Darren Eales

[Stifler]

58 minutes ago, Abacus said:

I'm not really convinced by him yet.

 

This is from the i when he was appointed;

 

Eales recounted to the Jed Hughes podcast earlier this year that he built Atlanta United’s fanbase “pub crawl by pub crawl” – drinking with supporter groups and applying the personal touch to the issue of fan engagement.

 

Indeed, he was so regularly pictured out drinking with supporters that when the club ended up looking for a picture of Eales for an MLS presentation, they ended up having to Photoshop the pint glass out of his hand.

 

This may well be unfair and a hit job from them, but I didn't like that at the time and think he was doing a different job at Atlanta, which was to build fan engagement, yet he's already got that here.

 

And that he also built them into a "commercial juggernaut", which we're yet to see here, maybe because he's working in an altogether different environment compared to the MLS.

 

Then there were the comments about letting Eddie concentrate on what he's good at, which I don't imagine would have gone down well for someone previously involved in everything. Cloth eared at best, if this was really sprung on Howe.

 

All complete and utter speculation and time will tell, I suppose.

In light of Staveley and Ghodoussi going, we need a public face to the club.

Ordinarily I would say this is a bad idea, but the nature of our club with it being the only thing on the minds the city/region, and with the 14 years of Ashley’s cloak and dagger games, and no communication, we need communication.

That will change a bit when we have things like a new stadium, training ground, and a better squad. For now though we need someone to interact with the fans.

 

I’m not going to have a go at him for doing so, aside from saying the Milan stuff was a bit cringy, but he needs to start showing results elsewhere. Not only does that mean signings, but those sponsors that are elusive and have been coming for over a year, but also we need a plan for both SJP, and the training ground/academy.

The good indication so far is that the women’s team where money is no issue, hasn’t been an issue for investment, and we also do seem to be making strides with our academy recruits which is similar.

[Conjo]

19 minutes ago, Andy said:

 

I've seen a few people referencing "trouble in the squad", but what is this in relation to? Apart from Trippier wanting a move for non footballing reasons, I haven't really read anything else to suggest there's unrest

 

I think it's based on unconfirmed reports of Gordons head being turned when the club may or may not have tried to arrange a transfer for him to Liverpool before the PSR deadline stuff, which provided legs for the body language experts to run with when Gordon didn't put in a typical shift like we know he can in the two first games. We also got the "something feels off" crowd that bases that feeling on nothing but their own dissapointment in the transfer window and a couple of sub par performances.

 

Everything I've seen from the training videos, interviews and twitter posts from players posted on here seems to contradict all of that though.

 

 

Edited August 31 by Conjo

[Dancing Brave]

 

[TheBrownBottle]

1 hour ago, Whitley mag said:

I mean what I will say is that my confidence isn’t sky high with this bloke currently, from a CEO point of view I can understand why he’d want to be able to get on with things without interference though.

 

There can be no doubt that Amanda was a force of nature and got things done, however she’s probably most culpable for the PSR situation, but she sorted it before she left so fair play.

 

Eales really needs actions to speak louder than words now, the fanbase is cynical of gobshites who don’t deliver, we need to see something tangible going forward from him.

I can remember when questions were being raised re FFP compliance that the defence was as often ‘the people running the club are business experts / know the numbers / know what they’re doing’

 

Those articles really don’t support that, tbh.  It looks like they didn’t really understand until far too late. 

[duo]

Not sure what Craig has done wrong - other than his job.  He's not the only reporter telling the same story.

 

 

Edited August 31 by duo

[timeEd32]

3 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I can remember when questions were being raised re FFP compliance that the defence was as often ‘the people running the club are business experts / know the numbers / know what they’re doing’

 

Those articles really don’t support that, tbh.  It looks like they didn’t really understand until far too late. 

The most concerning part of these articles is that we seemed surprised in both January and June at the position we were in regarding PSR.

[Stifler]

9 minutes ago, duo said:

Not sure what Craig has done wrong - other than his job.  He's not the only reporter telling the same story.

I’m of the firm belief that a reporters job is to break the news, not make it. Somewhere along the lines it has changed to make the news, or give an opinion piece, but present it as news/investigative journalism.

I think there are far too many who fall into the latter, especially in football.

 

 

Edited August 31 by Stifler

[duo]

7 minutes ago, Stifler said:

I’m of the firm belief that a reporters job is to break the news, not make it. Somewhere along the lines it has changed to make the news, or give an opinion piece, but present it as news/investigative journalism.

I think there are far too many who fall into the latter, especially in football.

 

 

 

I agree but I think in this case he is reporting on our failed transfer window and the story he's reporting matches that of other journalists.  I think it was clear to us - all wasn't well based on Eddie's comments earlier in the Summer.

[Jackie Broon]

14 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I can remember when questions were being raised re FFP compliance that the defence was as often ‘the people running the club are business experts / know the numbers / know what they’re doing’

 

Those articles really don’t support that, tbh.  It looks like they didn’t really understand until far too late. 

 

I'll admit I was one of those that had too much confidence in them. It's unforgivable that they got us into that mess, and by that I mean both Staveley and Eales.

[Shadow Puppets]

1 minute ago, duo said:

I agree but I think in this case he is reporting on our failed transfer window and the story he's reporting matches that of other journalists.  I think it was clear to us - all wasn't well based on Eddie's comments earlier in the Summer.

I have zero respect for Craig Hope (as I’ve said a few times). Even if some of what he says may be true in that article (🤷‍♂️), when he then puts in pieces that I know to be 100% factually incorrect / misleading (the unsettled Gordon story), I lose any faith in the rest of it being correct.

