DoF - Elephant in the room?

[CroydonCaptainJack]

A lot of exaggeration on this thread.

For a change

[davieqpr]

A lot of exaggeration on this thread.

Told you millions of times there isn't.

[Mattyqpr]

How much did Ferdinand get back into the club from sales in that period?

Roughly the same including Chery and Polter sales. That's not the point though is it. The worry is, he's outlayed £25m and we've gone backwards. We've made profits on players bought then sold, but they haven't been sold because they're a success. Polter's fee is actually listed as £1.3m which looks far more realistic than £3m, so that's a loss.

If you spend £25m in 18 months at this level, you shouldn't be sitting anywhere near the relegation places. As I said previously, the summer window just gone is by far the best under Ferdinand, so hopefully as a DOF and as a club we're learning.

This window will tell but I think Ollie has stressed he wants Championship experience so that's his decision not Ferdinand, who did seem to like bringing in players from abroad. It'll be interesting to see if any incomings come in from abroad in this window, I doubt it.

[jmelanie]

I've read several articles on Les's appointment as DOF and from what I understand his principal mandate is/was to change the philosophy of the Club so we can bring in young players (to the U18s, U23s etc.) and develop them into first team players. I think we can see that this is already happening and hopefully in the future we won't be forever having to buy in the transfer market. This is of course going to take time because players don't develop overnight and some might not make it.

I think maybe JFH had more say in the players bought for the first team but we can't know that for sure.

[Tarbie]

A lot of exaggeration on this thread.

Is there though?

I think a lot like to downplay just how big a failure the Tony Fernandes era has been. I'm not sure why. perhaps cos he's a nice bloke people want to give him a chance. I felt that way for a few years but eventually you need to call it what it is.

You have to look at the facts Nasser (and I know you're all about that). We have spent an absolute fortune to go down about 25 league positions without making any lasting improvements to the infrastructure of the club. We have the same tired stadium, the same training ground, alright we've improved our media image but all of that is just bullsh*t in my opinion. Our attendances have also dropped by about 30% from where they were when TF took over.

In terms of staff we have a worse team by a country mile, we have a far worse manager, we also have a DoF that in my opinion has failed with every managerial appointment and with the vast majority of players he has signed. A lot say he's building for the future, by I don't see it. I just see a guy that isn't very good at the job he is in.

I really struggle to see how people still spin positives on the state of the club. It's bad, really bad.

Perhaps some lessons have been learned and we're turning a corner (very much remains to be seen, IMO), but at what cost? If you believe what you read (and apparently it is clear to see in our annual accounts), the supposed "write off" wasn't quite what it seemed and the shareholders are actually drawing money out of the clubs P&L to slowly repay some of their losses. I kind of get it, but at the same time I think it's firmly TF's fault the money was lost, so to effectively take it back out of the fans' pockets is a joke. If true, it's also very clearly the reason we are seeing less investment on players than the return we are seeing for players that leave.

[1973 ranger]

Good post Tarbie and one day at Wembley aside we have not even had a decent cup run under his ownership. Pompey won the FA Cup and Leeds had a champions league semi final after spending money they never had.

[dave58]

Is there though?

I think a lot like to downplay just how big a failure the Tony Fernandes era has been. I'm not sure why. perhaps cos he's a nice bloke people want to give him a chance. I felt that way for a few years but eventually you need to call it what it is.

You have to look at the facts Nasser (and I know you're all about that). We have spent an absolute fortune to go down about 25 league positions without making any lasting improvements to the infrastructure of the club. We have the same tired stadium, the same training ground, alright we've improved our media image but all of that is just bullsh*t in my opinion. Our attendances have also dropped by about 30% from where they were when TF took over.

In terms of staff we have a worse team by a country mile, we have a far worse manager, we also have a DoF that in my opinion has failed with every managerial appointment and with the vast majority of players he has signed. A lot say he's building for the future, by I don't see it. I just see a guy that isn't very good at the job he is in.

I really struggle to see how people still spin positives on the state of the club. It's bad, really bad

Perhaps some lessons have been learned and we're turning a corner (very much remains to be seen, IMO), but at what cost? If you believe what you read (and apparently it is clear to see in our annual accounts), the supposed "write off" wasn't quite what it seemed and the shareholders are actually drawing money out of the clubs P&L to slowly repay some of their losses. I kind of get it, but at the same time I think it's firmly TF's fault the money was lost, so to effectively take it back out of the fans' pockets is a joke. If true, it's also very clearly the reason we are seeing less investment on players than the return we are seeing for players that leave.

I agree the DOF has been disastrous in his appointments and many signings, My only thing with T.F is he's done nothing but back every manager financially, (and probably stupidly) other than JFH, who bore the brunt of our money restraints now,

[Tarbie]

I agree the DOF has been disastrous in his appointments and many signings, My only thing with T.F is he's done nothing but back every manager financially, (and probably stupidly) other than JFH, who bore the brunt of our money restraints now,

I will never fault TF on effort, honesty and just general decency. But it is possible to be a hard working, honest, decent and generous guy but also at the same time to be bloody useless at some things you attempt.

[Shepherds Mush]

Good post Tarbie and one day at Wembley aside we have not even had a decent cup run under his ownership.

To be fair, we haven't had many decent cups run under any ownerships

[TimPR78]

The problem is that nobody knows exactly what his job it. At the moment it seems he is a scapegoat for everything. The other officials at the club must love this. I expect he'd even be blamed if the toilets were out of order.

This pretty much sums up my feelings about this, if it's something gone wrong find a scapegoat and Les seems to be the man

[Tarbie]

This pretty much sums up my feelings about this, if it's something gone wrong find a scapegoat and Les seems to be the man

Is that the case though?

At one point Harry was the scapegoat, then Ramsey, then Jimmy, until 2 weeks ago it was Ollie too.

Surely it's only right when managers keep failing to start questioning further up the chain of command? If I kept hiring guys that failed then I'd fully expect people to start questioning if I knew what I was doing!

[TimPR78]

Is that the case though?

At one point Harry was the scapegoat, then Ramsey, then Jimmy, until 2 weeks ago it was Ollie too.

Surely it's only right when managers keep failing to start questioning further up the chain of command? If I kept hiring guys that failed then I'd fully expect people to start questioning if I knew what I was doing!

I get exactly where you are coming from, and you are right we should question what is going wrong at the club, however what we should be questioning is exactly what is Les Ferdinand responsible for before having a go because it seems as though some are just guessing, and to be honest including myself.

I thought his prime mandate was to try and get the players identified by the manager to the club, and get the best deal possible. I'm not stupid enough to suggest that is all he does and have been educated by some of the posts on this thread as to other duties, but it seems crazy to lambast the man for things we have no idea if he has involvement in.

[James1979]

Tony has been fooled throughout his time by so-called "football men". Just because they played the game, doesn't mean they know the first thing about how to spot a player, anything to do with finances and more importantly how to grow a club from top to bottom.

[Shepherds Mush]

Is that the case though?

At one point Harry was the scapegoat, then Ramsey, then Jimmy, until 2 weeks ago it was Ollie too.

Surely it's only right when managers keep failing to start questioning further up the chain of command? If I kept hiring guys that failed then I'd fully expect people to start questioning if I knew what I was doing!

Some people on here have slaughtered LF since he got a job at QPR

[march56]

Yes but he doesn't have the final say , a club is run by its board

we don't need a DOF then!
get rid