Rousseau

What are the other red flags?

You mean one stat: Goals scored.

Someone made a good point about the players Lammers has been competing with over the last few years: Santos Borre, Lindstrom; Quagliarella, Gabbiadini; Jese Rodriguez, Luis Muriel, Lookman, Hojlund, Zapata. Top class strikers. Man Utd are looking at Hojland from £40M.

Low numbers doesn't mean much in itself. We need to look deeper, at his xG. If he's scoring 2 from an xG of 1, then he's going well. If he's scoring 2 from and xG of 15, he's awful. In truth, he has slightly underperformed. He has scored 2 from an xG of 4 last season. Previous seasons has him pretty much hitting his xG. It'll be interesting to see how that translates to us, as he will get more chances. I would suggest he's not going to be a goalscorer, though. He looks more of a pressing forward and link-up player, who can hopefully contribute 10-15 goals.

I was thinking of Matondo, but then again, Yilmaz was the same price (albeit with add-ons). I suppose it depends how successful they are, though.

Sounds a tad expensive but I suspect that's the going rate in our market, outwith freebies and pre-contracts.

That's a good point. I've mentioned eleswhere that it does seem like the board don't quite know what they want from a DoF, other than 'a DoF'. It's a good start, but perhaps it needs to be more clearly defined.

Of course it will be joined-up. My point is that I don't think the DoF has as much control as he should, IMO. In your example of Kent and Morelos' contracts being run down. A DoF should just be acting, rather than leaving it to the manager. We know Gerrard was pretty forceful in refusing to sell players. It's another small example of our DoF not having the remit that he should - IMO.

Kent has signed for Fenerbahce.

Many turn their nose up at players from Aberdeen and Hearts.

I think Lammers fits if we're continuing with the 4-3-1-2. We need a pressing forward, which is why we've been playing Matondo, who is not a striker but can use his pace to do a similar job as a pressing forward. I also think Lammers will get goals at our level, but we still need another forward that can be the main goal threat.

I don't see how it can be a 'recipe for disaster' when every elite side in world football has a sporting director. You must know something they don't.

I was unsure so I put them down as club signings, I think, but Mark Allen wasn't a recruitment expert. He was appointed to build the structure, which was necessary. I think Gerrard would have agreed to them, though; certainly at that early stage in our rebuild. I've outlined above how they've not overstepped their role at all. It's the opposite: they've not had enough influence. Just look at the hodgepodge of signings. I don't see how you can look at that and not see that it's the managers making the decisions. Do you think Beale would have signed Colak or Sands? I can agree that the role can be more clearly defined. I don't think the board know what they want, though. Hopefully the news guys get on with it soon.

I don't see a recognisable profile from Gerrard to GvB to Beale, so I find it difficult to belive the DoF was responsible for them. If he was, there would be a recognised style and style to all of them. Three out of our last four managers have screwed up our recruitment and squad building; from Caixinha's Mexicans, Gerrard being unable to refresh and sell players, to GvB being unable to see a player or use them properly. Surely you don't want this to continue? I'd like to see us have the best of both worlds: a DoF that is a specialist in recruitment and a coach that is good at working with the players at his disposal - which, I think Beale is good at; he's certainly got more out of the players that GvB had and signed.

As I outlined in the OP, it seems like it was our manager that signed the duds, not the DoF.

If the DoF signs duds then he'll lose his job.

That little graph above is just frequency per 90. There is a lot more data on the rest of the page. FBref[dot]com

I'd say the idea is that the DoF should be signing players of a certain standard and profile, and have potential to sell on. If the team fails it's not the players - it might be part of it, as not every player will work - it's the manager. We've seen it this season: Beale got a lot more out of our team than GvB did this season. Or maybe that only works at a higher level? Although the best DoF (Monchi) started at Sevilla when they were in the second division. Not every season was a success, yet they had trust. The DoF should be responsible for the tools, with the manager being responsible for using them.

That's a good point: what type of DoF do we actually want or would accept? I accept I'm in the minority when I want a European style DoF with almost complete control. I just see those signings and think, what a waste of time.

Yes, you're right: Bassey might have been a MB recommendation. Another example of less joint-up thinking... That's a good point. I suspect most don't want a DoF to have complete control like I do. Someone to work behind the scenes might be better.

Some of the best DoFs in Europe (e.g. Monchi) have almost complete control over recruitment. That's not to say a manager shouldn't have an input - of course they should - but a manager having too much control creates a mess. It's fine if the manager is successful (i.e. Ange), but what happens when they leave? A new huge rebuild? It's unsustainable. Maybe we've not appointed the correct DoF that can execute that type of re ruitment strategy? Allen was definitely not that; he was appointed to almost build the structure behind a DoF model. I had thought Wilson was better at the recruitment side of things, but looking at the hodgepodge of signings, maybe he's not either? Maybe he’s more hands off? Or incompetent... ! (That one's for @RANGERRAB! )

A DoF should have a big influence on the recruitment strategy. Looking at our signings over the last 6 years (Wilson arrived Oct 2019), I can't see any overriding philosophy. I see a hodgepodge of players, signed by the three different managers over that period, each quite different from the other. We've seen a squad rebuild, transition into first-team players to push to win a title under SG; to youngsters, loans and older players under GvB; to MB signing players that he knows. The profile of MB's signings is better, but the idea of a DoF having a guiding influence is non-existent. I don't think Wilson, or Allen, had as much control as they should have had. What's the profile? Where's the recruitment philosophy? (I've tried to colour code them to show who might have signed each player; some might be wrong.) 18/19 19/20 20/21 21/22 22/23 23/24 Key Arfield Hastie Hagi Sakala Colak Dowell Gerrard McGregor Jones Bassey Lundstram Lawrence Stirling GvB Murphy Davis McLaughlin Bacuna Yilmaz Butland Beale Katic Stewart Defoe Sands Cantwell Club? Goldson Edmondson Balogun Diallo Raskin Flanagan Aribo Roofe Ramsey Souttar Barisic Helander Itten Zukowski Tillman Lafferty Barker Zungu Davies Grezda Kent Simpson Matondo McAuley Wright Firth Polster Kamara

Transfermrkt only has him playing left of a back-three this season - FBref doesn't have an option to compare him to FBs. Trusty looks similar (compared to CBs, then FBs), better defensively - slightly, but that might be explained by a more defensive Birmingham side - but Panzo looks better with the ball at his feet. Panzo is two years younger.

You're better getting your stats from Opta, not a betting site. @Bill - LOOK AWAY! Panzo: