[Albion] Paul Barber: The Transfer Window

[Goldstone1976]

The club certainly failed. But this is different to mistakes being made. Were mistakes made? I don't know; maybe they did everything right but we're not prepared to go further than they planned/wanted. I thought Bloom's message was spot on. Barber's radio interview was fine and explained a few points. That Sheffield United video gave a lot of context as well. I think the club should have left it there.

That's an interesting distinction you're drawing. One I'm not sure I agree with. I would argue that with every "failure" comes mistakes. Now, it is certainly the case that the relative importance of "circumstances" (read "bad luck") and mistakes vary from situation to situation, and that our failure to sign a striker has a very healthy dose of bad luck.

However, I think it's always worth analysing things with an open mindset when you've failed. We're often told that in football, everything's small margins. The GB cycling team's mantra was "tiny incremental improvements". Gary Player famously said "the harder I practise, the luckier I get". All these demonstrate (to me), an acceptance, right at the core of everything they do, that there really always are things that you can do to improve.

I honestly don't sense that PB has this mentality.

Edit: I should have extended my final sentence: "...when it comes to things that he has had a direct, personal role in. He's been outstanding at getting others in the club to do better at their jobs, and improving processes, even though there's still a long way to go."

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

I see. I think we need to remember that what he says publicly is going to be very different to what he says privately. People seem to have this idea that everyone in the club is just saying "Oh well, nothing we could have done, we tried our hardest, never mind". Anyone who doesn't think that questions are having to be answered internally doesn't understand the way a big business works. But that needs to be done internally, not in the public eye. People seem to forget that Tony Bloom has more at stake than anyone else here, he will be more disappointed than any of the fans that we didn't get a striker. Imagine being a fan and also having a hundred million quid at risk from it.

Exactly.

I think we are lucky that Paul Barber does take the trouble to comment, regardless of the fact it is effectively to placate fans, and is effectively the same message.

Given the importance of his role as per [MENTION=2095]Commander[/MENTION] post, I am sure discussions are taking place internally.


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[Moshe Gariani]

I think we need to remember that what he says publicly is going to be very different to what he says privately. People seem to have this idea that everyone in the club is just saying "Oh well, nothing we could have done, we tried our hardest, never mind". Anyone who doesn't think that questions are having to be answered internally doesn't understand the way a big business works. But that needs to be done internally, not in the public eye. People seem to forget that Tony Bloom has more at stake than anyone else here, he will be more disappointed than any of the fans that we didn't get a striker. Imagine being a fan and also having a hundred million quid at risk from it.

Brilliant post. People who choose not to have complete faith in Tony Bloom are enormous idiots. What profile of person exactly do they wish to be running the club?

 

[Bozza]

As some others have said, to have the CEO of a Premier League club respond in this way for fans is pretty remarkable, although I type that knowing that Paul Barber's detractors will immediately come back with something like "he should have focused on signing a striker rather than writing long emails", as if the two are mutually exclusive.

Paul has, once again, extended the invitation to meet a group of NSCers face to face one evening, have a beer, and go over anything that people want to. It's something I'm happy to facilitate, although I'm pretty sure that those who are the most abusive wouldn't be brave enough to front up face to face. Again, I'm not sure fans of many other clubs would get the same opportunity.

 

[Brovion]

Jeez, is this topic still going? Let it go people, just let it go.

EDIT: Although Bozza has just moved it on. I'd like to meet Paul Barber!

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Brilliant post. People who choose not to have complete faith in Tony Bloom are enormous idiots. What profile of person exactly do they wish to be running the club?

Very good point as well.

He is definitely as frustrated as everyone else.


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[Marshy]

As some others have said, to have the CEO of a Premier League club respond in this way for fans is pretty remarkable, although I type that knowing that Paul Barber's detractors will immediately come back with something like "he should have focused on signing a striker rather than writing long emails", as if the two are mutually exclusive.

