by From Despair To Where? »
21 Sep 2022 13:00
Snowflake Royal From Despair To Where? Snowflake Royal Bowen was a consultant during the season. By season’s end he was in the Sporting Director's chair and very much involved in signings. He essentially brought in Morrison over Gomes head.
Personally, I'm not giving Dai any credit for turning up to a couple of games and going to the pub, any more than I'm giving him credit for the FL forcing him to manage the club in a more sustainable way.
He ignored Howe. He refused to sell Moore and instructed Gourlay to sort out the much improved deal for him Gourlay had been delaying. He appointed Gomes. He backed Stam for too long and with excessive spending. He dumped the one manager who had avoided a relegation fight with us. He stuck with Paunovic too long. He authorised the massive overspending the second we came out from under an embargo. He's overseen the club malaise that set back in after the Thais stabilised the problems of Zingarevich.
He's going to need to show he can run the club well and sustainably without being forced to with his hands tied by the FL before I give him an ounce of credit.
According to the club, Bowen was made Sporting Director 4 games into the new season and 2 days after we beat Cardiff 3-0.
https://readingfc.co.uk//news/2019/august/mark-bowen-appointed-as-sporting-director/Link doesn't appear to be working properly but it's there on the club website.
Weird, because it was made clear that for the new season his consultancy was over and Gomes wanted autonomy with the playing staff in terms of training and prep across pre-season and into the season.
Well, not weird so much as fact.
My memory of events, as much as that means anything, is that he did recommend Morrison, and it was seen as a worthwhile signing but stayed on purely in a consultancy role as there was an expectancy that he would jump the moment Mark Hughes got another job. That didn't happen so he was then offered a permenant position with greater responsibility.
Anyway, as I said, I think Dai is alright. Yes he's made mistakes but he hasn't driven the club to the brink of administration like Zingarovich and he's put into the club rather than taken out, unlike the Thais, and a number of his initiatives have suggested he does have an afinity for the club.