Angus Kinnear named as new Everton CEO

I note much warmer words being uttered than were expressed about Sean Dyche & his team.

As for Angus Kinnear, I have no knowledge and can't comment. I hope he can be a good CEO who explains to the owners the importance of keeping the fans onside.

He'll be like a new CEO when he's fit.

I can see it refers to Thelwell's departure – but isn't it possible the new CEO might be tasked with hiring the replacement?

Yes, Roy was a brilliant comic actor, I think he died while making a film.

"The Club will transition from a single Director of Football to a wider sporting leadership team. Planning for the summer transfer window is already under way, led by the sporting department and David Moyes, and senior appointments will be announced in due course."

From the announcement on the OS.

Encouraging to see that Chong will be staying on to engage about regeneration that seems to have stalled.

Michael @3, you and others know my view. The DoF role hasn't worked because we didn't allow it to or empower it. It will be interesting to see what happens in that space.

If Moyes wants total control of the train set, then I hope, like on the coaching side, he has matured and is more experienced so that we get targets identified and complete business early.

He died while filming Return of The Musketeers in 1988.

Thanks… was a horse involved in his death?

Manager, manage and work hand in hand with DoF in recruitment (the opposite of Thelwell & Dyche). We need all three in my humble opinion.

Died of a heart attack afterwards in hospital.

Thank you for your service and keeping your council as I'm sure you could have spilt your guts over and over and have had to bite your lip on many occasions. I would have liked you to stay with the Blues.

The club added "planning for the summer transfer window is already under way" being led by the sporting department and manager David Moyes.

"Sporting Department". Does that mean the staff or is "sales associates" more correct now at Everton 2?

Our last 3 DoF‘s haven't worked well. (Thelwell debatable; tough 3 years for him.)

Time for a change, TFG own the club now, it's their call, let's see what happens.

The challenges Thelwell has faced, 3 managers in 3 years, having to sell the better players and reduce the wage bill by letting others go, having no significant money to spend on transfers, or attract players with a “good story” about how the club was moving forward (stadium excepted) — for him to have put a squad together that managers have been able to use to keep us in the Premier League has been a job well done.

The other thing to remember is, whilst we do have a thin squad, there is a good core of players who are 25 or under to move forward with.

I can understand that Moyes wants to choose and recruit which players he manages, and I am assuming that's what he did at Everton previously.

That said, there has to be a system of scouting and identifying suitable recruits and I wonder who is actually responsible for that in the future? And then who suggests "Davey what about this player, do you fancy him?"

It's the players on the pitch that most fans are interested in, as for the CEO, well we just trust them to put the right business-minded person in charge.

I'm pleased Colin Chong has been kept on as the link man to BMD.

I would just like to thank Kevin and Richard for all their hard work during this incredibly difficult transition; deep down, they must be gutted to be leaving especially now we have turned the corner and are moving into the new stadium.

Who knows the thoughts and reasons for decisions from the top? We hope that in TFG we can trust.

The successful ownership change to 49ers Enterprises, perhaps, or the purchase of Elland Road?

Not sophisticated, just my opinion, as I said. I'm more concerned about the structure.

He now has full reign over all transfers, I presume, so it's all over to you, Davey. You did well last time with limited resources and Kenwright at the helm; let's see how you go now.

I really hope it's successful because it's all we all want, a successful football club, winning a cup or two and qualifying for Europe.

From Beren Cross in The Athletic: "...sources in the game, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, rate the former Arsenal and West Ham United executive as one of the best football administrators in the country. There has been little surprise that Everton’s headhunters whittled down their list of candidates to the 47-year-old... Kinnear had been seen as a key voice in the planned stadium redevelopment and is well-liked by staff throughout the offices at Elland Road."

And he's certainly leaving Leeds in good shape, both competitively and financially.

Anyway, it's good to have a CEO in place, and to have some of the corporate restructuring underway well before the end of the season.

Interesting that all this supposed restructuring is going on before the new CEO's first day at the office.

"Everton are landing a highly-respected football administrator in Kinnear. Very few football executives achieve universal acclaim on the terraces and Kinnear is no different in that regard, but people in the industry speak highly of him.

"Agents have praised his methods in contract or transfer negotiations, rating his directness and honesty at all stages. Kinnear is also well-liked by staff throughout the offices at Elland Road. He has been a popular leader off the field for the club.

