Director of Football – a much-maligned term in football, particularly with Newcastle United fans as we have been treated to the joys of Joe Kinnear for the past couple of months, but fellow Premier League clubs Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur have shown that this continental position can work in English football too.
If you took Kinnear as a standalone example then you’d say that the Director of Football just gets in the way, but lowering any position to be represented solely by Kinnear the Clown is clearly wrong and there are much better and more successful examples out there.
In Franco Baldini Tottenham have arguably the best Director of Football. While the Italian’s title at Spurs is actually Technical Director, it is essentially the same job and a job that Baldini does very well.
The 52-year-old has worked at Roma, Real Madrid and England under Fabio Capello, and he is an individual who is highly respected within the game and has firm contacts that he can call on.
Kinnear may say that he can talk to any manager in the world but he clearly can’t, while Baldini actually can and demonstrated this by bringing in a bucket load of players to White Hart Lane.
Over at Liverpool things are slightly different but the same result is achieved as top quality international players have been purchased over the past couple of weeks.
The committee, consisting of Head of Recruitment Dave Fallows, Chief Scout Barry Hunter, Head of Analysis Michael Edwards and the manager Brendan Rodgers himself, have identified targets and got them.
Led by Chief Executive Ian Ayre, Liverpool have managed to bring in the likes of Luis Alberto, Iago Aspas, Mamadou Sakho (a former Newcastle target) and Aly Cissokho (someone Newcastle have been chasing for God knows how long).
Between them Tottenham and Liverpool have bought well over a dozen players that are high quality on paper, while Kinnear has done diddly squat.
It’s not the Director of Football position that doesn’t work, it’s Joe Kinnear!
***
Wasn’t to long ago we were saying the same about Newcastle! Ba, Cisse, Ben Arfa, Cabaye and others!!! Why bring in JK????
A spurs fan in peace. I think what Newcastle fans should appreciate is that the club brought forward a number of planned summer signings to January to assist with the relegation battle.
We crave for new signings but Ashley has delivered that to Pardew and he’s failed to fully utilize it. Therefore, why spend more on a manager you don’t trust?
Compare that to Liverpool and Tottenham who both have young managers who made a decent impression in their first year (Rodgers after the Jan window when he was allowed to spend some money).
Spurs fan in peace here. I grew up watching Joe Kinnear and his partner in crime Terry Naylor as full backs for Spurs. I met him a few times and really liked the fella ( rose tinted glasses maybe). He has turned out to be a strange character I agree. As proper football fans I grieve for you lot. Football fans in general are mugs, we put up with so much. We get herded, abused, and generally mistreated. We do this because our club means more to us than them. For years Spurs have under achieved. Baldini has been a revelation together with Levy showing his true colours. He never trusted Redknapp, hence Saha when we needed Saldado. We are very fortunate to have a negotiator as Levy. Only when you get a chairman that actually is a fan will you lot get your just rewards. Yes football is a business unfortunately but hey we live in hope. I honestly hope that someone pops up for Newcastle to turn the tide. I say this a fan of football for more than 60 years. Good luck
NUFC wont spend, Jokin Ear was a smokescreen, but the good news should be, new owners.