Post by dannyboy on May 22, 2022 11:43:18 GMT
First thing I'd like to seek a bit of clarity on is whether Greg Strong has actually been sacked as was posted on this forum a few days ago. I still can't find any additional info on whether this is true or not so any light that can be shed on this would be massively appreciated.
Keeping on the topic of Recruitment/Scouting then I've been thinking recently how frustrating it must be for staff at clubs if their successes are overlooked, or even worse, attributed to someone else instead.
Being a Head of Recruitment/Scouting sounds like a pretty clear cut role at first until you start to look at the other influences that might be at play which affect the authority of said individual.
With having elements of the ownership group being ex-pros, as well as having another as Director of Football does really throw a dark shadow as to exactly what Greg Strong would be allowed to do in his role.
Too many cooks spoil the broth (so I hear) and with so many influences and opinions coming to bear then I imagine Greg's role is/was nowhere near as clear cut as he would like it to be.
To compare it to how we can use analytics and stats to measure performance of professional sportspeople then this kind of data is understandably never going to be available concerning the exploits of club staff who work behind the scenes.
Baseball, as an example, has taken the concept of publically availably stats to the Nth degree, and the more I've been looking into that particular sport recently then I've realised that what a wealth of statistics provides is to help build a fully-fledged picture of that player's contribution while providing much-needed context too.
I guess what I'm trying to say here is that if I was a head of recruitment who lacked the final say it would be incredibly frustrating for me to be criticised - and possibly sacked - for decisions that had been taken which were not completely my own. If this has been the case at Salford for Greg then it begs the question of why he would find that an acceptable environment to work in, but going into that any deeper would take me down another rabbit hole entirely.
I just wish that I was able to decipher who at the club was directly responsible for each signing and recruitment decision as there are plaudits to be handed out as well as a few rotten tomatoes to be thrown.
To concentrate on the January signings - who appear to have been universally popular with the fanbase - then I take my hat off to whoever was involved in the scouting aspect of the transfers and also whoever hit the big red button to nail these deals down.
Kelly, Watson and Smith did as well as could be expected joining the squad mid-season and they gave the club a massive boost of confidence with teammates quickly figuring out that the increased quality the trio brought meant Salford had a chance to compete in every single game.
Whoever is the power behind the throne as regards recruitment I sincerely hope has been able to identify suitable replacements for Kelly and Ndaba as with them both returning to their parent clubs there are crater size holes left behind that need to be filled with something approaching like for like quality.
To return to the "January Trio" (possibly an idea for some club Merchandise next year) I can freely admit that I had major misgivings initially for a variety of reasons. The first was that I didn't imagine Smith would be as much of an upgrade over Elliott as he turned out to be, and also I thought bringing in another target man tied us even more to playing a direct, long-ball style. As we've seen this season Matt has become a focal point of our attacking game plan but I've seen enough alternative strategies GB employed to be confident that the new manager will have a good few strings to his bow going into the next campaign.
I also made the fatal mistake of judging a book by its cover when I first caught sight of Stephen Kelly as his physique made me question how useful he was going to be if the team were attempting to replicate Tony Pulis' Stoke City from the mid 2000's.
Another old adage was instead more apt in Kelly's case as he proved it's not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of fight in the dog that counts.
To cover all three bases then I also misjudged Watson's early contributions as I felt when he was employed deeper in a defensive midfield pair he played in an overly conservative fashion. This led me to believe that he was likely just a limited footballer afraid of making mistakes but on reflection, it seems he was playing cautiously so as not to lose possession near his own defensive area.
When he was employed further forward - in the Lampard-esque role - he looked much comfortable using his creativity and savvy to help keep the opposition on the backfoot. The way Ryan carries himself exudes the air of a seasoned pro and having him around to help new recruits settle into the team next year will likely prove invaluable.
My strong feeling is that the rationale for these three signings was the club essentially passing the buck to the manager and saying "now we've given you some fancy toys you need to get us up (or at least into the playoffs) or you're out."
Seeing how infuriated (his face actually turned purple) GB became during parts of the away game at Oldham suggests to me that he knew as soon as the club were mathematically out of the promotion picture then he was not going to be retained for next season. I think in terms of the human and ethics side then although giving such an ultimatum to a manager creates a deal of pressure on them, it is possibly preferable to not being clear about the club's thought processes and then dispensing with their services without a clear reason why.
That is not to say that I think it is fair in any way to make the judgement on the success or failure of a manager so binary that anything other than a promotion push inevitably leads to the sack.
As many other posters on here have already stated there has been a great deal of progress on the pitch in the second half of this season and it seems an appalling shame that we are back to square one with bringing a new man into the hot seat.
Through watching the games and spending so much time thinking about GB's decisons then I can honestly say I will really miss him being at the helm. With each game I could sense that I was better able to understand his baseline tendencies which then allowed me to spot any curveballs that he threw in for good measure.
Such is life as the process of figuring out what the new manager tries to embed will be a challenge I will certainly relish so next season can't come around soon enough in that respect.
One quick note on Neil Wood, I find it interesting that he has no experience of managing a club's first team as he joins Salford from heading up the set-up at Man Utd's U-23's. As with the Ste Kelly thoughts above then judging a book by its cover is always a dangerous thing to do so just because Neil hasn't managed at this level before doesn't mean he can't make a success of it.
The point that concerns me is whether Salford's treatment of recent managers has come back to bite them here. It's possible that the pool of interested candidates has been severely thinned by the perception of the club's structure (thankfully nowhere near as toxic as the situation at Oldham) and its churn rate with managers.
If I was to look at the Salford job as a candidate then I might see it as a hiding to nothing. It seems clear that the owners are dead set on promotion as a matter of urgency and seem to have no time for any manager that fails to achieve that. In the knowledge that anyone brought in will be a head coach rather than a manager, it seems likely that potentially interested parties may be put off by not having their fate in their own hands due to the club's segmented recruitment policy. Also, unless the team has major strengthening it is unlikely that any coach will be able to meet the owner's demands in a short timescale so this provides yet another reason why many could be scared away from taking up the role.
We'll see how it all turns out in the wash. Roll on pre-season.