Speakman interviews ...

I think Speakman is great and has done a brilliant job so please don’t take this as a criticism of him as it’s not but is he irreplaceable?

To suggest he is implies that we got lucky with his appointment in the first place. I personally don’t believe that’s the case, I think the club now has a clear vision and identity and that enables it to identify and attract the best personnel for various positions. It would be far from ideal but I don’t think it would be terminal if Speakman went, I’d have faith that the club would be capable of replacing him.

It’s the same when people worry about us losing players and not adequately replacing them. We, as a fanbase, are so unaccustomed to having good players that we think we must have lucked out in bringing them in. The reality now is that we have robust recruitment procedures in place and that’s why we’ve ended up with those players in the first place, it’s not a fluke.

If we lose Ekwah, Hume, Clarke, Cirkin etc then they’ll be replaced by the next Ekwah, Hume, Clarke and Cirkin, although it’s hard for us to believe, maybe their replacements will even be upgrades.

 

And just think, it’s only a week since our fanbase was kicking off across social media saying that Speakman was incompetent and KLD was tight. There was even talk of protests to try and oust them.

We really could do with people understanding what a good thing we’re on to and not risking jeopardising/sabotaging it every time we don’t get instant gratification.

 

I think we may struggle to replace those lads with better, what a batch of players we have at the moment man! Thats without the new additions

 

But why may we? There's a lot of players out there and several of those we're talking about as irreplaceable, we attracted in L1, this time we're recruiting for the top of the Championship and would be doing so with far greater financial might (on the back of selling a few of those we'd be sitting on several tens of millions that would allow us to not only pay higher fees but also to reshape our currently relatively strict and restrictive wage structure). We'd immediately have access to a better calibre of player.

The batch of players we have is amazing but we don't have them by accident, they're here as the result of a process and that means it can be 'replicated' and enhanced. The only ones I would worry about are the internally produced ones like Neil and Patto as the fact they're local lads brought through the ranks has a load of intangible benefits that can't be instantly replaced (more Academy products can be brought through but it's less instantaneous).

 

I just think the bar is very high, these lads are very very good, I hope we can replace with better, but then you are fishing with the big boys, Ekwah may be the best thing ever, if I got a puppy now it would be called Pierre

 

Maybe I'm wrong and we have just lucked out. The day will come though that they do move on so we'll need to brace ourselves for it (you may not want to buy any expensive collars with Pierre's name engraved )

 

It's also worth mentioning that it's not just the recruitment processes we have in place that give me so much confidence that we can continue from strength to strength even with player departures, it's also the coaching and development processes we have implemented.

Look how much better all of Clarke, Amad, Roberts, Ekwah, Cirkin, Hume, Ballard, Stewart etc are now already compared to when we brought them in. Again, that's no fluke, it's by design and it will continue as long as KLD is the club's custodian.

 

2 of mine are called Roker and Niall, so pretty safe with them

 

Invariably players will move on it is the nature of the game, the trick is to have a good replacements ready to fill the void. For me when people say the model is to buy young and sell for a profit that is not correct, it is to develop a squad whilst maintaining the values of the club and staying sustainable

 

People have become obsessed with this idea ...

... if it was true we'd have sold half a dozen players, for good money, in the last window.

 

That is exactly my point Smug it is to develop a squad capable of playing at a higher level and sure if we do that well then some players may be sold and hopefully at a good profit but we are not doing it for profit but to build a strong sustainable club. For me the sky is the limit for our club if we continue on this trajectory we are on.
1. bigger and better crowds and worldwide support
2. more tv coverage and media attention
3. lucrative shirt and stadium sponsors
4. More social media and advertising revenue
5. More kids wanting to join our academy and stay with club for professional career

These are just a few of the areas I see improving massively over next couple of years and as a bonus most of these will bring in big revenue streams as well so selling the crown jewels is not always right but as Speakman said if it is right for the player and good for the club then agreements could be made but I think profit is not the driving force but strength of squad and club on a whole is!

 

Woah I made this post back in June so will have to collect my thoughts.

I think my underlying meaning here was that everything is set up in his vision and his nuance. He's of course not irreplaceable. But replacing him would require things on the football side to be shifted and that would cause much more disruption than replacing a manager, or even ironically replacing an owner. That disruption may end up improving things of course.

Of course whoever comes in could be told to just keep doing things the way Speakman is, but by the very nature of the role they won't want to.

I think my point is that he's here for the long term whether people like it or not. And I think thats a good thing.

 

Oops! I thought this whole thread was off the back of the video released yesterday, I didn’t spot they were old posts.

I still think the vision is KLD’s and would remain and that it’s Speakman who is expertly executing it.

 

i think your right KLD will have a big say in what is happening , he is the one who will have signed off on Speakman joining the club.There will have been discussions between KLD and the rest of the management about the best way to make the club sustainable. KLD,s family are not new to football and understand it and no doubt he will have had a lot of input into the discussions and then directed the management team as to how they should go forward.

 

There’s 2 ways people look at this kind of ‘model’

First; the way I look at it. The club plans to generate its own money to improve the quality of the team.

Second; the way the doom brigade look at it. Sign players cheap to sell to make a profit.

Thing being, plan A makes a profit. It the club is financially stable, with some quality players, then hits the PL, the PL money becomes pure, usable profit and capital.

People talk about Brighton but actually the best example is Leicester. Yes, they have since fallen back, but the level they were at for a few years was incredible, and it delivered Euro football and a league title.

The title was a wonderful anomaly for sure, but clubs have a ceiling. This clubs ceiling is surely higher than Brighton or Leicesters.

 

Good post. KLD will have planning for the future in place for KS, just as KS will have it in place for TM,and TM and the recruitment dept. will have it in place for the players. To do otherwise would be sleeping on the job. No-one is irreplaceable and nothing is forever.

 

I think the term 'model' is misleading. It's just for the first time in my lifetime we've a bloody plan that goes beyond 'lets get this manager in, he will sort it'

 

You may well be right. Especially seeing its KLD who is the massive football manager nerd

 

The WMS lot need therapy...total negative spin again...

 

That lot are the most negative, cretinous, arseholes I’ve ever came across. They have watched that full interview and have picked out things that suit their agenda, whilst ignoring all the things that heavily outweigh them. I doubt I will because I really doubt they’ve ever been to a match but I’d love to come across one of them and tell them this in person. How the **** do you come out of the positive deadline day friday, 5-0 win on Saturday and produce a heap of **** statement like that?