NFFC News None Transfer Related

[Salvatore Matrecano]

Will Unwin
Tue 11 Oct 2022 19.46 BST
Nottingham Forest have dismissed head of recruitment George Syrianos and head of scouting Andy Scott following a review of their summer transfer business by owner Evangelos Marinakis and new sporting director Filippo Giraldi.

The Premier League newcomers made 22 signings since winning the Championship playoff final but find themselves second from bottom with five points from nine games.

Syrianos was appointed to his role by chief executive Dane Murphy with the remit of bringing a data-driven strategy to the club’s transfer business. The plan was to take the club away from expensive, ageing signings, instead trying to bring in players under the age of 26 with potential sell-on value. He was credited with a number of the signings that helped get the team back into the Premier League for the first time in 23 years, including right-back Djed Spence.

Some of those principles were forgotten by the club this summer as owner Marinakis and his son Miltos became increasingly involved in signings following their surprise promotion.

During the summer Syrianos brought in a number of players from the Bundesliga, knowing the German market well having previously worked at Stuttgart. Moussa Niakhaté and Orel Mangala, in addition to Taiwo Awoniyi were all earmarked by Syrianos as Premier League players with potential.

The departure of Syrianos and Scott brings increasing instability at a club that seemed to have found some last week when Steve Cooper signed a new contract running until 2025 after looking likely to lose his job at one stage. Scott arrived at the club last season following the appointment of Cooper having previously worked together at Swansea. Murphy is another whose job has been rumoured to be under threat in recent weeks and the exit of key ally Syrianos will not help the situation.

[PsychoStooge]

This is why Marinakis will never get the true success he talks about wanting here; chucking plans away every 12 months or so if/when things get a bit difficult. So what's next do we go back to offering aging players like Arter and Jenkinson massive contracts because we're naive enough to listen to their agents?

[JWJW]

Funny.........everyone moaning about the new signings..............sack the 2 responsible............now moaning about sacking the 2 responsible.


There seems to be a hunger to complain................to moan at the owners............. whoever they are. Whoever the club is..........

[JWJW]

And by the way.........we dont have a Sponsor..........

Lack of Sponsor is due to who............ CEO runs that side.............. CEO to be sacked next ?

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

We knew this was coming it was no surprise.

Dane will be next.

[Salvatore Matrecano]

Funny.........everyone moaning about the new signings..............sack the 2 responsible............now moaning about sacking the 2 responsible.


There seems to be a hunger to complain................to moan at the owners............. whoever they are. Whoever the club is..........

Nope. We were moaning about the muddled thinking and lack of coherent strategy.
We adopted a recruitment plan last season for the first time which got us promoted.
It would appear that our direction now is to abandon that plan and revert to the one that spent over £100m on 70+ players and got us to 17th place in the Championship.

For what its worth I don’t back Murphy in this as he should have taken direct charge and ensured the chosen strategy was carried out. That admittedly is no easy task when the owners are getting involved.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Except for taking over some negotiations because others were inept what else are the owners getting involved in?

[Salvatore Matrecano]

Except for taking over some negotiations because others were inept what else are the owners getting involved in?

There is little proof but with respect sometimes I think you need to open your eyes a bit Sniff. I seem to remember you telling me that all 15 of the summer signings 2 years ago were Lamouchi’s choice.
I remain convinced that wasnt the case.

Regardless this summer it was clear there was muddled thinking. Murphy should have taken charge of that.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

I don't think it's about one man's choice as such but more about coaches agreeing and being on board with that choice. I think this is where some get confused and point fingers in wrong directions. A name gets mentioned from somewhere it doesn't really matter from who, what does matter is that the head of recruitment and the Coach are on board with the mentioned name. For example lets use Lingard, lets say for arguments sake that Milto raised his name first, as long as the head of recruitment and the coach are both on board then why should that be an issue?

[Salvatore Matrecano]

Agree with all of that Sniff and of course thats what happens in an ideal world. The trouble is it would seem from team selections that Cooper definitely wasnt on board with a fair number of them.

My own argument falls down here because some of those not deemed good enough were clearly Syriano’s choice eg Biancone. Then there was the Richards fiasco and the fact that Williams aint worth anything near what we paid. I cannot defend any of that.

To cut to the chase I worry about the future direction. It just seemed we were getting it right at last, but now we have sacked those responsible for getting us promotion at the first time of asking. Just think they deserved a bit more gratitude and time.

[wassy04]

Agree with all of that Sniff and of course thats what happens in an ideal world. The trouble is it would seem from team selections that Cooper definitely wasnt on board with a fair number of them.

My own argument falls down here because some of those not deemed good enough were clearly Syriano’s choice eg Biancone. Then there was the Richards fiasco and the fact that Williams aint worth anything near what we paid. I cannot defend any of that.

To cut to the chase I worry about the future direction. It just seemed we were getting it right at last, but now we have sacked those responsible for getting us promotion at the first time of asking. Just think they deserved a bit more gratitude and time.

Also, worth noting that it's way too early to write off any of the players we've signed as busts. Players take time to settle, plus some of them (Neco for example) are very young. These are still good assets, so their lack of immediate value doesn't mean they won't add value in the future.

[Paplane]

Agree with all of that Sniff and of course thats what happens in an ideal world. The trouble is it would seem from team selections that Cooper definitely wasnt on board with a fair number of them.

My own argument falls down here because some of those not deemed good enough were clearly Syriano’s choice eg Biancone. Then there was the Richards fiasco and the fact that Williams aint worth anything near what we paid. I cannot defend any of that.

To cut to the chase I worry about the future direction. It just seemed we were getting it right at last, but now we have sacked those responsible for getting us promotion at the first time of asking. Just think they deserved a bit more gratitude and time.

Also, worth noting that it's way too early to write off any of the players we've signed as busts. Players take time to settle, plus some of them (Neco for example) are very young. These are still good assets, so their lack of immediate value doesn't mean they won't add value in the future.

Bit of a coincidence though that not one single new player seems to have caught the eye in any way Wassy. Not one. Players have come into the side and been dropped. Or they've been injured. If I can see it then I'm sure EM can. And he's the one that's spent an absolute fortune. He's entitled to ask questions. I would be.

Like it or not, he's going to want some blood for that.