Rumour *Separated discussion* Board, Mick, Rogers, whiteanting, powerbrokers, competency or lack thereof

[Blue For Life]

Mod Note: This thread is a breakaway discussion from the Bluemour discussion thread. I found an arbitrary start to the breakway so Blue For Life ... I'm blaming you.

There is always going to be rumors, innuendo, and speculation, and everyone has an opinion when it comes to most issues in life, but when referring to matters pertaining to the Carlton Football Club or any other sporting organization we can all have our own say and the fun begins. The truth is and all ways will be, we are kept in the dark, drip fed bull####, media speculation running rampant, whether it's the truth or not and yet the Carlton Football Club, with MLG coming out and saying we are going to be more fan friendly and be a transparent club. So can anyone tell really what the club has forecast for the now and the future. I for one as a long time supporter and member would appreciate some clarity and at least sold on hope with something tangible and not fed crap to keep us interested enough and with just enough hope. MM hijacked the club and didn't allow it to grow positively but instead ran his own agenda and made sure we always got bad publicity through the media etc. We now have our club back, looking to rebuild, on the lookout for a new head coach, need to keep sponsors happy and attract new ones and one really important issue is to get credibility back from the supporters and grow our membership base to some where around 60,000.
Not to be a pessimist as I love this club but where is the communication where is the transparency and where and when are we going to be a power house of the competition, the club I know and supported through the 70's and 80's that was arrogant and successful and other clubs feared playing us, players could only dream of getting picked up by the mighty Blues. This is what the powers that be should be doing, reconnecting with it supporters and members as without them, there is no Carlton. Get the Media department out and about and advertising and making noise, getting interest and positive feedback through media outlets, social media and creating excitement amongst supporters and members.
As I have previously stated, I run a gym in eastern suburbs and we are always looking at ways of improving our business as we understand without our members we are nothing. I can guarantee you that people in my position/ role would not even mix or talk to the members, out of a very strong membership base I know a good 65 to 75% of them, I know them by name and I am always on the gym floor talking and getting to know who is frequenting our business and ensuring our culture and reputation is the best it can be. One thing I also know is we always have lots to improve on, but by knowing our members they will give me the feedback good and bad.
Please Carlton reconnect with the members, we are not just revenue but are the lifeline of the club and just give us something that is the truth and that will get us enthusiastic and passionate again as actions speak volumes.

 

[thylacine60]

Good post if I'm reading between the lines correctly.........

 

[Blue For Life]

Good post if I'm reading between the lines correctly.........

I am sure you have interpreted this correctly, and have only recently began to post on BF, I have been reading posts for years and some things that were posted made for interesting reading and others didn't really have much substance or just sat on the fence. With my opinions I really give my honest opinion and I appreciate when another passionate Carlton supporter can understand the point or at least appreciate my love and passion for this club. Thank uou

 

[HARKER]

There is always going to be rumors, innuendo, and speculation, and everyone has an opinion when it comes to most issues in life, but when referring to matters pertaining to the Carlton Football Club or any other sporting organization we can all have our own say and the fun begins. The truth is and all ways will be, we are kept in the dark, drip fed bull####, media speculation running rampant, whether it's the truth or not and yet the Carlton Football Club, with MLG coming out and saying we are going to be more fan friendly and be a transparent club. So can anyone tell really what the club has forecast for the now and the future. I for one as a long time supporter and member would appreciate some clarity and at least sold on hope with something tangible and not fed crap to keep us interested enough and with just enough hope. MM hijacked the club and didn't allow it to grow positively but instead ran his own agenda and made sure we always got bad publicity through the media etc. We now have our club back, looking to rebuild, on the lookout for a new head coach, need to keep sponsors happy and attract new ones and one really important issue is to get credibility back from the supporters and grow our membership base to some where around 60,000.
Not to be a pessimist as I love this club but where is the communication where is the transparency and where and when are we going to be a power house of the competition, the club I know and supported through the 70's and 80's that was arrogant and successful and other clubs feared playing us, players could only dream of getting picked up by the mighty Blues. This is what the powers that be should be doing, reconnecting with it supporters and members as without them, there is no Carlton. Get the Media department out and about and advertising and making noise, getting interest and positive feedback through media outlets, social media and creating excitement amongst supporters and members.
As I have previously stated, I run a gym in eastern suburbs and we are always looking at ways of improving our business as we understand without our members we are nothing. I can guarantee you that people in my position/ role would not even mix or talk to the members, out of a very strong membership base I know a good 65 to 75% of them, I know them by name and I am always on the gym floor talking and getting to know who is frequenting our business and ensuring our culture and reputation is the best it can be. One thing I also know is we always have lots to improve on, but by knowing our members they will give me the feedback good and bad.
Please Carlton reconnect with the members, we are not just revenue but are the lifeline of the club and just give us something that is the truth and that will get us enthusiastic and passionate again as actions speak volumes.

