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Comolli sacked from the bindippers?

It is however the manager who helps to indentify those gaps - else by the same logic it would be the DOF picking the team on matchdays.

Comolli did more for us than Arnesen, imv
 
Commoli's biggest failures seem to have come in negotiating the transfer fees for British players

Bentley 15 mill, Bent 16 mill, Carroll 35 mill, Downing 18 mill, Henderson 20 mill

most of his foreign buy have turned out to be decent value
 
indianspur said:
Commoli's biggest failures seem to have come in negotiating the transfer fees for British players

Bentley 15 mill, Bent 16 mill, Carroll 35 mill, Downing 18 mill, Henderson 20 mill

most of his foreign buy have turned out to be decent value
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Was it not Levy who did and still does the negotiations?
 
ArcspacE said:
The balance of good singning he left us with (vs the shockers).
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Arnesen inherited a very poor squad, both in terms of personnel and balance. His first transfer window he made some superb buys that completely revamped the team. He also identified and made a move for Berbatov (it's a shame we didn't get him that summer, because then we'd have had him AND Carrick in the same team).

I don't regard Berbatov as a Comolli signing based on the fact Arnesen identified him and then it was Levy that kept pursuing him. As it was Carrick and Berbatov who were the main influences in those two 5th places? My vote still goes for Arnesen. But even if you only count players when they sign under the DoF and not when they were first approached by the club....

On paper looking at the strongest team we have right now :

Friedel (Redknapp)
Walker (Redknapp)
Gallas (Redknapp)
King (Homegrown) or Dawson if you think King is completley on his way out (Arnesen)
Ekotto (Comolli)
Lennon (Arnesen)
Modric (Comolli)
Parker (Redknapp)
Bale (Comolli)
VDV (Redknapp)
Ade (Redknapp)

We sure did have to make a lot of changes......
 
VdV was signed under Redknapp but wasn't his signing. He even confessed.

3 of our best pefromers in that team came from him - surely we can discount the notion he was a complete failure once a for all
 
ArcspacE said:
VdV was signed under Redknapp but wasn't his signing. He even confessed.

3 of our best pefromers in that team came from him - surely we can discount the notion he was a complete failure once a for all
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I don't think anyone said Comolli was a complete failure.

Funny how Redknapp's detractors are so keen to state he talks brick in the media.....until it backs up their argument and then he speaks the truth! We had been in talks with Real Madrid over a loan deal for VDV in the days leading up to his signing. The surprise for Redknapp came because we actually purchased him instead.
 
Hootnow said:
Was it not Levy who did and still does the negotiations?
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im sure i read somewhere that when Comolli was at Spurs he was heavily involved in the negotiations, both with the players and with clubs. Levy got involved in the final sign off for any deal.
 
Harry_Perkins said:
As has been pointed ad infitum, we tried to sign some of these players but we had serious competition from other clubs who were also willing to pay them more. It might have helped had Jol put forward these targets before that serious competition was lining up for them! As Bale showed, getting in their early can be crucial. This is what enabled us to sign many of our current best performers - it certainly wasn't Champions League football that we could offer or the money! We'd just finished 11th when signing Modric, for example. So how was that Comolli 'undermining' him? Jol could put forward who he liked and we tried to sign them. No different to now. The only way this could possibly work is to suggest that Levy wasn't serious about getting these players and knew the offers he was making would be turned down - which is a little too much on the side of a conspiracy theory for my liking. So he was 'lumbered' with what we could realistically sign*, much as had been the case under Arnesen (without the confusion of Jol getting involved in any way with suggesting players)... this is discussed below....

I would argue as Comolli is employed full time he should be aware of these targets before competition exists to sign those targets..


Well, true to an extent but the case is always hopelessly over-exaggerated. The one DM we initially signed was within less a year considered one of the weaker links in the team and was being eased out by a player who was already at the club. Of the squad that finished 4th in 09/10, 11 players out of a mainstay squad of about 20, were also there under Jol: Bale, Defoe, Keane, Kaboul, Huddlestone, Lennon, Jenas, Dawson, Corluka, King and BAE. Not many squad fillers there! On top of that, there was Gomes, Bentley Modric, Rose and Pav who arrived under Comolli. Redknapp's only significant changes to the squad were to sort out the dire striker situation. Add in the resigned Defoe, Keane and then Crouch, Willo and Bassong and that is the 4th place squad for 09/10.

And that striker imbalance was by no means created by Comolli. Comolli was out in Spain on the last day of the window (while Levy was in Manchester selling Berbatov) trying to get deals done for either Sergio Garcia or Diego Milito or both to replace Keane and Berbatov. Anyone who thinks it was his decision to wait until the last minute to get those deals done just hasn't been paying attention to the way the chairman has operated for the last decade. Either way, it was clear we knew we were going to be left unbalanced up front and we were trying to deal with it.

On top of those players listed above, Jol also had Berbatov, Keane, Bent and Defoe up front. Redknapp can hardly be said to have improved upon that, even 4 years on! So how exactly was that squad seriously unbalanced or particularly poor? What a burden for Jol to have to work out how to use the likes of BAE, Bale, Kaboul, Berbatov, Keane etc. You look at that squad now and it was brimming with talent and potential. It just required a few minor tweaks, not a major overhaul. It is true that Redknapp got them further down the line when they were maybe more settled and had developed further but even this doesn't stand up to scrutiny given how quickly things turned around in Redknapp's first full season, when even more of the players that Jol had available were part of his squad.

