Fawaz's 3 Biggest Mistakes...

[Kelvin's Local]

I love Fawaz and feel he suffers from naivety more than anything malicious but it's hard to say he's not made some major mistakes over his time. For me, there's 3 that stand out:

3) Signing Abdoun and Djebbour:
Something like £3m to sign them and a combined £60k per week for 3 years combined. With the pay-off for Djebbour that's over £10m on the three combined for the sake of two goals and a world of bother. We'd be a damn sight closer to passing FFP without these two bogging us down, shambles.

2) Selling Guedioura
...and let's face it, the situation with the pair of them was only exaggerated by the loss of Adlene. He was the keystone of our team and we've missed him ever since. Not to mention that the presence of an established and well-liked Algerian would have helped with the previous two lads noticeably. He's shown his class with Watford since and we should have moved the heaven and earth to keep him.

1) Sacking SOD
Stability is nice, but it has to be the right man. I really think we had the right man from the word go. He played football the right way, he'd seen success with time at Doncaster and I think the Leeds game was the first sign of his lessons being heeded. We sacked him for a bigger name and look where it's got us. Keep SOD and everything pans out differently. No Davies, no Pearce, no Derby, no FFP (possibly) and Fawaz's legacy is different.

 

[Hermz]

About right. Depends how much he can be blamed for the 2nd one though.

 

[Wes' Organ]

Knowing Emad.

 

[Flaggers]

Listening to knobhead fans.

 

[Hermz]

Listening to knobhead fans.

Then why doesn't he listen to me?

 

[tropix]

Billy sold Guedioura, not Fawaz

 

[Strummer]

Is there any point talking over old ground?

 

[Francis Benali (on loan)]

Poll?

 

[Cortez the Killer]

That party in Scunthorpe last summer.

 

[cms186]

i'll buy 1 and 3, but id say his other one would be re-hiring Davies, I mean, at that point, he probably felt like he didnt have much choice, but he really shouldnt have pandered to the fans on that one

 

[Castus]

Mistake 1: Not buying Barcelona 2.Not buying Man Utd 3. Buying NFFC

 

[sedgred]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/delighted-bolton-fan-announces-dougie-4373446

Wonder how high in the list of cock ups, not listening to this particular fan will be ?

 

[Captain Sinister]

Mistake 1: Not buying Barcelona 2.Not buying Man Utd 3. Buying NFFC

Wrong order of importance:
1 Buying NFFC...
2 Buying NFFC...
3 Buying NFFC.

 

[justnotjase]

I would change 3 to appointing O'Driscoll. Listened to the Internet on that one. Average and very limited manager, never understood the misguided furore that surrounds him.

 

[alfordred]

I would change 3 to appointing O'Driscoll. Listened to the Internet on that one. Average and very limited manager, never understood the misguided furore that surrounds him.

I expect you'll get slaughtered for that comment, but I for one happen to agree with you.

 

[Neil Webb's ex neighbour]

Coming in with the big I am talk about bringing in an 'iconic' manager and hiring SOD, as much as I wasn't fussed with this appointment, it did make him look like a clown from day one!

 

[Redsleepingbeauty]

Myth that SOD was appointed by listening to the internet. Fawaz wanted Big Eck but couldn't get him. McCarthy then rejected us. Fawaz was running out of time before the new season and contracts were expiring. SOD was actually quite a leftfield appointment, after having apparently sought the advice of the players. The internet clamour for Billy is also overplayed. My guess is that he was tapped up by Davies, 'unfinished business' etc. He recognised that Billy had brought relative success to the club and went for him. You forget to mention the 4th mistake, the appointment of Stuart Pearce. :hey:

 

[Wes' Organ]

Getting involved in the wanky industry of football, where anything other than instant success, media soundbites and blowing limitless cash on ordinary, spoiled, prima donna failing footballers is unacceptable to the new breed of sky obsessed consumers that sit in the seats that used to be occupied by fans.

 

[Cortez the Killer]

Depressing that McCarthy turned us down twice.

 

[Erik]

Fawaz has made only one mistake.

Unfortunately he hasn't learnt and as a result has made it several times.

He pays too much attention to what 'fans' say and what the internet tells him they think.

Or put another way -

Listening to knobhead fans.

 

[The_City_Is_Ours]

1 - sacking SOD

2 - Hiring Billy

3 - Giving it the old "I'm minted and you are f**ked without me" bullshit via Conknose on EMT. The houses and cars bought with his dads money were impressive but I'd rather see this big money Kuwaiti sponsorship deal that we've been working on since the day they took over.

 

[It's Baggio]

I would change 3 to appointing O'Driscoll. Listened to the Internet on that one. Average and very limited manager, never understood the misguided furore that surrounds him.

Was there really an internet clamour for SOD? I seem to remember it all came out of the blue and he was appointed a couple hours after the initial reports.

 

[Strummer]

3 - Giving it the old "I'm minted and you are f**ked without me" bullshit via Conknose on EMT. The houses and cars bought with his dads money were impressive but I'd rather see this big money Kuwaiti sponsorship deal that we've been working on since the day they took over.

Personally?

I think this "big money Kuwait sponsorship" deal is a load of bollocks.

It's my opinion that Fawaz, perhaps unwisely , thought his countrymen would flock to throw money at him when he took over the club.

As we know, that hasn't happened, and it won't do until if/when we are an established Premier League club.

That's why we end up with "last-minute" sponsorship deals from Fawaz own business.

He keeps comparing us to Manchester City but he can't, we are not in the same league as them and also the scale of the investment is significantly smaller. City's owners have thrown as much at the infrastructure of their club (almost!) as they have the playing staff.

Fawaz on the other hand has bought two big screen tellies and some fancy advertising hoardings.

No disrespect to Fawaz, but I can't help thinking he's bitten off far more than he can chew.

 

[justnotjase]

Was there really an internet clamour for SOD? I seem to remember it all came out of the blue and he was appointed a couple hours after the initial reports.

The Internet clamour for SOD had been going on for years ! Still, we managed to poach him back from the mighty Crawley Town. Says it all really.

 

[Trickie Trees]

Ah yes the great SOD debate rumbles on.
So massively overrated in my opinion. Dour style of football. Flattered to deceive by getting to 7th and showed his true level at Bristol City and in the end at Doncaster. I don't think he would have been the long term answer though I do agree with many that it was foolish to sack him after being 7th. But he has achieved an almost mythical level of support from many whilst actually being ultimately a very ordinary lower league manager.