Where does one start but here's what I see Blue For Life
I will premise this by saying that it's based on my experience and observations and not as any statement of fact.

I see you've highlighted MM hijacking the club but there's the starting point to the larger problem; The tradesman blaming his tools.
10 months ago Malthouse had everyone behind him with Judd claiming that he wants to play another year for the vision that was in front of him.....so what happened?
Mick went mad? Judd was mad? I think this is a great starting point looking into what may have transpired.
I see us run more like a political party than a football club and even people that come to our club get polluted for the politics and red tape.

Not in the mood to write too much but have a look at the Malthouse sacking interview and watch Trigg having to cut across MLG to save him showing off the Carlton arrogance.
I like Trigg and I like a lot of the staff at the CFC but if the big stick gets waved from above, waves follow for the sake of making waves.

In short; lots of things have to change and it has to start from the top and until it does we won't grow.

 

[Navy Cream]

Where does one start but here's what I see Blue For Life
I will premise this by saying that it's based on my experience and observations and not as any statement of fact.

I see you've highlighted MM hijacking the club but there's the starting point to the larger problem; The tradesman blaming his tools.
10 months ago Malthouse had everyone behind him with Judd claiming that he wants to play another year for the vision that was in front of him.....so what happened?
Mick went mad? Judd was mad? I think this is a great starting point looking into what may have transpired.
I see us run more like a political party than a football club and even people that come to our club get polluted for the politics and red tape.

Not in the mood to write too much but have a look at the Malthouse sacking interview and watch Trigg having to cut across MLG to save him showing off the Carlton arrogance.
I like Trigg and I like a lot of the staff at the CFC but if the big stick gets waved from above, waves follow for the sake of making waves.

In short; lots of things have to change and it has to start from the top and until it does we won't grow.

100% spot on for mine, Harks. Time we get things right. Sick of all the BS. May as well watch the Bold & the Beautiful over the crap that has been emitted over the past few campaigns.
But I gotta feelin in dem bones.....the penny may have finally dropped. Go BLUES!!

 

[Jock]

Where does one start but here's what I see Blue For Life
I will premise this by saying that it's based on my experience and observations and not as any statement of fact.

I see you've highlighted MM hijacking the club but there's the starting point to the larger problem; The tradesman blaming his tools.
10 months ago Malthouse had everyone behind him with Judd claiming that he wants to play another year for the vision that was in front of him.....so what happened?
Mick went mad? Judd was mad? I think this is a great starting point looking into what may have transpired.
I see us run more like a political party than a football club and even people that come to our club get polluted for the politics and red tape.

Not in the mood to write too much but have a look at the Malthouse sacking interview and watch Trigg having to cut across MLG to save him showing off the Carlton arrogance.
I like Trigg and I like a lot of the staff at the CFC but if the big stick gets waved from above, waves follow for the sake of making waves.

In short; lots of things have to change and it has to start from the top and until it does we won't grow.

Great post.
When I sit back and reflect on the last couple of months I just keep thinking what would have happened if Costa / Cook or the curren Newbolt / Fox combination were in charge. I don't think anything would have happened in public. Any issues, concerns, improvements would have played out behind closed doors. If the coach was to finish up he would have done so at years end in a bland fashion. These good clubs / boards / administrations just go about their business in an understated fashion. Gee I wish we could too.

 

[Red Bull]

Great post.
When I sit back and reflect on the last couple of months I just keep thinking what would have happened if Costa / Cook or the curren Newbolt / Fox combination were in charge. I don't think anything would have happened in public. Any issues, concerns, improvements would have played out behind closed doors. If the coach was to finish up he would have done so at years end in a bland fashion. These good clubs / boards / administrations just go about their business in an understated fashion. Gee I wish we could too.

Not defending the board in any way , shape or fashion ,
BUT ...
That was never going to happen with Malthouse .
Along with his record , his history is there for all to see ...

