The role of director of football isn’t a particularly popular one and the recent, very public resignations of Keegan from Newcastle and Curbishley from West Ham has only served to highlight how managers feel when it comes to their lack of say over transfers. This practice doesn’t seem to have done Ramos any favours at Spurs either and of course, we all know how the coneman’s appointment as Chelsea’s director of football was one of the straws that broke the camel’s back.

Bruce Buck, apparently suffering from a slight case of amnesia when it comes to such matters, recently stated “We don’t support the model where the director of football buys all the players and dumps them in the lap of the first-team manager. That does not work as far as we are concerned.” And that may well be the case because my guess is Avram Grant actually did very little when he held the role. However, whilst criticising clubs who give their director’s of football power over player transfers instead of the managers, Buck seems to have forgotten a certain Mr-United-Through-And-Through-Kenyon.

But anyway, just to show they’re capable of learning the odd lesson, Chelsea have now appointed Luiz Felipe Scolari to the plc board. This not only means Scolari will have a much bigger say in transfers and won’t have to face some dullard foisting Europe’s cast-offs on him but it also means he’s in a much stronger position than either of the last two managers. Grant obviously moved out of the position when he masqueraded as a manager and Jose was never offered it in the first place.

So, a clear show of support for the new Chelsea manager then, although with Scolari only having signed a 3 year deal and Buck saying “We believe you need to encourage the manager to look long term”, maybe this very public backing of the Chelsea boss comes with a hidden agenda?

Filed under: Rants