeir]

So, years of mismanagement, years of complacency, years of appalling fiscal planning and a complete naiveite when it comes to forward thinking strategies to manage worst-case scenarios. We all are witnessing the absolutely gutting scenario of the team we force ourselves to watch every week being humiliated again and again.

 

I often look at the business, and the club, and consider what I'd do if I was in the thick of it, and could actually influence the decision making going forwards.

 

So, my question to everyone is what would YOU do if you were handed the reigns of the club tomorrow. I'm talking from say a DOF standpoint. If Rudkin was finally unglued from his supposedly immoveable perch, and, in a flash of Championship Manager / Football Manager'esque brilliance, you found yourself parachuted in to the top job.

 

What would be the key points you'd look to change, both immediately, and in terms of long term strategy? 

 

A stringent wage cap? Would you pay someone to take a heat gun to all the faded blue seats? How would you re-connect with the fans? Would you look to re-jig the squad's use of the training ground in order to create a bit more professionalism? What would you look to do with the management team and structure?

 

There must be a bunch of people on here that run successful companies, in various different fields. All with different experience of tough economic times. There must also be a bunch of young and enthused young people that see the world through new and innovative eyes. There must also people that see things from the front lines of the workforce and can see where the people up top are getting it wrong.

 

I'd love to know what you'd do if you were given that top job.

 

[teblin]

Recruitment across the whole club needs to be the biggest change (other than the really big change in ownership that I can't see)

 

So Recruitment of Senior Leaders needs to be better, Recruitment of Managers and coaches needs to be better, Recruitment of Playing staff needs to be better.

 

Players wise we need to go back to signing players with something to prove, Like we did under Pearson and we did when we signed the likes of around 2017/18/19 when we signed players like Maguire, Maddison, Ricardo , Wilf. 

 

Its actually the most important thing, need to put some work in and not just rely on Agents.

[Gazza3]

Pretty much everything 

[LCFCJohn]

I would consult Nigel Pearson (consult not employ) on what he saw when he walked into the club in 2008.

 

The sports science, the scouting both in terms of value and characters (the absolutely critical) and the sports psychology side. These areas were the envy of other clubs in his time.

 

Sports science and fitness - as we have seen this season, you don’t get anywhere when your players aren’t fit and putting the hard yards in. As well as fitness, the sports science side we had maintained an excellent injury record, in terms of reduction of injuries in the first place and quicker recovery. 
 

Scouting - lower wages, up and coming players from lesser known leagues who will want to be here. Accompanied by solid pros to add experience. Think the likes of Kevin Phillips and Wasilieski. Every signing being completely with moving the player on in mind. We have so many now who we have given too higher wages to and can’t shift and they are too comfortable. 
 

Psychology - we heard how important Ken Way was during the title season. We are such a weak minded club right now. Even thought Puel and Macia brought in good technical players, the mentality side has been neglected bar the odd signing since Pearson was here. Players like Maddison and Ricardo. Very good players but not ones you’d want to be in the trenches with when the going gets tough. 
 

And no jobs for people based on just being around the club for a long time. Best people get the jobs. No sentiment.

[snoopy87]

The owner

[Officer Doofy]

I'm at the point where I can't even be bothered to tell you anymore tbh. 

 

 

Completely and utterly done with it atm. 

 

 

[woznotwos]

Struggling to think of anything I’d want to keep. 

[SK3Blue]

Them sausage roll t shirts. 

[Crinklyfox]

The culture.  This is driven by top management, if a culture of expected excellence and visible commitment to achieve that goal isn't forthcoming then poor attitudes can seep throughout the club.

 

Without management that will relentlessly pursue achievement, we are doomed to be average at best.

[Raspeir]

22 minutes ago, LCFCJohn said:

I would consult Nigel Pearson (consult not employ) on what he saw when he walked into the club in 2008.

 

The sports science, the scouting both in terms of value and characters (the absolutely critical) and the sports psychology side. These areas were the envy of other clubs in his time.

 

Sports science and fitness - as we have seen this season, you don’t get anywhere when your players aren’t fit and putting the hard yards in. As well as fitness, the sports science side we had maintained an excellent injury record, in terms of reduction of injuries in the first place and quicker recovery. 
 

Scouting - lower wages, up and coming players from lesser known leagues who will want to be here. Accompanied by solid pros to add experience. Think the likes of Kevin Phillips and Wasilieski. Every signing being completely with moving the player on in mind. We have so many now who we have given too higher wages to and can’t shift and they are too comfortable. 
 