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Where does one start but here's what I see Blue For Life
I will premise this by saying that it's based on my experience and observations and not as any statement of fact.

I see you've highlighted MM hijacking the club but there's the starting point to the larger problem; The tradesman blaming his tools.
10 months ago Malthouse had everyone behind him with Judd claiming that he wants to play another year for the vision that was in front of him.....so what happened?
Mick went mad? Judd was mad? I think this is a great starting point looking into what may have transpired.
I see us run more like a political party than a football club and even people that come to our club get polluted for the politics and red tape.

Not in the mood to write too much but have a look at the Malthouse sacking interview and watch Trigg having to cut across MLG to save him showing off the Carlton arrogance.
I like Trigg and I like a lot of the staff at the CFC but if the big stick gets waved from above, waves follow for the sake of making waves.

In short; lots of things have to change and it has to start from the top and until it does we won't grow.

In this example Carlton are the tradesman blaming one of their tools ... Malthouse but could we equally suggest Carlton are the homeowner hiring a tradesman and that tradesman blamed his tools when the homeowner wasn't happy with the job?

It's interesting that you think that what went wrong since 10 months ago is down to the club and Carlton arrogance. We had an expert coach resetting parameters as he went while the main job he is hired for, on field performance ... spiralled down at an alarming rate SINCE that hopeful performance evaluation 10 months prior.

Carlton were prepared to take a 7 win season with the list being tweaked and good characters being brought to the club and a new found competitive attitude. They were not prepared to see us be the worst team in the competition with no competitive instinct, nothing attractive about the way we played and a complete rejection by the supporter base underway. The on field was hurting the off field and we couldn't sustain it and let's face it, Mick was doing nothing to explain or alleviate concerns aside from some general statements to buy himself more time.

Dead cat bounce or not, the pressure valve was released for a lot of supporters and our attendances are going back up again.

Mick didn't go mad, but the club stopped buying what he was trying to sell because the KPIs were not being met. That's business. Judd didn't go mad, he just misread the ability of his teammates to maintain a mindset and the ability to switch up the game plan if the occasion called for it.

I still haven't warmed to M-Lo and I have little faith in the board and the make up of that board, however their shortfalls are an aside to the problems that beset Malthouse in my opinion. He wasn't sabotaged. He wasn't a victim. He just didn't do enough to keep us competitive and make us look like we had a future, regardless of the state of our list. Plenty of players have rediscovered dormant form and are playing with freedom. On the previous paths, most of those players were going to be thrown on the scrap heap, given away for a song because their value had plummeted. Yes, they liked Malthouse but it's not a social club, it's a football club and if together they couldn't look like one, all the mateship in the world counted for nothing.

Not much point in looking back at this. It's all prone to revision. A failure in the future does not mean we should have stayed the course with Mick because we had no coaching sample at Carlton that suggested it was working. What will remain however is a pretty unimpressive record and the first half of 2015 being an unmitigated disaster.

The club appoints coaches. If they fail the club made the wrong decision. It doesn't follow that admitting the mistake and removing the coach is another mistake. What if they left him there and we got worse and were not building properly or playing with any cohesion after another 2-3 years? You could genuinely blame the club for not acting sooner and for driving us into the ground.

The club were damned either way and opted for a systems overhaul than blind faith. As a supporter I was glad for the hit of hope, something different .... sugar hit or not.

As long as Trigg and SOS do the speaking and the board just support until we lose our way, I'll leave them alone.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

As I said, it was only my observation but I'll back my observations because the patterns repeat.

They may not next time around but we'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

What will happen when we announce our huge loss this year. Boy, aren't Malthouse and Rogers going to cop it.

I would have thought some of the reasons for huge financial losses would be on field performance related. I would have thought on field performance might also depend on recruiting and development.

Our crowds were down, our memberships were down, our senior coach wage bill has been higher than most clubs. There is some blame to be had.

Rogers may be shown to be unlucky ... but then he left because he didn't like the new reporting arrangements ... didn't like change ... didn't want to evolve .... apparently.

Interestingly Mick's main defence was poor recruiting ... not his fault. As some of our younger players start getting played, and start looking good, the recruiting looks better and the development and game plan that allows them to showcase their abilities looks better than it did under Mick. To me, the defences of Rogers and Malthouse are in opposition to each other.

