Peps comments

The budget was increased by one million pounds on the previous season, and he was actively delightedly that Johnson was sold because "three million is a fantastic price for him". Things that were said to me, directly, by Pep Clotet in a pub in Oxford the day after the Port Vale embarrassment. So let's get that on record ahead of this interview running.

He wasn't wrong, to be fair...
 
He wasn't wrong, to be fair...
No, but he came out in the press and said he was sold from under his nose towards the end, didn't he. So let's have some transparency and honesty from this interview and not a load of twaddle about how it was difficult losing big players like Johnson, and how he was given assurances it wouldn't happen etc etc.
 
No, but he came out in the press and said he was sold from under his nose towards the end, didn't he. So let's have some transparency and honesty from this interview and not a load of twaddle about how it was difficult losing big players like Johnson, and how he was given assurances it wouldn't happen etc etc.

What did he say today then?
 
What did he say today then?

Club wanted to use his experience from championship and premiership to reshape the cub and push it forwards. Target was top 10, as close as possible to playoffs.

"The club was gone when [he] came" and that it could not do anything to keep players from previous season. The best players had gone and more were on their way.

Every player that came in to the club was agreed on by every member of the club (sharing the responsibility for any poor choices). Maybe he could have done with a good hard-working professional who he could really trust.

It's not easy to attract good players like Payne, who gave us a really good 6 months, and player-of-the-season Riccy.

He felt let-down by injuries that he could do nothing about - mentioned Ribeiro who was essentially out the whole of the previous season.

His response to mention of Pekalski's injury, Tiendalli's fitness and Mehmeti only scoring 1 goal, etc. was that the club had the whole of January to get more players in if they wanted.

He was surprised by the sacking but it opened him the door for Birmingham, so he's happy.

He wasn't given an explanation for his sacking by the board, but doesn't need it as he's "been in the business for longer than the entire board put together".

He felt there was a lot of negativity with all his signings, and his shushing finger was to do with stick Henry had been receiving, not a gesture to the directors.

As for his future in management and whether he'll ever go back to being a number 1, or just remain as a number 2, he claims his working relationship with Gary Monk is "Not a standard normal assistant" (essentially implying he is more than just a regular assistant, so this isn't exactly a step down for him). If he finds another project that motivates him more than working with Monk then he may do that, but for now he is excited about working as "more than a standard normal assistant".

Oxford is one of nicest places in the UK - he and his family carried on living there 'til May.

He mentioned "fokkuss" twice.
 
What a horrific answer with regards to his signings. You can't just deflect and go "Well they could've replaced them couldn't they?" because the fact is that YOU signed them, Pep. You blew the budget on them, which means they CAN'T just sign more players because there isn't enough money. Xemi was signed on a three year contract, was being started in place of Ledson towards the end (who won POTY and was sold for nearly a million quid), and he was released immediately and is now back playing part-time in the Spanish fourth division, because he is a medical student and not a full-time pro player. Robinson came in and has been open in saying that it took two days of training for him to see that Tiendalli was no longer a footballer. Mehmeti has been kicked out, Van Kessel has been kicked out, and Ricardinho has been frozen out because at the age of 33 he was going to get an extra year (WITH A PAY RISE!!!) if he started just one more match. The money was categorically there last season, and it was wasted on flops that, quite incredibly, all seemed to have some sort of link to Pep. Be it former clubs, sharing representation etc, these expensive foreign journeymen all just happened to know Pep Clotet. But it's good that everybody agreed on them, isn't it? I'm sure every single member of the recruitment department thought they were going to rip it up.

Thank god that man and his cronies are out of this club. And I hope that every single person who insulted and ridiculed anybody who didn't love him, and who was disgusted by his sacking, can finally see what a death roll we were in the middle of with him at the helm. He destroyed morale, massacred the squad and wasted our biggest budget in god knows how long - possibly EVER given the inflation of salaries relative to our pyramid position over the last 15-20 years.

Comfortably our biggest and most costly mistake in recent memory.
 
And clearly the sacking wasn't entirely based on results ..any of which we can make a good guess at ..except the man himself!
 
And clearly the sacking wasn't entirely based on results ..any of which we can make a good guess at ..except the man himself!

As Eales alluded to. Clotet was more than a poor manager. He was actively disliked by most of the existing staff and the players. When you hear chuntering from players that they’re not training hard enough, you know something is wrong.

