Johan Lange

[VillaChris]

One thing I've always found odd about Lange is why does he never push to get in some promising players from Scandinavia? 

I remember we were linked to Victor Nelsson just after getting promoted. Still only 24 and now at Gala and regularly part of the Denmark squad.

I know we got in Olsen and Augustinsson but these are experienced internationals who were just required to be backups which was realised as soon as they set foot on the grass.

You look at Brentford with their partner club in Denmark and they have a good core of Danish players in their squad who contribute most weeks.

It's always been a weird transfer strategy from us with DOFs. Most said DS never signed players but we signed four who he worked with at Brentford, gave Gerrard free reign to disastrous effect and even now Emery got Moreno in when Leicester looked to have picked up a decent LB in Kristiansen for similar price.

Get the feeling summer 2019 scarred us a bit when Suso went on his jolly to Brugge and signed up half their team.

[FLVillan]

5 hours ago, VillaChris said:

One thing I've always found odd about Lange is why does he never push to get in some promising players from Scandinavia? 

I remember we were linked to Victor Nelsson just after getting promoted. Still only 24 and now at Gala and regularly part of the Denmark squad.

I know we got in Olsen and Augustinsson but these are experienced internationals who were just required to be backups which was realised as soon as they set foot on the grass.

You look at Brentford with their partner club in Denmark and they have a good core of Danish players in their squad who contribute most weeks.

It's always been a weird transfer strategy from us with DOFs. Most said DS never signed players but we signed four who he worked with at Brentford, gave Gerrard free reign to disastrous effect and even now Emery got Moreno in when Leicester looked to have picked up a decent LB in Kristiansen for similar price.

Get the feeling summer 2019 scarred us a bit when Suso went on his jolly to Brugge and signed up half their team.

I can speak with first-hand knowledge of recruitment in Scandinavia - it is chock-full of scouts from all over Europe, including the very biggest clubs, who are all vying for the top talent out of there.  We (Villa) were late to that party unfortunately.  While the appointment of Lange may help to increase our presence and connections in the region, we are competing with some of the best scouting networks from all over Europe to lure away young talent.  Add the fact that the countries aren't especially over-populated to begin with and that the step-up from their leagues to the top two divisions in England is massive, and it becomes clearer as to why we aren't able to easily attract players.  With a handful of notable exceptions, the vast majority of successful players out of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland will have established themselves at lower levels in Germany, Italy, France etc before becoming ready for the premier league.

[The_Steve]

Lange’s department and knowledge is about analytics. He’s not solely the recruitment guy, I imagine he will move more into that role as we appoint another person. It’s very easy to pick exciting Danish prospect A and say ‘well why didn’t we sign them?’ We don’t know if we did or not anyway. I’m not a fan of using these examples to say he’s bad at his job when there’s a myriad of factors we don’t know either. Nor was he was responsible for signing the likes of Nakamba (Suso) and I question how much actual he had who Gerrard signed - especially when he pulled the plug on Sarr. I don’t get why it’s all doom and gloom right now, we are going to finish much stronger this year than we have with Gerrard, and will have an exciting summer rebuild. 

[VillaChris]

13 hours ago, The_Steve said:

Lange’s department and knowledge is about analytics. He’s not solely the recruitment guy, I imagine he will move more into that role as we appoint another person. It’s very easy to pick exciting Danish prospect A and say ‘well why didn’t we sign them?’ We don’t know if we did or not anyway. I’m not a fan of using these examples to say he’s bad at his job when there’s a myriad of factors we don’t know either. Nor was he was responsible for signing the likes of Nakamba (Suso) and I question how much actual he had who Gerrard signed - especially when he pulled the plug on Sarr. I don’t get why it’s all doom and gloom right now, we are going to finish much stronger this year than we have with Gerrard, and will have an exciting summer rebuild. 

Oh yeah I'm not criticising him for anything to do with previous manager as he was like a kid in a sweet shop with the freedom to sign whoever so that's where the pendulum swings too much the other way to our detriment.

When we came up we had that mass sweep of the Belgian league with Nakamba, Wes and Samatta all arriving within six months (Engels actually came from Reims not Brugge as I thought) so however we did it that was league we decided to focus on at that time under Suso's watch so just assumed Lange would have a good head start for us. Remember aswell he was assistant to Stale Solbakken at Wolves a decade ago who's now Norway manager so you'd have thought he'd have got the heads up on guys like Jorgen Larsen who's now in La Liga and Jens Hague who looked decent for AC Milan 18 months back.

[TRO]

On 14/02/2023 at 23:13, VillaChris said:

One thing I've always found odd about Lange is why does he never push to get in some promising players from Scandinavia? 

I remember we were linked to Victor Nelsson just after getting promoted. Still only 24 and now at Gala and regularly part of the Denmark squad.