 

[HARKER]

I would have thought some of the reasons for huge financial losses would be on field performance related. I would have thought on field performance might also depend on recruiting and development.

Our crowds were down, our memberships were down, our senior coach wage bill has been higher than most clubs. There is some blame to be had.

Rogers may be shown to be unlucky ... but then he left because he didn't like the new reporting arrangements ... didn't like change ... didn't want to evolve .... apparently.

Interestingly Mick's main defence was poor recruiting ... not his fault. As some of our younger players start getting played, and start looking good, the recruiting looks better and the development and game plan that allows them to showcase their abilities looks better than it did under Mick. To me, the defences of Rogers and Malthouse are in opposition to each other.

Rogers was white-anted after being given a three year contract.
We had to pay Ratten out..............we have to pay Malthouse out and on and on.

We're just not a very good organisation................regardless of all the excuses.
I used to excuse them also, but you can only give someone so many chances before you have to call them out, as being the problem.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Rogers was white-anted after being given a three year contract.
We had to pay Ratten out..............we have to pay Malthouse out and on and on.

We're just not a very good organisation................regardless of all the excuses.
I used to excuse them also, but you can only give someone so many chances before you have to call them out, as being the problem.

Rogers may have been white anted when M-Lo spoke to the Hawks guy, not so much when we got SOS on board. SOS has a holistic approach to recruiting and list management. Rogers was just about recruiting. They could have worked together but the club is big on this organisation wise consultative process now and Rogers wanted to be left to his own devices .... 'let the baker bake the bread' is fine and all that, but the customer dictates what sort of bread, what course he is serving it with, the cost of the baking, and the ambience and environment of the dining venue .... and they wanted collaboration.

Yeah we had to pay Ratten out ... a full year, and it cost us $1m. If Ratten sees out his contract, we don't pay Mick in 2013 and we save $1m.

Yeah we had to pay out Mick ... for a year he had already commenced. It cost us .... it cost us whatever pay rise Barker is getting to see out the season. Perhaps nothing ... and no assistant coach has come in to replace Barker. The cost of the Malthouse decision is negligible. In fact considering where we were heading, considering our crowds, considering the probably impact on sponsorship renewals, it may well have saved us a hell of a lot and lessened the inevitable loss. It probably also saved us from bleeding more players whose value had decreased, and raised their value for any future dealings.

We can talk about excuses for the board but if we aren't a very good organisation, that doesn't mean all decisions are wrong and everybody affected by those decisions is a victim. I think separation of issues is a must and the cynic in me finds efforts to lump them together to protect the legacy of favourite staff convenient.

 

[Navy Cream]

Club as a whole is at the old line in the sand moment.
Not in any order, but we need structure, unity and direction. It must start from here on.

 

[HBF]

Rogers was white-anted after being given a three year contract.
We had to pay Ratten out..............we have to pay Malthouse out and on and on.

We're just not a very good organisation................regardless of all the excuses.
I used to excuse them also, but you can only give someone so many chances before you have to call them out, as being the problem.

This.
We have made so many bad decisions in the past and we are still paying for them.
Getting SOS in would appear to be a good result, but I still don't know what Shane Rogers really did that wrong.
It appeared he and Andy McKay were doing a pretty good job with our list management.

 

[HBF]

Club as a whole is at the old line in the sand moment.
Not in any order, but we need structure, unity and direction. It must start from here on.

One thing I have been really pleased with is all they key people at the club have all said we need to start from scratch.
No more big FA signings and we're just going to hit the drafts hard.
Perhaps we should have embraced this a while ago, but hey better late than never.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

This.
We have made so many bad decisions in the past and we are still paying for them.
Getting SOS in would appear to be a good result, but I still don't know what Shane Rogers really did that wrong.
It appeared he and Andy McKay were doing a pretty good job with our list management.

Rogers was not a list manager though. He was focussed on recruiting. Swann used to be the list manager. McKay was the football department head, not a list manager.

Contract negotiation, free agent networking, dealing with agents in season, welfare issues, work/life balance, long term list structure ... all things a list manager deals with. We were putting a dedicated person in place so McKay could oversee coaching and resources and Rogers could run his scouting networks and study young talent.

Nothing wrong with that.

