Damien Comolli

[Judge Jules]

Agree as far as that goes, but I think it'll be very much a two-track approach, bringing young players through as well as buying talent in.

 

[Jack D Rips]

[quote author=Richey link=topic=42566.msg1210784#msg1210784 date=1288795101]
Hodgson has apparently known everyone for 'many many years'.

What now for Alan Harper, another person Hodgson has known for many many years and who was supposedly going to be the senior talent spotter?
[/quote]

When you're 63 you'll have known a lot of people for many many years

 

[dmishra]

Does he pass the Oncy test?

 

[WhyAlwaysMe?]

Sounds good.

 

[Molbystwin]

So we are going to do it Spurs style are we?No superstars but instead lots of money invested over a long period of time ... its probably a good strategy to be fair but it wont be getting us any silverware for a very long time, I don't know if the fans will be patient enough or indeed if the manager is good enough.

As for commoli well... some good finds in that list to be fair to him so... as for him being better than Macia etc, didnt macia have the dogs bollox reputation in Spain before? As in getting excited about a scout is a bit more than i can muster.

 

[kingjulian]

[quote author=dmishra link=topic=42566.msg1210796#msg1210796 date=1288797051]
Does he pass the Oncy test?

[/quote]

His name shows promise.

But most guys who say "I don't have time for a holiday" are ugly blokes.

 

[dmishra]

How come we've never had a picture of Macia posted here? This is what he looks like

Look at that fucking paunch.

*Joins Oncy's Italian suit army*

 

[Avmenon]

I thought Benitez's severance package included his staff; I'm surprised Macia wasnt taken hy him as well.

Anyone more in teh know about this?

 

[keniget]

He's got a bit of Quentin Tarantino about him has Macia.

 

[gene hughes]

He looks like the kind of guy who stands outside shops looking at the girls who work at the checkouts while rubbing his thighs vigourously.

Just sayin'.

 

[Rosco]

[quote author=Avmenon link=topic=42566.msg1210789#msg1210789 date=1288796304]
I'm actually quite shocked by this.

Not by the actual appointment; but by the fact that JOhn Henry has taken such a hands on approach on this.

The fact that both Comolli and Hodgson have mentioned Henry in relation to this appointment might suggest that this was a Henry appointment made without the say-so of Hodgson.
[/quote]

This is pretty much what they did with the Red Sox mate, it shouldn't be surprising at all. Henry would never let the success of the club depend on one man working with complete authority. He will try to bring together the best group of people possible to run things, Comolli isn't a bad start.

 

[King Binny]

Hodgson told an Anfield press conference: "I feel very good about it.

"It is something we have talked about with the owners and something they were very keen to put in place. The owners come from an American sporting background where the team manager is very much responsible for team affairs, but alongside him there is a person who can have all sorts of titles, a type of sporting director in European terms.

"It's someone who obviously has a large input into the running of the football club and has an input and a part to play in a management structure.

Journalists quizzed the boss on if he felt the appointment of Comolli was a sign of a cultural shift at Liverpool and also asked for his thoughts on the role Anfield's new man will play.

Hodgson replied: "When I worked at Fulham I worked very closely with Alistair Mackintosh. He didn't have the title 'sporting director' but my dealings with him and the way we worked together, I would have called him sporting director.

"He had other responsibilities as well with regard to Mohammed Al-Fayed, but as far as I was concerned he was my sporting director and I am very used to working in that way.

"The days of the 'dictator type' English manager have long since passed anyway, where everything went through one man and no-one dared even buy a paper clip without that person's approval.

"It is just a question of strategy which I think makes a lot of sense for all football clubs and certainly makes a lot of sense for our football club at this moment in time because we're in a transition.

"We've got new owners who have a very clear vision and philosophy for the club and they want a management structure in place they can identify with. That means one they can identify with from American and European sporting models, not necessarily an archetypical, if somewhat outdated, English model."

 

[TheBunnyman]

Wow, so he's not just the chief scout - he's our director of football. This is a big appointment - I hope we've got the right man.

