I’d have hoped Frank would have a pretty strong knowledge of the squad before taking the job. However, I can see the lack of activity being due to him being new and wanting to evaluate the players before doing anything.
Which neatly brings us back to the fact we need to stop sacking managers. And stop giving players the good old clean slate.
We know about the old model, the traditional English manager-does-everything scheme, which is increasingly untenable given the sheer complexity of things. As a football culture, we're still too wedded to it.
Another model is often found on the continent, I gather, where there are more or less permanent structures supervised by a technical director who has oversight of the academy, development of young recruits, the strength of the senior squad, and financially viable player trading. Paratici used to be one of these. In principle, in a system like this, the transition from one head coach to another shouldn't be such a big thing.
If we have Big Club ambitions, then we should be aiming at the latter model. It looks like under Lange, backed up by Venkatesham, we're doing a more sustainable version of that. Or at least that what it seems from the outside.
If so, it's a work in progress.
I'm saying all this in hope rather than expectation. But I hope that Levy can be freed to do what he's supremely good at, property development, commercial income (in tandem with Altius8), NFL relations, management of our debt, courting new minority investors, relations with banks, and, not least, relations with the majority owners (Joe Lewis Family Trust), and the small shareholders.
Meanwhile Venkatesham, Lange, and co., look after the football in such a way that we get all the way to a well-administered club able to host both long-term and short-term head coaches.
