Tweet
Re: Eade sacking a lapdog approach
It is an interesting article and the whole 'who runs the football dept' question is one that plagues clubs at all levels. If you follow the NFL closely, you would well understand the continual debate that is held between 'TSAR' type coaches who also have full authority over player personnel decisions (think Parcells anywhere, Shanahan in Washington (and in Denver I guess), Holmgren in Seattle) vs other scenarios where a GM oversees personnel and is clearly in charge of the coach (Polian in Indy, Thompson in GB) and others still where a true 'partnership' model seems to be in place (Colbert/Tomlin in Pittsburgh)....
You will notice that teams in each of the three categories I have mentioned have had success and won SuperBowls - no model is really better than any other - but, as Thomas started off his article, solidarity is the key.
The interesting thing about his point is he dilutes it himself - if there IS solidarity (which he says is the key), then having a coach nominally report to a FM who manages all of the reporting to the board/ceo etc would not be a problem...after all, everyone in the footy dept is on the same page so no problem. But when/if relationships fracture - trouble.
Interestingly, Thomas reported direct to the Saints board and the relationship he had with the (then) president dissolved leading to his dismissal...back to his original point, if you cannot maintain effective working relationships with those around you then the club is doomed regardless of the departmental structure.
It is an interesting article and the whole 'who runs the football dept' question is one that plagues clubs at all levels. If you follow the NFL closely, you would well understand the continual debate that is held between 'TSAR' type coaches who also have full authority over player personnel decisions (think Parcells anywhere, Shanahan in Washington (and in Denver I guess), Holmgren in Seattle) vs other scenarios where a GM oversees personnel and is clearly in charge of the coach (Polian in Indy, Thompson in GB) and others still where a true 'partnership' model seems to be in place (Colbert/Tomlin in Pittsburgh)....
You will notice that teams in each of the three categories I have mentioned have had success and won SuperBowls - no model is really better than any other - but, as Thomas started off his article, solidarity is the key.
The interesting thing about his point is he dilutes it himself - if there IS solidarity (which he says is the key), then having a coach nominally report to a FM who manages all of the reporting to the board/ceo etc would not be a problem...after all, everyone in the footy dept is on the same page so no problem. But when/if relationships fracture - trouble.
Interestingly, Thomas reported direct to the Saints board and the relationship he had with the (then) president dissolved leading to his dismissal...back to his original point, if you cannot maintain effective working relationships with those around you then the club is doomed regardless of the departmental structure.
Comment