Johan Lange

[Lerner's Driver]

29 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

It reminds me of how the McPhee thread tends to get bumped every time we lose and concede from a corner or something ...  WDFAFC nAnNy mCfEe nEeDs tO gEt oUt mY cLuB 

Can I just say J-V, when people do the alternate upper then lower case letters thing to imply someone is thick, I can't help thinking you've just **** your own insult because it actually takes quite a lot of concentration, determination and typing skill to get it right! 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

6 minutes ago, Lerner's Driver said:

Can I just say J-V, when people do the alternate upper then lower case letters thing to imply someone is thick, I can't help thinking you've just **** your own insult because it actually takes quite a lot of concentration, determination and typing skill to get it right! 

To be fair.... It's actually just me being a child... I don't mean the malice as terribly as it may come across.

In these contexts for me it's not me necessarily insinuating anyone is thick, just childish banter on impulse.

My posting style does tend to rub people the wrong way though. Lol

Edited February 22, 2023 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[VillaParkAvenue]

1 hour ago, markavfc40 said:

@OutByEaster? provided a very useful run through of everything that falls under his remit on page 70 of this thread yet some still focus pretty much solely on transfers and then place most emphasis on the ones that didn't come off. 

Transfers for the first team are enormous investments and tend to pretty much make or break clubs at this level. People will focus on that part of the job (and I’m sure it’s the same at every club).

[Talldarkandransome]

Every time this bloke gets bumped to page one I think he's been sacked

[thabucks]

I wonder with the latest rumour of Lange’s role will actually broaden within the V Sport Group as he oversees Vitoria SC & Villa Las Vegas potentially also. 

[KMitch]

On 23/02/2023 at 18:28, thabucks said:

I wonder with the latest rumour of Lange’s role will actually broaden within the V Sport Group as he oversees Vitoria SC & Villa Las Vegas potentially also. 

This is what I'm thinking too...  If he's the one leading a global network of football operations with a centralized scouting, development/academy, medical, and training infrastructures, it would open up the door to having a dedicated DOF at Villa itself.  This would make sense as to why Emery would be involved in the search as well.  

It's very exciting stuff.  Having a ready-made system and blueprint for quickly setting up a successful academy like we reportedly have in Egypt & Senegal in other countries is huge.

[fightoffyour]

[Frodo]

So the player recruitment has been fine, its just been the wrong managers

[HeyAnty]

9 minutes ago, Frodo said:

So the player recruitment has been fine, its just been the wrong managers

Think this could be very true.  Did he source/hire the managers?

[Frodo]

Good question I'm not sure, guessing Purslow would of been Gerrard & Sawiris was Emery .....

[Panto_Villan]

15 hours ago, HeyAnty said:

Think this could be very true.  Did he source/hire the managers?

Yes, he’s solely responsible for appointing managers, unless the manager turns out to be good in which case the owners were the only people involved.

Due to quantum entanglement exactly the same is also true of Purslow.

(In reality Lange, Purslow and the owners are all involved in the hiring process.)

[HeyAnty]

1 hour ago, Panto_Villan said:

Yes, he’s solely responsible for appointing managers, unless the manager turns out to be good in which case the owners were the only people involved.

Due to quantum entanglement exactly the same is also true of Purslow.

(In reality Lange, Purslow and the owners are all involved in the hiring process.)

From what i read, Emery was solely Sawiris appointment.  He met with him to convince him.  Think there are even pictures off it.

[Panto_Villan]

2 hours ago, HeyAnty said:

From what i read, Emery was solely Sawiris appointment.  He met with him to convince him.  Think there are even pictures off it.

Read where - on VillaTalk? Is there an article you can link?

It's a huge claim to say that he was solely a Sawiris appointment. I could certainly believe Sawiris was keen on Emery but if you say he was solely a Sawiris appointment then you're effectively saying:

• He identified all the potential managerial targets and picked Emery out of that list, and
• He either didn't bother consulting his business partner and CEO / Sporting Director because he thought they were all idiots, or he did consult them and had to overrule them because they opposed Emery being appointed

It seems pretty unlikely to me that he drew up the shortlist of managers that could be approached for the role, and I find it extremely hard to believe that he didn't at least consider the opinions of Purslow and Lange as part of the process. It's pretty much impossible to believe he didn't at least consult Wes Edens before he hired the new manager.

While nobody knows for certain, it seems a lot more plausible to me that Lange and / or Purslow provided a list of potential managers and Emery was probably rated very highly by everyone given his record - but there were bound to be question marks about whether they could actually attract him. Sawiris could easily have decided to throw the kitchen sink at the recruitment process by meeting Emery personally and promising him everything he wanted, which was enough to convince Emery to come join us.

