General New Head of Recruitment: Ed Waldron

[Dorset Ox]

I know nothing about recruitment or running a football club, but he sounded pretty on the ball to me, with some concise answers to the questions and a decent amount of common sense.

 

[Cotswolds Cowboy]

Hmm, not a particularly impressive first impression. Still, we'll see how the squad is next season I guess.

I suppose he's had to steer clear of the reasons for why recruitment hasn't been better in recent times
Let's see how it goes now that we appear to have a sensible, well balanced manager making the final calls
Perhaps more players will be prepared to come here now....

 

[Manorlounger]

Having just listened, and digested what Ed Waldron had to say, I have an inkling that some of the answers were scripted by Tim Williams and possibly Grant Ferguson. The initial reluctance to excuse the past transfer windows as anything other than errors of a collective team nature and the less than flowing responses were, in my opinion, tell tale. Later, when talking about the future, the answers flowed and were much more confident in nature.
So, a "company line" followed but there are good signs that we will see a return to realistic targets, properly researched and, no waiting until the end of a window to make any signing.
The summer is going to be busy, in which ever league we end up playing next season.

 

[uptheus]

Was disappointed that they never addressed the comment at the beginning which was about the previous poor windows in terms of why they were poor, and what lessons have we learnt. It was just brushed aside.

 

[TailsWeWin]

Was disappointed that they never addressed the comment at the beginning which was about the previous poor windows in terms of why they were poor, and what lessons have we learnt. It was just brushed aside.

Unsurprisingly

 

[Topper Haines]

Could also be that they didn't want the conversation to degenerate in a session of whining about how bad it's been - everyone knows why so probably little value in just reiterating that it was down to Karl's totalitarian attitude and only being able to recruit his mates.
Better to focus on the future (us fans can go to town on KR though of course).

 

[oufc1991]

(us fans can go to town on KR though of course).

Why is that is he going to pay our bus fare maybe he will treat us to a burger king aswel

 

[Topper Haines]

Why is that is he going to pay our bus fare maybe he will treat us to a burger king aswel

You can have BK, I'm getting some white trainers.

 

[uptheus]

Could also be that they didn't want the conversation to degenerate in a session of whining about how bad it's been - everyone knows why so probably little value in just reiterating that it was down to Karl's totalitarian attitude and only being able to recruit his mates.
Better to focus on the future (us fans can go to town on KR though of course).

But we were led to believe that it was a 7 person team that covered player recruitment, and most of those 7 are still here, so what lessons have been learnt.

I hear this ‘lessons learnt’ bollox all the time in all industries etc, but the same mistakes keep happening, so why did we bring in so much dross or more to the point, why did 6 others allow this to happen.

Now I think or should I say hope that Liam is cut from a different cloth, but what have the others truly learnt e.g. will Tim and Grant have grown some balls etc to challenge. If we buy another f*****g injury prone shite has been I think I’d scream.

 

[tatabanya]

Hope Ed is a success, but from what I can see we have a Head Coach with no experience in the transfer market, a CEO with little experience in getting deals over the line and a poor track record in the windows so far and a Head of Recruitment in his first senior role with no proven record of identifying talent. It might work, but I don’t really understand why you’d think it will.

 

[Shosho]

Hope Ed is a success, but from what I can see we have a Head Coach with no experience in the transfer market, a CEO with little experience in getting deals over the line and a poor track record in the windows so far and a Head of Recruitment in his first senior role with no proven record of identifying talent. It might work, but I don’t really understand why you’d think it will.

I think this is my concern also. All come across as nice guys and well intentioned, but it feels like the HoR role was a chance to bring someone in to add some fresh perspective and implement some best in class recruitment. The outlay would be pennies compared to money wasted on dud contracts over the last 12 months.

It could well turn out ok - the lack of experience worries me though. Guess we will only find out this summer!

(It’s also worth noting Manning had an input over MK signings so wasn’t just handed players to work with)

 

[RyanioBirdio]

Hope Ed is a success, but from what I can see we have a Head Coach with no experience in the transfer market, a CEO with little experience in getting deals over the line and a poor track record in the windows so far and a Head of Recruitment in his first senior role with no proven record of identifying talent. It might work, but I don’t really understand why you’d think it will.

My personal feeling is that Tim Williams has recruited people who he feels he can handle pretty easily and who won’t be bullish or dominant. I think his main concern has been whether or not they’ll flush his head down the bog or steal his pocket money, because he sure as s**t couldn’t handle the last fella.

I was very pleased by Williams’ appointment on paper when he was announced, and apparently he said all the right things internally when he first started and looked as though he would be able to settle things down, but within weeks he was in Robinson’s pocket and showing that he may well be a bean counter getting to play real life Football Manager. He’s since shown that he has incredibly thin skin and has preferred to penny lecture people in defence of a lame duck, when more and more people were screaming for the obvious. We might just get relegated on the back of it all. So far the bloke looks a clown.

