Filippo Giraldi - Former Sporting Director

[JohhnyM]

So, if we leave the 'Notts' bit aside, the interesting part of this story, for me, is the Giraldi-Marinakis fall-out. If true, it would render all the speculation and conclusion-jumping of the last 5 pages a bit redundant.

It makes more sense.

If you assume that the Director of Football has overall responsibility for football (a stretch, I know), then an assumption would be that he has the final say on the manager. I assume we still don’t have a CEO, and am not sure what the Chairman does apart from website announcements, so assume the DoF in reality reported to EM.

Not unreasonable to assume EM would be pissed off with our league position and prospects, in which case the conversation would usually be along the lines of ”it’s going to be either you or the manager, pal, you decide”.

The only things we do know for sure are that we lucked out on a great coach and promotion, and lucked out on an owner with money and ambition. But for whatever reason have an executive team that can’t get its shit together with the overall running the club manifested in: the state of the ground; failure to get the new stand over the line; player transfer policy; lack of paying sponsors; size of the injury list; and trying to sign new managers while announcing that the current one is here to stay; amongst others.

EM can’t get into the detail required to run the club as well as do all his other stuff, so IMO he should start with hiring a CEO that he trusts, and let him get on with a remit to get the club running well on and off the pitch.

 

[Thomas]

I, for one, am excited for this change of pace.

 

[Gyros Peter]

There's a prat on Twatter who called this story 5/6 hours before Ornstein/DT/Athletic did. I call him a prat because he seems obsessed with baiting Forest fans by constantly using "Notts" in every tweet (and of course the Forest fans bite).
Anyway, touted by most including myself as a wind up merchant who managed to call a few "lucky" calls like Gerrard to Villa, i think todays "scoop" is a bit too lucky to pluck out of the sky.

The other bit of news that he included was this, something that actually makes sense. I don't think it'll take a genius to work out what our immediate future looks like - Cooper will be sacked with Ralph Hassenhutl (someone who was a big fan of Wilson at Southampton) or dare i f***ing say it, Steven Gerrard coming in to take over the reigns immediately.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1645841426624675872

Oh. Oh dear - that's the worst of all worlds.

Fun fact: the linked journo is cousin of the elbow referee.

 

[Alf-engelos Mindminackers]

There's a prat on Twatter who called this story 5/6 hours before Ornstein/DT/Athletic did. I call him a prat because he seems obsessed with baiting Forest fans by constantly using "Notts" in every tweet (and of course the Forest fans bite).
Anyway, touted by most including myself as a wind up merchant who managed to call a few "lucky" calls like Gerrard to Villa, i think todays "scoop" is a bit too lucky to pluck out of the sky.

The other bit of news that he included was this, something that actually makes sense. I don't think it'll take a genius to work out what our immediate future looks like - Cooper will be sacked with Ralph Hassenhutl (someone who was a big fan of Wilson at Southampton) or dare i f***ing say it, Steven Gerrard coming in to take over the reigns immediately.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1645841426624675872

I'm not gonna buy into this bellends claims too much still, but I do really hope that "game-by-game" claim thing is a wind-up, because if that's genuinely EM's approach he's getting worse, not better.

I mean, I think this Jan's window has been on the poorer side of things, but we also need to contextualize the situation.

Giraldi was bought to the club in October and - whilst it's his job to be aware of players & their strengths & weaknesses, and whilst recruitment should be vetting any Cooper suggestions to ensure they are good players too - being given only 2 months to prep for a window and then having the main recruiter/organizer up until that point leave a week into the window is not a smooth situation or foundation to operate from.

So this falls in very murky waters of "Did Giraldi fail to do his job?" and "Could anyone have done a better job given the circumstances?"

A big part of the solution to this is to maintain some consistency in hose recruitment roles (but with some very good obviously).

 

[isaacs]

I'm not gonna buy into this bellends claims too much still, but I do really hope that "game-by-game" claim thing is a wind-up, because if that's genuinely EM's approach he's getting worse, not better.

