Gourlay

[Delboy]

Why is he so quiet! not backing or sacking STAM, need journalists to pressure him to speak to fans ( those that are left) we are another Blackburn in the waiting

[cp]

I must admit I'm not any longer sure who is running the club that could have words with Stam, or change the manager. Stam himself is a powerful personality with his friend (Tevreden) as the Director of Football. What is Gourlay's background / alliances and is he the one who makes changes?

It looks like the owners are completely reliant on the football experts for advice and will do nothing much by themselves.

[Ascotexgunner]

I must admit I'm not any longer sure who is running the club that could have words with Stam, or change the manager. Stam himself is a powerful personality with his friend (Tevreden) as the Director of Football. What is Gourlay's background / alliances and is he the one who makes changes?

It looks like the owners are completely reliant on the football experts for advice and will do nothing much by themselves.

Well, he has 25 plus years experience in football and occupied "senior positions" at Man U and Chelsea. Which means he probably knows f*ck all about running clubs that run on a tight budget, and has never actually be a outright CEO of a club. If Stam goes the "Big Ron" also has to go imo.

Just a snippet from a recent interview with him....There isn't enough egg on the planet for his face if you read the entire interview.

"And Gourlay is confident that we are well positioned for progress, with the club in very good hands. “I’ve had the absolute pleasure of working with a lot of top coaches, the likes of Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Guus Hiddink, and Jaap has been very impressive in what I’ve seen. I’m sure he will do great things for the football club.

“In Mr Dai, the club is very safe hands. He has bought into the manager’s footballing philosophy and you can see that philosophy being rolled out right down to the seven-year-olds through up to the first team.

“And me, I’ve never been a CEO in the Championship before, but I understand what it means to a club to be part of the Premier League and to stay there. And I think that experience is going to be very important to this club going forward.

“Because the long-term goal is not just getting to the Premier League, but sustaining that. And while we are very realistic and understand that that doesn’t happen within one or two years, you’ve got to shoot for the stars.”"

[RoyalBlue]

I must admit I'm not any longer sure who is running the club that could have words with Stam, or change the manager. Stam himself is a powerful personality with his friend (Tevreden) as the Director of Football. What is Gourlay's background / alliances and is he the one who makes changes?

It looks like the owners are completely reliant on the football experts for advice and will do nothing much by themselves.

Well, he has 25 plus years experience in football and occupied "senior positions" at Man U and Chelsea. Which means he probably knows f*ck all about running clubs that run on a tight budget, and has never actually be a outright CEO of a club. If Stam goes the "Big Ron" also has to go imo.

Just a snippet from a recent interview with him....There isn't enough egg on the planet for his face if you read the entire interview.

"And Gourlay is confident that we are well positioned for progress, with the club in very good hands. “I’ve had the absolute pleasure of working with a lot of top coaches, the likes of Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Guus Hiddink, and Jaap has been very impressive in what I’ve seen. I’m sure he will do great things for the football club.

“In Mr Dai, the club is very safe hands. He has bought into the manager’s footballing philosophy and you can see that philosophy being rolled out right down to the seven-year-olds through up to the first team.

“And me, I’ve never been a CEO in the Championship before, but I understand what it means to a club to be part of the Premier League and to stay there. And I think that experience is going to be very important to this club going forward.

“Because the long-term goal is not just getting to the Premier League, but sustaining that. And while we are very realistic and understand that that doesn’t happen within one or two years, you’ve got to shoot for the stars.”"

It's his fault then. He should have kept his mouth shut - our players are constantly shooting for the stars during games!

[Forbury Lion]

I don't see it as a bad thing for the owners to take guidance from those with football experience, however they really should consult with someone independent who knows the league (How about Sir John Madejski?) - The Director of Football is too closely tied to the manager, they've both bought into this Dutch style of losing and don't exactly have a great track record in the transfer market. If the ship sinks down a division under the current trio of Ron, Brian and Jaap then they're all at fault for not doing anything to try and stop it and all should be shown the door.

If Gourlay was to push for Jaap to go now, he might save himself and maybe also get to spin it as giving the manager a chance to turn it around but ultimately a change was needed etc etc, if not then even if we stay up I believe ticket sales (starting with ST renewals) will be down drastically and that is a commercial failure Gourlay should be accountable for. If the DoF is going to insist future managers play the same tactics then he has to go too.

If Sir John was in charge, He would have had the courage to sack Stam months ago in the best interests of the club

[El Diablo]

If Sir John was in charge, He would have had the courage to sack Stam months ago in the best interests of the club

Yup - no doubt.

[Haag Royal]

He'd be best advised to keep his head well below the parapet at the moment because the last time he spoke in that car crash interview with RBBCB he sounded as if he knew nothing about the club, its history, heritage or how to run a Championship club full stop.

He's happy having pictures taken surrounded by tins of energy drink with players signing juicy contracts but anything more than that then the blokes completely out of his depth.