Eastwood wanted to leave because of Pep. With KR in charge, we’ve now got him on a new three year deal. Whatever fans make of KR, he’s a vast improvement on the loser who proceeded him.

Thankfully 2017-18 is now just a memory. A hazy, already-difficult-to-recall memory which can only be a good thing.

Onwards with someone who is very much a manager and not a ‘special assistant’ of whatever jumped up position he now regards himself in.
 
And clearly the sacking wasn't entirely based on results ..any of which we can make a good guess at ..except the man himself!
To be fair DE clearly suggested that the sacking was not entirely due to results.
From seeing players comments since it seems that they had a big problem with his methods.
Oh and who gives a s**t how many times he says focus? He was a foreign manager and English was his second/ third language. He had far more problems than his English ....
 
We were days away from being lumbered with Agustien, another former footballer and one who apparently is even willing to play in the conference now. What a superstar!

Just imagine if we'd spent the second half of the season watching Tiendalli, Xemi, Agustien, Van Kessel, Mehmeti and the likes starting most weeks, while Eastwood had cleared off. We would 100% have been relegated.
 
What a horrific answer with regards to his signings. You can't just deflect and go "Well they could've replaced them couldn't they?" because the fact is that YOU signed them, Pep. You blew the budget on them, which means they CAN'T just sign more players because there isn't enough money. Xemi was signed on a three year contract, was being started in place of Ledson towards the end (who won POTY and was sold for nearly a million quid), and he was released immediately and is now back playing part-time in the Spanish fourth division, because he is a medical student and not a full-time pro player. Robinson came in and has been open in saying that it took two days of training for him to see that Tiendalli was no longer a footballer. Mehmeti has been kicked out, Van Kessel has been kicked out, and Ricardinho has been frozen out because at the age of 33 he was going to get an extra year (WITH A PAY RISE!!!) if he started just one more match. The money was categorically there last season, and it was wasted on flops that, quite incredibly, all seemed to have some sort of link to Pep. Be it former clubs, sharing representation etc, these expensive foreign journeymen all just happened to know Pep Clotet. But it's good that everybody agreed on them, isn't it? I'm sure every single member of the recruitment department thought they were going to rip it up.

Thank god that man and his cronies are out of this club. And I hope that every single person who insulted and ridiculed anybody who didn't love him, and who was disgusted by his sacking, can finally see what a death roll we were in the middle of with him at the helm. He destroyed morale, massacred the squad and wasted our biggest budget in god knows how long - possibly EVER given the inflation of salaries relative to our pyramid position over the last 15-20 years.

Comfortably our biggest and most costly mistake in recent memory.
I agree with all of that but the reference that - and I haven’t read or heard any of the interview - ‘every signing was agreed by everyone at the club’ is concerning.
 
I agree with all of that but the reference that - and I haven’t read or heard any of the interview - ‘every signing was agreed by everyone at the club’ is concerning.
It sounds to me that Pep is a good salesman - he interviewed well (selling himself) and no doubt sold his view of the players being brought in to gain agreement. As head coach his opinion should carry weight on this area. The head of recruitment left so I would guess that there were differences of opinion despite what Pep says.
 
I agree with all of that but the reference that - and I haven’t read or heard any of the interview - ‘every signing was agreed by everyone at the club’ is concerning.

Who was going to say to Pep after just appointing him that he couldn't have a player he wanted?

DE had to trust him at that point and as long as it was within the budget then I can't see why he would stop Pep. The recruitment team can only make recommendations unless they went directly to DE, cutting out Pep altogether, saying they are bad signings, how would that have gone down within the club?

The blame lays with Pep especially considering the duffers pretty much all had previous links with him. Based on their previous work I'm fairly certain our recruitment team didn't recommend the likes of Tiendalli.
 
Oh and who gives a s**t how many times he says focus? He was a foreign manager and English was his second/ third language. He had far more problems than his English ....
Fuckinell Foley calm down mate, it was just a humorous observation...
 
Who was going to say to Pep after just appointing him that he couldn't have a player he wanted?

DE had to trust him at that point and as long as it was within the budget then I can't see why he would stop Pep. The recruitment team can only make recommendations unless they went directly to DE, cutting out Pep altogether, saying they are bad signings, how would that have gone down within the club?

The blame lays with Pep especially considering the duffers pretty much all had previous links with him. Based on their previous work I'm fairly certain our recruitment team didn't recommend the likes of Tiendalli.
Yep, fair points..
 
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