David Burke, is the fat lady clearing her throat?

[John Bumlick]

There is a chance that our scouting network isn't up to scratch, but signing the likes of Agustein, Andrews, Obika and so on is inexcusable considering any one with access to the internet could have told you they would be failures.

What complete and utter bullshit.

 

[Screaming J]

He can identify potential players based on scouting, analysis, managers suggestions or whatever. But he doesn't control the purse strings. So if Carlos Cickaball is in our sights, its not his fault if Tony Bloom or Paul Barber say, 'OK but the bottom line is you can't go above a certain financial limit'; then if anyone else comes in and offers more, he's a bit buggered.

 

[Commander]

we are relegation fodder. No left back and no main striker, an ageing defence and injury prone players. I don't see how anyone can argue with that....At this rate Hyypia will be gone by Christmas

Bloody hell, starting early this year Kev?

 

[n1 gull]

He can identify potential players based on scouting, analysis, managers suggestions or whatever. But he doesn't control the purse strings. So if Carlos Cickaball is in our sights, its not his fault if Tony Bloom or Paul Barber say, 'OK but the bottom line is you can't go above a certain financial limit'; then if anyone else comes in and offers more, he's a bit buggered.

But anyone can identify a good player, the skill is getting one we can afford or is willing to move south.

 

[Springal]

Amazing how blameless Bloom & the board are...

We simply aren't competing on wages. Never mind though, I am sure it'll be OK when our academy products are playing in front of 12,000 crowds at the Amex.

 

[portlock seagull]

Blimey, 2 pages in and not one mention of bed wetting? WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE TONIGHT?!
Or maybe, just maybe they were on to something?

 

[Commander]

I've never set any store by "connections" it rarely bears fruit, not just for us, for anybody.

Did we get two promotions through Micky Adams' brilliant management and tactical genius?

 

[Stat Brother]

The buck stops with Bloom not Burke.

Every time this 'dance' pops up it truly amazes me just how many people can't/won't see that.

As KZN says:-

Has he done something that TB did not authorise him to do then?

until that time, and Mr Burke is relieved of his position we can only assume Mr Burke is performing his duties in accordance with the wishes of the owner.

I could understand some snot nosed primary school kid not grasping that concept.
But to have actual adults some of whom run their own business not actually understand the employee/employer relationship, beggers belief.


If Mr Burke is still employed in '15, then he's clearly done nothing wrong in August '14.

 

[portlock seagull]

Amazing how blameless Bloom & the board are...

We simply aren't competing on wages. Never mind though, I am sure it'll be OK when our academy products are playing in front of 12,000 crowds at the Amex.

In fairness most football club owners get to blow £150m on the team rather than the infrastructure just to be on a par with your fellow peers!

 

[kevtherev]

So apart from that you are positive about our prospects

But do you disagree with any of it Lamie....Like I say, if we get four good players in soon, things will look different. But they cost money, money it doesn't look like we are prepared to spend.

 

[Springal]

In fairness most football club owners get to blow £150m on the team rather than the infrastructure just to be on a par with your fellow peers!

Very true, but lets not forget they knew what they were getting into.

In fact I was shown round the Amex by Ken Brown who boasted very proudly how the board went for the very best in building materials etc, which is great, but what type of concrete we used doesn't really bother me. The team we are able to assemble does.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

Not got a problem with the bloke can only work within his remit and helped achieve level 1 academy. Can't see him going anywhere soon

I completely agree with this. Burke is given a budget and works within it. Who genuinely think players sign for a club because of their director of football? Sami will be the one who makes the difference, if we can compete with other clubs on wages. The issue seems to be that we can't or won't and that's why players won't sign for us. It's extremely frustrating but I don't understand why everyone blames Burke.

 

[TSB]

Not gone overly well, this thread.
Better luck next time Harty.

 

[kevtherev]

Bloody hell, starting early this year Kev?