Paul has, once again, extended the invitation to meet a group of NSCers face to face one evening, have a beer, and go over anything that people want to. It's something I'm happy to facilitate, although I'm pretty sure that those who are the most abusive wouldn't be brave enough to front up face to face. Again, I'm not sure fans of many other clubs would get the same opportunity.

The silence will be deafening I have no doubt from the most absusive...

 

[Triggaaar]

Embarrassing witch hunt still ongoing I see.

A thread started due to the club's correspondence.

It's clear to see if you read between the lines that the disappointment from us as fans is very much shared by them

It was obvious from the start that the players, the manager, and Tony would be very disappointed, we didn't need to hear anything to know that.

and can only make them more determined to get it right next time.

When we're in the Championship, or when we're on our way there?

The window isn't going to open again until January no matter how angry you get or whom you blame.

It's not going to open again no matter how calm you are. I'm not sure what your point is.

 

[Goldstone1976]

As some others have said, to have the CEO of a Premier League club respond in this way for fans is pretty remarkable, although I type that knowing that Paul Barber's detractors will immediately come back with something like "he should have focused on signing a striker rather than writing long emails", as if the two are mutually exclusive.

Paul has, once again, extended the invitation to meet a group of NSCers face to face one evening, have a beer, and go over anything that people want to. It's something I'm happy to facilitate, although I'm pretty sure that those who are the most abusive wouldn't be brave enough to front up face to face. Again, I'm not sure fans of many other clubs would get the same opportunity.

Yes, credit where credit is due: it is indeed remarkable. Valuable and helpful too. I'm happy to meet with PB about the one observation I've made on this thread, if such an evening gets arranged.

 

[Audax]

If you look a couple of post up i have praised his communication, but the lack of genuine lack empathy does appear obvious to me.

All i am saying is he can do better unless he is an android.

The problem for Barber is that the same skills that make him a great CEO for the club are the same skills that are likely to result in exactly the reactions we've seen in this thread. Unfortunate fact of life - every single good CEO I've ever had the pleasure of working for has suffered the same way.

There's a damn good reason why the CEO where I currently work only writes the *draft* for communications like this. That draft then gets worked on and massaged by people whose specific jobs involve talking, liaising, etc etc, with the public. Then the CEO's name gets attached to the finished article when it goes out.

The problem (depending on how you see it) with Barber's message as delivered to us via [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] is that it's the CEO draft version. They've not had it massaged by the experts to make sure the message the CEO wants to get across is being communicated properly. Which is why I took the time yesterday to defend him a bit. Kudos to him for reaching out and trying to communicate with us all without any filter in between, but he really does need to learn to run these sorts of things through a communications expert before sending them out to the public.

 

[Triggaaar]

The club certainly failed. But this is different to mistakes being made.

Agreed, failing doesn't necessarily mean that mistakes were made, because it is possible that you miss out just due to bad luck. But still, I think mistakes were made. Now that doesn't mean I think the recruitment team didn't try, or that they did nothing right, I just think they probably made mistakes. And I think Goldstone's point is that Mr Barber doesn't seem to agree with that, yet Mr Barber says they will look to see what we can do better next time - how can they do better if they did nothing wrong this time?

 

[Triggaaar]

I see. I think we need to remember that what he says publicly is going to be very different to what he says privately. People seem to have this idea that everyone in the club is just saying "Oh well, nothing we could have done, we tried our hardest, never mind". Anyone who doesn't think that questions are having to be answered internally doesn't understand the way a big business works. But that needs to be done internally, not in the public eye.

While they need to be run professionally like other big businesses, football clubs are different, because the customers are quite different. It's not that we want Paul to be dragging some scapegoat out for a public execution, but he could have said that while the entire team worked really hard and we were unlucky, there were mistakes made and they'd work hard to not repeat those mistakes.

People seem to forget that Tony Bloom has more at stake than anyone else here, he will be more disappointed than any of the fans that we didn't get a striker. Imagine being a fan and also having a hundred million quid at risk from it.

I certainly haven't forgotten that, I posted to that affect as soon as the window closed.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Whether mistakes, bad luck, misjudgments or whatever, as a BHA fan I sincerely hope that this episode is one we can learn from at the same time staying in the PL otherwise a very, very expensive catalogue of events it could turn out to be.