 

But it’s the way he writes / speaks, as if he’s the oracle on the subject that pisses me off most. “Fans WILL turn their angst on Eales and Mitchell…” … well they will if you shape an entire article / multiple articles to make out they’re the “bad guys”. He writes with an agenda. He doesn’t report the news, he reports his own take on things he’s been told / made up.

[Ronaldo]

48 minutes ago, Andy said:

 

I've seen a few people referencing "trouble in the squad", but what is this in relation to? Apart from Trippier wanting a move for non footballing reasons, I haven't really read anything else to suggest there's unrest

Eddie said it in the presser yesterday tbh. A lot of players have been unsettled or words similar. The politician that he is,  he wouldn’t have said that for nothing.

[Ronaldo]

Also I’m sure he said or heavily implied the players have been frustrated by the lack of signings. 

[Wallace]

 Longstaff has talked about PSR and how the players had seen the news and that it seemed everyone had their price.  I guess that would have been unsettling for the players as well.

[Kanji]

23 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:

Also I’m sure he said or heavily implied the players have been frustrated by the lack of signings. 

He said or implied they have been unsettled by the uncertainty. 

[JUICE690]

1 hour ago, Dancing Brave said:

Howay man !! It's been one poor transfer window. ONE  v 14 years of shit, how can you compare the two ? 

PTSD

[Ronaldo]

15 minutes ago, Kanji said:

He said or implied they have been unsettled by the uncertainty. 

I’m sure there was another comment about the various people frustrated by the window and he mentioned the players. Either way, we’ve got a number of players in the squad who should be playing CL football and none of them can be happy today. This wasn’t just another window, it was our last chance with some of them. 
 

I really don’t want to be negative, I’ve loved the last 3 years but club simply has fallen way short of matching the ambition required to keep us moving forward. As @Pilko said, Dubraka still no.2 is just negligent. One fit top CB till Botman is back, and the RW situation. If the ambition was for CL football the fuck up is colossal. 

[TRon]

1 minute ago, Ronaldo said:

I’m sure there was another comment about the various people frustrated by the window and he mentioned the players. Either way, we’ve got a number of players in the squad who should be playing CL football and none of them can be happy today. This wasn’t just another window, it was our last chance with some of them. 
 

I really don’t want to be negative, I’ve loved the last 3 years but club simply has fallen way short of matching the ambition required to keep us moving forward. As @Pilko said, Dubraka still no.2 is just negligent. One fit top CB till Botman is back, and the RW situation. If the ambition was for CL football the fuck up is colossal. 

 

I've just made that exact point in the other thread about rating this summer's transfer window.

[PauloGeordio]

1 hour ago, Shadow Puppets said:

I have zero respect for Craig Hope (as I’ve said a few times). Even if some of what he says may be true in that article (🤷‍♂️), when he then puts in pieces that I know to be 100% factually incorrect / misleading (the unsettled Gordon story), I lose any faith in the rest of it being correct.

 

But it’s the way he writes / speaks, as if he’s the oracle on the subject that pisses me off most. “Fans WILL turn their angst on Eales and Mitchell…” … well they will if you shape an entire article / multiple articles to make out they’re the “bad guys”. He writes with an agenda. He doesn’t report the news, he reports his own take on things he’s been told / made up.

Him and Baldwards are in the same bin for me. Don’t read any of their stuff. It’s speculative, wordsmithery click bait. First to the story at the expense of facts and truth for the clicks. Drama queens in print. 

[mighty__mag]

2 hours ago, duo said:

Not sure what Craig has done wrong - other than his job.  He's not the only reporter telling the same story.

 

 

 

 

Like that reply to Hope, many don't want the negativity to transcend deeper, its a shit window, the hierarchy have likely not parted amicable, but we need to close a lid on it and get the positive vibes back.

 

NE Journos are the worst in the country for drama, proper think they're mini celebs. 

[toon25]

1 hour ago, Ronaldo said:

I’m sure there was another comment about the various people frustrated by the window and he mentioned the players. Either way, we’ve got a number of players in the squad who should be playing CL football and none of them can be happy today. This wasn’t just another window, it was our last chance with some of them. 
 

I really don’t want to be negative, I’ve loved the last 3 years but club simply has fallen way short of matching the ambition required to keep us moving forward. As @Pilko said, Dubraka still no.2 is just negligent. One fit top CB till Botman is back, and the RW situation. If the ambition was for CL football the fuck up is colossal. 

 

This is it for me. Can't think Isak and Bruno - who were most likely sold the longer term vision of the club - would have signed in the knowledge that 18 months down the line Jacob Murphy would still be playing RW and we'd bring in absolutely nobody in a summer transfer window having missed out on European qualification.

[Menace]

Aye, we really do have the weirdest journos covering our club. One just spouts negativity non stop, the other goes on holiday and talks about wine when he's caught out talking shite.

[Ronaldo]

2 minutes ago, toon25 said:

 

This is it for me. Can't think Isak and Bruno - who were most likely sold the longer term vision of the club - would have signed in the knowledge that 18 months down the line Jacob Murphy would still be playing RW and we'd bring in absolutely nobody in a summer transfer window having missed out on European qualification.

Are you alright? That’s twice you’ve agreed with me.

[r0cafella]

Just now, Ronaldo said:

Are you alright? That’s twice you’ve agreed with me.

[Geogaddi]

Everyone liked Hope when he went in on Bruce and Ashley , they now hate him when he goes in on the owners that people like , it's his job.

[Miggys First Goal]

If somebody like Ornstein or Winter had wrote that article there would be people with pitchforks outside SJP trying to hound Eales out.