Now it has been confirmed that Roberto Gagliardi has left Notts by mutual consent leaving a vacancy in the Football Management side at the Club.

Do PON members think that the Director of Football should be replaced by an experienced League 2 Manager/ Head Coach type or just amalgamate the two roles of Head Coach and Director of Football into one?

Is it important that the Club has a Director of Football or not. Can a First Team Manager do both roles successfully at Notts?

I think the clubs preferred option is a separate DoF and Head Coach, I can’t see them deviating from that set up.

2 minutes ago, Fan of Big Tone said:

I think the clubs preferred option is a separate DoF and Head Coach, I can’t see them deviating from that set up.

I do understand that may be the case, however, the fans may have their own ideas about the role of the D of F verses the Football Manager / Head Coach role & how they fit together or don't fit as the case may be.. I'm sure it could spring some very good debate about the subject.

Perhaps check if Richard Montague is available...he got most of his signings about right...

@gtownjohnno ,sorry but he's really proving an astute hire to Swansea.

To the point, I don't think we can really go back to a manager's manager role at Notts.

I think the mechanisms are just too different, plus as much as I've come to get used to MP, I wouldn't trust his judgement on new signings alone.

yeah, I don't think we should ever go back to the model that got us relegated. We need the Head Coach to concentrate on his core job

I'd prefer to see us hire an experienced DoF / recruitment head who knows how to put a squad together than give the job to our relatively inexperienced head coach.

In principle there's no reason why a manager couldn't do both roles, but there are a couple of disadvantages. Firstly, he would have less time to dedicate to the squad as he'd be out and about watching players. Secondly, every change in manager would be a complete reset. We've seen it in the past - new managers coming in every season with their own philosophy, constantly having to wait several months until they've got "their own players" and then sacking them anyway, the bloated squad with ill-fitting players. It doesn't mean inevitable disaster, but you need someone who will stick around for a bit, and a manager who spends more than two years at one club is the exception rather than the rule.

By contrast, Richard Montague saw out four head coaches, giving us continuity all that time. So I think it's clear why they prefer that approach, the key is to get competent people in both positions.

The Reedtz brothers have to shoulder some of the blame by hiring this 🤡 they didnt do their homework on him or they would have seen what he did to Orient. Their fans warned us about him

Given our recruitment set-up is a tad different to the norm, I don’t think it would make sense to suddenly make the head coach totally responsible for recruitment and effectively merge the two roles.

If we were to have a system where a manager has total control it means he has to be able to understand and properly utilise Chris and Alex’s model. Or I guess, a manager could just totally ignore it and bring in players via his methods, but that would just make the whole involvement of Chris and Alex pointless.

It worked well when Richard was here, his title was a little different but it was a very similar role. It just seemingly hasn’t worked with Roberto.  

1 hour ago, menzinho said:

Given our recruitment set-up is a tad different to the norm, I don’t think it would make sense to suddenly make the head coach totally responsible for recruitment and effectively merge the two roles.

If we were to have a system where a manager has total control it means he has to be able to understand and properly utilise Chris and Alex’s model. Or I guess, a manager could just totally ignore it and bring in players via his methods, but that would just make the whole involvement of Chris and Alex pointless.

It worked well when Richard was here, his title was a little different but it was a very similar role. It just seemingly hasn’t worked with Roberto.  

Yes, all good points

Also, wouldn't going to a traditional manager model with no data background be saying that Football Radar is some kind of snake oil company. Or it's failed in the place it's been given the most opportunity. It hasn't failed though, we just gagged on the last appointment it seems.

Can I apply to be DoF?

On the question of goal keepers, Salford went to Sunderland to source their GK.... given our previous Sunderland dealings, we should have been ahead in that queue.

BBC Sport

Matty Young: Salford City re-sign Sunderland goalkeeper o...

Salford City re-sign goalkeeper Matty Young from Premier League side Sunderland on a season-long loan.

It's going to be interesting who the brothers are going to eventually choose as their Director of Football. I assume that he will be sold into the Technical Board way of doing things.

Will the person be a former Manager/ Head Coach with plenty of EFL experience or will he have to have more experience as a recruiter & be familiar with data systems such as Football Radar.

If the person is a former Manager/ Head Coach he will need to be able to work with the current Head Coach, & if the person is in ultimate charge of Football Operations, will that undermine the position of the Head Coach or not?

The Director of Football will be expected to chair the Technical Board & be a bridge between the Coaching Staff & the Owners. My question would be whether an arrangement such as we see here can work successfully or not?

The Technical Board is a new concept & it is still in the early stages of it's existence. The jury is out whether it will be ultimately a successful way to assist decision making at a football club or not.

It will certainly need those who attend the Technical Board to be very good at discussing, debating & coming to an agreed consensus to move forward with a plan to solve any difficulties & issues regarding from team/ individual player performances & poor results

The Director Of Football (IMHO) should be someone with a wealth of Experience and vast Knowledge of the Game and work in Tandem with the Head Coach on all Footballing Matters at the Club. He also needs to have an Excellent Relationship with the Owners and his Opinions Need to be Respected by All at the Club. My Choice would be Neil Warnock. Yes I know there's lots of People on the Site will Disagree with me, but he does fit the necessary criteria and they'd be a Fair Bit Of Media Coverage For The Club. Which would be No Bad Thing. Notts might even get a couple of lines written in the Evening Post😂.

But on a Serious Note, perhaps if Someone such as Warnock had been appointed in a Role to help Stuart Maynard when he first became the Notts Head Coach his learning Curve may have Not Been As Steep and maybe the Magpies might be a League 1 side by Now.

To latch on to the discussion from the other thread, I'm very much in favour of the current model as it reflects the game as it is today. If you go back a few decades, managers stayed in post for a few years and you had two or three new signings a season, so it was sensible for the manager to be on charge of recruitment. With the higher squad fluctuations and transfer windows of modern football, it makes sense to split the roles.

Personally I'd prefer the DoF to be a kind of super scout responsible for building the squad than an ex-coach as I think a former coach could undermine the head coach.

We need someone who experienced in the job, not an ex goalkeeping coach or analyst who's decided I think I'll be a DOF now and my mates will give me a job I've no idea about.