Mentality

I wouldn’t say he was misrepresenting the truth.

He said this after we got beat off Midtjylland before Starfelt and Kyogo were signed…

“I take responsibility,” he said. “I’m the person who has been put in charge. We haven’t got players in, I obviously haven’t done a good enough job convincing people we needed to bring people in. I’m not going to shy away from it. I don’t say that because I’m some kind of martyr, I just think that’s my responsibility, that’s why I was brought in.

“I have been trying to be as forceful as I can about what we need to bring in, and the challenges we have had are well chronicled. Irrespective of the result tonight, we still need reinforcements. We had a really young squad out there, young players on the bench. It’s not a situation we need to be in.”

 

It absolutely is misrepresenting the truth. Ange was announced as our manager a mere 10 days before our first leg against Midtjylland. That we managed to get 3 players in during his first three weeks in charge is backing the manager whichever way you look at it. Ange obviously saw the state of the squad and was insisting on urgency, hence comments like the ones you've quoted.

 

Ange was backed, anyone who argues against it is just being silly!

What I will say is though, he got "lucky" to some degree that Kyogo worked out so quickly as he did, cause it gave him cash in the bank to bring in more of his own signings.

 

Its up to the manager and the leaders to instil and cultivate mentality from the top down.
Rodgers doesnt come across to me like he has the fear factor. This next few weeks are going be a bug test of his mettle. He needs to show the fighting spirit as much as anyone and lead from the front

 

Mentality - in times like these sometimes it calls for a bit of controlled aggression. I’d like to see some of this when the going gets tough.

 

Depends on the way you look at this though, he came in and made him and Mitoma the top targets, and got one and was * unlucky to get the other. He knew they were fully fit Japan being in the middle of the season, would hit the ground running and most importantly knew his quality and exactly how he’d utilise him.

Ange’s first transfer window might be the best one we’ve ever had. Towards the end he looked at the time and thought he needed hardened men, experienced guys who know the score in. He got GG and Jura. Then he added Jota and CCV in there.

But things like his quote after that CL qualifier, he was never ever going to let us rest on our laurels or dismiss what he needs, and he done that while being taking the blame for the board, giving them a rocket and not publically sniping at them like we seen before with BR.


And it kicked on major from there, with 3 main targets being brought in before the * Jan window was open. Right now that looks like the clubs competence was down to one man and one man only - Ange.

This window will prove if it was or if we’ve been caught needing a new manager with little time to assess whats needed in the summer or if we actually have no ambition outwith ‘just enough’. I still think Br would never have accepted being back here without the surety that it wont be like it ended up last time

 

Funny thing is with that is Jozo was wildly up and down mentally, he was either panicky and erratic or making * sure of his job.

 

dom mckay was calling the shots in what proved to be a fantastic transfer window and he was chased after it . aye ange got 3 players for peanuts in the next window . theres no doubt ange's knowledge of the japanese league saved us from spending millions he probably wouldnt have got access to .that first window is so out of step with the way things have been done for about 20 years ,i think its obvious mckay was the one trying to put a team on the park and back his manager . who have we signed since thats made an impact johnston .

 

He wasn’t mate, clubs we dealt with that year described a frustrating largely incompetent experience dealing with us with McKay at the helm. We had no single point of contact, were contradictory depending on who was deciding they were the negotiator for the day and generally seemed a lack of leadership.

He did do the GG/Jura deals though, and he clearly * the clauses for bids we can accept up there, just with the prices accepted and the way it was reported.

 

yeah there was a lot of noise like that in press if you could believe any of it ,all you have to do is look at the list of players he brought in and compare it to any transfer window peter lawwell had charge of

 

Not the press mate, other clubs coming out in frustration. McKay was a PR man for a different sport out of depth.