"Everton fans can expect him to be open to scrutiny. He sat with a popular Leeds fanzine and answered all questions, no matter how controversial, in what became an annual event after the summer transfer window.

"Kinnear was also a key figure in the club's supporter advisory board. In the minutes published from its monthly meetings, the chief executive was almost always in attendance, listening to fans' concerns and trying to act on them.

"He is not a bombastic speaker, but a steady, reliable, trusted operator at the head of a football club. Kinnear was a perfect foil for the fiery, emotional approaches of Andrea Radrizzani and Victor Orta, when they spent six years together at the top of the club."

Paragraphs 3 and 4 should delight every Blue after the Moshiri years of frustrating non-communication. The Friedkins are notoriously private, but it sounds like we should expect some refreshing openness from their CEO.

Angus spent his early career in marketing for Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola, working on sports sponsorship of The Athens Olympics, England's Rugby World Cup victory and the European Football Championships. This paved the way for 20 years of working within football clubs, initially as Commercial Director at Arsenal where Angus led their move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium.

He then became Managing Director at West Ham, re-opening the Olympic Stadium as their new home, before joining Leeds United as CEO and taking them back to the Premier League for the first time in 16 years. Angus has also served as a Director of Commonwealth Games England and Chairman of British Weightlifting.

Cracked me up.

Why has it taken so long to announce it?

Interested to see what this means for the academy, youth recruitment and youth development – domestic and international.

Looking at your previous, he certainly has a CV with the Arsenal and West Ham gigs being very relevant to our move to the Everton Stadium.

I've read that there are a lot of Leeds fans that are pleased to see the back of him, I don't know why?

I am open to him and really hope he does a good job, he certainly has an impressive CV. I bet he would have chosen a less 'private school boy' photo for his introduction to Everton fans.

Just a quick note to Mr Thelwell: well done, sir, on a fantastic job. There are more than a few on here who are blind to the good work you did under the most challenging of circumstances. I for one will continue to try get others to recognise that and I wish you well in your next role.

"He left on a free presumably... Have Everton inserted a 60% wage cut or loan deal option for him in case of relegation?

"Are we getting Jack Harrison back as a swap deal? I imagine Jack could make a good job of rebuilding Elland Road (he probably needs to retrain so why not construction?). Either way, if Jack just sat drinking cups of tea all day, scratching his arse and wolf-whistling at anything in a skirt, he'd still make more progress than Angus... the guy who was brought in to us as a stadium re-development specialist."

And I agree with you on Thelwell. I think he deserves tremendous credit.

"…judging by what I've read, Leeds fans are happy for him to go".

Sources and links, Paul, please.

I haven't seen your prediction for Wolves (A) yet, PH.

I think you would have had more success had Everton had a more forward-thinking manager who would actually play the players that you worked so hard to sign.

I think supporters can see quite clearly that our lowly position in the table would be a lot higher had O'Brien, Danjuma, Lindstrom been in the team.

I wish you well..

And thank you, Mr Thelwell. I'd have liked to see you get a decent shot at working for a club that wasn't a complete basket case!

But I think football and player recruitment has moved on. For sure, I want Moyes and the DoF to work hand in hand, and Moyes to sign off on players.

But football and the globalisation and sophistication of football recruitment has moved on. I think our Management structure needs to reflect this.

I always thought he spoke sense, let's hope we don't get another Steve Walsh, splash the cash character. We don't know if Thelwell already has offers, but I won't be surprised if we are buying players off his club in the future (for a lot more than he paid).

Good luck to him!

Now the new CEO is on board, I'm hoping for better communication about the vision, long-term strategy and direction we are going. Sponsorships, naming rights, Academy, development of the area around BMD, transfer funds, Goodison… and all things in-between!!!

Moyes is likely to be around for the next 3 to 5 years, and under that model he needs a good head of recruitment to lead the analysis, where Moyes has the final say.

That's perfectly adequate for us, with Moyes hinting he might well take a Director of Football role later in his career.

Bottom line is, we need some talent, and first time around he's done the best in finding it post Kendall Mk 1.

I've no doubt he can find the right players to make us competitive, and he has financial clout in TFG that he didn't have first time around.

I have always put great trust in grown men who wear baseball caps with mottos on them.

