Paul Mitchell (Sporting Director)

[GeordieToon]

I just hope palace and parish loss a shit load of money when Guehi walks away on a free in the next 2 year.

[Theregulars]

Seems pointless to me. Failed his first big test pretty badly.

[hakka]

4 minutes ago, GeordieToon said:

I just hope palace and parish loss a shit load of money when Guehi walks away on a free in the next 2 year.

 

This mentality isn't healthy. He's their player, they don't want to sell him, they've placed a massive price on his head to dissuade us, yet because they won't roll over and sell you want them to suffer for it? Bizarre. You could easily make this about Isak or Bruno and a CL side low balling us with a bid. If we don't want to sell for a bid lower than we wanted then that's up to us.

 

 

Edited Friday at 09:05 by hakka

[Lotus]

I feel any criticism of Mitchell for this window is pretty invalid. We have no idea what his scope and remit is/was for this window. Even if he was just tasked with negotiating for Guehi, multiple reports seem to suggest Palace have upped the fee as it’s gone along. Mitchell may have had a very hard ceiling put on him by Eales/Board and just couldn’t match it so was looking for wiggle room. That is also conjecture and that is all any of us have at this stage.

[hakka]

10 minutes ago, Lotus said:

I feel any criticism of Mitchell for this window is pretty invalid. We have no idea what his scope and remit is/was for this window. Even if he was just tasked with negotiating for Guehi, multiple reports seem to suggest Palace have upped the fee as it’s gone along. Mitchell may have had a very hard ceiling put on him by Eales/Board and just couldn’t match it so was looking for wiggle room. That is also conjecture and that is all any of us have at this stage.

 

I think it's wiser to just judge the whole club as having a poor window then individuals, as like you have alluded to, we don't know what specifically each person did or didn't do to apportion blame.

[r0cafella]

I’m not sure anymore tbh, according to Eddie we were in for multiple players and couldn’t land any, that’s a pretty big failure to be honest mind. 

[Maggies]

1 minute ago, r0cafella said:

I’m not sure anymore tbh, according to Eddie we were in for multiple players and couldn’t land any, that’s a pretty big failure to be honest mind. 

Was the most honest press conference I’ve seen from Howe. Seems frustrated with the whole thing. Multiple targets identified and hours spent by him on scouting - none delivered. Also confirmed money was there and support from PIF. So this window can be squarely blamed on the executives not getting the deals done.

[nufc123]

22 minutes ago, Theregulars said:

Seems pointless to me. Failed his first big test pretty badly.

We dont have the full picture, but its not a good first impression. Had high hopes when he came in.

[hakka]

5 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

I’m not sure anymore tbh, according to Eddie we were in for multiple players and couldn’t land any, that’s a pretty big failure to be honest mind. 

 

And if those players are outside our budget or turned us down? That Mitchell's fault?

[TRon]

4 hours ago, Optimistic Nut said:

We stagnated last season due to injuries and the Tonali situation, though. If any two of Pope, Botman, Joelinton, Barnes or Tonali were available for about 6-8 games more than they were, we'd have been top 4 imo. I know we already have a couple of injuries but I don't think we'll ever have a season like that again. We'll have a very good season. 

 

We won't unless we can step up our game from what we've seen in the first few fixtures played so far. The football has been patchy at best. Might be due to playing CBs as full backs, or full backs at CB, but I've been more concerned about our lack of fluidity than anything else. To reach top 4 we'll need good footballers in every position for 85% of the season. Although I think top 4 is an unfair expectation anyway, top 6 with this squad should be good enough for most.

[r0cafella]

1 minute ago, hakka said:

 

And if those players are outside our budget or turned us down? That Mitchell's fault?

It means at some point we are failing, personally I’m not too interested in who’s to blame but something is going wrong at some point whereby we can’t sign anyone despite multiple attempts. 

[Peder75]

We have no idea who these targets are. Only thing said is that they really need to be an improvement on what we have. They might all be playing for CL clubs, or similar, and have turned us down because they would only go to clubs playing in CL, or to established top clubs.

[hakka]

18 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

It means at some point we are failing, personally I’m not too interested in who’s to blame but something is going wrong at some point whereby we can’t sign anyone despite multiple attempts. 

 

Which was my original my point!?

