Muzzy_Larsson

This is it exactly. An approach we have already seen with the big clubs and leages with the Champions League reforms.

Scottish football is of a poor standard but when I see things like this and the recent carve ups with regards the Champions league and it all being down to money I get less envious that we aren't part of one of the major league's and/or some rich oligarch's plaything, I'd rather retain the rawness and authenticity of football which we do still have even though the standard is poor.

The Chamions League is already becoming just that. With each reform it becomes more of a closed shop and there will come a time it'll be almost completely exclusive to a certain clutch of clubs, they already tried it at the last reform with the history co-efficient points. If that had passed then Leicester wouldn't even have made the Champions League despite winning the league. After that they'll add more games and do away wth domestic fixtures, starting with things like the league cup, nothing surer. Money always talks in football nowadays unfortunately.

Agree with you entirely but that is the problem with the EPL monster. Clubs can get away with largely dismissing the views of their fans as the life blood of their revenue financially is the TV money. Remember reading something a year or two ago that said soemthing lke 16 out of 20 EPL teams would still have been able to turn a profit withut having any fans at all. Don't quote me on how precise that is but that was he jist of the article.

I'd quite happily see Europe's so called 'elite' clubs bugger off and play in their own league and play in the middle east and Chna and other god forsaken places like that to further their idealogy of making as much money as possible. I quoted elite there as a lot of these clubs are modern day franchises only at the top level as some oligach has decided to play real life football manager with them.

They don't need to do that as this has been happening already for years, Man City have a host of clubs all over the world, Chelsea have a few also, look at Vitesse where they're players always go, Leicester even have a simialr thing going with Leuven.

I'm not a massive fan of Perez but come on the guy isn't good enough for a Spanish second tier side. I'd love to see the logic that led to you making that statement.

That's it exactly mate.

I’d love them to sign him tbh, will eat up a huge wage to become resident on the treatment table.

There’ll always be players that are identified such as Castagne that we can’t afford, they wanted £12m for him so add in wages for a £12m player and that’s a bridge too far for us. Congerton as head of recruitment should have been aware of that and identified players that are attainable, that’s his job. Similarly again with the leaked list Neal Mapauy was on it who went for close to £20m, another player who was never going to be attainable. That’s poor recruitment, it’d be like Leicester chasing an £80m full back all summer, ain’t gonna happen. Of course our model hasn’t changed, it has worked so well for us before and after Congerton so we’ve went back to doing that and we are actually unearthing gems again, such as Frimpong who’ll in a couple of years be worth mega money by our standards. There’s a couple of others who we’ll also make decent money on also, again a far cry from those Congerton brought in, some of whom we’re still trying to get shot of. That’s really the bones of my point, we weren’t finding anyone like that under Congerton, we weren’t even finding anyone who was good enough to play domestically as I said with many players such as Kouassi, Compper and Hendry being lucky if they played ten games. The latter actually burst into tears on the pitch one day If it was ingrained in the club people in the job before and after him would perform similarly due to the same constraints you mention but they don’t, even the poor heads of recruitment we’ve had look great in comparison to Congerton. Under Congerton we had our worst transfer window in history in January 2018, every signing to a man was a disaster and we wasted millions. Celtic fans aren’t too bothered about signing gems to sell on for millions, if that happens then great it’s a bonus but most would settle for players who can just come in and play and compete for a first team spot and that’s why there was so much criticism of Congerton as he couldn’t even do that. Look at our window this summer for example, light years better than anything Congerton could ever manage. It’s fair enough saying he’s done a decent job at Leicester so far but please don’t try and spin it as he done anything but a horrific job at Celtic, nor afford him excuses as many have came before and after him, faced the same constraints and performed so much better. For example the guy that followed him in Nick Hammond, who the jury is still out on but has already performed miles better. Interesting you say that about Gerrard as in just over two years he’s signed over 40 players, most of which have been failures and not been able to sell anyone for any money let alone big money. Recruitment is one of the Rangers fans criticisms of him pretty much across the board so I find your stance in that respect odd. Look at his three big signings this summer, Roofe at £7m, injured already, Itten barely plays and already getting flak of Rangers fans and Hagi at £3m has been terrible and is coming in for tons of criticism from the Rangers fans. That’s before you mention guys like Grezda. Of course there’s the odd decent one like Kent but his overall recruitment has been poor. Oh and out the 6 trophies he’s competed for he’s won none and we’ve won them all. If his name was anything other than Steven Gerrard he would have been chased out the door before now and if he doesn’t win the league this year he’s most certainly a goner.

