Paul Mitchell (Sporting Director)

[jonny1403]

7 hours ago, Hughesy said:

 

I think you’re confusing the concept of whether a player has proved to be good value after the purchase with the idea that, at the time of purchase, the price we paid seemed too high and we might have got a better deal / paid too much because other clubs saw an opportunity.

 

I certainly recall thinking at the time that £13m for a 30 year old defender who was pretty average seemed quite a lot of money to pay. If you didn’t, that’s great.

13m in this day and age for an established premier league cb was pretty much market standard back then to be honest.

[The College Dropout]

5 hours ago, r0cafella said:

Fair play for fronting up, not having some of those comments mind. 
 

Offering so much Guehi and talking about us overpaying in the past is wild. 

Agreed. 
 

I agree that we’ve paid premiums on a lot of our transfers. Some have worked out tremendously like Isak, some are questionable like Tonali or Hall but at the time all where premium fees at best and overpayment at worst as was reported at the time.  
 

 

But you can’t use that argument then bid £70m for Guehi. That would’ve been the worst one to date. 

[Coffee_Johnny]

9 hours ago, Kid Icarus said:

I don't particularly trust him [Mitchell] or Eales at the moment. 

Me neither. We know where the leadership talent lies, as do they (I sincerely hope). 

[Lotus]

5 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Agreed. 
 

I agree that we’ve paid premiums on a lot of our transfers. Some have worked out tremendously like Isak, some are questionable like Tonali or Hall but at the time all where premium fees at best and overpayment at worst as was reported at the time.  
 

 

But you can’t use that argument then bid £70m for Guehi. That would’ve been the worst one to date. 

I agree. Because of the obvious hypocrisy, if we did in fact bid that much for Guehi, has made me examine that premise. All we have is media sensationalism wrt how much the bid was, I think (correct me if I’m wrong).

If we then realign that idea with the stated policy and reduce the Guehi fee by £15-20M it starts to make more sense.

For me, when it doesn’t add up and we have a couple of suppositions there, we need to redefine/reimagine one of those until the logic holds.

If you get my drift.

[SUPERTOON]

Having read through the interviews again it still feels to me something isn’t quite right between Howe and Mitchell (probably Eales as well). I still think one of them will go before the January window as well.

[STM]

I reckon if there was a video of this interview, there wouldn't be the uproar.

 

People are reading waaaay to much into quotes.

 

Perhaps worth watching this for a fair representation of what the interview felt like in person.

 

 

 

A few fair concerns but largely seems like Howe and Mitchell are on the same page.

 

 

[Yorkie]

If you're worried about inconsistency between each of their respective takes, you have to remember that Howe conceals stuff in the pressers. So Howe saying "I don't know" vs Mitchell's "We talked every day" is probably just Howe deliberately not giving anything away to the hacks, as opposed to it being evidence of some sort of rift. 

 

That said, I would agree that it's not totally convincing that everyone is truly on the same page, and the evidence of that is the lack of signings. We need to have a strong first half of the season if wor Eddie is going to go far beyond his third anniversary, but then that was probably always the case regardless.

[The Prophet]

As Mitchell says, conflict isn't necessarily a bad thing and is needed to push the envelope.

 

Even us laymen recognise we need to take more risks within the PSR restricted window we're forced to operate within. It might not be that Howe is unwilling to do that, but we previously didn't have the means.

 

Similarly Mitchell needs to recognise Howe believes in a tight knit dressing room and scouting is as much about the person as it is the player for him.

 

Both have spoken of a collaborative approach, so I don't think we should assume they can't work together.

[The College Dropout]

28 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

If you're worried about inconsistency between each of their respective takes, you have to remember that Howe conceals stuff in the pressers. So Howe saying "I don't know" vs Mitchell's "We talked every day" is probably just Howe deliberately not giving anything away to the hacks, as opposed to it being evidence of some sort of rift. 

 

That said, I would agree that it's not totally convincing that everyone is truly on the same page, and the evidence of that is the lack of signings. We need to have a strong first half of the season if wor Eddie is going to go far beyond his third anniversary, but then that was probably always the case regardless.

Howe is a full time press conference liar. He purposely doesn’t say meaningful things often and then will sometimes lie or at best say things that turn out to be untrue.   

[Menace]

Him talking about having the power to replacing the coach is a bit weird, unless Athletic asked him that and didnt mention it?

[Keegans Export]

From someone that was there in person.

 

Personally I don't think there's anything dodgy there. The way it should work is that Eddie identifies what he needs (eg. ball-playing RCB), Mitchell and his team identify the targets, Howe names his preferences, Mitchell attempts to get the deals done. If they have to move onto different targets or change strategy (eg. we can't get our #1 CB, so we'll look at RW options now) then that's Howe's call and it's on Mitchell to get the deals done. I imagine there's a constant back and forth, hence the daily hour-long meetings between the two.