OK, so Henry appointed him, but Henry - as he admits - knows nothing about football. So who advised him to sign Commoli? That's what I want to know.

 

[HC]

Aye club football in the Prem is catching up with its continental counterpart where you have a team around the manager.

Look at Chelsea and Spurs

 

[King Binny]

[quote author=TheBunnyman link=topic=42566.msg1210827#msg1210827 date=1288801315]
Wow, so he's not just the chief scout - he's our director of football. This is a big appointment - I hope we've got the right man.

OK, so Henry appointed him, but Henry - as he admits - knows nothing about football. So who advised him to sign Commoli? That's what I want to know.
[/quote]

http://www.sportsmarketing20.com/profiles/blogs/john-henry-moneyball-and-what

As Liverpool and all of England begin to understand just who John Henry and New England Sports Ventures (NESV) are, one thing that cannot be overlooked is Henry's belief in saber-metrics - the use of mathematical and statistical analysis of baseball. It was Henry, the hedge-fund billionaire with a love for numbers, who aggressively pursued Billy Beane (the man behind Moneyball) to run the Red Sox organization when he purchased it. When Beane eventually passed on the opportunity (after originally accepting it), Henry turned to current Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein - a Yale graduate with little background in professional baseball. Since taking the reigns of the club, Epstein - with Henry's backing - has focused on developing talent that produce in less appreciated but more statistically important categories (such as Ultimate Zone Rating and On Base Percentage) and acquiring undervalued players on the market.

The approach has spread throughout baseball and is now common in most professional sports leagues including the Premiership. Arsene Wenger, Aidy Boothroyd, Jose Mourinho. They all use metrics in some way. Tottenham shifted its entire organization towards metrics following the publication of Moneyball - when Beane became quite friendly with Spurs' former Sporting Director Damien Comolli

 

[gene hughes]

*opens excel*

 

[refugee]

[quote author=Binny link=topic=42566.msg1210829#msg1210829 date=1288801587]

As Liverpool and all of England begin to understand just who John Henry and New England Sports Ventures (NESV) are, one thing that cannot be overlooked is Henry's belief in saber-metrics - the use of mathematical and statistical analysis of baseball. It was Henry, the hedge-fund billionaire with a love for numbers, who aggressively pursued Billy Beane (the man behind Moneyball) to run the Red Sox organization when he purchased it. When Beane eventually passed on the opportunity (after originally accepting it), Henry turned to current Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein - a Yale graduate with little background in professional baseball. Since taking the reigns of the club, Epstein - with Henry's backing - has focused on developing talent that produce in less appreciated but more statistically important categories (such as Ultimate Zone Rating and On Base Percentage) and acquiring undervalued players on the market.

The approach has spread throughout baseball and is now common in most professional sports leagues including the Premiership. Arsene Wenger, Aidy Boothroyd, Jose Mourinho. They all use metrics in some way. Tottenham shifted its entire organization towards metrics following the publication of Moneyball - when Beane became quite friendly with Spurs' former Sporting Director Damien Comolli

[/quote]

Good spot (and glad to see you are posting more.)

 

[gene hughes]

Does anyone have any idea on who will actually decide who we buy or don't buy?

Or to put that in English, who will actually buy the players?

Is it some kind of committee or what? Will Roy tell Comoli that he needs a pacey left winger and then get one in the next window or just Comoli just walk around Europe with a shopping trolley and a wad of cash?

What's going on?

And what's Kenny's job now?

And why is the moon looking at me like that?

 

[King Binny]

[quote author=refugee link=topic=42566.msg1210834#msg1210834 date=1288801811]

Good spot (and glad to see you are posting more.)
[/quote]

Cheers mate. Ctrl v+ ctrl c are my forte. 😛

 

[King Binny]

[quote author=gene hughes link=topic=42566.msg1210835#msg1210835 date=1288802114]
Does anyone have any idea on who will actually decide who we buy or don't buy?

Or to put that in English, who will actually buy the players?

