Sporting Director / Director of Football

[lovejoy]

Just now, reefatoon said:

You sound just like TCD

 

 

Need to add 'in my experience of running multi million pound projects.....'

[Menace]

Phil Giles being linked in "i" newspaper... probably nowt in it

[lovejoy]

1 minute ago, Menace said:

Phil Giles being linked in "i" newspaper... probably nowt in it

Aye, saw that yesterday.

 

The local links will mean that one rumbles on for a while i'd imagne.

[jackyboy]

Does anyone really know how good Ashworth is. A lot of the vibes coming from Brighton fans is that he was just a cog in a big wheel. They say that it was the owners who developed this system that Ashworth worked and seems to take a lot of credit for

[lovejoy]

11 minutes ago, jackyboy said:

Does anyone really know how good Ashworth is. A lot of the vibes coming from Brighton fans is that he was just a cog in a big wheel. They say that it was the owners who developed this system that Ashworth worked and seems to take a lot of credit for

 

Nobody knows how good anyone in this role is mate, imo anyway.

[Ronson333]

11 minutes ago, jackyboy said:

Does anyone really know how good Ashworth is. A lot of the vibes coming from Brighton fans is that he was just a cog in a big wheel. They say that it was the owners who developed this system that Ashworth worked and seems to take a lot of credit for

 You see the below, this is where Chelsea just keep making the same mistakes as cowboy Todd continues to look like the village idiot. They need to hire the people owner Tony Bloom has for his company that directly report into him. They are the ones that made the Brighton system…

 

 

[TRon]

16 minutes ago, jackyboy said:

Does anyone really know how good Ashworth is. A lot of the vibes coming from Brighton fans is that he was just a cog in a big wheel. They say that it was the owners who developed this system that Ashworth worked and seems to take a lot of credit for

 

He's highly rated by those in the know, I don't think there's much point in trying to pretend otherwise. But there'll be other highly rated people capable of doing a similar job, and also capable of committing properly to a club. In the long run, that will be better for us.

[Tiresias]

He's also friends and worked with Dave Brailsford in the past, so it's not like Man U are signing someone on a punt (like Chelsea seem to) in fairness, they know what they are getting and rate him, now cough up

[Gottlob]

You have to remember that while everyone has embraced the 'hub of a wheel' analogy because it's so nice and pithy, by Ashworth's own reckoning he is also like the little plastic thing that holds all of the variously coloured cheeses in Trivial Pursuit. I think it's that aspect of his skillset which is going to prove much harder for us to replace.

[TBG]

40 minutes ago, reefatoon said:

You sound just like TCD

 

Which mod do I need to report this slander to?

[Menace]

Boehly should've just bought Brighton like..

[Mike]

On 18/02/2024 at 22:27, Jagten said:

Phil Giles has a PhD in applied maths (from Newcastle). He spent 8 years at Matthew Benham's SmartOdds in quant research (eventually running it), developing some of the formative models in football analytics, before impressing enough to be appointed as Brentford's co-DoF. I think he's better equipped for a data-led approach than anyone, and he's way more interesting than Ashworth. 

 

Well I'm convinced.

[Toon No9]

1 hour ago, Mike said:

 

Well I'm convinced.

Never heard of Phil Giles before yesterday but he sounds exiting.

Seems well educated and from the area as I understand it.

 

Have done a good job at Brentford for many years. Doesn't seem to jump between jobs every second year as everybody does theese years.

[SUPERTOON]

That Richard Hughes we are linked with from Bournemouth is also being linked with Liverpool.

[Pancrate1892]

Mick Wadsworth is probably available

[Myleftboot]

Kevin Keegan.

[Shearergol]

11 minutes ago, Myleftboot said:

Kevin Keegan.

[buzza]

I also like the fact Phil Giles would bring a much more fact based/analytical approach to recruitment, and he seems highly intelligent (PHd level... wow!). As from what i can read (The Athletic) elsewhere; it seems that we are slightly more antiquated in our recruitment approach (scouts watch and report). A mix of the two would be perfect.

