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From what I have read and heard Gunn’s role was more an administrative role than a football role so if we are going down the European style sporting director role that was recommend in the review carried out I think it would be a different role to the one Gunn had. I suspect you and Orlando are right in saying that with manager already in place we won’t be looking at changing the approach so as I said it is likely that anyone brought in will be someone who is willing to work within the current approach to recruitment and playing style.

We’ve scored in two games this season!

I’ll add to my other post, overkill no doubt. I was Director of Athletics so was involved with all gender bathrooms, locker rooms, boys on girls teams etc. I was asked to research what other education institutions did as we went through our decision making processes so had a good feel what other schools were doing. I found it hard doing more and more things I didn’t believe in. I was definitely a democrat when I moved to LA and I don’t think I significantly changed in my beliefs, I just think the left shifted so I suddenly became right of center.

Scored with a header in League Cup @ Morton

I’d assume it’s Dave and the board who determine the direction of the club and the roles of key personnel. While the title and responsibilities of the role may be different, I’d assume the philosophy behind the role and the key responsibilities don’t overly change. I don’t see us significantly changing our transfer strategy for example, but this person may provide our management team with a different kind of support. the hire is no doubt culturally aligned with Dave and the board so should be aligned with Thelin. I think….? I’d also assume Thelin will have input to this role and be involved in the hiring process.

Presumably we are not looking at reinventing the wheel though? We already have a director of football so this new person surely would be continuing with the existing plan…..or are we just tearing it all up on the Monday morning and starting again? If that is the case we might as well just fire the manager and stick the whole squad up for sale.

If only some of us had thought have that years ago. Although I suspect it's not unusual for a sporting director to leave post while a manager is in place, so we can just treat it like that.

Only draw back with appointing a sporting director now is we already have a manager in place. Usually (in Europe) it’s the sporting director who is responsible for setting the long term approach/style of the club will take then selecting the coaching team to execute that plan. We already have a manager in place so you are probably looking with getting in a sporting director who agrees with his approach so maybe reduces the checks and balances effect.

When did Nilsen score have I missed that! Funny I was laughing the other day when I realised that Yengi is joint top scorer!! Well not laughing more hysterical

Especially when a middle aged Scottish teacher started screaming and threw his underwear on stage.

Arithmetic not your strong point Manc

Had been tempted to put a tumbleweed meme…

I didn’t call you extremist, I called you sounding extreme, meaning I felt you were extremely one sided. I don’t really hear you considering the left to be at fault, just all pointing at the right. End of, to each their own. i didn’t see your earlier post, you lived here for 2 years? Or you have been living here for 2 years? Where? Having lived in LA for 17, you can definitely live in a one sided fishbowl here. Definitely a significant change in the us over the last 10 yrs.

Sorry, I missed your post. This place is like crack, can’t put the phone down! I know I am in the minority, possibly a team of 1, but I enjoy the convo! I was a teacher, coach, and administrator for 23 years here, plus also full time coaching for 4. I left education because I couldn’t take the politics of it any more. My heart wasn’t in it. I totally believe my experience became increasingly left leaning to say the least. Had to find a new career at 50! I worked in an ‘elite’ k-12 private school in LA for 17 years, public school in Florida for 4, private in Florida for 2. I sat through DEI being heavily and increasingly prioritized, even mandated, I saw how divisive affinity groups became, the mandatory Transgender training, we were pressured to be active with Black Lives Matter, I was required to attend the ‘people of color’ conference multiple times, questionable library books, we had pro DACA assemblies, had drag queen performances at assemblies (don’t know what else to call it and it was awkward), and in my last year there had a couple of transgender speakers come to talk and spent time with our students. Very weird experience. It was incredibly awkward and very strange to work in a place where you could not speak truthfully, freely, and openly. It also became increasingly uncomfortable and I felt I was walking on eggshells for the last couple of years, fearing I’d accidentally say the wrong thing. We had teachers cancelled and fired for speaking up. We got to the point where we wouldn’t hire straight/white/ males and every hire was a minority hire in some manner. We dispensed with the dean of students (discipline job) and renamed it, and we saw a significantly different approach to discipline and accountability. kids were not disciplined but were told to reflect, write a story, and apologize. When I left we were in the process of abolishing grades, and looking at grading for older students becoming a discussion and collaboration between teacher and student. We stopped giving out awards where students were highlighted for accomplishments because it meant singling out some students over others. The 2016 and 2020 elections were very uncomfortable as you dare not be republican or speak favorably about trump on campus. We had safe spaces and hired grief counselors when trump won (for both faculty and students.) I went to annual conferences and courses with faculty and administrators around the country and we shared experiences, mine was pretty normal in relation to other educational Institutions. after 17 years I was told I’d lose my job if I didn’t get the Covid vaccine, and my kids were kicked out of school for their parents not having the Covid vaccine. That’s why I moved back to Florida in 2022, a state I left in 2009. I will add that the Florida I moved to is not the Florida I heard about in the media. My school experience in LA was not extreme or unique, and it’s my understanding many colleges are the same if not more left, especially when you have young adults who can pretty much make decisions for themselves. my enthusiasm and passion for education was completed destroyed, it’s not an impartial and open minded educational experience that teaches young people to open mindedly think, research, and form views and opinions. Certainly not an environment promoting the acceptance of differing opinions, beliefs etc. I’ve lived long term in 3 states and have lived temporarily for coaching in over 40 states, coaching in clubs, schools, and colleges. Been around a ton of kids, parents, and educators. It’s been a long journey, very lonely at times, and particularly during COVID, one that has cost me friends. As bizarre as this may sound, and I’m sincere when I say this, donstalk has played a part in my life (an enjoyable one) where I can talk to Scottish people openly about my ongoing US experience.