Psychology - we heard how important Ken Way was during the title season. We are such a weak minded club right now. Even thought Puel and Macia brought in good technical players, the mentality side has been neglected bar the odd signing since Pearson was here. Players like Maddison and Ricardo. Very good players but not ones you’d want to be in the trenches with when the going gets tough. 
 

And no jobs for people based on just being around the club for a long time. Best people get the jobs. No sentiment.

Couldn't agree more with everything you've said here.

It feels as though the club has lost its heart and soul. I mean that as much in a literal as well as a figurative sense. The thing that made it special and that made miracles happen. The core of everything.

 

Pearson, Shakey, Walsh - along with Way and the rest of the team were all people that had slogged their way up the ladder. They weren't fashionable, they weren’t cool, they weren't entitled. They were real, solid, honest pros that valued their opportunities and gave everything. They worked their absolute backsides off and found innovative and forward-thinking ways to take players that had been ordinary as individual athletes (as ordinary as any professional footballer can be) and turn them into a team that was truly exceptional. Combined with the incredible recruitment that plucked the occasional superstar out of nowhere too. Vichai saw that, because he'd build his business in exactly the same way.

You're bang on that the club has neglected those key elements of the infrastructure that were the foundation to everything. It has been filled with people that are way too comfortable. The people here now have been born into comfort or become incredibly comfortable through the complacency of time. Lost is the raw desire that comes with professionals who have a point to prove, people who don't feel they 'deserve' to achieve, but who desperately feel they 'have' to achieve. Fighting as though their livelihoods depended on it, as it so often did.

 

It feels like the club needs to re-discover that, and everything you've said here would be important steps on the way forwards.

 

[foxinsocks]

a new board to bring credibility ; reduce the player  wage bill asap; reset the whole FEF; hire coach to build squad of hard working players

[Samilktray]

Better kits would be first thing on my agenda 

[Ashley]

Go to a model of what Tottenham used to operate. 

 

The wages weren't big but all incentive based. Score, assist, clean sheet - all decent bonus. Make the player want to perform. 

 

Go back to the model of where we buy raw/rough and hidden gems sell them on and keep that cycle going. 

 

Go out and actually get a good CEO I.E. Paul Barber, go get someone like Dan Ashworth. Create the succession plan there. Get a good loan manager to look after the youth we have coming through and alot of them have massive potentials.

 

It may take a few years but it would work. 

 

Rudkin needs to go but with this Thai loyalty etc it wont happen under this ownership. 

[Tommy Fresh]

1 minute ago, Ashley said:

Go to a model of what Tottenham used to operate. 

 

The wages weren't big but all incentive based. Score, assist, clean sheet - all decent bonus. Make the player want to perform. 

 

Go back to the model of where we buy raw/rough and hidden gems sell them on and keep that cycle going. 

 

Go out and actually get a good CEO I.E. Paul Barber, go get someone like Dan Ashworth. Create the succession plan there. Get a good loan manager to look after the youth we have coming through and alot of them have massive potentials.

 

It may take a few years but it would work. 

 

Rudkin needs to go but with this Thai loyalty etc it wont happen under this ownership. 

Les Reed said something very similar to this on the Fozcast, when discussing getting up to the Prem when going in at Southampton in League One.

[joachim1965]

The ownership, everything can be sorted once that happens.

Until then we are fvcked.

[Chelmofox]

3 minutes ago, Ashley said:

Go to a model of what Tottenham used to operate. 

 

The wages weren't big but all incentive based. Score, assist, clean sheet - all decent bonus. Make the player want to perform. 

 

Go back to the model of where we buy raw/rough and hidden gems sell them on and keep that cycle going. 

 

Go out and actually get a good CEO I.E. Paul Barber, go get someone like Dan Ashworth. Create the succession plan there. Get a good loan manager to look after the youth we have coming through and alot of them have massive potentials.

 

It may take a few years but it would work. 

 

Rudkin needs to go but with this Thai loyalty etc it wont happen under this ownership. 

Why do you think Tottenham deviated away from it. Connor Gallagher is reportedly on 200k a week.

 

Ange in a recent interview was moaning that Spurs were not competing enough for the better players. 

[Foxin_Mad]

Needs a complete reset and restructure and clear out of the whole club. Its not going to happen, Rudkin will still be in position. We need to start from the basics and get the financials on a level footing and build from there. I think it may need a drop to League 2 and a struggle there for a few years like Bradford. 

[izzymuzzet]

There are a lot of specific things I'd like to see changed. 