Cahill was signing for Palace until Simon Jordan realised who his agent was and only then did Everton step in.

Same with Arteta. He had him on loan but never had that much money to spend, and I'm certain if either Scott Parker or the little Turkish player Emre hadn't both decided to join Newcastle, then Moyes would have chosen either of these players before him.

Water under the bridge; both those players were big success stories, alongside Baines, Jagielka, Lescott and Fellaini, but when Moyes had a very good team (which he had slowly created over many years), he never improved it with the Lescott money at a time when a successful transfer window might have just taken us to the next level… and best of the rest we remained.

It's good to be looking forward with optimism though so let's see what happens over the next few months, especially after the way it had become before Dyche said he'd had enough.

Even then, we were never competitive. It was Martinez who dared to try that.

Moyes specialises in buying mid- price players age 22 to 26 with more than 100 games under their belt - which helps build up a good but not great side.

That will be his brief again presumably.

Dealing with Kenwright Texaco tokens rather than cash probably scuppered several options.

Losing Lescott for Heitinga and Distin lessened the team for sure, and for me was the end of making that leap into the top 4.

The Lescott transfer saga & Arsenal, Jagielka, Arteta & Anichibe injured with knee blow outs, a fall out with Yobo I am guessing contributed to it all of needing bodies and reducing quality.

It was a tougher hand than just not replacing Lescott. Cash was tight with Mo Fellani being bought on the proceeds of a sale and lease back of finch farm. What that ending up costing us is anyone's guess.

All came to roost when the banks called in the cash and Arteta was sold, Saha, Yak, Beckford & Pienaar as well to dump the wages. Big Dennis and re-signing james mcfadden in their place.

Stones, Mirallas (funded by rodwell), Jelavic (funded by billy) some slim signings in the later years.

David Moyes, 1st Everton spell:

£203m players purchased

£160m sold

Net Spend £42m over 11 years (around £4m/year) which ties with what Kenwright told Moyes about the budget (£5m year).

Substantially higher average league placing compared to before he joined

Let’s see what tomorrow brings, because West Ham, have signed some very good players under Moyes, in amongst a very few high profile failures.

And. Good riddance to the DoF model.

I have to agree with Tony. His record in the transfer market was overall decent, but was never going to make us challenge.

Nei @57, I totally agree with you on both counts. Thanks to Thelwell, he has left us with some decent players to shape a competitive team around. Also, nervousness if Moyes gets too much control over future signings. Your last paragraph says it all, so I don't need to repeat myself.

But with Phase zero almost complete, let's move to Phase 1 under the current manager and hope it takes us to the next level of much needed stability.

I'm not a number by the way Jeff, the name's Danny!!

He played down passing Wegner and Ferguson, but that's looks pretty doable if he can move Everton into the top half around the euro spots over the next 2 years.

Certainly if its a strong showing next season you can see him getting an extension next summer.

Ranieri at Roma is 73, Ancelotti 66 in the summer shows Moyes is a young pup still and easily capable of another 5 years if it goes well. Didn't realise big Ange P is nearly 60. I thought he was way younger.

He’s earned respect at least up until Christmas !

Great work by Kevin Thelwell, sad to see him go but things move on. All the best to him.

As for the backroom changes, it might just be a matter of "New broom sweeps clean".

You're spot on, Tony. Moyes can never and will never make that next step that the likes of Aston Villa, Leicester, Newcastle and possibly Nottingham Forest have made in recent years.

He can get to a certain level and he's good at what he does. Counter attack football from a solid base.

Win most home games against teams you should beat. Win 4/5 away games. Win 2/3 of the home games against top 6 clubs. But not Liverpool.

Win none of the away games against Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool. Lose most of them.

1 decent cup run every 5 years.

The inability to field a team that has a striker capable of scoring 20+ goals.

It's a formula that has his supporters believing him to be one of the best out there.

But let's get it straight, he and his formula are an incredible improvement of the utter dross that has preceded him since Ancelotti left.

I'd like to see him lay a platform for a better manager to build upon in 18 months time. Should he achieve a Champions League qualification, win a trophy or even win at Anfield in that time, I may be convinced that he's grown as a manager and can take us to success. But I don't believe his ceiling should be the ceiling for Everton Football Club.