Watched a decent one last night, "Just Mercy" with Michael B Jordan. True story about a lawyer for people on death row.

Don't beat about the bush

Well that's utter rubbish! Our record in the transfer market has improved imeasurably since Congerton was here We are signing players that actually play in the side now and don't disappear years later after playing a couple of games! Fwiw I've never made any vile personal attacks towards the guy at all, all criticism has been professional as he's poor at his job and earning a living on Rodgers coat tails.

It's all relative though, we've had heads of recruitment do a far better job than him before and after all sticking to the one model so in that sense what your saying makes little sense. If those factors were the be all and end all then everyone we've had in the role would have performed similarly and they've not. We've had some good heads of recruitment, some poor ones and Congerton, he's out on his own in terms of incompetence. The key difference you have missed altogether. That difference being he's merely a stakeholder in an already well oiled recruitment process at Leicester where people better at their job than him will be able to filter out and bat away the risky and ridiculous players he identifies. Sure there'll be the odd decent one along the way like Castagne but no one will convince me Congerton isn't by and large a charlatan and if he had total control at Leicester like he did at Celtic, Sunderland and Hamburg that he wouldn't make an absolute omnishambles of things. Thankfully he doesn't have total control at Leicester and is merely a cog (which can be ignored and mitigated against when required) in the machine. I get the impression he scouts and identifies players at Leicester, feeds them into the existing and successful model and recruitment then flows how it always has done, which is a sensible and risk adverse approach to having someone like Congerton at the club. Give him too much power and/or control and the results are obvious from his shambles of a career at other clubs. The proof will be in the pudding when Rodgers leaves the club, whether it be on good or bad terms I'll bet Congerton is punted out the door immediately after which tells it's own story. In fact I'd argue his job was easier at Celtic as he had a budget 100x times greater than some of the teams in the league and was asked simply to identify players to perform in what was a poor league given millions in relative terms to do it. Most of the signings he was responsible for weren't even good enough to play for us domestically. I'd fancy myself to make a better job of that which says a lot. I've said it before and will say it again but put Congerton in at Real Madrid, with a blank cheque book and full control and he'd still make an arse of it.

You sure? I'm pretty sure he was released from a club in Qatar in the summer after spending around 6 months there. Would be a bit of an odd move to then sign for another Qatari club.

There's another way of looking at that stat and it's this, he's 30 in a month and in over ten years of being an EPL player has appeared in only 161 games. I don't think Iheanacho will ever be good enough to be more than a sub here but he's better than Danny Welbeck. Context is key with so many stats in football.

Yeah.

I may be wrong but what I'm taking from the business that has been done so far is that Congerton is merely a stakeholder in an already well oiled recruitment model. Very different to what his role has been at other clubs. This is a good thing imo. I still hate him though.

Not much to see here in all fairness. He was a young lad brought in for free with the intention to develop, he wasn't even a first team signing but a development squad one. If for these type of punt signings 1 in 10 works then your doing well. You'll sure have more Benyu's than Frimpong's but if you find the latter every few years then you've won a watch.

Still a tit

Getting there

Great post.

It's cyclic like everything else. It's in vogue and working just now but soon enough someone will find an effective way of countering it (no pun intended) and things will evolve again. It was the same with tiki-taka, about a decade ago and now teams can get the better of that pretty easily.

Not the best way of looking at it. You've increased the quality in the squad. That's better than padding it out with 5 0r 6 sub-standard players that don't improve the starting 11.

I'm not saying that but if a player is giving away goals and playing poorly they deserved to be criticised. It doesn't make them a scapegoat.