[r0cafella]

1 minute ago, hakka said:

 

Which was my original my point!?

You’re saying it isn’t Mitchell’s fault, but he has his share of responsibility as he wasn’t able to buy anyone, we had money to spend and couldn’t it’s job to deliver players.

[hakka]

23 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

You’re saying it isn’t Mitchell’s fault, but he has his share of responsibility as he wasn’t able to buy anyone, we had money to spend and couldn’t it’s job to deliver players.

 

No, I'm saying we don't know for sure, so no point in pointing finger at any individual, so may as well blame club overall for now.

[ads]

This bald cunt still tossing it off in Amsterdam or what?

[Upthemags]

I guess I don't understand what else would be required for people to accept the fact that Mitchell is dancing to Howe's tune? Howe has a track record for being controlling on transfers, our last world class director did not get along with him after having no problems at Brighton, and Howe has explicitly stated he was not going to bring anyone in unless they were an upgrade on our starting XI.

 

Mitchell's talent, at which he's literally the best in the world, is identifying bargain deals. Do we honestly think he staked the entire summer on a player that, I. we know was top of Eddie's wish list; II. Fits Eddie's desired criteria to a tee (English, prem proven); III., was, on the back of the Euros, maybe the most overvalued player in world football, and would be effectively un-sellable if he were brought in? On top of all of this, we know at the very least Mitchell, or someone adjacent to him, briefed Hope yesterday in what was likely a response to the criticism of our bizarrely sparse window.

 

Or, on the other hand, would it be more logical to assume that Eddie is pulling the transfer strings with the permission of Eales/PIF? I mean, do we honestly think Mitchell believed the only player capable of improving the strength of our side was Marc Guehi?

 

I don't want to pillory Howe, and who knows, we might turn it around and have a cracking season, get CL or Europa, and this will all be a moot point. He's a great manager, but it just seems many are covering their eyes with respect to the massive amount of influence he wields behind the scenes.

[gjohnson]

Well somethings not right somewhere. Could it be possible that as part of releasing Ashworth we agreed not to pursue any targets identified while he was in place?

[TRon]

5 minutes ago, Upthemags said:

I guess I don't understand what else would be required for people to accept the fact that Mitchell is dancing to Howe's tune? Howe has a track record for being controlling on transfers, our last world class director did not get along with him after having no problems at Brighton, and Howe has explicitly stated he was not going to bring anyone in unless they were an upgrade on our starting XI.

 

Mitchell's talent, at which he's literally the best in the world, is identifying bargain deals. Do we honestly think he staked the entire summer on a player that, I. we know was top of Eddie's wish list; II. Fits Eddie's desired criteria to a tee (English, prem proven); III., was, on the back of the Euros, maybe the most overvalued player in world football, and would be effectively un-sellable if he were brought in? On top of all of this, we know at the very least Mitchell, or someone adjacent to him, briefed Hope yesterday in what was likely a response to the criticism of our bizarrely sparse window.

 

Or, on the other hand, would it be more logical to assume that Eddie is pulling the transfer strings with the permission of Eales/PIF? I mean, do we honestly think Mitchell believed the only player capable of improving the strength of our side was Marc Guehi?

 

I don't want to pillory Howe, and who knows, we might turn it around and have a cracking season, get CL or Europa, and this will all be a moot point. He's a great manager, but it just seems many are covering their eyes with respect to the massive amount of influence he wields behind the scenes.

 

I think there's going to be some butting of heads there, simply because Eddie has very strong opinions on who is good enough for his team, and Mitchell is presumably very good at bringing in players before they reach peak value. Let's write this window off as Mitchell's settling in period, but we can't afford another one like this. Either they get on the same page or someone will be leaving by the end of the season unless we finish in a European place. I don't think it will be Mitchell.

[Gallowgate Toon]

If Mitchell is 'dancing to Howe's tune' and going against his own beliefs then he simply isn't cut out to be a DoF and he's stealing a wage. Luckily, he isn't.

[Upthemags]

1 minute ago, Gallowgate Toon said:

If Mitchell is 'dancing to Howe's tune' and going against his own beliefs then he simply isn't cut out to be a DoF and he's stealing a wage. Luckily, he isn't.

I don't really understand what this means? If PIF say Howe is head honcho on transfers, what do you want Mitchell to do? Hypnotize Howe to force him to accept the moves he desires?

