Yep it was
@Adnan and he dropped a clanger with backing Murtough.
Look at my post history, I've always said the same, Murtough isn't good enough, nor qualified enough for the role he's been given. Our summer dealings were an absolute shambles and how we went about concluding them. Why should we be giving "breaks" to people with a lot of power and are clearly not up to the task? People like Murtough will keep the club remaining stagnant.
Couldn't careless about Gakpo as I didn't want us to sign him, he'd have been a square peg in a round hole and was too easily marked out of games at the WC. No toys being thrown about here bud, apart from the ones you're throwing about aiming digs at people who aren't happy with how we're still run like a circus.
Where did I mention Edwards? Nowhere, so I'm not sure what tangent you're going off on with that.
It's not about backing John Murtough but rather me trying to shed light on who John Murtough is and what his remit at the club was, when he was brought to the club by David Moyes. And his role at the club was one where he was overseeing the youth teams at a time when we'd been left way behind the competition. And most of you didn't know this on the forum.
There's a difference between how the club was structured at first team level and how it was structured at the development/youth level. And the mess that was created at first team level started with the managers that were brought into the club post Fergie who were outdated in their methods compared to the likes of Klopp and Guardiola, who are two coaches who have a defined way of playing football in a high tempo/high intensity playstyle, which also reflected their approach in the transfer market where they were very methodical on who should be signed and who shouldn't.
We didn't fail because the managers weren't backed but rather we failed because those managers were blindly backed and made a mess of recruitment by signing players that didn't correlate to the modern day reality. A reality that had shown it's first glimpses with the arrivals of Rodgers and Pochettino in the EPL.
Klopp for example took over in October 2015, and didn't buy anyone in the January transfer window because he said he only wanted the correct profile of player and that profile of player wasn't available in January. They ended up finishing 8th, and the Liverpool fans were extremely critical of Michael Edwards who they deemed as the one who didn't support Klopp. But it was actually Klopp who didn't want to sign any players in January, because those players at that time didn't fit into his high tempo, fast transition, play style in a high line with high pressing and counter pressing capabilities. I wish Klopp had put all his eggs into getting into the top 4, because that would likely have meant he would've sacrificed his playing principles for short-term gain. But he actually looked beyond just getting into the Champions League for one season and looked to create something more long-term.
At any club where there's a DoF structure running successfully, there has to be a actual structure that supports the DoF. And if there isn't, then he/she will fail unless he/she is allowed to restructure the setup. So if a DoF doesn't have the support of capable heads of recruitment, then it's going to be problematic as far as recruitment is concerned. The recruitmment structure at first team was put in place by Woodward, Bout and Lawlor. And then there was the added problem of the managers like Mourinho and Ole being afforded their own personal scout. If you fail to understand the above, then you've failed to understand what the actual structure is.
So I'm asking you, what is it that the likes of Rangnick did at the RedBull clubs and Hoffenheim as the Sporting director which enabled those clubs to operate successfully at a lower level? Because contrary to what is said on here, Rangnick didn't identify which players to sign.
The issue on this forum is that there's a complete lack of understanding on the role of the DoF. And when you separate the adjoining structure from the individual at the top of the football chain in a DoF capacity. You then create a reality that only exists in your head with people too hung up on being proven correct.
If by the end of the next summer window, we don't see a marked improvement in our approach in the transfer market, then the doubts and criticisms will be justified. But we aren't at that stage yet and not signing Gakpo is the correct move from a football pov. And what we do in the January transfer window will depend on the Glazers and how much funds they make available. Because believe it or not, a DoF can't buy players by dipping into his own pockets.