Hawthorn don't have both roles but they have someone who does both roles, and has experience in both fields. Sydney have a recruiting and list strategy manager but a national recruiting coordinator. The latter is what I see Rogers as being. Still responsible for who they scout and who we recommend picking up in the draft but with a strategic consultation process taking place. This happened before anyway except Mick was drawing up his list and pointing at players.

Rogers was not sacked. He had a contract. He just didn't like having a new layer of management placed over the top of him but the reporting structure actually made sense.

 

[passmark]

Hawthorn have an administration model that's conducive to growth and we haven't.
We're just going around in circles isolating situation a or situation b to feather our arguments.

We know that we're all wrong and we're even saying that we're all wrong but will we do something about it this time around?
It may be a case of a leopard not changing its spots or it may not be.........some may feel confident for a change but I can't see it when things remain status quo at the top end of town. How can it?

Yep.

At the moment we are just hoping like hell SOS and, to a lesser extent, Barker and/or his replacement drag us out of the poo.

Trigg has done a mea culpa on behalf of the club but do board members share this sense of guilt?...........I have my doubts and if you don't think you have a problem yada yada........................

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Hawthorn have an administration model that's conducive to growth and we haven't.
We're just going around in circles isolating situation a or situation b to feather our arguments.

We know that we're all wrong and we're even saying that we're all wrong but will we do something about it this time around?
It may be a case of a leopard not changing its spots or it may not be.........some may feel confident for a change but I can't see it when things remain status quo at the top end of town. How can it?

The only thing I see that maintains at a status quo is the looming presence of powerbrokers ... is this what you refer to?

I've seen a plan, we have a new CEO, we have a dedicated list manager, we have a coach hiring process and panel. I'm not seeing status quo aside from that one area which makes us paranoid but we can only comment on what happens, not what we expect to happen.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Yep.

At the moment we are just hoping like hell SOS and, to a lesser extent, Barker and/or his replacement drag us out of the poo.

Trigg has done a mea culpa on behalf of the club but do board members share this sense of guilt?...........I have my doubts and if you don't think you have a problem yada yada........................

I've often stated I have no faith in the board but they will be judged on how they handle things since we apparently hit some kind of reset button.

It seems what people are really saying is that the board have screwed up as a collective. We will continue to heap s**t on the whole club until everybody steps down. However I want to see hands in the air to replace them, not just get rid of them all and then say ... okay, what now? Tom Elliot has agitated. Do not want, can not afford to get. It's a retrograde step IMO.

I'd love for people to clearly articulate their current issues with the club and put forward solutions as they see them. If they can't, then tipping a bag of s**t on the club as a collective does us no favours. Referring back to previous mistakes does not allow us to move forward. Feeling sorry for Mick or Rogers at the expense of the club does not help.

Wanting the club to apologise to anyone we perceive were hard done by would be nothing but a feel good exercise for some unable to move forward.

We have a starting point. What more do people expect to see right now?

 

[passmark]

The only thing I see that maintains at a status quo is the looming presence of powerbrokers ... is this what you refer to?

I've seen a plan, we have a new CEO, we have a dedicated list manager, we have a coach hiring process and panel. I'm not seeing status quo aside from that one area which makes us paranoid but we can only comment on what happens, not what we expect to happen.

Of course we can comment on what we expect to happen.

I expect some on-field improvement (not hard from where we are) ,cosmetic administration changes and a slicker marketing effort to keep the masses happy.

At the first hint of struggle or crisis I expect the factions to go back to their usual MO.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

I have to point out that this terrible image problem we have with sacking coaches, that had us umming and ahhing about what to do with Mick, this thing the media were clamouring all over us about, this thing that gave us such bad PR .... has gone within a month of the decision, purely because the fog lifted, we had potential again, the fans were happier, there was light at the end of the tunnel. It has revealed itself to be a correct decision and the good it has done stands head and shoulders above the negatives. Yeah, it will be mentioned the next time a coach is under pressure ... it will be used to sensationalise and the sacked coaching victims will be wheeled out to heap pressure on the club again. It's the way these things are done. There will be no debate about whether the decision was right or just because that's not what it will be about at that time. I'm saying it now though. It was right. It was just. It did lift the fog.

 

[Jock]

We're not a particularly supportive group. Mick did play a game at the end of things but he was pushed into playing that game.
We think that the players shouldn't get affected by the politics that surround them in their work-place.........everyone gets affected and productivity drops.

