The hysterically annoying and totally unfounded, but traditional, January 2025 rumours thread.

[HFox]

If that’s true we have been properly done. We know this guy has found the PL difficult but we left ourselves with no option to keep him and limit our loan options. It’s just very silly.

Cooper-brain. Remember when everyone said Forest's owners were the problem about the 40 odd signings?

 

[Micky]

 

[City Fan]

Would rather we sold Vestergaard, not that he’ll be going anywhere with his cushy three year contract

 

[HFox]

Always had the hands of an agent deal that Okoli one. Cooper and Okoli share the same agency

 

[SilverFox]

Good having you on here H. Very interesting insights.

 

[TommyK]

You wonder how much influence agents have on our decision making, both staff and players. Shows a lack of footballing decision making within the club if we're outsourcing it to agents.

I always wonder what it would be like being a football recruitment team. I wonder how often they get bypassed and players just bought in.

 

[fitz]

Always had the hands of an agent deal that Okoli one. Cooper and Okoli share the same agency

Nepotism has stunk the club out even in better times. Pea Son and his son, Puel and his son's mate or whatever, Ted and Bertrand.

 

[HFox]

You wonder how much influence agents have on our decision making, both staff and players. Shows a lack of footballing decision making within the club if we're outsourcing it to agents.

I always wonder what it would be like being a football recruitment team. I wonder how often they get bypassed and players just bought in.

Most of the club is or was on John Morris’ books.

Morris of course Vardy’s agent, and Maresca’s and Barnes’ and Hamza and a host of others

 

[HFox]

The other interesting point about agents and city.

Morris works for Wasserman, huge group. Tellingly you could see him on the video when LCFC appointed Maresca.

When Maresca left (and LCFC felt as though they had been lied to), the much reported 3 man shortlist was Potter, Cooper and Corberan. The club appointed the only non Wasserman client of the three. Supposedly a bit of falling out hence that bitchy statement released by LCFC and Maresca making a point of praising the club before the Chelsea game.

The club’s recruitment is so old fashioned - Collomose brought this up on BSLB podcast. There’s no outright appointed recruitment person. Our signings are a combo of managers preferences (or Enzo’s case good contact book or Cooper’s did he play for me at England youth?), recruitment suggestions and agents feeding players towards us. No one is doing any proper quality control or baseline of this is the type of player we want.

 

[HFox]

I often think it’s really difficult to rate how good Martyn Glover is at City. Are his suggestions being ignored ? Maresca was happy to say Fatawu was Glover’s find. Apparently El Khannous was a tip from Leuven. Hermannsen was talked about by goalkeepering coaches for a bit before - apparently Liverpool commented on him at the Thai pre season friendly they’d watched him

 

[pork pie fox]

The other interesting point about agents and city.

Morris works for Wasserman, huge group. Tellingly you could see him on the video when LCFC appointed Maresca.

When Maresca left (and LCFC felt as though they had been lied to), the much reported 3 man shortlist was Potter, Cooper and Corberan. The club appointed the only non Wasserman client of the three. Supposedly a bit of falling out hence that bitchy statement released by LCFC and Maresca making a point of praising the club before the Chelsea game.

The club’s recruitment is so old fashioned - Collomose brought this up on BSLB podcast. There’s no outright appointed recruitment person. Our signings are a combo of managers preferences (or Enzo’s case good contact book or Cooper’s did he play for me at England youth?), recruitment suggestions and agents feeding players towards us. No one is doing any proper quality control or baseline of this is the type of player we want.

Which is all the more frustrating, when you consider the processes that we had a few years ago, where players were targeted due to the research that had gone into them being a fit for what we were looking for and needed, often ahead of time, so we were prepared for when players left. Over recent years, we seem to have dismantled an efficient, productive set up, for a disjointed, haphazard one. It’s no wonder that we are where we are. What a shit show.

 

[Brown Nose]

I often think it’s really difficult to rate how good Martyn Glover is at City. Are his suggestions being ignored ? Maresca was happy to say Fatawu was his find. Apparently El Khannous was a tip for Leuven. Hermannsen was talked about by goalkeepering coaches for a bit

I'm sure that I heard Maresca speak about Fatawu being suggested to him by our recruitment people.

 

[TommyK]

If true, it skinks of the club basically being a money making machine for agents and employees. I.e the club is getting used

 

[FOX Franks]

If true, it skinks of the club basically being a money making machine for agents and employees. I.e the club is getting used

Ryan Bertrand.
This was the first clear sign that was true.

 

[HFox]

I'm sure that I heard Maresca speak about Fatawu being suggested to him by our recruitment people.

Sorry poor grammar - yeah Maresca mentioned Fatawu was Glover’s find

 

[HFox]

Ryan Bertrand.
This was the first clear sign that was true.

Goes back further Terry Robinson was a bad egg put into position by another bad egg Dave Richards. This would end up in Rudkin taking his role and the first seed in for Pearson’s foundations bringing to fall apart (the ideal DoF was there running recruitment).

Again another point of incompetence, they brought in Simon Capper doing finances. Of course he ran off to Newcastle before the FFP stuff hit.

 

[SilverFox]

The club’s recruitment is so old fashioned - Collomose brought this up on BSLB podcast. There’s no outright appointed recruitment person. Our signings are a combo of managers preferences (or Enzo’s case good contact book or Cooper’s did he play for me at England youth?), recruitment suggestions and agents feeding players towards us. No one is doing any proper quality control or baseline of this is the type of player we want.

And this is the sort of thing that fan pressure groups should be holding the club to account over (or trying to) by at the very least asking why we are so backwards.

I have a lovely client who is very successful. The secret in his own words is simply that he doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel. There’s a blueprint for every successful business model. You copy it. By all means ‘evolve’ it and refine it, but don’t just ignore what clearly works for clubs that until recently have been smaller than us. It’s like we are determined to go backwards.

 

[SilverFox]

Got enough emoji’s there? And what is he trying to say with this one:-



Chicken ball? Cock ball? What? What are you trying to say?

 

[SilverFox]

I love the Patsonverse:-

 

[alex]

HFox, lovely to have your insights here, many thanks. Burning question is how long until we can get the club running back to a way that was the envy of other clubs again?

How long before we undo Brendan’s ‘work’? Can we with this current setup? Are there people inside the club wanting change?