Needless to say TB feels the same but with more cause.

We'll be fine.

 

[Commander]

It's not that we want Paul to be dragging some scapegoat out for a public execution

Are you sure? It seems like there are a vocal majority that want exactly that!

I certainly haven't forgotten that, I posted to that affect as soon as the window closed.

That's OK, I wasn't referring specifically to you.

 

[DJ NOBO]

I certainly didn't read it that way. The easiest thing to do would have been to say nothing. 99% of clubs would have been in that camp. Barber and TB care - that's why they spent time trying to explain the situation. If you don't want a Board that cares about the supporters then there are plenty of clubs to choose from. Personally I'm embarrassed by a lot of the anti-Barber, anti-Winstanley stuff on here. But hopefully we can move on now.

In a funny kind of way I think we might do alright in the next few months because there's no chance of us getting ideas above our station with the strike force we have. I'm hoping for a few horribly ugly 1-0 wins.

Also, because murray is a very good player

 

[heathgate]

I just get the feeling that the club, as it does in many areas of its business, adopted new innovative methods in the arena of recruitment.... maybe, just maybe, this method backfired a little...

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[doogie004]

As some others have said, to have the CEO of a Premier League club respond in this way for fans is pretty remarkable, although I type that knowing that Paul Barber's detractors will immediately come back with something like "he should have focused on signing a striker rather than writing long emails", as if the two are mutually exclusive.

Paul has, once again, extended the invitation to meet a group of NSCers face to face one evening, have a beer, and go over anything that people want to. It's something I'm happy to facilitate, although I'm pretty sure that those who are the most abusive wouldn't be brave enough to front up face to face. Again, I'm not sure fans of many other clubs would get the same opportunity.

Still can't get away from the fact the club got it wrong happy to blame everyone else apart from themselves .jan will be even harder to prise players away and cost more will we still get the same excuses ? Try to concentrate on bringing in a player in 1st jan not the 31st then blaming everything else again .


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[Justice]

Anyone else remember the days when football was just something you did on a Saturday? Now it's all transfers, loyalty points expensive home tickets that have to booked weeks in advance, arguments because an already millionaire footballer didn't sign to earn more millions. I love football but seems the fun is getting sucked out of the game in this league.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

The problem for Barber is that the same skills that make him a great CEO for the club are the same skills that are likely to result in exactly the reactions we've seen in this thread. Unfortunate fact of life - every single good CEO I've ever had the pleasure of working for has suffered the same way.

There's a damn good reason why the CEO where I currently work only writes the *draft* for communications like this. That draft then gets worked on and massaged by people whose specific jobs involve talking, liaising, etc etc, with the public. Then the CEO's name gets attached to the finished article when it goes out.

The problem (depending on how you see it) with Barber's message as delivered to us via [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] is that it's the CEO draft version. They've not had it massaged by the experts to make sure the message the CEO wants to get across is being communicated properly. Which is why I took the time yesterday to defend him a bit. Kudos to him for reaching out and trying to communicate with us all without any filter in between, but he really does need to learn to run these sorts of things through a communications expert before sending them out to the public.

Yes i can see that, but maybe he needs to listen more to the fans/customer and use some commonsense, he appears to rule from the top it's Barbers way or the highway as i see it ultimately it could cost him dear, will he care? .........not sure he will really.

 

[Kuipers Supporters Club]

As some others have said, to have the CEO of a Premier League club respond in this way for fans is pretty remarkable, although I type that knowing that Paul Barber's detractors will immediately come back with something like "he should have focused on signing a striker rather than writing long emails", as if the two are mutually exclusive.

Paul has, once again, extended the invitation to meet a group of NSCers face to face one evening, have a beer, and go over anything that people want to. It's something I'm happy to facilitate, although I'm pretty sure that those who are the most abusive wouldn't be brave enough to front up face to face. Again, I'm not sure fans of many other clubs would get the same opportunity.

I'm #Barberout

I'll meet him