Trigg does give me confidence though and I feel that while others are going about their usual business, he'll stay strong and adhere to the principles that were sold to him from day 1.
Have a look at that interview I mentioned. To me it says, "No Mark. We said we'd do it this way. Let me handle it" ................. or in other words; Let the baker bake the bread We don't think that these words used by Mick weren't by design? He knew what he was saying and saw the landscape miles out.

Yes I agree MM knew what he was doing and saying. However I'm suggesting a professional outfit would not have let it get to that stage. Do you really honestly think a Costa / Cook outfit would have let a situation like we had develop and get out of hand like it did?
Trigg commenting in the media throughout was amature at best and only inflammatory.
I think Trigg likes the sound of his own voice a lot and would be better pressed to model himself on Fox, Cook or Gale. Giving boring as batshit interviews sparingly and spending more time making sure things are in place in his own back yard.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Of course we can comment on what we expect to happen.

I expect some on-field improvement (not hard from where we are) ,cosmetic administration changes and a slicker marketing effort to keep the masses happy.

At the first hint of struggle or crisis I expect the factions to go back to their usual MO.

You can't bag the club for what you expect to happen in the future. You can express concerns and worry of course.

This whole notion that we want to see changes now to prevent what my punch drunk paranoia expects to happen in the future is a little vague. Are you saying that you want to see a contrite board reveal all about who said what, who pushed for what, who voted for which decision, who got in who's ear .... or the club was run terribly, burn the board to the ground and start again with .... someone?

I'd love to see some practicality in this, not just emotion. Emotion is for we supporters but let's pretend for a second, we are encharged with fixing this. What is the problem and how do we fix it?

Marketing yeah, membership definitely.

Mind you, I'm of the opinion that we like to cringe at things that don't matter, that we don't think big picture. I mean I couldn't care less if Captain Carlton and his hovercraft try to entertain some kids. I couldn't care less if the Dogs are playing a kids movie before our game tonight. I'm not their intended target. I appreciate they are trying something. Our fans by and large look inwards at whether they personally are interested in the idea or worse, they take their cues from those that would poke fun at the club. I've actually been perfectly fine with many of our marketing campaigns.

I'd be looking at memberships and value for money a little more however. Maximise your appeal factor instead of your profits from minimal appeal.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Yes I agree MM knew what he was doing and saying. However I'm suggesting a professional outfit would not have let it get to that stage. Do you really honestly think a Costa / Cook outfit would have let a situation like we had develop and get out of hand like it did?
Trigg commenting in the media throughout was amature at best and only inflammatory.
I think Trigg likes the sound of his own voice a lot and would be better pressed to model himself on Fox, Cook or Gale. Giving boring as batshit interviews sparingly and spending more time making sure things are in place in his own back yard.

Trigg had to send a public message because our supporters would never support something they never saw coming. We get buried on the lack of consultation and you can't exactly consult on a coach sacking. We used the media to manage expectations.

We could not commit to Mick because the support was dwindling and performance terrible. So we gave him an out ... a rebuild. I'm sure all he had to do was extract competiveness from the players and develop players to give us hope. I'm equally sure Mick didn't know how to extract that from the players and thought winning games would be the only way to save himself and he selected accordingly. He then attacked the club for publicly providing him with that rebuild out because he couldn't turn anything around.

I mean, are people seriously suggesting that the players were frozen with fear over the prospect of a rebuild but have conveniently found the will to fight for their careers with the prospect of a new coach coming in? I think there is more to it than that.

This was an ever changing fluid situation and we had to react accordingly.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Exactly Jock
They also wouldn't have created the environment for that to occur in the first place and this is what had happened. Unprofessional

I can't fathom this generalisation.

The only way they created this environment is by not extending Mick a year out or not cutting him a year early if they thought he wasn't right for the job. Either way would have been a disaster greater than what eventually happened.

This generalisation is just another way of apportioning no blame on Mick for performance.

 

[HARKER]

I can't fathom this generalisation.

The only way they created this environment is by not extending Mick a year out or not cutting him a year early if they thought he wasn't right for the job. Either way would have been a disaster greater than what eventually happened.

This generalisation is just another way of apportioning no blame on Mick for performance.

If you can't, you can't. That's O.K.

The term culture gets bandied around a lot and some clubs have worked hard, to put in place a terrific workplace and one conducive to personal betterment and of a feeling of union........That's culture and it starts right from the top as it does in any business/organisation. We haven't had that for some time.