[Jonas]

5 hours ago, SteV said:

Ashworth is widely considered to be the best, yet until this season didn’t have any experience of European competition.

 

The fact is we know very little of how each individual in this kind of role operates, and it’s very difficult to judge who is ‘better’ than who.

That's where I went with all this.

Brighton, Bournemouth. What's the difference really? Both are having the best spells in their history, both punching above their weight, one's naturally bigger than the other and as such is a bit higher/better off.

[80]

4 hours ago, Conjo said:

"Best in class" sporting directors and "Oven ready" players mentioned a lot lately. wtf

 

Coulnd't care less who comes in as long as the club is confident the person is good enough to make us better on and off the field.

Well, sure, I'm the same. I'd support whoever they hire, but it can't be denied it would be odd that Bournemouth in 2019 just happened to have the best available manager, assistant manager, goalkeeping coach, physio and sports director in the Europe of 2024. I'd just hope the club are spreading their wings and having a good look around before concluding that was the case.

[80]

2 hours ago, Gottlob said:

You have to remember that while everyone has embraced the 'hub of a wheel' analogy because it's so nice and pithy, by Ashworth's own reckoning he is also like the little plastic thing that holds all of the variously coloured cheeses in Trivial Pursuit. I think it's that aspect of his skillset which is going to prove much harder for us to replace.

[The College Dropout]

2 hours ago, Menace said:

Boehly should've just bought Brighton like..

He would have lost the main man.

 

Just now, 80 said:

Well, sure, I'm the same. I'd support whoever they hire, but it can't be denied it would be odd that Bournemouth in 2019 just happened to have the best available manager, assistant manager, goalkeeping coach, physio and sports director in the Europe of 2024. I'd just hope the club are spreading their wings and having a good look around before concluding that was the case.

Aye.

[Paully]

Michael Emenalo was linked before Ashworth - just noticed he's a director of the Saudi league 

[Yorkie]

It's really quite fascinating to wonder where we might go from here. 

 

In terms of the live speculation; relative to other football staff (i.e. players and managers), there's only a very small number of directors who are apparently 'vogue' and therefore coveted - Ashworth was obviously one of them. Phil Giles is another because of Brentford's much-discussed model but, for that reason, it seems like a lazy link - not to mention the matter of him having a Geordie accent. I'd wager that it's equally likely there's nowt in that link than something. 

 

Additionally, hiring the Brentford moneyball master would be deciding to suddenly implement a very particular approach to recruitment, for which there's no evidence of us actually desiring to do so up to now. Is there anything to indicate that such a model would work for a team with aspirations of Champions League football, as opposed to promotion and consolidation? Is it applicable to (hopefully much) bigger budgets in a few years' time? If we were to go in that direction I'd hope that it's because we've identified it as the approach which works for us, rather than because he's a 'name'.

 

On that note, I think it's plausible that we didn't know exactly what we wanted when we appointed Ashworth - we just made a dash for the most famous name in the most recognised role. As such, the murmurings about the role not being what he expected potentially ring true to me. With that in mind, Eales & Co may now have more clarity on the situation, and we might therefore see someone appointed to a different title and with a different role - rather than a straight swap. So it could be someone we've not heard of or expected.

 

For me, the most important thing is that they are compatible with the absolutely exceptional manager we have and should cherish and do everything possible to make easy his job. If that means hiring another person from a Bournemouth persuasion, then fuck it, it gets my vote. You could argue that the Sporting Director should have some ideological independence from whichever manager you have but - as per my point above - maybe a Sporting Director isn't exactly what we want. 

 

Very curious whatever happens. 

[healthyaddiction]

1 minute ago, Paully said:

Michael Emenalo was linked before Ashworth - just noticed he's a director of the Saudi league 

There was a bit of agro between him and our owners wasn't there? I'm sure there were claims he wasn't impressed with our owners and turned the job down, but then Ghodoussi came out saying he was never offered the job.