Technical Director Watch - Johan Lange

[thebenjamin]

Hard to fully know how good/bad Lange has been without knowing what his remit actually is. If the remit was to sign young European players with high potential then he’s not done bad, if it’s to build a good CL quality squad then he’s bought the wrong players.

Also what's he actually given to play with. If the wage limit for new signings is 100K a week as rumoured then what can you actually do with that other than buy potential?

 

[qqq1]

Hard to judge him because it seems like he's been a glorified head scout suggesting signings and not the person making the final decisions on who to buy.

 

[Cochraam]

Probably will end up with Paratici again in the summer.

I've always assumed it would be Paratici coming in above Lange, but with Lange retained in his current role.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

I’ve liked the way Lange has come across in the videos , he’s seemed calm and composed and a man with a plan.

Paratici is good but he doesn’t fit with our clubs DNA very well he’s from the Italian school of defensive football hence hiring (Nuno, Conte) and trying for Gattuso all over a Fonseca.

We haven’t really got our DofF right since Arnesen & Comolli imo.

 

[hero]

Frankly speaking, I still have no idea about our strategy. I suppose that Bergvall, Werner, Solanke, Kinsky, Danso and Odobert were his choice. Not bad, but our high evaluation of his business is based on our expectation in future. Gray was a long standing interest of the Club. No idea about Min-hyuk Yang. Seems, this it a try to supersede Son not to loose marketing in S.Korea. I remember there was a guy here who was aware about the difference between Technical Director, Sporting director etc. And I remember he wrote that Bournemouth's sporting director was very good at creating a development plan for the players and their path to the first team. That is why I don't get why we have Son, Odobert, Moore, Werner and even Tel for the LW. Tel is supposed to be a CF, but I am not sure if he has got such a skillset. We have no6, but he plays as a CB, LB or RB. We have got 4 no8 + Devine. Spence saved us this season as he was able to play on both flanks. It seems we have got a new yong striker in the pipeline next December, rumours about another Gray (CF) and Dibling. If our plan to recruite a potential, we need to create a path for them into the first team.

 

[kent brockman]

Also what's he actually given to play with. If the wage limit for new signings is 100K a week as rumoured then what can you actually do with that other than buy potential?

Indeed. His budget obviously limits what calibre of players that we can sign.

He has done pretty well in terms of player types suited to front foot footie, albeit largely inexperienced.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

God i hate this club at the moment

I don't think Lange has done a bad job, personally

The players he's signed will have gone up quite a lot in value IMO.

God knows who signed Johnson though - that's a fucking car crash of a buy

 

[allatsea]

God i hate this club at the moment

I don't think Lange has done a bad job, personally

The players he's signed will have gone up quite a lot in value IMO.

God knows who signed Johnson though - that's a fucking car crash of a buy

Excuse me but you are talking about our leading goal scorer. Heave knows where we would be without his goals.

 

[dontcallme]

Regardless of the job that Lange is doing and how much he is responsible for, the fact that we’re possibly looking to replace our head coach and technical director within 2 years of their hiring suggests Levy has fucked up the hiring yet again.

 

[coy-spurs1882]

I wonder if Munn will be sacked too

 

[eViL]

God knows who signed Johnson though - that's a fucking car crash of a buy

Yet arguably more effective than our legend on the left hand side.

The season is a fucking car crash, the team and the management of it is.

The players don't stand a chance in this system. Any of them.

 

[eddiev14]

I wonder if Munn will be sacked too

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

God i hate this club at the moment

I don't think Lange has done a bad job, personally

The players he's signed will have gone up quite a lot in value IMO.

God knows who signed Johnson though - that's a fucking car crash of a buy

It was a Paratici led signing. He had scouted him extensively the season before.

I think Paratici is overrated by our fans. Hasn’t got a clue about picking a suitable manager for our club and if you actually list all his signings it’s not that impressive.

 

[Guntz]

It was a Paratici led signing. He had scouted him extensively the season before.

I think Paratici is overrated by our fans. Hasn’t got a clue about picking a suitable manager for our club and if you actually list all his signings it’s not that impressive.

Wasn't Enrique his primary choice to replace Conte?

Don't think it was as bad as people make out.

Gattuso granted was a howler and obviously, Nuno wasn't suited (albeit he's proven he's a good manager).

 

[funkycoldmedina]

It was a Paratici led signing. He had scouted him extensively the season before.

I think Paratici is overrated by our fans. Hasn’t got a clue about picking a suitable manager for our club and if you actually list all his signings it’s not that impressive.

I agree, I think at best the jury is out on his abilities, we've had some decent transfers, but the ones with highest ceilings have come from Lange IMHO.
His restructuring of the youth set up is very impressive though and isn't really in doubt.

 

[rossdapep]

It was a Paratici led signing. He had scouted him extensively the season before.

I think Paratici is overrated by our fans. Hasn’t got a clue about picking a suitable manager for our club and if you actually list all his signings it’s not that impressive.

I agree with you.

It certainly wasn't as impressive as people were making out.

You could say that the players are talented and all pretty good (bar Emerson) but then cobbled together not a great assemblement and some just not suited to the PL.

He wanted Gattuso. A crazy and negative minded coach but Gil was somehow going to fit into that kind of system?

Also Gollini was shocking.

 

[rossdapep]

I agree, I think at best the jury is out on his abilities, we've had some decent transfers, but the ones with highest ceilings have come from Lange IMHO.
His restructuring of the youth set up is very impressive though and isn't really in doubt.

Paratici was good because he had the inside knowledge on players which allowed him to do deals for Deki, Bentancur and Romero.

And he acted fast on Sarr.

So good at the bigger transfers and being prepared to over pay on a young talent.

However, Lange definitely has a better approach to youth players.

If that news is true about Lange, then I don't agree with it.

There's plenty of excellent sporting directors out there who may struggle with selling the club to a player or are not as good at the financials, they don't come from that background most of the time.

I'd rather have a solid sporting director and an excellent scouting department with someone else doing the negotiating than a scouting department that's pretty much about one man and his book.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Yet arguably more effective than our legend on the left hand side.

The season is a fucking car crash, the team and the management of it is.

The players don't stand a chance in this system. Any of them.

Totally fair comment

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

Paratici was good because he had the inside knowledge on players which allowed him to do deals for Deki, Bentancur and Romero.

And he acted fast on Sarr.

So good at the bigger transfers and being prepared to over pay on a young talent.

However, Lange definitely has a better approach to youth players.

If that news is true about Lange, then I don't agree with it.

There's plenty of excellent sporting directors out there who may struggle with selling the club to a player or are not as good at the financials, they don't come from that background most of the time.

I'd rather have a solid sporting director and an excellent scouting department with someone else doing the negotiating than a scouting department that's pretty much about one man and his book.

Spot on.

I think a lot of our fans are mesmerised with him because of the Deki and Bentancur deals, even though his full body of work shows he wasn’t actually that great.

I’m not saying Lange is amazing but a lot of the players he’s brought in are really high potential and good technical players suited to top sides. Werner obviously a terrible signing. I would question the balance of his squad building and timings though.

Even Dragusin sounds like it was Paratici led based on his past.

 

[thebenjamin]

a major problem across the board is we haven't signed a single player who's a leader who will raise their game to drag the team through tough periods. Arguably Romero but obviously that was right at the start of Paratici's time, and the way it's turned out Romero has been more a player to make the key mistake to lose us games. But even if you count that signing, it's 4 years since we signed anyone who could be remotely classed as having leadership qualities.