All this continental travelling really can’t be good for a manager to be doing themselves while they’re meant to be getting the team ready between matches. In the past we had other people besides the manager go and run the rule over players overseas - be it Faz or the scouting team. The manager should be with the first team and dedicating himself to results and preparation, not darting across the channel back and forth to watch second division games in Belgium and France. And that’s not a criticism of KR at all, but more a reflection of where we are in terms of recruitment resources. For all his faults and mistakes, and there have been plenty of them, this does appear to indicate that he’s having to do far more than he should be. There’s plenty to suggest he’s actually sort of running half the bloody club in some shape or form, and that’s not healthy or particularly fair, in all honesty. Then again, he still has people like Faz and Derry at the club who he could presumably have go over if need be, so maybe he’s a bit of a control freak who only trusts his own judgement. Which happens, sure, but it can’t be helpful when the team needs him around and as fresh as can be. Even if he’s going after training on the day of a game, going straight from the airport or the Eurostar station to the ground, watching it and getting back in time for training the next morning, he’s going to be absolutely exhausted and not in a good place in terms of being able to organise and think. If this is what’s going on nearly a year after our beloved owner bought the club, that’s really poor.
Whether I or anybody else rate this manager or not is kind of meaningless within this context, he needs a basic structure around him to help with scouting and recruitment. If we are in a situation where he’s having a ring round, buzzing about Europe watching lower league games and then dashing back for training before doing it all over again, that’s worrying not just for us but for the situation he could well be in. And if he’s the one having to do negotiations himself after all that, which is meant to be done by a MD or Chief Exec type figure while the manager focuses on the football and selling his vision and philosophy to a player, then no wonder we’ve been struggling to sign much in the way of quality. We have a MD who was a teacher by trade until about a year ago and a bizarre owner who spends most of the time on the other side of the world - can anybody actually successfully negotiate a deal with a footballer unless it’s someone who KR knows, or who other clubs don’t fancy because they’re either injured or past it, or even both? Do we actually have anybody who can be the difference in terms of getting a player and/or agent in a room, turning on the charm, speaking with knowledge and authority in the negotiations, and therefore can close a deal in an industry that is full of double bluffs and poker faces? Mark Ashton was sensational at this, even old Slippery seemed to know his way around a business negotiation as a rather high level businessman should - who or what do we have at our disposal now to help with that?
On this front if nothing else, I think KR needs some help and isn’t completely to blame. He’s a coach, not a business negotiator and head scout.