All he was focusing on was being more open with communication as the fan

 

if he was such a bungling idiot how did he manage to bring hart,juranovic,ccv,starfelt,abada,jota,giakomakis and kyogo all to the club in one window . i do hear what you are saying ( while i dont agree) what do the opinions of other clubs matter ,the players he brought in few weeks he was here were a huge success . maybe dom mckay was a clueless * who just happened to have a huge slice of luck on his side bringing in the players he did or maybe his methods upset a clueless out of touch board who refuse to change their ways and reverted back to type and just moved nicholson and lawells seats around to be be stuck in a pathetic limbo where we can never improve on the field . i know which my money would be on

 

Bingo.

Sadly spot on. McKay was/is a highly sought-after and hugely successful sports executive. The dramatic changes for the better in the SRU during his time there are well documented.

Far from ‘just focussing on improving communication with fans’ (something which - shock - has gone to seed yet again since), he was out to improve the entire operation, and the board shat it.

Do people seriously not remember the early press conferences with him and Ange? McKay continually kept on repeating, almost to an irritating degree, the line, ‘we need to be benchmarking ourselves against the best’, and he spoke frankly about reviewing things like net transfer spend and wage structure, etc.

Don’t anyone tell me that didn’t give the board the fear, and wasn’t part of what that tadger Bankier was referring to when he said Nicholson ‘is a team player’, implying that McKay wasn’t.

What he meant is, ‘we couldn’t control him, so we brought in our pal because he’s compliant’.

Meanwhile, McKay swiftly moved on to become the head of the organisation that runs the Heineken Cup - Rugby Union’s answer to the Champions League - and we remain left with this tin-pot board.

 

Because there are other people in the club, Nicholson ended up doing most of the negotiating in the end up last summer. That’s why they got shot of McKay and immediately put him in charge, McKay wasn’t a bungling idiot but he didn’t organise within the club and wasn’t used to football transfers. Others in the club had to step in. What he was * exceptional at was communicating with the fans and getting fans and team and club all pulling in the same direction. And that was * massive at the start when it came to Ange. So he done his part but he’s getting the credit for the wrong part.

 

What was his most used phrase at those fan media sessions? ‘We need to benchmark ourselves against the best’. He was a man on a mission to raise standards, and even made specific reference to reviewing spending as part of that.

Booted weeks later. That’s very telling, and you must know that yourself.

 

That'd be a guaranteed red card this season... Var would 'find a way'...

 

If it was as telling as that, Ange would have been away with him. A man who aimed a very pointed dig at those in charge in the summer McKay was there as well btw, whilst taking the blame on his shoulders that business hadn’t been done well enough.

Ange booted us into being a competent club, a proactive club, and it was a boot into shape as well. I hope to * we’ve learned the listens he made us, summer seems like we didn’t, January will prove one way or the other

 

The annoying thing is with that, if it got a red for excessive force, they wouldn’t be wrong and there’d be no recourse against a red for a perfect tackle. They could have done that back then as well, was reffed brilliantly there.

I don’t think they try to find a way, I think they’re honest guys thinking they’re unbiased for the most part, trying to be, but old boys club recruitment wise it’s mostly from the same mindset of people that mostly happen to support Rangers, due to historical biasness still effecting to this day.

and subconscious biasness is an absolute fact, a split second decision, usually you will lean where you always have even when you’re trying to be fair.

Look at some of the way guys on here thinking they’re fair see some normal decisions the Huns get? Or some decisions that go our way that are wrong? It’s always in the direction they want it to be, me included here btw I know my bias effects me.

It’s systemic rather than orchestred. Penalty against them in the league record makes you think its something more sinister tbf, cos that’s unexplainable as a logical statistic that happens in football.

 

Dom McKay was incompetent, hence why he was chased out the door.

 

The thing for me with the full McKay thing though, he shadowed the CEO who was leaving for 6 months to get an unprecedented level of training with no responsibilities at that level of business, and within 2 months of actually taking the helm we knew he was out of his depth.

He was selected and he was deemed acceptable in the period of shadowing execs. That’s a level of judgement from those on the board that should raise a red flag