[STM]

I guess it's a matter of perspective.

 

 

[Theregulars]

Bloke gives me the creeps, my sense is that he’s a salaryman and money-first. Really wish he wasn’t here. 

[AJ9]

9 hours ago, Kid Icarus said:

Honestly I find the bit about us potentially overpaying on players a bit odd.

 

Putting aside the connotations of blame and assessment of the worth of our players, with hindsight I can't name a player we signed who hasn't been worth it or more in terms of what they've done for us, what they're worth now or what they'll be worth to us in the future, both in terms of resale value and contribution on the field.

 

Targett, probably, but reallu that was down to injury.

 

And just as the added chaser to that, he's saying all this having just bid 60+5m for Marc Guehi and 50m for Anthony Elanga.

 

 

 

I think the players we overpaid for would be:

 

Wood, Targett, Hall

 

Possibly overpaid for:

Tonali, Isak, Burn, Gordon

 

Got value from:

Bruno, Botman, Pope

 

regardless of how well they have done since

[Elliottman]

10 minutes ago, Theregulars said:

Bloke gives me the creeps, my sense is that he’s a salaryman and money-first. Really wish he wasn’t here. 

 

Fucking Hell  

[KaKa]

14 minutes ago, Theregulars said:

Bloke gives me the creeps, my sense is that he’s a salaryman and money-first. Really wish he wasn’t here. 

 

It's called leadership.

 

He's been brought in to lead a particularly important area of the club, and he's going to have to put his stamp on how things need to function.

 

He's not here to baby or coddle the manager or anyone else.

 

The onus is on Howe to work WITH him, and as Mitchell has said there is room for spirited discussions and he is not against that, as part of then making important final decisions.

 

This isn't kindergarten.

[Menace]

22 minutes ago, Theregulars said:

Bloke gives me the creeps, my sense is that he’s a salaryman and money-first. Really wish he wasn’t here. 

 

Give you the creeps? He's not exactly Fred West..

[STM]

If even a Howe fan boy like me can understand the need for Howe to be reigned in, it shouldn't be hard for others.

 

No manager should have 100% power.... in the same way no DoF should sign players a manager doesn't want. It's about compromise and in order to compromise, you need a solid working relationship, which takes time.

[junkhead]

I wouldn't read too much in Mitchell and Eddie's words in terms of their relationship. People are rarely honest discussing such things with friends, nevermind the media.. and it's early days, we'll see Mitchell's input in the future. There probably will be frictions, but I'm sure they're both professional enough to make it work.

 

After Eddie's primadona outburst in Germany, Mitchell was entitled to a bit of media power play too. He's Eddie's boss after all. Don't think he said anything too harsh tbh.. The repeated "He's clever enough to know.. " and the scouting setup not being "fit for purpose" seem like the highlights. Which is nothing for several hours in front of the doom mongers Hope and Edwards.

Let's see how Mitchell remodels the recruitment and scouting. It's easy to criticise though.. let's not forget that the same transfer team brought us Bruno, Isak, Gordon, Trips..

 

All in all, I'm optimistic.. Mitchell said things I wanted to hear and I think he'd be a good foil for Eddie's limitations.

 

 

Edited September 5 by junkhead

[STM]

Just now, Menace said:

 

Give you the creeps? He's not exactly Fred West..

 

Perhaps that's your Rose tinted glasses. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Did I miss Eddie's prima donna outburst?

[Groundhog63]

What KaKa said 

 

Eddie's not daft. As we progress, hopefully, he's going to have to let his grip on certain elements loosen. 

He's stated as much himself. 

 

I'd far rather have him here, obviously, than go down the route of hiring "superstar" coaches on a 2 year cycle. Fuck that shit. 

[junkhead]

4 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Did I miss Eddie's prima donna outburst?

 

It's a bit harsh but I know Eddie, I have watched every second of every immaculate interview he has done while here. That was Eddie Howe's version of a nervous breakdown  

 

 

Edited September 5 by junkhead

[KaKa]

2 minutes ago, STM said:

If even a Howe fan boy like me can understand the need for Howe to be reigned in, it shouldn't be hard for others.

 

No manager should have 100% power.... in the same way no DoF should sign players a manager doesn't want. It's about compromise and in order to compromise, you need a solid working relationship, which takes time.

 

Same!

 

The irony is I really believe this will actually make Howe a better and more successful manager if he buys in.

 

A few more honest and tough discussions about the balance of the squad and the PSR situation previously, and he would have likely had a better balanced squad at his disposal, and we wouldn't have had to lose Minteh and Anderson to boot.

 

This would have put Howe in position to achieve even better results.

[andycap]

We Overpayed for isak tonali Wood gordon tino hall

Tino at the time was a lot more than his value southampton wanted 40 million they held for. 

Isak was at the time aswell.