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Steve Hitchen

Pirate55

Pirate55

The Last Man Standing 17/18
why hasn't this guy got his own thread. Is it because he is so uselessly invisible?

Technical Director of Sporting Excellence - my arse ( with a nod to the Royle family).

What does he do?

Can anyone name one successful transfer which has been value for money since he was appointed? Maybe only Hojberg - but I understand that was a Mourinho's direct pick.

Hitchen out.
 
Raziel said:
Seems his new role is official spacegoat
Click to expand...

True, but our scouting network or whatever the fudge it is, have been dysfunctional for years and years. It's about time we fudging wake up and see what the likes of Brentford and Leicester are doing. Moneyball works.
 
Daisuk said:
True, but our scouting network or whatever the fudge it is, have been dysfunctional for years and years. It's about time we fudging wake up and see what the likes of Brentford and Leicester are doing. Moneyball works.
Click to expand...

It doesn't (and I'm by no way saying Hitchen is doing a good job)

It is telling the only examples anyone can ever use for a "better" buying model is lower/mid table teams or poorer leagues. Frank Arnesan worked for us when we were that side.

Isn't it odd that somehow United, City, PSG, Madrid, etc. are all "too stupid" to take advantage of this amazing model that gives a better hit/miss ratio?

You can buy multiple players in lower price bracket where
- The cost of a miss isn't a disaster
- The club can afford the development time of players

Just doesn't work when buying the best talent and the pressure for instant results means they have very little development time.
 
Pirate55 said:
why hasn't this guy got his own thread. Is it because he is so uselessly invisible?

Technical Director of Sporting Excellence - my arse ( with a nod to the Royle family).

What does he do?

Can anyone name one successful transfer which has been value for money since he was appointed? Maybe only Hojberg - but I understand that was a Mourinho's direct pick.

Hitchen out.
Click to expand...
I have no idea what his role is, but I read somewhere we have some sort of transfer committee and he is part of that along with Levy and David Pleat?! In the modern era where clubs have all sorts of data analytics for looking at recruitment, and we still have David Pleat (lovely guy but I think his time has come and gone) at the club giving thumbs up or thumbs down to players - no wonder our recent record is pretty poor....
 
Raziel said:
It doesn't (and I'm by no way saying Hitchen is doing a good job)

It is telling the only examples anyone can ever use for a "better" buying model is lower/mid table teams or poorer leagues. Frank Arnesan worked for us when we were that side.

Isn't it odd that somehow United, City, PSG, Madrid, etc. are all "too stupid" to take advantage of this amazing model that gives a better hit/miss ratio?

You can buy multiple players in lower price bracket where
- The cost of a miss isn't a disaster
- The club can afford the development time of players

Just doesn't work when buying the best talent and the pressure for instant results means they have very little development time.
Click to expand...

Well, it's a better model to base your transfer policy on if you're strained for resources (like we keep repeating that we are) - the clubs you mention can throw whatever money they wish on anything. Instead of buying cheap brick players with not so great stats, buy the ones that are actually performing well, or at least try to look for them.

I do agree with you that you of course need a system that can afford to develop the players correctly, which should be part of the overhaul of our club one way or the other.
 
And furthermore - get a DoF in that have a clear philosophy in line with the club, and have him hire the manager - then it's easier for them to work together to figure out which players to go for. It seems like we're spending too much money on punts that our managers doesn't necessarily want.
 
Daisuk said:
And furthermore - get a DoF in that have a clear philosophy in line with the club, and have him hire the manager - then it's easier for them to work together to figure out which players to go for. It seems like we're spending too much money on punts that our managers doesn't necessarily want.
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Agree, but surely the DoF bit would’ve been done by now if we were going that route.
 
Mcfee said:
Agree, but surely the DoF bit would’ve been done by now if we were going that route.
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Yeah, we're not going to - it seems like this is the final frontier of Levy, he doesn't recognize this part of it, for whatever reason. Will likely/hopefully cost him his job at some point.
Now, for the record, I'm not a very loud Levy or ENIC Out person (I think he's by and large doing a good job with the finances, and the stadium turned out fantastic for us), but I think it's borderline ridiculous now with us keeping on banging our head against the wall using the same strategy over and over again - when it clearly doesn't work.
 
This whole discussion has been looping in a three-five year cycle for most of the last 25 years. "We need a DOF", who then screws up somewhere and we appoint a manager with full authority (Arry for instance after the Comolli car crash).

Have a sporting director in place who has good connections world wide is vital, but to have a Baldini, Comolli, Arnesen, even Pleat involved is only going to work if they and the manager align on who the team needs. There is zero point having someone in who is going to just buy good players when they are available - we don't need that, we need direction.

I'd say Hitchin is a bit of a waste of time, based on how he came over in the Amazon thing, but equally I don't think the role with Levy's interference/final say is going to be easy to do.
 
harr1984 said:
I have no idea what his role is, but I read somewhere we have some sort of transfer committee and he is part of that along with Levy and David Pleat?! In the modern era where clubs have all sorts of data analytics for looking at recruitment, and we still have David Pleat (lovely guy but I think his time has come and gone) at the club giving thumbs up or thumbs down to players - no wonder our recent record is pretty poor....
Click to expand...

Yeah pleat is what 76 now? Not exactly a modern outlook is it! I wonder what the reaction would be like if we employed Souness, Carragher, Neville or Keane to a senior position within the club and were in charge of transfers or at least had an active role given how most on here don’t take any opinions seriously and talk them down often. I guess Levy would know something the rest of don’t if he were to hire any of them :D
 
Raziel said:
Seems his new role is official spacegoat
Click to expand...

Not really covering himself in glory lately though is he? Especially when he makes comments like he doesn’t care for the January transfer window. Bit like a manager saying they don’t like matchdays or a heart surgeon saying they don’t like performing open heart surgery.
 
Raziel said:
Seems his new role is official spacegoat
Click to expand...

That is the only role he deserves to have given his track record.

The sooner we replace him with someone that understands football, the better.

No one has yet come up with a single thing he has done well.
 
[QUOTE="Surfless, post: 1467457, member: 2738

I'd say Hitchin is a bit of a waste of time[/QUOTE]

Understatement of the year
 
Daisuk said:
Yeah, we're not going to - it seems like this is the final frontier of Levy, he doesn't recognize this part of it, for whatever reason. Will likely/hopefully cost him his job at some point.
Now, for the record, I'm not a very loud Levy or ENIC Out person (I think he's by and large doing a good job with the finances, and the stadium turned out fantastic for us), but I think it's borderline ridiculous now with us keeping on banging our head against the wall using the same strategy over and over again - when it clearly doesn't work.
Click to expand...
The club has been in general on an upward trend so what exactly isn't working?
 
Who's next, the kitman?
I think he's the only one who hasn't been blamed for a brick season.
 
Dunno where pleat being on the committee came from. 10 years ago maybe.

As for the committee. Yes hitchen should be on it, he's head of our scouting network. Unless you think that the scouts opinion shouldn't be heard. Yes levy should be on it. He's the one who's going to be doing the negotiations. He needs to know who we are going for and how badly we want them. The manager should be on it as he's the one who needs to say what positions need strengthening. Whoevers in charge of the academy should be on it as we may already have a player in the youths that is ready to step up.

This isn't the 80's where the manager gets a couple of brown envelopes. Every club nowadays will have a committee. These are multi million pound deals. They will want to know as much as they can about the player as they can before committing. Injuries. Family. Mental state. The lot.
 
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