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Steve Hitchen

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HITCHENS IN OR OUT?


  • Total voters
    195
Plenty of money was spent last summer but we’ve ended up with a midfield who can’t string two passes together or hold onto the ball without passing backwards. Got to blame recruitment and managers. Got rid of one of the problems. Steve, the door is over there. Someone check his pockets
 
Leicester's recruitment has been top class. From Kante and Mahrez to Ndidi and Maddison. They buy well and usually sell well too. And yet their recruitment staff have changed, so it's probably not down to one or two scouting geniuses.

The key contrast with us seems to be that the chairman/execs leave the football people to get on with things.

Article in the Athletic last year talked about it:

"For the system to work it relies on those at the top of the club to trust the director of football, the head of recruitment and, ultimately, the manager to do their work, and Leicester is one of the least politically cluttered clubs in the Premier League.

There is no interference from the ownership or potential agent influence and there is a director of football in Jon Rudkin, who has risen through the ranks himself, from originally being a coach in the academy, who likes to empower the manager and let him run the club.

The manager has the final say on all transfers and on appointments among his staff, including the head of recruitment, currently Lee Congerton, who first worked with Rodgers as chief scout to identify promising youth at Chelsea when the Leicester boss was reserve team manager at Stamford Bridge. They linked up again at Celtic.

Managers may come and go, and so have heads of recruitment with Congerton succeeding Eduardo Macia and previously Steve Walsh in the role, but the process of identifying talent at Leicester doesn’t change."
 
Leicester's recruitment has been top class. From Kante and Mahrez to Ndidi and Maddison. They buy well and usually sell well too. And yet their recruitment staff have changed, so it's probably not down to one or two scouting geniuses.

The key contrast with us seems to be that the chairman/execs leave the football people to get on with things.

Article in the Athletic last year talked about it:

"For the system to work it relies on those at the top of the club to trust the director of football, the head of recruitment and, ultimately, the manager to do their work, and Leicester is one of the least politically cluttered clubs in the Premier League.

There is no interference from the ownership or potential agent influence and there is a director of football in Jon Rudkin, who has risen through the ranks himself, from originally being a coach in the academy, who likes to empower the manager and let him run the club.

The manager has the final say on all transfers and on appointments among his staff, including the head of recruitment, currently Lee Congerton, who first worked with Rodgers as chief scout to identify promising youth at Chelsea when the Leicester boss was reserve team manager at Stamford Bridge. They linked up again at Celtic.

Managers may come and go, and so have heads of recruitment with Congerton succeeding Eduardo Macia and previously Steve Walsh in the role, but the process of identifying talent at Leicester doesn’t change."

It's based purely on the basis that anyone that joins can leave as soon as a better offer comes
 
I am confident that it’s true that Brian Clough would great his new players with a line similar to “welcome to Forest, you are only here until I get someone better”

that line is pure gold. That line coming from Hitchins would be comedy gold. The David Brent of THFC.
 
But eventually it doesn't work, the transfer market is imperfect....there's no ponzi scheme beyond the top

You need to keep your best players to get to the top

Leicester's model never breaks into the elite
But Leicester are third, in the FA Cup Final & have been in the Champions League via winning the league in the last 5 years. That’s fairly elite.
 
They will always sell their best players, that their model.

Even when they've finished above Chelsea they signed Kante, Utd signed Maguire...etc we would never do that
Certainly in recent years there has been a tendency not to sell our better players ( caveat - Eriksen, Dembele & Walker) but under ENIC we had previously consistently sold our best player. Carrick, Berbatov, Keane, Defoe, RVDV, Modric, Bale. Even some better players such as Sigurdson or Dempsey were sold when maybe they should have been retained. Obviously I am picking the cherries here and apologies if I am misunderstanding the point being made.
 
Certainly in recent years there has been a tendency not to sell our better players ( caveat - Eriksen, Dembele & Walker) but under ENIC we had previously consistently sold our best player. Carrick, Berbatov, Keane, Defoe, RVDV, Modric, Bale. Even some better players such as Sigurdson or Dempsey were sold when maybe they should have been retained. Obviously I am picking the cherries here and apologies if I am misunderstanding the point being made.

Leicester is a completely different model to ours, maybe to our detriment we always try to keep our players. They won the league and agreed to sell Kante, Mahrez and Vardy (vardy didn't go).
 
Out of interest where do you think the blame lies for the mess we are in right now ?

Assuming you agree we are in a mess , probably shouldn't take that for granted


A real mix of issues

- Poch being too stubborn over signings
- the club being focused on building the stadium and the cost
- a truly amazing player for a few seasons (Dembele) coming to the end
- Poch having a mini breakdown
- Levy thinking Mourinho still had it
- not generally being city/Chelsea

But I think it potentially turns around very quickly
 
Leicester's recruitment has been top class. From Kante and Mahrez to Ndidi and Maddison. They buy well and usually sell well too. And yet their recruitment staff have changed, so it's probably not down to one or two scouting geniuses.

The key contrast with us seems to be that the chairman/execs leave the football people to get on with things.

Article in the Athletic last year talked about it:

"For the system to work it relies on those at the top of the club to trust the director of football, the head of recruitment and, ultimately, the manager to do their work, and Leicester is one of the least politically cluttered clubs in the Premier League.

There is no interference from the ownership or potential agent influence and there is a director of football in Jon Rudkin, who has risen through the ranks himself, from originally being a coach in the academy, who likes to empower the manager and let him run the club.

The manager has the final say on all transfers and on appointments among his staff, including the head of recruitment, currently Lee Congerton, who first worked with Rodgers as chief scout to identify promising youth at Chelsea when the Leicester boss was reserve team manager at Stamford Bridge. They linked up again at Celtic.

Managers may come and go, and so have heads of recruitment with Congerton succeeding Eduardo Macia and previously Steve Walsh in the role, but the process of identifying talent at Leicester doesn’t change."
Similar to the success of the RB franchises. They play a specific style, understand how to identify players and managers likely to thrive in that style range, and indoctrinate new hires quickly.

Continuity in sports, and often in general, is a massive driver of success. That doesn't always been continuity of personnel, as this highlights, but continuity of the system.

In the business world that's called corporate culture. In essence, we have none. Oodles on the business side...none on the football side.
 
The manager has the final say on all transfers and on appointments among his staff, including the head of recruitment, currently Lee Congerton, who first worked with Rodgers as chief scout to identify promising youth at Chelsea when the Leicester boss was reserve team manager at Stamford Bridge. They linked up again at Celtic.
Bring them both in, then.

Ryan Gosling Oscars GIF by The Academy Awards
 
A real mix of issues

- Poch being too stubborn over signings
- the club being focused on building the stadium and the cost
- a truly amazing player for a few seasons (Dembele) coming to the end
- Poch having a mini breakdown
- Levy thinking Mourinho still had it
- not generally being city/Chelsea

But I think it potentially turns around very quickly
Fair enough , there are definitely a number of issues , many I'd agree with you on

However I really don't think you can overlook how consistently terrible our recruitment has been for at least 5 years now

Can't see things turning around personally but i hope you are right
 
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