We're never going to get the truth of course but the theory that he is "reporting" seems a lot more likely than any of the rumours doing the rounds
- Coops has stated many times he liked and got on well with Giraldi
- They were both happy with the business in January
- EM's statement was pretty much "if you don't win soon you're done"
- Anytime you see "amicable split" it means the absolute opposite, an Italian and a Greek being amicable? Absolute fireworks.

Which leads me to conclude that Giraldi actually had a vision with Coops in mind, but that vision actually entertained the idea of "if we get relegated this is what we should do going forward, Cooper in charge....." and EM immediately f**ked him off for even mentioning the relegation word.
I honestly don't think EM has it within his ego or past successes to even entertain the idea of a relegation, especially when he has pumped 160-200mil quid into transfers.

Sunday seems a long time away...

 

[Strummer]

I think some of the players could do with a lambasting of Ezekiel 25:17 right now.

I think some of the players could do with locking in the basement of Zed‘s Pawn Shop.

 

[MaxiRobriguez]

We never learn do we?

We can all surmise what may have happened and how we'd like to go forward from here but the grim reality is we're chocked full of ego at the top echelons of the club who can't stick to a strategy nor trust others to do their job without looking over their shoulder every 5 minutes.

We had the right people in Dane and Syrianos. We binned them because it takes more than five weeks to gel 20+ players. lol.

Edit: That's 4 key members of the recruitment team sacked this year: Dane, Scott, Syrianos and now Giraldi, with the latter joining intra-season because the first three "f**ked up". Perhaps some self-introspection above the recruitment team wouldn't go amiss.

 

[Gyros Peter]

We never learn do we?

We can all surmise what may have happened and how we'd like to go forward from here but the grim reality is we're chocked full of ego at the top echelons of the club who can't stick to a strategy nor trust others to do their job without looking over their shoulder every 5 minutes.

We had the right people in Dane and Syrianos. We binned them because it takes more than five weeks to gel 20+ players. lol.

Edit: That's 4 key members of the recruitment team sacked this year: Dane, Scott, Syrianos and now Giraldi, with the latter joining intra-season because the first three "f**ked up". Perhaps some self-introspection above the recruitment team wouldn't go amiss.

For all the investment, unfortunately we've another one who will undo any steps made forwards in a heartbeat.

Of all the speculation/guesswork, it seems that the most likely is also the most damaging for the club in the long term.

All we can really hope for now is that Steve pulls a rabbit out of the hat, though it seems even more difficult to do so under the current circumstances, if the most likely source is indeed true.

 

[Cureboy]

Shelvey, Ayew, Wood. Enough f***ing said.

 

[Alf-engelos Mindminackers]

We're never going to get the truth of course but the theory that he is "reporting" seems a lot more likely than any of the rumours doing the rounds
- Coops has stated many times he liked and got on well with Giraldi
- They were both happy with the business in January
- EM's statement was pretty much "if you don't win soon you're done"
- Anytime you see "amicable split" it means the absolute opposite, an Italian and a Greek being amicable? Absolute fireworks.

Which leads me to conclude that Giraldi actually had a vision with Coops in mind, but that vision actually entertained the idea of "if we get relegated this is what we should do going forward, Cooper in charge....." and EM immediately f**ked him off for even mentioning the relegation word.
I honestly don't think EM has it within his ego or past successes to even entertain the idea of a relegation, especially when he has pumped 160-200mil quid into transfers.

Sunday seems a long time away...

Fair points.

I do have to say that if there is any substance to some of the managerial names which we are being linked with, then that would seem to suggest that we're planning for next year in the Prem.

 

[congo_red_49]

Shelvey, Ayew, Wood. Enough f***ing said.

Is it though?