Is it some kind of committee or what? Will Roy tell Comoli that he needs a pacey left winger and then get one in the next window or just Comoli just walk around Europe with a shopping trolley and a wad of cash?

What's going on?

And what's Kenny's job now?

And why is the moon looking at me like that?
[/quote]

May sound a bit silly but my guess is a mixture of both. On one hand he will be compiling names for various types/positions of players we might need, on the other, if he spots a gd player at gd age/value, he'll swoop for him?

Kenny's job is indeed a question now. Just over the last wks, he was travelling around watching supposed targets. A place on the board for him?

 

[Y1]

Saber-matics sounds so Christian science! Are we being backed by Val Kilmer or what.

 

[King Binny]

[quote author=Y1 link=topic=42566.msg1210842#msg1210842 date=1288802672]
Saber-matics sounds so Christian science! Are we being backed by Val Kilmer or what.
[/quote]

The phrasing in this part sounds dodgy for a moment "Epstein - with Henry's backing - has focused on developing talent that produce in less appreciated but more statistically important categories and acquiring undervalued players on the market."

Knew the age + value thing has been mentioned before but undervalued doesn't sound too good to me. Maybe too paranoid.

Afellay-s on the way? Young + bosman deals. Does that rule out the likes of Hazard?

 

[Asbo]

[quote author=Binny link=topic=42566.msg1210841#msg1210841 date=1288802643]
[quote author=gene hughes link=topic=42566.msg1210835#msg1210835 date=1288802114]
Does anyone have any idea on who will actually decide who we buy or don't buy?

Or to put that in English, who will actually buy the players?

Is it some kind of committee or what? Will Roy tell Comoli that he needs a pacey left winger and then get one in the next window or just Comoli just walk around Europe with a shopping trolley and a wad of cash?

What's going on?

And what's Kenny's job now?

And why is the moon looking at me like that?
[/quote]

May sound a bit silly but my guess is a mixture of both. On one hand he will be compiling names for various types/positions of players we might need, on the other, if he spots a gd player at gd age/value, he'll swoop for him?

Kenny's job is indeed a question now. Just over the last wks, he was travelling around watching supposed targets. A place on the board for him?
[/quote]

Won't he just be scouting and give the names in, and they put them though E.R.N.I.E. and see what number comes up and say 'Buy that one'

 

[refugee]

[quote author=gene hughes link=topic=42566.msg1210835#msg1210835 date=1288802114]
Does anyone have any idea on who will actually decide who we buy or don't buy?

Or to put that in English, who will actually buy the players?

Is it some kind of committee or what? Will Roy tell Comoli that he needs a pacey left winger and then get one in the next window or just Comoli just walk around Europe with a shopping trolley and a wad of cash?

What's going on?

And what's Kenny's job now?

And why is the moon looking at me like that?
[/quote]

The moon is looking at you because
"The face-like image on the moon's surface [particularly when viewed in the north] is caused by nothing more than the coincidental placement of various natural features on the moon's surface, like patches of craters, large areas of relatively uncratered surface, and some variations in color/luminosity of the dust and sand that cover the moon."

I don't know the answer to any of the other questions.

 

[kingjulian]

[quote author=gene hughes link=topic=42566.msg1210835#msg1210835 date=1288802114]
Does anyone have any idea on who will actually decide who we buy or don't buy?

Or to put that in English, who will actually buy the players?

Is it some kind of committee or what? Will Roy tell Comoli that he needs a pacey left winger and then get one in the next window or just Comoli just walk around Europe with a shopping trolley and a wad of cash?

What's going on?

And what's Kenny's job now?

And why is the moon looking at me like that?
[/quote]

lol spidey..calm down.

 

[mr_moo]

I hate the continental structure of a manager and director of football (strategy), I believe it causes more problems than it solves.

 

[King Binny]

What will Damien Comolli do for Liverpool?

Gareth Bale and Luka Modric turn in world class performances to soundly beat the European Champions; Damien Comolli is appointed Director of Football Strategy at Liverpool. Everything is connected. Comolli brought Bale and Modric to Spurs and there is no doubt that his legacy has been reassessed since he departed under a cloud two years ago.