Like you, I felt on paper that the HoR role was where the board could show its ambition a bit and inject a bit of dynamism and savviness, similar to when Eales hired Ashton, but instead we took until nearly April to replace a guy who handed his notice in at Christmas, with his own junior. According to EW himself on RadOx, he will be the person negotiating deals with agents and clubs, with Williams et al able to help out a bit if need be. Let’s see how that pans out. Hopefully he’s got a bit about him, because he’s going to be competing with some smart and experienced operators.

My main worry is that he’s an excellent analyst who is being asked to be a de facto DoF. Similar to how Williams might well be a great accountant but doesn’t seem to have a clue as to how to manage a company or engage with the public.

If that makes me a doom merchant, so be it. Got nothing against EW or LM - I don’t know them and know almost nothing about them. I hope they do well for us and I’m not saying it won’t turn out okay, because I can’t know that it won’t any more than anyone else can know that it will. But we are in blind hope territory with a CEO and HoR in their first jobs, and a very young manager at the helm while we struggle to stay afloat.

 

[Manorlounger]

My personal feeling is that Tim Williams has recruited people who he feels he can handle pretty easily and who won’t be bullish or dominant. I think his main concern has been whether or not they’ll flush his head down the bog or steal his pocket money, because he sure as s**t couldn’t handle the last fella.

I was very pleased by Williams’ appointment on paper when he was announced, and apparently he said all the right things internally when he first started and looked as though he would be able to settle things down, but within weeks he was in Robinson’s pocket and showing that he may well be a bean counter getting to play real life Football Manager. He’s since shown that he has incredibly thin skin and has preferred to penny lecture people in defence of a lame duck, when more and more people were screaming for the obvious. We might just get relegated on the back of it all. So far the bloke looks a clown.

Two sentences that I can easily agree with. I experienced first hand how he defended Robinson at the infamous Friday meeting. Also, deserves to be highlighted the point you make about the recruitment of Ed Waldron - why did it take so long to appoint from within OUFC? All along TW was saying that they had some very serious candidates for the role, where did they go?
I do believe, albeit from the very little I have heard from Ed Waldron, that he does have something to offer. Hopefully, that turns out to be a significant something. We need it!

 

[BrockBuster]

Was disappointed that they never addressed the comment at the beginning which was about the previous poor windows in terms of why they were poor, and what lessons have we learnt. It was just brushed aside.

Probably because half the 'poor window' signings are still at the club. Don't think he could realistically come out and say Baldock and Murphy have been a fecking disaster.

 

[Victor1986]

My personal feeling is that Tim Williams has recruited people who he feels he can handle pretty easily and who won’t be bullish or dominant. I think his main concern has been whether or not they’ll flush his head down the bog or steal his pocket money, because he sure as s**t couldn’t handle the last fella.

I was very pleased by Williams’ appointment on paper when he was announced, and apparently he said all the right things internally when he first started and looked as though he would be able to settle things down, but within weeks he was in Robinson’s pocket and showing that he may well be a bean counter getting to play real life Football Manager. He’s since shown that he has incredibly thin skin and has preferred to penny lecture people in defence of a lame duck, when more and more people were screaming for the obvious. We might just get relegated on the back of it all. So far the bloke looks a clown.

Like you, I felt on paper that the HoR role was where the board could show its ambition a bit and inject a bit of dynamism and savviness, similar to when Eales hired Ashton, but instead we took until nearly April to replace a guy who handed his notice in at Christmas, with his own junior. According to EW himself on RadOx, he will be the person negotiating deals with agents and clubs, with Williams et al able to help out a bit if need be. Let’s see how that pans out. Hopefully he’s got a bit about him, because he’s going to be competing with some smart and experienced operators.

My main worry is that he’s an excellent analyst who is being asked to be a de facto DoF. Similar to how Williams might well be a great accountant but doesn’t seem to have a clue as to how to manage a company or engage with the public.

If that makes me a doom merchant, so be it. Got nothing against EW or LM - I don’t know them and know almost nothing about them. I hope they do well for us and I’m not saying it won’t turn out okay, because I can’t know that it won’t any more than anyone else can know that it will. But we are in blind hope territory with a CEO and HoR in their first jobs, and a very young manager at the helm while we struggle to stay afloat.

Excellent post!

 

[TailsWeWin]

Two sentences that I can easily agree with. I experienced first hand how he defended Robinson at the infamous Friday meeting. Also, deserves to be highlighted the point you make about the recruitment of Ed Waldron - why did it take so long to appoint from within OUFC? All along TW was saying that they had some very serious candidates for the role, where did they go?
I do believe, albeit from the very little I have heard from Ed Waldron, that he does have something to offer. Hopefully, that turns out to be a significant something. We need it!