As far as I'm aware that scenario still fits everything we know about the recruitment of Emery, but involves the AVFC hierarchy collaborating as a team to get the best outcome for Villa. But it also doesn't involve Lange / Purslow looking wrong or stupid, so a lot of posters on here would rather push their own narrative instead.

Edited April 2, 2023 by Panto_Villan

[DaveAV1]

1 hour ago, Panto_Villan said:

Read where - on VillaTalk? Is there an article you can link?

It's a huge claim to say that he was solely a Sawiris appointment. I could certainly believe Sawiris was keen on Emery but if you say he was solely a Sawiris appointment then you're effectively saying:

• He identified all the potential managerial targets and picked Emery out of that list, and
• He either didn't bother consulting his business partner and CEO / Sporting Director because he thought they were all idiots, or he did consult them and had to overrule them because they opposed Emery being appointed

It seems pretty unlikely to me that he drew up the shortlist of managers that could be approached for the role, and I find it extremely hard to believe that he didn't at least consider the opinions of Purslow and Lange as part of the process. It's pretty much impossible to believe he didn't at least consult Wes Edens before he hired the new manager.

While nobody knows for certain, it seems a lot more plausible to me that Lange and / or Purslow provided a list of potential managers and Emery was probably rated very highly by everyone given his record - but there were bound to be question marks about whether they could actually attract him. Sawiris could easily have decided to throw the kitchen sink at the recruitment process by meeting Emery personally and promising him everything he wanted, which was enough to convince Emery to come join us.

As far as I'm aware that scenario still fits everything we know about the recruitment of Emery, but involves the AVFC hierarchy collaborating as a team to get the best outcome for Villa. But it also doesn't involve Lange / Purslow looking wrong or stupid, so a lot of posters on here would rather push their own narrative instead.

I believe, no I don’t have a source, that Nas and Unai already had a personal relationship, met a couple of times, or good pals I don’t know. At the time of the appointment Wes was scheduled to meet up with Nas but once the deal with Unai was more or less wrapped up they decided a meeting wasn’t necessary. 
 

I can only assume that both owners had discussed this appointment and probably consulted the other big decision makers too. I’d imagine that all the decision makers were keen on the appointment if Nas could get it over the line. Wes may have been exploring other candidates but once the Unai deal was done he stood the others down and so the scheduled meeting was cancelled. 
 

I think it’s not unreasonable to think that Nas was the main driver in the appointment but highly unlikely that he was acting unilaterally at all. A well done everyone situation. 
 

Similarly I think Purslow was the main driver in the Gerrard appointment but the decision was a shared responsibility. So everyone has to take some blame at least on the surface anyway.
 

The two multi billionaires with a few million quid on the table probably didn’t take as much stick behind closed doors as some of the smaller inverters though. 

[Zatman]

Didnt know where to put it but Ornstein praises Lange here and its not the first time he has done so. Obviously thinks he is doing a good job or is his Villa source  

 

[Cizzler]

On 01/04/2023 at 20:47, Frodo said:

So the player recruitment has been fine, its just been the wrong managers

The below is completely subjective, and always difficult to know how much input he had on each signing (e.g. was Watkins pushed by Smith, Moreno led by Emery, etc.), but (as I'm bored this morning) - signings since he started:

Exceptional: Martinez, Watkins, Kamara

Good: Cash, Buendia, Young, Moreno

Average: Traore, Bailey, Ings, Chambers, Dendoncker

Flops: Sanson, Digne*, Coutinho*, Augustinsson, Olsen, Bednarek

TBC/too early to say: Diego Carlos, Duran

*Digne and Coutinho's performances are probably more comparable to the Average signings - but weighed against the £30m and £20m fees and astronomical wages, they're a flop so far.  

 

So a very long-winded way of saying I agree with the post you made three weeks ago . Obviously our current form is making this look more rosy, but that's not bad recruitment at all. Three exceptional signings.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Cizzler

[S-Platt]

Imagine being Lange though knowing the players are capable and having an idiot like Gerrard and his coaching team trying to get them to perform.

Undermines his work but not his fault. 

Now you have The Don and his team with the same players and it shows he can identify a player.

The talk of this director of football  from Betis coming in is interesting as we now have an Umbrella of teams so scouting for the different levels will need more people just curious to see how that is made up and where Lange fits.

[Frodo]

And who knows regards the current manager, could Digne & Coutinho move up that list to average or good, could the average players move upto good etc, etc .... 

[Steero113]

17 hours ago, Zatman said:

Didnt know where to put it but Ornstein praises Lange here and its not the first time he has done so. Obviously thinks he is doing a good job or is his Villa source  

 

That Ornstein thumbnail is the definition of a s**t eating grin. 

[SecretVillaScout]

Well I wonder what happens to Lange once we bring in a new Sporting Director. Hopefully Monchi, Antonio Cordon or Roberto Olabe

Edited April 20, 2023 by SecretVillaScout