Brian Fantana
Well-known member
We’ll have a plan. I find all of this hype about individuals in the backroom teams of clubs quite puzzling. It’s about the blend of talent surely and how it all works together. Co-ordinating that seems to be Ashworth’s strength - and his track record suggest he is very good at it - but he’s now being credited in the supposedly cerebral newspapers with singlehandedly signing Mac & Caicedo for peanuts and making Albion a massive profit. And so the legend grows. Even if that was true (unlikely) Ashworth didn’t personally transform them into great talents or absolutely spank Chelsea for a gigantic fee.
Sam Jewell sounds like an excellent operator and I hope he sticks around. Over the years though there’ve been loads of these type of moves & how often does the individual reproduce the same ‘magic’ at another club. Working from my sketchy memory, wasn’t it Everton that took Leicester’s top guy (Steve Walsh?) That went well. Once upon a time Graham Carr was the star maker at Newcastle - then barely talked about again, other than being Alan’s dad. And we seemingly thought David Burke was the key to Southampton’s success, before ending up with Chris O’Grady as our big scoring hope. I think it’s the nature of the business, a bit like playing the stock market, that there are hits and misses. A few high profile hits and you’re considered a genius but nobody’s immune from a downturn.
Even with someone apparently as well-connected as Jewell, you still need to provide the right environment for the player, the right coaching to improve them, the right team ethic and players around them plus the right negotiator to rinse the next buyer, who then spends 2 years wondering why the lad looked so much better in Brighton’s set-up.
In short, no panic - life continues. Tony’s going nowhere.
This is an absolutely perfect summary of it all.