I know we got in Olsen and Augustinsson but these are experienced internationals who were just required to be backups which was realised as soon as they set foot on the grass.

You look at Brentford with their partner club in Denmark and they have a good core of Danish players in their squad who contribute most weeks.

It's always been a weird transfer strategy from us with DOFs. Most said DS never signed players but we signed four who he worked with at Brentford, gave Gerrard free reign to disastrous effect and even now Emery got Moreno in when Leicester looked to have picked up a decent LB in Kristiansen for similar price.

Get the feeling summer 2019 scarred us a bit when Suso went on his jolly to Brugge and signed up half their team.

Was Kamara and Carlos, disastrous? I don't think so.....maybe the rest was iffy, yeah....I wouldn't call it disastrous.

I agree with the rest.

[NeilS]

Could the end be near for our Sporting Director? It looks ominous according to this link in the Birmingham Mail.

Lange future in doubt

Aston Villa are understood to be in discussions to bring in Real Betis’ sporting director Antonio Cordon. The news broke this week after Cordon suddenly announced he was to step down from his role at Betis having headed up the club’s transfer activity since the summer of 2020.

Estadio Deportivo in Spain, via Canal Sur Radio, have detailed how Cordon is weighing up “two very attractive offers, one from Barcelona and the other from Unai Emery’s Aston Villa”. His assistants at Betis, Jose Ignacio Navarro (recruitment analyst) and Alberto Benito (analyst), are understood to be keen to follow Cordon to either the Camp Nou or Villa Park should he opt to accept an offer.…

[VillaParkAvenue]

3 hours ago, NeilS said:

Could the end be near for our Sporting Director? It looks ominous according to this link in the Birmingham Mail.

Lange future in doubt

 

Why don't the Birmingham Mail give Lange a call at this point?

[The_Steve]

Lange will move into the data department which is his specialism anyways 

[AshVilla]

3 hours ago, NeilS said:

Could the end be near for our Sporting Director? It looks ominous according to this link in the Birmingham Mail.

Lange future in doubt

 

Please be true.

[AVFCforever1991]

We can do better tbh, good luck to wherever lange goes next 

[TRO]

I don't know Lange or what his full remit is, but he looks dour to me.

I think you need a bit of Personality, to go with the Nous, to network across Europe.

He might be a wizzo at Data, and that might be his bag, but I suspect, you need a bit more than that.

someone like Dan Ashworth, would be nifty.

I guess UE will have his own equivalent.

[TRO]

On 15/02/2023 at 08:06, The_Steve said:

Lange’s department and knowledge is about analytics. He’s not solely the recruitment guy, I imagine he will move more into that role as we appoint another person. It’s very easy to pick exciting Danish prospect A and say ‘well why didn’t we sign them?’ We don’t know if we did or not anyway. I’m not a fan of using these examples to say he’s bad at his job when there’s a myriad of factors we don’t know either. Nor was he was responsible for signing the likes of Nakamba (Suso) and I question how much actual he had who Gerrard signed - especially when he pulled the plug on Sarr. I don’t get why it’s all doom and gloom right now, we are going to finish much stronger this year than we have with Gerrard, and will have an exciting summer rebuild. 

As much as I desperately want you to be right.....Its still only opinion.

We said last season, it was going to be an exciting Summer, and to be fair, it started like it was going to be....but sadly, it fizzed out.

Like many fans, I too am hoping it will be this Summer, like I was hoping it would be January, and Last Summer........so,  I am not holding my breath.

[WHY]

Another Purslow mistake from a tin pot league. 

[TRO]

21 minutes ago, WHY said:

Another Purslow mistake from a tin pot league. 

I hope the new stand isn't crooked.

[MWARLEY2]

Whatever happens to him its only fair to say that he was Edens choice if i remember correctly. He has done alot of good over the last 3 years . Behind the scenes is run brilliantly.  Rob Mackenzie does the scouting and then Lange will work with his recommendations to build into short lists . 

Every failure of a player is not all on him . 

[Demitri_C]

I think its a mixed bag with lange. Not as awful as some make out

[a-k]

Doesn't have the Lange grin. Cordon out!

[CVByrne]

As stated many times recruitment is one of 5 departments reporting into Lange. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

People still have no idea what he does but always have a moan at him anyway 

The good players he has nothing to do with, the shite ones are all him. ( People realise the bloke isn't selecting players on his own right? ) Multiple factors will dictate what players you get.

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 "

Anyway, I've always thought we needed someone higher profile etc in the Sporting Director area.

Got no hate towards Don Lange though.

 

[markavfc40]

25 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

People still have no idea what he does but always have a moan at him anyway 

@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. 

Edited February 22, 2023 by markavfc40