 

[jamferg]

There's a prat on Twatter who called this story 5/6 hours before Ornstein/DT/Athletic did. I call him a prat because he seems obsessed with baiting Forest fans by constantly using "Notts" in every tweet (and of course the Forest fans bite).
Anyway, touted by most including myself as a wind up merchant who managed to call a few "lucky" calls like Gerrard to Villa, i think todays "scoop" is a bit too lucky to pluck out of the sky.

The other bit of news that he included was this, something that actually makes sense. I don't think it'll take a genius to work out what our immediate future looks like - Cooper will be sacked with Ralph Hassenhutl (someone who was a big fan of Wilson at Southampton) or dare i f***ing say it, Steven Gerrard coming in to take over the reigns immediately.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1645841426624675872

He mentioned Jack Lester as well .. stood next to him last week at Hallam FC as he’s a mate of a mate ( also Forest ) if only i’d known i could have blagged insider knowledge

 

[Berkshire Red]

We had the right people in Dane and Syrianos. We binned them because it takes more than five weeks to gel 20+ players. lol.

We don't know that though, do we? We don't know why EM sacked Murphy and Syrianos. We make up lots of stuff to support our preconceptions.

What if Murphy demanded Forest stick to his moneyball plan? Provided less than suitable input when asked for more experienced targets?

We really don't know, do we?

Murphy wasn't the answer to "whose model works for staying in the Premier League", he was the answer to "who can help us get out of it?".

 

[MaxiRobriguez]

We don't know that though, do we? We don't know why EM sacked Murphy and Syrianos. We make up lots of stuff to support our preconceptions.

What if Murphy demanded Forest stick to his moneyball plan? Provided less than suitable input when asked for more experienced targets?

We really don't know, do we?

Murphy wasn't the answer to "whose model works for staying in the Premier League", he was the answer to "who can help us get out of it?".

We don't know that either.

The signings picked up under Murphy were good value and improved the quality of the squad:
- Niakhate for £8m, probably worth 2-3x that based on his quality.
- Richards for £8m, probably worth 1-3x that having seen him play a fair bit previously rather than here)
- Mangala for £8m, probably worth 1-2x that.
- Awoniyi for £17m, probably worth 1-2x that, and at one point looked like a top top striker around Christmas, just before injured.
- Toffolo for £2m, probably worth 3-5x that, great cheap backup.
- LOB for £8m, probably worth 0.5-2x that, depending on what happens with him in summer.

Pretty good hit-rate. Should have given him/Syrianos more responsibility, not less. Might have assembled a better squad than we ended up doing, and we'd have more money in the bank/assets on the balance sheet than we do currently.

Edit: Deliberately ignoring injuries because I don't think you can lay the blame of those on the scouts.

 

[Berkshire Red]

We don't know that either.

We have a pretty good idea that without experience we were sinking pretty swiftly. Under Murphy's model we spend the entire season with Williams as full back and not Serge. Kouyate was a key signing too, until his injury. Boly would fit into that bracket too.

We needed a mix, what we seemed to be getting was too much Premier League inexperience.

PS: You missed out Williams off your list

 

[MaxiRobriguez]

We have a pretty good idea that without experience we were sinking pretty swiftly. Under Murphy's model we spend the entire season with Williams as full back and not Serge. Kouyate was a key signing too, until his injury. Boly would fit into that bracket too.

We needed a mix, what we seemed to be getting was too much Premier League inexperience.

PS: You missed out Williams off your list

I missed Williams off as it's not quite clear who pushed for him. Might have been led by Cooper. Same reason I didn't include MGW, Boly and Aurier - think Syrianos/Dane would have sanctioned those at the least but unlikely they were primarily responsible for them signing.

 

[Morpeth]

We don't know that either.

The signings picked up under Murphy were good value and improved the quality of the squad:
- Niakhate for £8m, probably worth 2-3x that based on his quality.
- Richards for £8m, probably worth 1-3x that having seen him play a fair bit previously rather than here)
- Mangala for £8m, probably worth 1-2x that.
- Awoniyi for £17m, probably worth 1-2x that, and at one point looked like a top top striker around Christmas, just before injured.
- Toffolo for £2m, probably worth 3-5x that, great cheap backup.
- LOB for £8m, probably worth 0.5-2x that, depending on what happens with him in summer.