Not quite as active here as we’d hoped. Yengi joint top scorer season to date!

We are basically title contenders right now

I don't think it's essential that it's a former manager either. It needs someone that holds the manager to account, plays devil's advocate and makes sure that the tactics, signings, youth minutes etc align with the strategy.

Hard position to recruit for I'd imagine. In an ideal world I think it would be great to have an older type who knows the club, maybe an ex-manager who had been around the block a bit but hard to think of anyone like that. Most of our ex-managers have not been very good. Hope it is someone who has seen it and done it rather than some young whipper snapper who is just out of college and talks about underlapping full backs, low blocks and transitions. Knowing Dave, he will appoint someone like Carlos Bocanegra. You heard it here first.

A true great, one of the last true movie stars. Three cracking films there Al.

Given that what the countries in Europe used to do for the 2000 years prior was go to war with each other pretty much constantly, I'd say that the EU is working out very well indeed. It's far, far from perfect but given the alternative it's good enough and, given the enormity of the problem, good enough is a pretty overwhelming achievement. I think that part of what makes the EU work is the ability and willingness to fudge things around the edges where no clear cut solution exists. That's why Norway is kind of in the EU and kind of not and why several countries can be in the EU without being in the Euro, and how you can deal with the whole Ireland/N.I. etc. It doesn't need to be perfect, just good enough to stop people from shooting at each other, and let us try to figure out the rest from there. I'm not talking about overnight dissolution. I don't think that such a sudden and dramatic change would happen peacefully. Nor do I have the answers to your questions about whether a solution that fits around existing borders would work. I'm not an expert in any of this, it just seems to me that smaller countries more readily governable in a rational manner without resorting to Authoritarianism than larger ones. As to whether any changes could be achieved without violence, yes, I 100% believe that. It might not seem evident to an outsider looking in at the politics of the place, but the overwhelming majority of people here are rational and just trying to go about their day. Nobody wants to be at war with their neighbours, and anyone trying to push for that is going to find themselves standing alone very fucking quickly.

Robert Redford, American actor and producer aged 89. Loved his films Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, The Sting & All The President's Men.

How's that working out for the EU? It's an interesting point, but you seem to have just stopped at the most palatable point (dissolution). People in Florida don't want to ban abortion and carry guns, but a proportion of them do. It would seem that the population of Florida isn't a homogeneous blob, just like in every other state, so what makes you think that approximately 22 million people can be governed, in anything other than the abstract, at that level? In the UK, for example, a large proportion of Scots feel that the government in Westminster is too far removed. I might/do feel that a Holyrood government is too abstract. Moreover, the globalised, dominant, structure couldn't give a fuck what I, or the rest of Scotland, think! Do you genuinely believe that there's a mechanism of dissolution in the US that neatly falls around state borders, and can be reached without violence?

Over-qualified. I've got years of experience of complaining about shite not being done properly.

Well, I'd say that pretty high up the list of principles would be that you don't shoot at, threaten to bomb, or set fire to the homes of people you disagree with. Personally I think that the politics of the US is pretty broken, as evidenced by the fact that you can't mention the glaringly obvious fact that there is a problem with gun violence without it being a partisan political football. It would be more likely, I feel, to be able to have a rational conversation about meeting the challenges you describe if the government weren't so far from the people that it should be serving. I don't think that a country of 300 million (or whatever it is now) can be adequately served by a single centralised government dominated by two parties beating each other up over the points they differ on and allowing no room for discussion on those that they don't. Perhaps the US would work better as 50 closely cooperating countries in more of an EU model, allowing for a greater degree of variation in the manner in which the states are governed. If people in Florida feel that they want to carry guns, ban abortion and stop vaccinating their children, but the people in Massachusetts want to do the opposite, then surely we can do that without having to go to war with each other. I would very much like it if I, my wife and our 3 year old son didn't find ourselves in a war zone, so if any of those changes need to happen I would very much appreciate it if everybody would just chill the fuck out a bit and stop screaming that a fictional bogeyman is trying to kill them because it suits their political ends.