I think for all of the good we have seen in this short spell. We have also see what he is really all about in the Man Utd game. Ahead and dominating the game, he bottled it and put Ashley Young on instead of mercilessly killing off a poor opponent.

On a side note, I think it's a shame TFG have not given Thelwell an opportunity to show what he can do under improved circumstances as I think he has done an excellent job. I'm not even going to put it into any kind of context other than to say he's been excellent.

I'd say his recruitment at West Ham was markedly less successful and although few of us would turn down a trophy of a sort they spent a huge amount of money getting not much further up the league.

People criticize Thelwell for spending £12M on Maupay but West Ham under Moyes spent £300M on Haller, Scamacca, Aguerd, Cornet, Ward-Prowse, Zouma, Vlasic, Mavropanos and Alvarez. That's not all on Moyes of course and there were some good buys in Bowen and Kudus/Paqueta (neither cheap) and bargains in Soucek and Coufal but West Ham's transfer dealing do not give me confidence at all!

The key will be who is brought in to run recruitment. If it ends up being people who are just yes men for Moyes (like the heavily linked Rob Newman); I worry that may be detrimental to us in the medium and long term.

Hopefully TFG have a good plan and proper football sense. It's very early days. But Thelwell would have brought continuity and had done good work with no budget. Let's see how the new approach works.

Moyes has "gone from zero to hero".

And with Thelwell going..."to Nero"?

I hope Friedkin isn't another Moshiri, blindly grasping at straws trying to find his saviour.

We’ll have to wait to see who gets bought in and of course which players we go for but most of the well run smaller football clubs (Brighton, Bournemouth Brentford etc) operate some type of DOF or sporting director model with a hierarchy that allows the manager to concentrate on coaching and someone else higher up to ensure a consistency of style that should enable the players that have been invested in to improve.

I’m a supporter of Moyes but giving too much influence to a manager is a risky move. Let’s see what TFG have planned.

They had adopted the doomed early Moshiri era strategy of hunting out the most expensive average players that money can buy.

Kenwright's glass ceiling was never the glass ceiling of any proud Evertonian (even though many were kidded) and I just hope that David Moyes has had the sense to realise this in the years that have since passed.

I think he has; I think he now realises he was very, very, very, extremely, fucking very lucky to manage a club like Everton for so long without having to win a trophy.

No manager has ever been given more than 4 years without winning a trophy in my lifetime, and this is the Everton I have always subscribed to, so hopefully Moyes has realised this and sees winning a trophy for Evertonians as a necessity!

You can't have it both ways.

Everton employees are paid incredibly well in a highly competitive sport, and if you don't deliver, there's the door. Jobs for the boys with no accountability or success I hope is over under TFG.

Thewell ain't good enough. End of story. He might have had tricky circumstances, but flicking the switch to be a brilliant DofF isn't going to happen.

Dyche not good enough, end of story.

Doucoure not good enough, end of story.

Richard Kenyon, might be a lovely fella, but he's the commercial & communication officer in an area which we've all bleated about that hasn't been good enough, see you later.

These people had their chance. They've shown they can't do a great job. There next job will tell you that.

If you want to raise the standards of the club, that has to be the way when you're sinking a £1 billion into it. It filters through the entire organisation.

The other fella didn't, and had his pants pulled down. The disaster that was Denise Baxendale, to the standards in the youth teams.

I hope Friedkin isn't another Moshiri... I guess ironically one way we'll find out is by how much we spend this summer. If we break the bank and buy loads of players for lots of cash then we should probably be worried.

We need to only spend what we can afford.

If we want to start making progress, we need to acquire a ruthless, professional streak. And if that means getting rid of some of the good old boys/hangers-on then so be it.

NSNO

He's only on a 2-year contract though, and he's not getting any younger, so I'm inclined to think he eventually sees himself on the Board at Everton in the DoF role, which would be hugely ironic considering the problems he's had working with one! Not that I think it would be a bad thing.

I also believe he's matured and changed since his first tenure. He looks calmer and more measured now, and we can't complain about the football we're seeing on the pitch. As long as he's open to different ideas about the players we recruit, then I'm staying positive that this can work out.

Yes, the head should rule the heart but I think any substantial analysis of Thelwell’s spending and the increase in valuation of players he bought shows a pretty capable operator. Not irreplaceable by any means but certainly someone who may have merited more and better opportunity.

