Director of Football: The Continental way vs the English way

[MrWeedMcGrass]

With all these recent takeovers and foreign managers and continental models being tried in the PL by several clubs , the DOF role has come into scrutiny in relation to it being tried out in the PL by several clubs

SO the discussion(and the poll) is : Is the European DOF model with the manager(Head coach rather ,as they are called in Europe) doing only the tactics and coaching while leaving the scouting/transfers to a man appointed just for that purpose the right way to go about in the PL?

Personally I like the continental model because then the manager can solely concentrate on coaching and implementing his approach on the team. Less responsibility , more football. Let them do what they do best , coach.

But many say the DOF is a redundant position and just adds unwanted interference in the Manager's job and many times saddles the Manager with signings he has no use for. The manager is much better off identifying his own players who fit into his approach, many say.

The key is the relationship between the DOF and the manager. It needs to be sound for it to work.

So which is it?

[kurtsimonw]

I don't see the point of it, doesn't really make sense.

Surely you want the man who has to pick the team to buy the players, otherwise he could end up with a bunch of players that don't really fit into what he's doing. It'd be like hiring someone to do your shopping for you, they're not going to get you exactly what you want.

[Qwpzxjor1]

It hasn't worked over here yet, but I see no reason why it shouldn't. It's all about who the two people are, how likeminded they are, their roles and what they WANT to be doing.

Alot of managers want to have complete control, but then some are probably happier being more of a head coach and focusing on tactics. As long as the DOF and the manager work well together, I see no reason why it shouldn't work.

It failed so massively at Spurs because the manager wanted a good centre half, and the DOF went out and bought a striker or two.

[The_Rev]

Again, typical VT loaded statements in the options for the poll. I voted "no" because I cant see any reason why a director of football wouldn't work here. Do I agree with the statement that it is the way in modern football though? No.

There is more than one way to skin a cat. Look at José Mourinho. He works to the model we traditionally think of as the British one. He has complete control of the club (he left Chelsea when Shevchenko was signed above his head) and he has been emphatically successful wherever he has been. He seems to be the guy who will finally make the Real Madrid board let the manager have complete control too. Okay, he might be the only person who can get away with this at Madrid because he is (arguably) the only manager in world football who can be considered a galactico but he has earned this status with his results on the pitch at three different clubs.

Personally I like the manager to be the guy who signs the players and decides the team and tactics. He should employ coaches underneath him to work with individual players, on set pieces and with the day to day drilling of the team. If you think of it like that then the manager is already doing the job a director of football does, isn't he? The only difference is that managers tend to stay at a club for three or four years and then leave, how long is a director of football at a club for?

[leviramsey]

The only difference is that managers tend to stay at a club for three or four years and then leave, how long is a director of football at a club for?

In the pure case, where the DoF is the man chiefly responsible for the entire footballing side, including responsibility for hiring and sacking coaches (which is the model followed by most of the leading clubs in Europe), the tenure is generally based on the level of success achieved: Uli Hoeness has been the DoF/sporting director/GM of Bayern Munich for about as long as you've been alive! It may well be that because the position entails a bit of a longer term perspective (it's fairly rare for them to be sacked even after a relegation) than is typical of a football manager and because they're generally behind the scenes that there's not a lot of poaching that occurs.

The key to me would be who has the power and the extent to which it's made clear to all parties: in a lot of cases in the UK, the DoF is given a title that theoretically makes him subordinate to the manager while he acts more as a consultant to the manager or board. Not surprisingly, especially given the media's hostility to the position (probably owing to the behind-the-scenes nature of the job), this is not a very stable arrangement.

Football in the UK is really the only case in the world of major professional sport where the idea of having an overall boss separate and above the guy who runs the training sessions and decides on game-by-game tactics is treated with such hostility by supporters and the media. IMO, it's another manifestation of the anti-intellectual/anti-modernisation tradition that's been present for several decades.

[Dodgyknees]

I don't care and I wouldn't care I just want a team that wins games, if it meant having Orville as DOF I would accept it.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Manager should buy the players. I don't see the point of a DOF.

A Manager knows his team, his players and therefore what he wants. He has a team of scouts to give him even more knowledge of players he'd want to look at etc...

[Zatman]

DOF works on continent but its a cheaper more efficient method.

In England they have managers who cost money in wages while on continent they have coaches who are cheap and are happy just to work with players. A lot of English based managers are chequebook managers like DOL and MON. A DOF wouldnt spend as much money and would get more bargains.

Re-The_Rev

Mourinho still works with a Director of football at Madrid who signed Di Maria and Pedro Leon players Mourinho didnt want but he has more power than he had at Inter because with Marco Branca as DOF and he signed Motta, Milito and Lucio(Mourinho wanted Carvalho). He made 3 personal signings at Inter and they were Quaresma, Mancini and the Eto'o deal. Rest was done by board

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

DOF works on continent but its a cheaper more efficient method.