Just to clarify, I am 100% behind Hyypia, but it's starting to look like the club are not 100% behind him....The facts are, we have replaced TK with better, that's good. We have no left back, no real cover at ch, no cover out wide and we sold our main goal threat, after selling Barnes and have replaced with O'Grady, who had a good season last year, but everything before that points to him being just another northern journeyman.....Tell me are you happy and optimistic atm

 

[Brighton Mod]

I completely agree with this. Burke is given a budget and works within it. Who genuinely think players sign for a club because of their director of football? Sami will be the one who makes the difference, if we can compete with other clubs on wages. The issue seems to be that we can't or won't and that's why players won't sign for us. It's extremely frustrating but I don't understand why everyone blames Burke.

Does this statement also count for the manager/head coach? This for me is the most worrying position,as with garcia last year, Sami is untested in this division and comes off the back of a sacking.

 

[kevtherev]

But anyone can identify a good player, the skill is getting one we can afford or is willing to move south.

We live in an expensive area of the country. We pay top dollar to watch but the club seem to think they can attract players with average offers.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

He is either a terrible at his job, or he hasn't got permission to offer better deals than other clubs we are in competition with. Either way it's a worry, 4 days to the big ko and we got no left back, two senior strikers(who the jury are out on both of them), no cover out wide for injury prone players, and short at centre half.

I'm pretty sure it's the latter. Tony Bloom seems to be above criticism (and he has every right to be for what he's done) but he sets the budgets and wage caps. He also signs off the transfers.

Also, as said elsewhere, if Burke wasn't doing what he wanted, he'd get rid of him. Burke seems to be the fall guy on here but it's probably not fair.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

How do people know Bloom is happy with Burkes performance. I'd imagine Bloom himself is rather disappointed with our last few transfer windows. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there aren't massive improvements in the way we conduct transfer business that Burke is called in to Tonys office and asked to explain himself. Sure Bloom decides the budget, but then it is Burkes job to work within that budget to identify and sign REALISTIC targets. As we keep failing to actually sign players we have supposedly identified as potential targets it seems to me that our recruitment team is failing to operate successfully. Surely all the in depth scouting and information gathering we are told is carried out for each player must also include at least a ballpark figure for wages, transfer fee, signing on fee, willingness to relocate? Are our recruitment team out of touch with the going rate for championship players? If we can't afford then spend time pursuing realistic lower earners rather than faffing about trying to sign players we can't afford.

I can't believe Tony is happy with the recruitment team at all...


Rant over

 

[Ninja Elephant]

The only time for anyone to judge this window is when it has closed. So much business is done after the start of the season, we have to accept that simply not having the players in today does not mean they will not be here by the end of the window. We need to do our business earlier, in my opinion, but my opinion and that of those of us on here are not relevant. We can type out our thoughts and feelings but ultimately we do not matter.

In my opinion I would prefer the transfer window closed the friday before the season kicks off so that everyone has to get their business done and there is none of the posturing that is going on with clubs like, for example, Wolves - who are rightly holding out for the best deal for them. Why shouldn't they? David Burke can not make Ward accept a pay cut, he can not make Wolves accept the bottom dollar price for a player we clearly want. We have to be realistic and we have to be respectful of other clubs and other players. The players we want have options, and are under contract. The potentially selling club have every right to hold out for the best deal, there's only so much Burke can do without being silly and offering money and wages we shouldn't be paying.

In summary, I'm not happy with the squad as it stands but the club won't be either, there's only so much that they can do and the window is not closed yet.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

Does this statement also count for the manager/head coach? This for me is the most worrying position,as with garcia last year, Sami is untested in this division and comes off the back of a sacking.

I don't know the ins and outs so no idea. All I'm trying to say is Burke can't spend money that isn't in the budget.

The frustration is we've lost/sold/released 11 players this summer (making £8 million) and only signed 4 (paying about £1.5 million) yet we still can't compete with clubs who have significantly lower crowds than us.