We can only hope this new, projected, set up is as successful. Given the fact they will have more money to splash out with, it will be disappointing in the extreme if not.

He had his chance to dine at the top table and he was clueless and simply could not operate at that level.

He was that bad that despite being the long term succession plan for that club - they binned him before the season was out. He managed a total of one win against their main competitions at the top of the table. One win vs Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.

The manager that followed him put them straight back into Champions League football and won 4 of the matches against Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Both took guns to a gunfight and Moyes still couldn't do the business.

He is very good at being the manager of a club which has a mid-table budget and mid-table players. He can get a club like that to play decent, well-organised football – and often outperform all mid-table peers. That's generally the brief at a club like that.

He is not the man to kick on from there. Obviously he was completely out of his depth at Old Trafford. He has a track record of spending a big budget badly and his conservative football doesn't sit well with front foot teams expected to win.

West Ham let him go because their spending and wages suggested he was underperforming (although they've since gone on to much worse).

For the next few years it's likely that Everton and Moyes will remain a good fit for each other. If we get to the happy position that our finances allow us to go for it, Moyes will not be the man to take us forward. However, in the meantime I expect him to lay some very good foundations for the next guy - as we saw when more daring and ambitious Martinez took over.

Good luck in the future and thanks for your work while at Everton, Kevin.

Completely agree, I for one will be sorry to see him go.

Ian @ 75
Damn right and then some.

Nil satis nisi optimum.
Well thats not been achieved by anybody connected with the club for over 3 decades. DOF has gotten nowhere near. Its giving money away.

Do you honestly think Thewell will go to a bigger club then Everton when he leaves? Yes or no?

I think that's a clear steer why he doesn't get a new contract.

Ian @61, fair enough, but I doubt he will be here in 5 years time, not even 3. If all goes well, which is what we all want, and there is serious investment in the playing staff, I am of the opinion we will bring in someone else.

Robert describes Moyes well. A good fit for a certain club at a certain time and hasn't really done well with a big budget.

I'm with Nigel, Dave, Annika, Sam, Neil, Danny, David and most others here. Thelwell did a HELL of a job, especially within the context of financial disaster and PSR.

He cleared out all the "deadwood" everybody here used to scream about. He generated stunning and desperately needed profits from the sales of Richarlison, Gordon, Onana, Iwobi, Kean, Gray, Godfrey, Simms, Cannon, Dobbin and Nkounkou, preventing financial meltdown in the process.

Despite minimal scouting support he brought in just enough good players to keep us alive -- Tarks, Gana, McNeil, Garner, Ndiaye, Onana, Young, and the two belated heroes O’Brien and Beto. He made a couple of mistakes on players, but every DoF does.

And he leaves us a team that is younger and faster than it was when he came in.

Would he have been the man to move us forward? We'll never know. Both his DoF jobs, at NY Red Bull and Everton, have been structural rescue operations, so he has no record of taking a team to the top. But then again neither does the guy who is taking the DoF's responsibilities.

The Friedkins have every right to have the people and structure they want, and in time we'll know if they made the right decisions. But for my money the two best decisions Moshiri ever made, maybe the only two good ones, were hiring Dan Meis and Kevin Thelwell.

I have no idea what, or where, his next club will be. But neither do you.

Ian @93, your first paragraph says it for me. Too many of our supporters have understandably had the expectation stripped from. It's coming back. We are coming back.

I don't want Everton to be liked. I would rather we were disliked, because it often means one thing. We are competing and challenging for success.

However, we haven't to experience the new system. It's going to be interesting to see what they come up with.

But I very much doubt our team will suddenly be filled with top, young, talent from around the world. As some of our fans seem to believe…

I'll happily say I couldn't see Beto coming good at all, and if Thewell goes to another bigger club and does well, I'll happily accept I was wrong.

His future seems more Leicester, Southampton, Championship in my view. But I will definitely be following where he ends up.

But for me the measuring stick will be how quickly he is employed again. I would bet he won't have many days off this summer.

The only thing that seems to have been overlooked is perhaps the exact nature of his leaving. Whilst it looks we might be heading in a different direction, perhaps Kevin Thelwell is also seeking a different challenge.

That's a great point. Personally, I think he has done a great job in very testing circumstances at times, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has made the decision here.

