Football News: Is Roeder The Right Advisor For Wednesday
Image from: chroniclelive.co.uk
The day that it became known that Glenn Roeder was the advisor to Dejphon Chansiri, the new owner of Sheffield Wednesday, I am sure that the groans of Wednesday fans were long and loud. It is a constant source of bemusement to me how people proven to be failures, time after time, still get roles of real power within the game.
People like Shaun Harvey, the chief executive of the Football League now bizarrely, Peter Ridsdale and Glenn Roeder have a career riddled with failure, time after time. So how does these men still get positions of trust within the game?
Who on earth would say to you, if you were thinking of buying a football club, 'you know what you need? You need to speak to Glenn Roeder and get his advice. He will steer you right.' I honestly can not believe that there is a single person, with any basic knowledge of the English game, that would suggest Roeder.
Still, despite it being a gamble, I am sure Wednesday fans were hopeful that he might just, despite all evidence to the contrary, have turned out to be a success. That all his failings might just have taught him what not to do. Sadly though, the current evidence really does not augur well for the Steel City club.
The removal of highly popular head coach, Stuart Gray, with no clear plan for replacing him, is a massive danger sign. It is common practice for a takeover to result in a change of management, as the new owners usually want their own man in place.
In this instance though, that is not what was going on, as the owner clearly had no new man he wanted to bring in, and so was acting to remove Gray, purely to remove Gray. Which is odd, to say the least. As odd as Adam Pearson jumping ship before that.
Now we have the shambles that is Wednesday's attempt to replace him with an unknown in Carlos Carvalhal, whose CV is on a par with Roeder, with little to suggest he is going to bring success to a club badly starved of it in recent years. Even more bizarre is the chase of Mark Cooper, the Swindow Town manager who has done little to suggest he is the one to bring success either.
For a club looking to return to the Premier League as quickly as possible, neither of those two, especially as a possible DOF/Head Coach pairing, inspire confidence for the future. Though with Roeder having Chansiri's ear, it is really not surprising that the whole episode is shambolic.
The most important appointment of the summer, in my opinion, would be a new football advisor, one who really understands the game. You only have to look at Roman Abramovich's example to see that having the right advisors makes all the difference.
Long term, sustained success has been built there because Abramovich had the right advisors helping him to do more than just throw his money away repeatedly. Chansiri needs to find advisors that can help him in the same way, and make sure that Glenn Roeder's input is removed as quickly as possible. Otherwise the Prem might just remain a dream.
Written by Tris Burke June 24 2015 10:43:10