That he has been employed by Liverpool is no surprise. This has been a club crying out for long-term direction. Roy Hodgson’s job remains to get them as high up the league as possible come May; Comolli’s is to ensure the club is competing with the very best in 2015. Comolli is friends with Billy Beane, the baseball maverick who used a radical stats driven approach to achieve great success with the Oakland A’s, dramatised in the book Moneyball (being made into a film with Brad Pitt).

John W. Henry, Liverpools’ new owner, tried to hire Beane when he took over the Red Sox and is an admirer of his methods. Henry is also an admirer of Arsene Wenger, having visited Arsenal before he bought Liverpool, who employed Comolli as his European scout between 1996 and 2003. It is an appointment that makes sense. This is the piece I wrote on Sunday about how Liverpool will use metrics under NESV which includes some of Comolli’s thoughts on the subject. So how will Comolli work at Liverpool?

Signings
When Comolli left Spurs in October 2008, along with Juande Ramos, his transfer record was heavily criticised. Harry Redknapp said he had inherited a “mish-mash†of players that did not form a cohesive squad. On Tuesday night, though, five players who started against Inter were signed under Comolli’s watch and a sixth, Heurlho Gomes, would have started if not for injuries. He got several wrong – Hossam Ghaly, Ricardo Rocha and especially Gilberto – but many players who were slated have come good, like Gomes, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Younes Kaboul, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Kevin-Prince Boateng (now at Milan). Nothing has been confirmed but I imagine Liverpool will set up a football board, like they have at Chelsea, in which key decisions can be made. Comolli and his team will identify players using a reliable scouting unit (he was shocked by how few Spurs had on his arrival) and bring the best statistical analysis that football currently has to offer. That will allow the manager to focus on coaching the first team. In the long term, he will help identify a young coach who can build a dynasty at the club.

Contracts
Liverpool pay a huge £120million in wages yet do not have the squad to reflect that. Many older players are on excessively generous deals. Don’t expect the club to offer players over the age of 28 huge contracts like they did last summer. As it has been at Spurs, the focus will be on value (look at how much they made on the Dimitar Berbatov deal), development and, to an extent, on tapping into markets that have previously been overlooked.

Training Ground
Comolli helped design Tottenham’s new training ground at Bulls Cross which will be among the very best in Europe. Prompted by Gerard Houllier Melwood had a redevelopment in 2001 but if Liverpool are truly to compete with their rivals they will need a state-of-the-art facility, like Chelsea have at Cobham, Arsenal have at London Colney and Manchester United have at Carrington.

Academy
Liverpool’s academy has been slowly moving in the right direction and Frank McParland, Jose Segura and Rodolfo Borrell are good operators. What they will get from Comolli is the large-scale strategic vision, an encyclodpedic knowledge of talent all over the world and a commitment to high level scouting. Working with the coach/manager, there will also be a more cohesive approach to getting academy talent into the first team. At Spurs he attracted some very promising players to the club in the face of intense competition (Chelsea wanted Danny Rose, Barcelona wanted John Bostock). Merseyside is incredibly fertile territory for players – look around the Premier League and see how many come from Liverpool – and there is no excuse for Liverpool’s academy not to be producing elite players.

 

[Jack D Rips]

Alan Sugar has labelled him as "useless" when at Spurs

 

[Hansern]

I don't think that list is to patchy at all tbh, loads of the players on it that I would have loved at Anfield.

I'd also like to know how many other talents that he "discovered" that went to bigger European and English clubs, that wouldn't go to Tottenham. Now that he represents Liverpool, those players will be interested aswell. We still hold an enourmous appeal out there.

 

[WhyAlwaysMe?]

[quote author=Jack D Rips link=topic=42566.msg1210852#msg1210852 date=1288803640]
Alan Sugar has labelled him as "useless" when at Spurs
[/quote]

Lord_Sugar
Damien comolli was useless at spurs what's he expected to do at liverpool wonder who appointed him
about 1 hour ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®