With regard to that “Friday meeting “ I have since emailed TW to say how disappointed I was that Robinson was allowed to attend, and that it clearly inhibited discussion from that moment on. I pointed out there was real anger amongst the supporters and that it was difficult to express at the time.
That sounds a little lame now, but you had to be there to see it. It’s not difficult to appreciate how intimidating that man could be, even across the width of a table. Good points were certainly made about our dissatisfaction but when the guilty party is sitting there staring at you, then it tends to moderate the language…..

 

[greatunclekip]

(It’s also worth noting Manning had an input over MK signings so wasn’t just handed players to work with)

But hold on, all the defence of his abysmal performance this season was that the poor guy had loads of rubbish foisted on him!

That always showed a key misunderstanding of how a DOF works. The manager always has some input.

I think Ryan is spot on, I think we have hired people who will go along with Grant and Tim.

I also think (not surprisingly given the figures yesterday) that we have cut back substantially until we know the stadium outcome.

It's all going to cost us our League 1 status without doubt.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

I also think (not surprisingly given the figures yesterday) that we have cut back substantially until we know the stadium outcome.

I’m not sure that it’s necessarily Stadium related. They ploughed so much cash in this season (on and off the pitch) that I don’t think it would make a huge amount of sense to suddenly get spooked. They didn’t care six months ago, so I doubt they care too much now.

My guess as to what has happened is that they turned off the taps on Robinson thinking that the season would fizzle out into lower mid-table obscurity and they could reassess in the summer, we then entered an enormous death spiral which meant he had to be sacked sooner rather than later, and we are now in a situation where because we don’t know which division we will be in, it’s difficult to nail down the best people. A L1 club is vastly superior to a L2 one when it comes to this sort of role.

Combine all that with TW not wanting any conflict and suddenly bumping someone up the chain who is already here works on all levels. Cheap, non-confrontational, owes his paymasters a debt of gratitude for giving him the chance to step up, and eliminates all uncertainty or need to wait. Also, if you were EW and you applied for a job in January only to be told that your employer was going to wait and see if the team can stay up before they decide whether you’re good enough to move up, you would probably tell them that you’re going to leave unless you get it. So there is every chance that we simply ran out of time.

As I say, pure guesswork on my part, but I do get the sense that we are stuck in a whirlpool of our own making right now, because we’ve put ourselves in a situation where nobody knows what division we’ll be in and potentially won’t know for sure until the final day of the season. It all stems back to failing to act before Christmas. This is the domino effect, IMO.

 

[Cotswolds Cowboy]

With regard to that “Friday meeting “ I have since emailed TW to say how disappointed I was that Robinson was allowed to attend, and that it clearly inhibited discussion from that moment on. I pointed out there was real anger amongst the supporters and that it was difficult to express at the time.
That sounds a little lame now, but you had to be there to see it. It’s not difficult to appreciate how intimidating that man could be, even across the width of a table. Good points were certainly made about our dissatisfaction but when the guilty party is sitting there staring at you, then it tends to moderate the language…..

It was a scandal that was allowed to happen

 

[Cotswolds Cowboy]

I’m not sure that it’s necessarily Stadium related. They ploughed so much cash in this season (on and off the pitch) that I don’t think it would make a huge amount of sense to suddenly get spooked. They didn’t care six months ago, so I doubt they care too much now.

My guess as to what has happened is that they turned off the taps on Robinson thinking that the season would fizzle out into lower mid-table obscurity and they could reassess in the summer, we then entered an enormous death spiral which meant he had to be sacked sooner rather than later, and we are now in a situation where because we don’t know which division we will be in, it’s difficult to nail down the best people. A L1 club is vastly superior to a L2 one when it comes to this sort of role.

Combine all that with TW not wanting any conflict and suddenly bumping someone up the chain who is already here works on all levels. Cheap, non-confrontational, owes his paymasters a debt of gratitude for giving him the chance to step up, and eliminates all uncertainty or need to wait. Also, if you were EW and you applied for a job in January only to be told that your employer was going to wait and see if the team can stay up before they decide whether you’re good enough to move up, you would probably tell them that you’re going to leave unless you get it. So there is every chance that we simply ran out of time.

As I say, pure guesswork on my part, but I do get the sense that we are stuck in a whirlpool of our own making right now, because we’ve put ourselves in a situation where nobody knows what division we’ll be in and potentially won’t know for sure until the final day of the season. It all stems back to failing to act before Christmas. This is the domino effect, IMO.

Tbh the teams below us have generally been even worse than us (possibly apart from when we've played them)
Accrington have been on a terrible run lately and their remaining games are very tough
That's probably what will keep us in L1 although I sincerely hope that LM can get some decent results from our games to make what the bottom four do academic