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Ultimately there's no substitute for being a good judge of character and talent. As things stand it's a great environment for people like Alan Johnson from Peep Show to thrive in.

I just can’t see how it can ever work without Howe being involved in the recruitment, which is backwards in itself when considering the traditional model. For him to have no say on bringing Mitchell in was ludicrous.

So Ba is on the shortlist, but they don't know who the new CEO is, who essentially will pick the new sporting director? Right.

I do think it’s largely about Mitchell’s conflict with Howe and others in the club. But I do expect him to be replaced.

Howe’s doing the work regardless, though. It’s probably not the healthiest, but it’s how he wants to do things.

Everyone says that before Barca call.

It rubs me up the wrong way that Eddie doing well is seen as an obstacle to instituting this system. Unhealthy friction, you could call it.

He’s apparently already said he doesn’t want to go to Barcelona and wants a prem move.

Yeah but every other club nowadays has that and a director of football so less gets passed on to the manager. Just adds more work.

Joan Garcia being linked with Barca by El Mundo.

So you know better than Eddie? What you are saying is true of the reverse game. We played ok - huffed and puffed but couldn’t create much outside of the penalty. That game was probably the worst performance of the season. We haven’t played that bad in a long time and one of the worst Howe era performances. A draw would’ve been a robbery. The tension and nerves in the team and stadium - you could feel it through the TV.

This would never, ever happen, regardless. It wouldn’t be allowed to no matter what approach we take. We’ve got an entire department of scouts and analysts working on transfer targets on a daily basis.

So we’re assuming this is about conflict with Howe? And we’re assuming Mitchell won’t be replaced with someone else in the same role? Why?

My big concern about all of this is what happens when Howe moves on for whatever reason? I’m still scarred by the transitions from Keegan to Dalglish and Robson to Souness. My vision for a DoF is someone who implements a single culture, vision and tactical acuity across the whole club, from the academy, to the reserves to the first team. So that transitions are as effective and seamless as possible.

We’ve got dozens of people doing this on his behalf.

I believe you should have the managers role and dof separated, if a manager controls transfers as well as managing the team ( not that I'm saying is the case) should the manager depart then what, that's both roles gone in one foul swoop. If one only departs at least all is not lost.

Cheers for that RAF disaster flashback 🤮

Your absolutely right here, the thing that makes me an advocate despite these pitfalls is the importance of continuity and long term planning in this PSR world. Rebuilds aren't possible so having a DNA if you will is something I deem essential. The moment Howe goes for whatever reason is the moment we are up the creek without a paddle. I guess being unable to find the right person is perfectly logical as the people making these hiring decisions are the same people that hire management consultants. No disrespect intended to any management consultant that posts on here. (Unless your the fella from the chat thread)

Well, Minteh was apparently good for 4 points.

Needs to be healthy friction.

Psychological factors may have had a small impact but the primary reasons, IMO, are we’re not very good at playing against teams who are set up defensively, particularly at home, and the squad is stretched far too thin. Also, his setup going in to the game was completely wrong.

I think the manager has earned the right to pick his own players now to some extent. But I also think it’s impossible to for him to have the time to watch enough football to know how good other players are outside of the Premier League.

Need ham and pease pudding stotties an aall

The fact Howe is incumbent and doing brilliantly clearly hasn’t helped, like. We don’t have to have a traditional DoF/Sporting Director just because it’s seen as the ‘done thing’. We might be able to bastardise the role somewhat to minimise friction with the first team side of things.

Howe was pretty honest post Everton and suggested psychological factors impacted the game which I think is true. Howe was very honest and frank about the everything post Everton. It was the same team that played Chelsea off the park for 40 minutes. A level of intensity and application we didn’t see at all against Everton. An Everton missing their first choice CBs and with a 38 year old at fullback.