[WAZZOCK]

Even taking Gourlay out the equation, getting rid of Howe was the biggest mistake the current owners could have possibly made at that time. To buy the club and make such a drastic change so quickly rocked the boat way too much, with much of the fine work from 16/17 undone with that move. Howe would have been the perfect person to deploy the increase in funds more effectively without spending money for the sake of it.

Moving onto Gourlay, I have it on very good authority that he has brought a poisonous atmosphere to the club from within. It’s also become very apparent that he has absolutely no idea how to run the football club, yet wants to have involvement in every aspect, no matter how big or small.

It’s sad to hear, because there are a lot of good people who work at the club who have completely lost the love for it. Never mind getting rid of Stam, the sooner Gourlay goes the better.

[Old Man Andrews]

Moving onto Gourlay, I have it on very good authority that he has brought a poisonous atmosphere to the club from within. It’s also become very apparent that he has absolutely no idea how to run the football club, yet wants to have involvement in every aspect, no matter how big or small.

Cool. What good authority is this? What evidence do you have?

[Dennis the Butler]

Need to get rid of Gourlay, Tevreden and Stam .. reappoint SJM in some capacity to oversee a return to normality aka the Reading way .. imho ..

[Hound]

I think its difficult to really know how good a job he is doing at this stage.

There have been some good appointments (Ged Roddy) on the face of it and some good stuff done. It seems like work on the training ground is properly underway, the pitch got relaid (though I'm a bit dubious about how good a job was done - it was dogshit last night, and caused us no end of issues), there have been some good ticketing initiatives

Some of the signings have been crap (Aluko) whilst some have been pretty good (Barrow, Elphick looked like he could have been very good), but how much of that is him, and how much BT, difficult to judge.

In many ways it could be seen the sticking by Stam for as long as he has is pretty worthy, and might have been the right thing to do. However its getting to the stage where he has to make some big calls on Stam and any replacement pretty quickly.

[WAZZOCK]

Moving onto Gourlay, I have it on very good authority that he has brought a poisonous atmosphere to the club from within. It’s also become very apparent that he has absolutely no idea how to run the football club, yet wants to have involvement in every aspect, no matter how big or small.

Cool. What good authority is this? What evidence do you have?

I used to work at the club myself and still keep in touch with a lot of current staff members. I don’t have physical evidence to bring to the table as it’s all anecdotal, but I (nor the people I speak to) have any reason to lie.

[Royal With Cheese]

Who at the time thought Aluko was a bad signing? Certainly not me.

I'm getting the sinking feeling that Stam cannot get the best out of players or is just totally confusing them. I just can't fathom Ilori at the moment - another signing I was excited about.

[Royal With Cheese]

I know that wasn't materminded by Gourlay but the point sadly stands. I could go and post it somewhere else but I can't be arsed.

[Royal With Cheese]

I also realise I could have posted both points in a single post.

[Royal With Cheese]

Then I wouldn't have needed that last post. Or this one.

[The Cap]

2 world wars, 1 world cup kicked off a similar thread at the beginning of Jan. Admittedly, a bit more direct. I'm trying to work out whether everyone in charge of this club are either deluded or have some masterplan up their sleeve? Either way, last night's attendance, regardless of the weather, must shirley have made a point at some level. Who are the owners? Who's Gourlay? Who's Tevreden? What exactly do they do, to earn their buck? And most of all, who's Stam? He's even thrown it out there, yet again, that his tenure is vulnerable. Really? So many questions. Also understand that Parky was at the game last night, running the rule, ready for next week's game. Penny for your thoughts, Phil.

[Delboy]

there is no business case for Stam to stay, if we manage to miss relegation season ticket sales and attendances next season will nosedive

[leon]

2 world wars, 1 world cup kicked off a similar thread at the beginning of Jan. Admittedly, a bit more direct. I'm trying to work out whether everyone in charge of this club are either deluded or have some masterplan up their sleeve? Either way, last night's attendance, regardless of the weather, must shirley have made a point at some level. Who are the owners? Who's Gourlay? Who's Tevreden? What exactly do they do, to earn their buck? And most of all, who's Stam? He's even thrown it out there, yet again, that his tenure is vulnerable. Really? So many questions. Also understand that Parky was at the game last night, running the rule, ready for next week's game. Penny for your thoughts, Phil.

High press, rough us up, hit on the break, down the channels and plenty of high balls into the box.

In short - they’re shit and they have no bollocks. 3 away points.

[tee peg]

2 world wars, 1 world cup kicked off a similar thread at the beginning of Jan. Admittedly, a bit more direct. I'm trying to work out whether everyone in charge of this club are either deluded or have some masterplan up their sleeve? Either way, last night's attendance, regardless of the weather, must shirley have made a point at some level. Who are the owners? Who's Gourlay? Who's Tevreden? What exactly do they do, to earn their buck? And most of all, who's Stam? He's even thrown it out there, yet again, that his tenure is vulnerable. Really? So many questions. Also understand that Parky was at the game last night, running the rule, ready for next week's game. Penny for your thoughts, Phil.

High press, rough us up, hit on the break, down the channels and plenty of high balls into the box.

In short - they’re shit and they have no bollocks. 3 away points.

...... and the manager is not getting the best out of his squad?