Niko #FPL

And here's my updated Blank and Double Gameweek schedule spreadsheet. I now think there's around a 5% chance that Man City and Palace don't Blank in GW31, and if that happens then it should be announced next Friday.

🚨💣The only way to summary Ineos first 6 months. And i think people need to start to ask some questions. 🔺1. SJR got enough sense to not think he can manage a football club. His idea has been to hire ‘best in class’ to do so. This has resulted in him hiring the following people to do the job: Dave Brailsford — “Senior Advisor” Jean Claude Blanc, Interim CEO Omar Berrada, CEO elect Dan Ashworth, DoF Jason Wilcox, Technical Director 🔺2. However, while Omar Berrada clearly may qualify as a best-in-class CEO for MUFC, do the others? Because a CEO/COO is not involved in football decisions per se, he is recruiting those who are. Neither Blanc or Berrada has ever played or managed football, nor scouted players, nor hired managers and so forth. They are business people who are experts on the business side of football. This is great for us. After Omar, it however becomes very questionable if we have hired “best in class”. The more you look into it, the more questionable it becomes. 🔺3. But first of all, what are they tasked with? In summary, I would say that it is the following three main duties: (i) Deciding a style of play/Overall direction of MUFC (ii) Selecting a manager that can take MUFC to the top (iii) Recruiting players that can be part of a coming dynasty Right? 🔺4. So what have the above guys done in their careers that makes them suitable of accomplishing (i)-(iii)? ⚽️Dan Ashworth’s CV includes working with elite development for the FA. He is obviously a good organizer. At Brighton he was the technical director. In a long pod interview, he describes how that meant that he was the ‘go between’ all sectors of the club, ie recruitment, first team coaches, academy, medical and so forth. He clearly describes of Tony Bloom (owner) decided on style of play, selected Graham Potter as manager and also, how he was never involved in selecting transfer targets (Bloom owns a football stats/analytics company, Potter was very involved and of course scouts etc) . In the pod interview, he literarily several times say ‘I am not the one that [decide style of play/select transfer target/recruit manager]’, but how he is the one that enables decisions to be carried out. I think Ashworth can do a great job, as an enabler at the top. But he is 100% dependent on the people around him to do their job, and especially someone strong under him. ⚽️This leaves Jason Wilcox, handpicked by Berrada. Who is he? He is the only one who played football among the people participating in the strategic review. Obviously a close friend of Berrada, as they have worked together for City for over a decade. I remember him from his playing days, solid PL winger for Blackburn. Wilcox became a coach for City’s U18 team in 2013. In 2017, he became responsible for City’s academy. “Director of academy” is a very low level job in this context, you are the DoF, but for the academy. He stayed there until 20 January 2023. After a notice period, he became the DoF of Southampton in the Championship, which he worked as, until we hired him after 6 months. So facts are that Wilcox has: -Never managed a football game above the U18 level. -Recruited two players in his entire life, Shea Clark (12.25m) and Ross Stewert (9m), for Southampton — in the summer of 24’ -Hired one manager in his life, Russell Martin for Southampton in the summer of 24’, who coached the saints to a 4th overall finish in the Championship despite having big parts of a PL squad (to be fair, I think he is a good manager). So Wilcox is basically the only one with any kind of football experience — who 18 months ago had a minor role as an academy director in the PL, and has worked 6 months as a DoF in the Championship — involved in our strategic review and who is responsible for the most important transfer window in MUFC’s history. Is Wilcox ‘best in class’? He can be a really good at what he does — but he has absolutely no track record, whatsoever. 6 months in the Championship. 🔺5. How did we end up here? First of all, I think Ashworth for whatever reason has been extremely overhyped. Not by his own doing, when you listen to an interview with him — it’s clear that he plays down his roles. But Ashworth is extremely far from like a Tixi Begiristain. He has never scouted, never managed, never played, he is an organizer. And he has been involved in negotiations. Second of all, an owner has the same interest as us fans, at least if you recognize that the only way to be financially successful is by being successful on the pitch. But it stops there. If you as a DoF hire a technical director, there are many benefits for you to hire someone you know, someone who will be loyal to you, that you can control etc — compared to going out and hiring like the recruitment boss of Athletics Madrid or Milan or Bayern or Atalanta, who you never have worked with before. Who might want your job. Etc etc etc. Third of all, even so, how could SJR allow someone with zero track record as a technical director/DoF — to get this massive role under Ashworth? Things were chaotic during the spring, we couldn’t get Ashworth, Berrada wouldn’t come before the summer. And listen, things take time. I think Ineos should have focused a heck of a lot more on being able to hit the ground running, but maybe it’s easier said than done. Maybe you can’t build a top football operation in 4-5 months. I definitely don’t think there is reason to go ‘Ineos is the Glazers’, because I 100% trust Ineos to learn from mistakes, but that doesn’t mean that I trust what goes on right here, right now. 🔺6. The safety net is of course that we have 3, if not 4 or even 5, strong supervisors of Wilcox that should be able to conduct a “smell test”, if Wilcox gets any strange ideas. Ie Blanc, Berrada, Ashworth, Brailsford and Ratcliffe. And this is no doubt good, but is it enough? 🔺7. If I was writing for a newspaper, I would ask the question, what is Ineos doing with its football review? Ineos has clearly — not — managed to assemble a best in class football operations. One guy that ever kicked a ball or managed a football game or scouted a player, and he only had one bigger role, in the championship. Who will pick transfer targets? There is only one guy in the room who ever has scouted players, Wilcox. He has zero track record, but he has at least done it. None of the others have ever scouted football players, played football (as pros at least) or managed a single football game. Who will decide on the style of play? What influence are we giving to Jason Wilcox?? The CV reads City Academy until 23’, one summer with Southampton after relegation and then, he is put in charge of MUFC’s most important transfer window ever? I am actually very surprised that non of the journalists are covering these issues. Maybe I shouldn’t be, but… 🔺8. So what should Ineos do? To manage the sporting side of MUFC — you must know football. They must get a manager involved in their work, “yesterday”. If it is not Eric Ten Hag, so be it, but it is extreme amateur hour to leave everything in the hands of Wilcox, while he at most are second guessed by others. SJR has set out to assemble ‘best in class’ people — he has a group of guys who between them have zero experience for the job at hand. Listen to the pod interview with Ashworth, link below in reply. Read up on Blanc and Berrada. The only conclusion is that SJR has failed at what he tried to do, in the limited time that has passed since February. And against that background, I think it is — very reasonable — to ask him why he does not pause the overhaul of the club they currently are undertaking. It is premature, since they don’t got the people in place. Honestly, how could anyone argue that from a risk/reward perspective — they don’t risk doing more damage blindly following Wilcox and firing ETH today, than waiting another season, even half a season, to make these drastic changes?