But against teams he feels inferior to, his only tactic, no matter on the dynamics of the game is to sit deep and counter attack. It was classic against Man Utd, even 2-0 up and absolutely dominating he did not have the conviction to go on and get a victory from that game.

16 years previously against Chelsea, when we bowed out of the FA Cup Fnal with a whimper, it was the same. So not much has changed in the intervening period. 2012 FA Cup Semi-Final, take a lead against a poor Liverpool team and try and sit on it for the rest of the game instead of having the bottle to go and win it.

Even his ‘cup win' for West Ham was literally a break away counter-attack winner late on against very average opponents.

Also, the selection of Doucoure over Alcaraz in the starting line up was also a good indicator. Moyes has done a fantastic job so far but I think, in 12 to 18 months, we will need to push on.

Not sure he'd have brought Ashley Young on otherwise?

I belive Thelwell has been putting all the ducks in a row, reducing wages, the size of the sqad, balanced the psr all ready for this point where the finances where available to take the next step, seems strange to now let someone else takeover.

Managers don't have time these days to oversee the whole recruitment process, them days are long gone.

The idea of building a recruitment department around the needs of a Manager, not just Moyes but any manager who could be off at the drop off a hat wouldn't be the best idea.

The whole sporting side needs to be run by one man or team who are not at risk after a bad run of games, and a manager should be sort to fit in with the longterm plans and structure.

Many teams now see the manager as just a coach like all the other coaches, where the philosophy wont change if one man moves on.

It prevents the revolution and upheaval everytime a new guy comes with new ideas, which with all the managerial changes we've had, we can all see the negative long term effects on the squad & recruitment.

TFG seem to know what they want, and I'm hoping they have made alot of the stupid mistakes at Roma and now we can benefit from their experiences.

They have paid alot and done alot to put us on the right path financially, time will tell if they can do it on the footballing side !

This time, it could be his last hurrah. He has nothing to lose by giving it a good go and if he is lucky he may just win something or get us into contention for Champions League. If he fails, then retirement beckons and nothing is lost.

Who knows… he has started well but there's a lot of work to be done.

It's behind the main man we need to get right. The manager will come and go, the structure will still be in place, so it's all about the team that's supporting the man in charge, be that recruitment, sports science, analysts, coaches, DOF and CEO.

Big Summer!!

2-0 up, try and make it more, …no a 39-year-old veteran comes on doubling up at right-back which O'Brien hasn't got the experience to figure out.

David @109, because he took over an already in-place system and was able to just tweak it in his own style. I agree, it's what behind the head coach that makes the difference.

I'm not a Moyes acolyte BTW. I wasn't for him coming back but have to admit he's done well. Still early days though, and your point about him reverting to type is apposite.

Yes, I should give him a bit of leeway once he has better options to choose from. I'm just still pissed off at a chance to beat a crap Man Utd, 2-0 up and 20to play…

I blamed Moyes on the day and I'm sticking with that, despite how well he has done since he came back.

It was gutting to lose that game (even if it was a draw) but if it wasn't for penaltygate, we may have still won.

Anyway. On to tonight! UTFT!!!

Many, myself included, could say the same about Ndiaye.

Keep it tight – let's get to halftime.

I thought we were comfortable in the 2nd half until the free kick though.

I don't want it to happen but fear conservative Moyesitis may become a feature in the future. Hoping he's changed.

We are currently not conditioned to play at this tempo for 90 minutes. Tottenham felt like an eternity as it felt like we were about to throw away a 3-0 lead in the last half hour.

Absolutely incredible, it really is. Let's release him and bring a Sean Dyche type manager in hey, and see how that goes.

Yes he left us, so what, will he take us on? No one knows the answer to that, but I do know one thing we will never ever go into the last game of any season fearing for our Premier League status.

Of that I'm 100% certain. I certainly couldn't say that under Dyche, Lampard, or the waiter. To quote Ian: End of story.

Some laughable comments from usual suspects, can the doom and gloom not be parked, just a little?

Welcome to Everton, Angus.

@82: "West Ham let him go because their spending and wages suggested he was underperforming (although they've since gone on to much worse)." So maybe not a problem with the manager then?

No wonder he said the guy that brings the players in should be the one sacked if they fail to perform.