 

But a more cultural change I'd like to see implemented is the return of honesty to our club. Honesty in communications with supporters, honesty about our financial situation, honesty about our recent failures. The Thai culture of 'saving face' has exacerbated the problems we've had in the last few years and it has to change. Top and the rest of the executive leadership team need to stop treating supporters, the media and the football authorities like idiots and be honest with themselves about what's gone wrong and what they should do next (i.e. sell up). 

[beepee1984]

The owner

the board

the manager 

the coaching team

the players

the scouting team

the sponsors

the financial team

the marketing team including social media

the admin team

the beer

the medical team

Any Agent connected to the club

The list is not exhaustive, just a starting point! 

[Rusko187]

[OntarioFox]

Well the most radical thing I'd do to overhaul Rudkin's insane recruitment strategy would be a rigid basic wage cap for ALL new signings and renewals, with anything above that being performance based.

 

Relegation clauses would be linked to the divisions - all of them, since our club was daft enough to believe we'd never be relegated from the prem, let alone the championship - and would be non-negotiable.

 

£40k EPL

£20k Championship
£10k League One
£5k League Two
£1k National League and below

 

Want more money? There would of course be bonuses for actual performance metrics in games - goals, assists, ground covered, successful interceptions, clean sheets, etc. But gone would be the days of Rudkin's ridiculous contracts that essentially pay all of that up front, leading to some of the laziest bastards to ever put on our shirt being signed.

Oh, and regarding contract length:

• No contracts longer than three years
• Extensions / renewals to have zero sentimentality and to be purely based on the performance metrics listed above. If you're not good enough, you're told to find a new club or run down your final year in the reserves and we'll promote from the academy.

 

Regarding academy prospects, they get the same treatment - they have that year of replacing the failure to find their feet. If they don't meet standards we go into the transfer market to replace the outgoing player, and they have the choice to either be an understudy on a wage that reflects that, or look for a club elsewhere. No dithering and keeping shite academy players on long contracts just because we lack the vision to seek other options (Thomas, Choudhury).

I don't give a shit at this point if such a wage structure wouldn't make us "competitive" in the transfer market, because quite frankly I don't want the sorts of players it clearly attracts playing for us. We all want a return to a Pearson-type signing strategy where players of all ages come here with hunger and something to prove. This would instantly weed out any chancers that want the easy ride we're now well-known to provide.

The other thing I would do is find a buyer for Seagrave ASAP. We're actually bloody lucky that there was the tiny bit of foresight to keep Belvoir Drive, because we'll need it. Put aside the collapse in our actual footballing performances - it's a luxury we simply can't afford. It's been put on record now that the place's running costs are roughly equal to, if not higher than, our entire prospective revenue in a League One season. It's untenable. Get rid.

 

Oh, and last one, I'd get Wellens in as manager, so we can all blame him for everything that goes wrong.

Edited 14 April by OntarioFox

[suffolk fox]

Recruitment of Coaches without a doubt.  We can't take a decent corner, a decent deadball situation, set pieces are a joke.  There, is no movement at all from any player when we have a throw in in the oppositions final third.  We pass sideways and backwards all the time.  As bad as we are our players are coached to play like that.

 

Get rid of all coaches including King.

 

King power Top n Rudkin to go too, that would be a start.

[Ashley]

35 minutes ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Les Reed said something very similar to this on the Fozcast, when discussing getting up to the Prem when going in at Southampton in League One.

Listen to High Performance podcast from Paul Barber. Ive mentioned it a few times on here, its an excellent Listen. 

 

 

34 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

Why do you think Tottenham deviated away from it. Connor Gallagher is reportedly on 200k a week.

 

Ange in a recent interview was moaning that Spurs were not competing enough for the better players. 

I dont know, but at the time they were arguably the best team in the country who didn't win anything. Third to us then second to Chelsea. I believe they've moved away from the model recently but its proven that it works. 

[Chelmofox]

Just now, Ashley said:

I dont know, but at the time they were arguably the best team in the country who didn't win anything. Third to us then second to Chelsea. I believe they've moved away from the model recently but its proven that it works. 

I'm not really informed enough to make a call on it. But i imagine as time goes on, it gets harder and harder to recruit players on those models, especially if you are desperate for reinforcements and you think you are challenging higher up the table. If Villa/Newcastle/Palace etc are willing to offer guaranteed contracts, or even the remaining big 6 are happy to hand out silly long contracts just to have more bodies available, performance based ones become more difficult to negotiate.

 

I imagine contract negotiations are not Rudkins strongest point at the best of times. 

[Simonb]

The owner. Once that happens we'd see changes all the way through