Thelwell on the New Wolves

[nimrod]

i know tbh i only posted as i just thought it unfair thelwell's taking a hit for crap PR from the old regime.

do you just have a file of gifs ready to go at any point?

 

[Langers]

do you just have a file of gifs ready to go at any point?

 

[nimrod]

lol, quality!

 

[The Bear]

Anyone that believed the "footballing reasons" line is a fool.

 

[Dinowolf]

Surely it can only be a matter of time
, till he is shown where the door is.

I've questioned his role for some time and feel it's unbelievable to me that a man can go from managing the kids to scouting new first team players.

He has had a successful career as an Academy manager at a couple of clubs (Preston, Derby), he has also had a career teaching coaches for Wales, then someone decided to make him head of recruitment for Wolves. (I think it was when our chief scout left for Huddersfield, but I could be wrong.) There's no correlation between the roles.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I've questioned his role for some time and feel it's unbelievable to me that a man can go from managing the kids to scouting new first team players.

He has had a successful career as an Academy manager at a couple of clubs (Preston, Derby), he has also had a career teaching coaches for Wales, then someone decided to make him head of recruitment for Wolves. (I think it was when our chief scout left for Huddersfield, but I could be wrong.) There's no correlation between the roles.

Plenty of people in football have flitted around between different roles.

Was it Adkins who started off as a physio at Scunthorpe then ended up managing in the Premier League with Southampton?
AVB used to do little more than scout the next opposition for Mourinho at Chelsea I think but he got himself the top job elsewhere.

The old British way of having a manager controlling every aspect obviously required a huge skillset to be successful so it's not surprise nowadays with more varied roles and more delegation of tasks that people are moving around to find their niche, I wouldn't say it's a particularly football specific thing either, plenty of people in my industry move around different job roles with success. I've little idea what Thelwell's day to day activities would've been in any of his roles but say his early success with youth teams may have been based on his recruitment rather than any coaching he provided, hence a move into recruitment rather than pursuing more senior coaching roles.

People who work alongside him must see some value in what he does.

 

[Dinowolf]

Plenty of people in football have flitted around between different roles.

Was it Adkins who started off as a physio at Scunthorpe then ended up managing in the Premier League with Southampton?
AVB used to do little more than scout the next opposition for Mourinho at Chelsea I think but he got himself the top job elsewhere.

The old British way of having a manager controlling every aspect obviously required a huge skillset to be successful so it's not surprise nowadays with more varied roles and more delegation of tasks that people are moving around to find their niche, I wouldn't say it's a particularly football specific thing either, plenty of people in my industry move around different job roles with success. I've little idea what Thelwell's day to day activities would've been in any of his roles but say his early success with youth teams may have been based on his recruitment rather than any coaching he provided, hence a move into recruitment rather than pursuing more senior coaching roles.

People who work alongside him must see some value in what he does.

Do you think he has done a good job at Wolves as Head of Recruitment? Was it his influence that brought in most of the summer signings or was it someone else as largely believed on here?

I'm not saying he has no value to the club, and from his interview he admits that he has nothing to do with 'molineux' side of things, I just don't see how he has got to where he is now as Sporting Director, on the perceived performances he has made for the senior side at Wolves. It's a mystery to me.

If someone asked me in what way is he a positive for the first team, then I couldn't answer them.

 

[AndyWolves]

Surely it can only be a matter of time
, till he is shown where the door is.

In terms of knowing where the door is that's something that we've become familiar with and we are always working hard to ensure that, now we're aligned with Fosun, the door is something that i'm only going to get more familiar with the longer we're in this position.

The experience I've personally gathered over the last few years which has evidenced itself in the squad we've built up can only stand us in good stead moving forward.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Do you think he has done a good job at Wolves as Head of Recruitment? Was it his influence that brought in most of the summer signings or was it someone else as largely believed on here?

I'm not saying he has no value to the club, and from his interview he admits that he has nothing to do with 'molineux' side of things, I just don't see how he has got to where he is now as Sporting Director, on the perceived performances he has made for the senior side at Wolves. It's a mystery to me.

If someone asked me in what way is he a positive for the first team, then I couldn't answer them.

It's almost impossible to know how good a job he is doing from the outside looking in.

Who can say how much input he had in any of the signings? The failures like Byrne could be completely on him or just as easily he could've been the 5th or 6th choice on his list for a right winger but budgetary constraints from above or lack of agreement with Jackett could've put the other, potentially better, signings to rest. Obviously this season there are several transfers that look to have been done above his head with the Mendes connection but there are just as many, if not more, that he's potentially had a hand in.

There are far too many grey areas around his responsibilities and level of control for us outsiders to ever truly know how good a job he's doing.

 

[Kenny]

Obviously this season there are several transfers that look to have been done above his head with the Mendes connection but there are just as many, if not more, that he's potentially had a hand in.

.

Lonny - Thelwell
Costa - Mendes
Tex - Mendes
Ivan - Mendes
John - Mendes
Bod - Thelwell
Gladon - Thelwell
Saiss - Thelwell
CBJ - Not sure on this...could be a Mendes via Mourinho or from the Thelwell list
Silvo - Mendes
That young keeper - Thelwell
Prince - Thelwell
Stearman - Thelwell

My take on which list the players came from this summer.

 

[The Bear]

CBJ was Butti from his Milan days with Jose. Him and Cusin went to see him IIRC.

 

[Johnny75]

Lonny - Thelwell
Costa - Mendes
Tex - Mendes
Ivan - Mendes
John - Mendes
Bod - Thelwell
Gladon - Thelwell
Saiss - Thelwell
CBJ - Not sure on this...could be a Mendes via Mourinho or from the Thelwell list
Silvo - Mendes
That young keeper - Thelwell
Prince - Thelwell
Stearman - Thelwell

My take on which list the players came from this summer.

I think most of that is fair although I'm not sure how much Thewell did in recruiting Pollet who is defacto our European scout in France and Gladon was a recommendation from John DeWolf as we are led to believe.

Which leaves Bod, Lonny, Stears and Ruddy. Two 'keepers a bog standard defender and a quality forward. 1 out of 4 is still pretty shite at any level. Unfair to judge him on the others yet.

On the scouting thing, I'm not sure where we are at all with that as there was a big turnover of scouts last season and I imagine a lot of them got the boot when Jackett went so who knows what's going on. I just think Thelwell has wandered to a pay grade well above his ability level. But just maybe he's keeping Mendes in check, in which case he stays.

 

[Kenny]

Did de Wolf recommend him or was that just Gladon saying he had told him if he gets the chance to join Wolves, take it?

Obviously when I put Thelwell's name down, that just means from the list of players he will have. Not all of them will be players he has spotted but ones he would have watched after the likes of Pollet had given him the players name.
I thought Kev would be gone, but i guess Jeff & Co have taken on board that they know little about running a football club so it made sense to keep at least 1 person here with regards to player recruitment. As the club grows under Fosun, I fully expect Kev to disappear into the sunset. That will happen around the time we manage to go up I reckon.

 

[Tony Towner]

Saying Zenga has the sign off on incoming players is an insult to any Wolves fans intelligence, just as it was to say the same about Jackett in his last year. As for Stearman TimII said when he came back that he was sold against Jackett's will.

 

[LondonBob]

Unrest amongst the squad about the sheer number of players brought in, who could have predicted that though?