Pretty good hit-rate. Should have given him/Syrianos more responsibility, not less. Might have assembled a better squad than we ended up doing, and we'd have more money in the bank/assets on the balance sheet than we do currently.

Edit: Deliberately ignoring injuries because I don't think you can lay the blame of those on the scouts.

I’ll caveat this by saying I know nothing about transfer fees other than what I’ve read but I think your valuations are based more on what you’d hope than what we’ve seen and maybe they will be realised at some point in the future.

BRs point was that we don’t know what policies were in place and I don’t suppose placing values on players was what he meant either. Rather, it may have been the quality of the player that mattered in the new world. And again, I’m not passing judgement on actual quality as that’s not a the point that was being made.

Essentially, I’ve just added to a rather large amount of hot air.

 

[MaxiRobriguez]

I’ll caveat this by saying I know nothing about transfer fees other than what I’ve read but I think your valuations are based more on what you’d hope than what we’ve seen and maybe they will be realised at some point in the future.

BRs point was that we don’t know what policies were in place and I don’t suppose placing values on players was what he meant either. Rather, it may have been the quality of the player that mattered in the new world. And again, I’m not passing judgement on actual quality as that’s not a the point that was being made.

Essentially, I’ve just added to a rather large amount of hot air.

I don't think the figures are that wild. We've sold players in the Championship for most of the figures I've quoted. If the players quoted get better (ie, become reasonably household PL names) than you can make the estimated range significantly larger, £30m+ for most of them.

 

[Thomas]

'Of course I’m angry' - Filippo Giraldi's candid account of his six months at Forest

Filippo Giraldi on Steve Cooper, being dismissed, Forest's owners and his time at Watford

theathletic.com

Huge interview with our former director.

Defender of Cooper, lover of our owner (and his son) and the reason why Danilo is here.

I wonder what the future would’ve looked like with him IF we let him build his team but whatever.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MaxiRobriguez]

'Of course I’m angry' - Filippo Giraldi's candid account of his six months at Forest

Filippo Giraldi on Steve Cooper, being dismissed, Forest's owners and his time at Watford

theathletic.com

Huge interview with our former director.

Defender of Cooper, lover of our owner (and his son) and the reason why Danilo is here.

I wonder what the future would’ve looked like with him IF we let him build his team but whatever.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Reads like a pitch to a prospective future employer. Can't help but think half of that is exaggerated and/or bullshit.

 

[Ashley]

His defence of the Chris Wood signing made me laugh:

"We cannot go and buy a striker for £40-50 million"

No one was asking you to, mate.

Reads like a pitch to a prospective future employer. Can't help but think half of that is exaggerated and/or bullshit.

Yeah, that's the way it came across to me too.

 

[lavelleuk]

One of the most extreme "mixed bag" transfer windows ever. Felipe and Navas better than I thought we'd ever get, Danilo a guy who could move for 60-80mil one day, Wood and Shelvey the type of signings that set a clubs like ours back years and potentially get teams relegated

 

[Est.1865]

His defence of the Chris Wood signing made me laugh:

"We cannot go and buy a striker for £40-50

His reference to FFP is interesting. Got to wonder how ‘accurate’ that really is, or should I say, how that may apply to this transfer window.

He certainly drops some of the baggage on Cooper too.

 

[Omar Devone Little]

Anyone got the article for those that aren't subscribed to the Athletic?

 

[Ashley]

His reference to FFP is interesting. Got to wonder how ‘accurate’ that really is, or should I say, how that may apply to this transfer window.

He certainly drops some of the baggage on Cooper too.

I mean, if he was that concerned about FFP, spending a combined £20m on Wood and Shelvey and taking on their absolutely massive wages probably wasn't the smartest move he could have made. If we went down, that could have proven to be a real millstone around our necks.