* It is amusing that Jol always tended to point out the worst performers signed over this period but this came back to bite him a while back when he complained about Comolli signing BAE! Obviously, he was unaware of his turnaround! :lol:
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On the above statements, RAMOS was Comolli's man as he failed he and Comolli had to go. Jol was loved by the fans getting RAMOS in was a big call that backfired big time.

Personally I think DOF can work but they have to have a great working relationship with the manager, I'm sure I read Levy say soon after Redkanppp taking over he would bring back a DOF after Redknapp. I just hope its not Comolli!!!
 
altottenham_hotspur said:
on the above statements, ramos was comolli's man as he failed he and comolli had to go. Jol was loved by the fans getting ramos in was a big call that backfired big time.

Personally i think dof can work but they have to have a great working relationship with the manager, i'm sure i read levy say soon after redkanppp taking over he would bring back a dof after redknapp. I just hope its not comolli!!!
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why are you shouting?
 
ArcspacE said:
That makes zero sense to put it mildly

He found good players for us - that is a fact. If the clueless bozo of a manager is unable to fit them in his team of extract their optinum form - surely he must shield the blame and not the DOF?

Look at F1 for example - engineers can fine-tune Button's car to the 't' but if he makes silly mistakes and crashes it - then who is to blame? The driver or his mechanics?

The venom towards Comolli is grossly unfair in my opinion
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It seems like your one of his biggest supporters. Surely he deserves at least some of the blame for the failures at Spurs and Liverpool? Can't just give him all the credit for the good signings and none of the flak for the bad ones or the positions that we were in the league and Liverpool currently are.
 
Golfball said:
Comolli was a complete and utter failure for us. I dont care how many good players he signed, its not relevant. He could have signed the best 11 players in the world, but if those players dont fit into a balanced squad with players for each position, he has obviously failed. How can it be argued otherwise ?

How many people were happy with our team being rolled over each week. There was loads of quality in it, but light weight/young/too much flair etc etc it was a disaster.

And he has gone to Liverpool and done exactly the same. He hasnt built a squad, he has signed individual quality that doesnt fit into any sort of plan. He is obviously a good scout and negotiator, but he is clueless in building a squad to compete.
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I wouldn't even say he's good at negotiating. From my understanding, Kenny identified his transfer targets, Comolli was the one responsible for deciding how much they would bid for the likes of Henderson, Downing, Carroll and Adam. If that is the case, then he deserved to get sacked.
 
I don't want him back - simply appreciate the few good players he got us. The Ramos fiasco was a lethal blow and will never be looked beyond. For better or worse
 
The Moonlit Knight said:
That's not what I said is it?

For me he was a bad director of football because:

It is the director of football's responsibility to plug gaps in the first team (not the manager like you think. The whole point of DoF is so there can be coninuation in philosophy, tactics and playing style from one head coach to the next - so the personnel required to achieve that is on the DoF's door. I believe that Comolli failed to do this for us and at the point of him being fired our squad was an unbalanced mess.

It is the DoF's job to identify the Manager that he wants to work under him, who will continue with the philosophy and style highlighted above. It seems harsh on Comolli that he was fired after his first and only management choice at Spurs failed though.

I freely admit I don't like the DoF role. It's just another cook in the kitchen and the more cooks the greater perpensity for arguments and disharmony at a club (in my opinion). But there is also little doubt in my mind that Arnesen benefited us massively, so I am not completely adverse to it. But I do believe Comolli just wasn't very good at it.
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Completely agree.
 
The Moonlit Knight said:
It is the director of football's responsibility to plug gaps in the first team (not the manager like you think. The whole point of DoF is so there can be coninuation in philosophy, tactics and playing style from one head coach to the next - so the personnel required to achieve that is on the DoF's door. I believe that Comolli failed to do this for us and at the point of him being fired our squad was an unbalanced mess
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It is true we were left unbalanced but I ask again: when considering the chairman's modus operandi over the last decade, it is not likely that he was to blame for leaving us in that position? He has the final say on the financials and the when and how, after all. This was also nothing new. Remember Rasiak on the last day having sold Kanoute? Remember Michael Ricketts (failure) on the last day, having sold Les Ferdinand? And that was under two different managers/head coach. And then it happened again having sold Berbatov and Keane. Were Jol and Hoddle to blame for leaving us unbalanced or does the chairman have to take some considerable blame too?

Ignoring this situation, Redknapp only added 3 players: Willo, Bassong and Kranjčar to the squad he inherited and he finished 4th with it. These were hardly key players that season either and it is difficult to say that Comolli had left holes at centre back or on the right wing! Redknapp clearly bought these players as cover only. So I'm not sure how Comolli failed on this front, when nearly all his signings were retained for a season when we finished 4th? And not only that, they were the key players in that 4th place finish. I'd say it is more to the point that the Sporting Director should be getting in a higher quality of player and/or getting better value in the market, so that any decent manager can make use of them and doesn't want to get rid of them. And I think that is exactly what happened with the players Redknapp inherited.
 
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