chinapig

You may be thinking of Jorge Mendes at Wolves. Despite being an agent he is their de facto head of recruitment. The FA decided that was fine, though he has been involved in cases of alleged tax evasion, third party ownership and others. As Gareth Southgate said, love the game, hate the business.

"Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of anything the other person says." Sorry, is this the 5 minute argument or the full half hour?

Imminently.

He's camped in the Austrian wilds and fighting wolves. Normal pre-season for Nigel.

Actually it is allowed I think though it shouldn't be imo. An agent on a club's Board is another level though.

Loyal as in loyal to Stretford. Who'd have guessed?

And... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/dec/29/paul-stretford-wayne-rooney-football-association Would have fitted right in at Derby then.?

Well, Derby fans have a history of being happy to have rule breakers associated with their club after all. These are the people who worshipped Morris (ha ha, EFL on strings style) and thought Kirchner, a transparently iffy character, was their saviour. Plus there was talk of Stretford being on the Board. No conflict of interest there then. I assume Quantuma were just desperate for the money so didn't think twice.

Well well so he is the man Kieran Maguire was talking about as being involved in football and close to the club when people were asking who paid the wages. And now he can't get the money back from Kirchner it seems. A man with a chequered past plus a bit of a shyster in Kirchner. Rooney needs to choose his friends more carefully.

Yes, career average more like 1 in 4 before he joined us I think despite the purple patch. Another vanity signing by the Ashton/Johnson partnership.

You do realise that clubs do still scout players as well? Especially a club like Brentford who people seem to think rely solely on data. Jurgen Klopp speaks highly of Liverpool's recruitment analysts as it happens but I'll get on to him to let him know he's wrong. Now, where did I put his phone number??

Especially since DCFC didn't receive a penny of the £81m. Though the EFL did object but an independent commission found in Derby's favour so it's hard to see what else the EFL could do now.

Shall I tell every major club in the world to sack their analysts or will you??

That reminds me, I must get Richard Gould's autograph asap. I mean, every football fan wants to get the Chief Executive's autograph. Don't they??

My guess is Clowes bought the stadium on the basis of Quantuma's assurance that Kirchner's deal for the club would go through. Clowes could then collect the rent. I don't think Clowes was interested in buying the club at that stage. Quite why anybody would be convinced by either Quantuma or Kirchner is a mystery we may never get the answer to.

The quality of the analysts is obviously important but I always found that the quality of the requirement specified by the client was critical. Do they have a clear idea of what they need? Can they express it in quantifiable terms? Do they have realistic expectations of how analysis can aid their decision making or do they expect the analyst to give them a magic tool that will make the decisions for them? And so on. Nigel strikes me as someone who has clarity of thought so would make good use of (good) analytics.

Signing ten players, if they do, is one thing. Building a team is another. Much depends also on who is actually doing the recruiting. Ask Mark Ashton, who signed around twenty last summer, after which Ipswich finished lower than the season before.

Saw that too. I always thought it was a minor miracle keeping them in League 1 in the circumstances at the time.

The way Nigel put it was that he only wanted to play his own way. Which I took to mean he refused to follow instructions.

It's worth bearing in mind that Rooney very much committed himself to Kirchner and that Kirchner reportedly planned to have Paul Stretford on the Board. Paul Stretford is Rooney's agent and has something of a controversial past.

I've seen at least one report in the past that he was on £90k a week. Probably overstated but either way under the business plan the EFL will impose they certainly can't afford him any more.

It's been dumped in the nearest river.

Clowes secured the stadium on 17 June at which point Kirchner had been preferred bidder for something like 2 months. Let's allow him a month to do due diligence. That brings into question why Quantuma indulged his claims that the cheque was in the post for so long. What were their motives and why was he unable to transfer the money despite allegedly repeated attempts? Questions we will probably never get the answer to but it looks distinctly murky. Still, it looks like Derby may be about to be taken over by a lifelong fan. Which went well last time.?

Great insight Dave thanks. I'd add his great appreciation of angles. Passing angles certainly but particularly the angle at which to receive the ball, including body position. It's these kinds of skills that make it better to play him as an 8 than as a 10 imo. He's only going to get better so I hope we get to see another year or two here before he moves onwards and upwards.

The full name is actually Wayne Rooney's Derby County (formerly known as Frank Lampard's Derby County). Fit that on your videprinter Sky!