In England they have managers who cost money in wages while on continent they have coaches who are cheap and are happy just to work with players. A lot of English based managers are chequebook managers like DOL and MON. A DOF wouldnt spend as much money and would get more bargains.

Re-The_Rev

Mourinho still works with a Director of football at Madrid who signed Di Maria and Pedro Leon players Mourinho didnt want but he has more power than he had at Inter because with Marco Branca as DOF and he signed Motta, Milito and Lucio(Mourinho wanted Carvalho). He made 3 personal signings at Inter and they were Quaresma, Mancini and the Eto'o deal. Rest was done by board

Firstly, the coaches might be cheaper than say managers but then the board are also paying for DOF's so it's probably more than managers with both wages

2nd, that isn't based up on facts (finding more bargains) just pure opinion, I could easily say, you have managers who find bargains like Wenger.

Oh and could I tell you Mourinho not wanting Di Maria is absolute, 100%, complete, utter bollocks.

I watch Real Madrid every week and almost every week, it's mentioned how much Mourinho wanted Di Maria. He told the president or whatever he must get him, the people at the top were unsure but trusted Mourinho's judgement and signed him for big money.

It's also why Pedro Leon hasn't featured much and why Di Maria has played pretty much every game and got applauded off the field by Mourinho just a couple weeks back. He's a Mourinho player.

[briny_ear]

I refuse to vote in this poll since it describes the alternative to DOF in demeaning terms as "old-fashioned". A more biased poll question I haven't seen for a long time.

However, if I were to vote, it would obviously be against DOF, which has almost without exception proved disastrous in the premier league.

[WooJung]

Well, Mourinho wanted Deco and Carvalho last year. The DOF bought Sneijder and Lucio, and we all know how it ended.

DOFs are more concentrated on other teams' players, especially for foreign teams.

But if Manager (or Coach in this case, actually) and DOF don't share the same ideas, it's often useless.

[The_Rev]

Football in the UK is really the only case in the world of major professional sport where the idea of having an overall boss separate and above the guy who runs the training sessions and decides on game-by-game tactics is treated with such hostility by supporters and the media. IMO, it's another manifestation of the anti-intellectual/anti-modernisation tradition that's been present for several decades.

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.

[maqroll]

Football in the UK is really the only case in the world of major professional sport where the idea of having an overall boss separate and above the guy who runs the training sessions and decides on game-by-game tactics is treated with such hostility by supporters and the media. IMO, it's another manifestation of the anti-intellectual/anti-modernisation tradition that's been present for several decades.

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.

Thought you'd have something more to say...

[The_Rev]

[MrWeedMcGrass]

Football in the UK is really the only case in the world of major professional sport where the idea of having an overall boss separate and above the guy who runs the training sessions and decides on game-by-game tactics is treated with such hostility by supporters and the media. IMO, it's another manifestation of the anti-intellectual/anti-modernisation tradition that's been present for several decades.

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.

Home, home again

I like to be here when I can

When I come home cold and tired

It's good to warm my bones beside the fire......

:winkold:

Lovely....

[P3te]

works fine once there are no egos, but for some reason in the english game people hire directors of football who think theyre gods

[MrWeedMcGrass]

works fine once there are no egos, but for some reason in the english game people hire directors of football who think theyre gods

As I said , the relationship and understanding between the coach and dof is critical to the success of the setup. If you have egos on both sides, it WILL fail.

The thing is , English Managers are used to a hell lot more power than European ones , who are effectively coaches. They don't like power sharing and that is why it won't work with English Managers in the PL. It COULD work for foreign Managers here but not English managers , especially ones who have been managing for a while.

Of course there are exceptions, as always.

[mjmooney]

It could work, provided the two personalities are compatible.

[mjmooney]

Football in the UK is really the only case in the world of major professional sport where the idea of having an overall boss separate and above the guy who runs the training sessions and decides on game-by-game tactics is treated with such hostility by supporters and the media. IMO, it's another manifestation of the anti-intellectual/anti-modernisation tradition that's been present for several decades.

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.

Home, home again

I like to be here when I can

When I come home cold and tired

It's good to warm my bones beside the fire......

:winkold:

Lovely....

I have that tune stuck in my head now.

[MrWeedMcGrass]

Football in the UK is really the only case in the world of major professional sport where the idea of having an overall boss separate and above the guy who runs the training sessions and decides on game-by-game tactics is treated with such hostility by supporters and the media. IMO, it's another manifestation of the anti-intellectual/anti-modernisation tradition that's been present for several decades.

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.

Home, home again

I like to be here when I can

When I come home cold and tired

It's good to warm my bones beside the fire......

:winkold:

Lovely....

I have that tune stuck in my head now.

Its a mindfuck song , stays in your head and keeps repeating.... You can almost feel the misery....