[SUPERTOON]

17 minutes ago, Upthemags said:

I guess I don't understand what else would be required for people to accept the fact that Mitchell is dancing to Howe's tune? Howe has a track record for being controlling on transfers, our last world class director did not get along with him after having no problems at Brighton, and Howe has explicitly stated he was not going to bring anyone in unless they were an upgrade on our starting XI.

 

Mitchell's talent, at which he's literally the best in the world, is identifying bargain deals. Do we honestly think he staked the entire summer on a player that, I. we know was top of Eddie's wish list; II. Fits Eddie's desired criteria to a tee (English, prem proven); III., was, on the back of the Euros, maybe the most overvalued player in world football, and would be effectively un-sellable if he were brought in? On top of all of this, we know at the very least Mitchell, or someone adjacent to him, briefed Hope yesterday in what was likely a response to the criticism of our bizarrely sparse window.

 

Or, on the other hand, would it be more logical to assume that Eddie is pulling the transfer strings with the permission of Eales/PIF? I mean, do we honestly think Mitchell believed the only player capable of improving the strength of our side was Marc Guehi?

 

I don't want to pillory Howe, and who knows, we might turn it around and have a cracking season, get CL or Europa, and this will all be a moot point. He's a great manager, but it just seems many are covering their eyes with respect to the massive amount of influence he wields behind the scenes.

If any of that is true then he either wouldn’t have taken the job, or he won’t be in it much longer.

[Elliottman]

17 minutes ago, Upthemags said:

I guess I don't understand what else would be required for people to accept the fact that Mitchell is dancing to Howe's tune? Howe has a track record for being controlling on transfers, our last world class director did not get along with him after having no problems at Brighton, and Howe has explicitly stated he was not going to bring anyone in unless they were an upgrade on our starting XI.

 

Mitchell's talent, at which he's literally the best in the world, is identifying bargain deals. Do we honestly think he staked the entire summer on a player that, I. we know was top of Eddie's wish list; II. Fits Eddie's desired criteria to a tee (English, prem proven); III., was, on the back of the Euros, maybe the most overvalued player in world football, and would be effectively un-sellable if he were brought in? On top of all of this, we know at the very least Mitchell, or someone adjacent to him, briefed Hope yesterday in what was likely a response to the criticism of our bizarrely sparse window.

 

Or, on the other hand, would it be more logical to assume that Eddie is pulling the transfer strings with the permission of Eales/PIF? I mean, do we honestly think Mitchell believed the only player capable of improving the strength of our side was Marc Guehi?

 

I don't want to pillory Howe, and who knows, we might turn it around and have a cracking season, get CL or Europa, and this will all be a moot point. He's a great manager, but it just seems many are covering their eyes with respect to the massive amount of influence he wields behind the scenes.

 

You seem to be forgetting the short amount of time Mitchell has been here though. It may be that Mitchell is the best talent spotter on the planet, but you cant say on one hand Eddie is holding all the cards but on the other say Mitchell should be allowed to sign whoever he wants. 

 

Its common knowledge there's a transfer committee. If Mitchell has a list of say, 5 players in every position, it will take time for them to do their due diligence as a group on all of them. There wouldnt have been enough time this window. 

 

If it turns out what you're saying is correct, then I would be expecting Mitchell to resign fairly quickly. 

[Upthemags]

3 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

If any of that is true then he either wouldn’t have taken the job, or he won’t be in it much longer.

Do you seriously think, in the process of trying to attract a world class DoF, that we would be telling them, hey, by the way, you'll be playing second fiddle to the manager while you're here

[Upthemags]

1 minute ago, Elliottman said:

 

You seem to be forgetting the short amount of time Mitchell has been here though. It may be that Mitchell is the best talent spotter on the planet, but you cant say on one hand Eddie is holding all the cards but on the other say Mitchell should be allowed to sign whoever he wants. 

 

Its common knowledge there's a transfer committee. If Mitchell has a list of say, 5 players in every position, it will take time for them to do their due diligence as a group on all of them. There wouldnt have been enough time this window. 

 

If it turns out what you're saying is correct, then I would be expecting Mitchell to resign fairly quickly. 

Which, in effect, is what happened with our last world class DoF, yea?