MM The fact that the owners pick more of our signings than the 'proper' scouts or manager was a clear and early warning sign that the club had taken a wrong turn, despite Brian trying to play it down at the time. In my opinion, it probably wouldn't have been 'his team' after this transfer window either, so there wasn't much to pin our hopes on anyway.
This raises two important points, IMO.
Firstly, the new world often means that the manager isn't in total control of his squad. It's always been the case to an extent, eg most clubs are selling clubs and lose players they want to keep, but more and more managers are having signings made for them by owners and Directors of Football etc as well and so if that's the modern world we need a manager who is flexible and capable of working within that structure.
Secondly, the people who identified the likes of Rakels, are now some of the 'proper' people tasked with this kind of thing. Our transfer record isn't so bullettproof that we can turn our collective noses up at other scouts opinions and recommendations.
I'm all for a manager being given full control over the building of his squad, but then again I still think players shouldn't be on the pitch if they're not interfering with play and that leaning into someone head to head isn't actually violent conduct. Football is changing though and we just have to, unfortunately, have to live with it.
