London Broncos • Re: Our 2022 recruitment policy
I am just trying to explain what I think they were trying to do, although it sounds disjointed, and hard to follow.
I suppose I can offer more of a detailed narrative.
1. There is a guy who I think first showed up about 10 years ago. I believe he had some background in coaching at Wakefield, and plenty of connections. He's quite a charming and talkative bloke. Runs his own sports business. Been in the Director's Box for many years. A bit superficial but highly persuasive. However, he isn't capable of media relations, isn't organized, and is erratic and inconsistent. From a pure commercial side he can rightly see that there is limited opportunity at Trailfinders. There's limited opportunity to offer a premium experience at a premium price. But I also saw him as short term and limited in some ways. He was too much of a small business man. If a product line didn't sell he would want to discontinue it, but if you close the shop then you sell nothing. I felt he would close the shop given the chance to stem the losses.
2. The club had a Chief Executive who I like but don't know that well. I think the club had rebuilt quite well from his arrival at Barnet to 2019. I think he became much less influential when person 1 appeared.
3. David Hughes, I have known superficially since about 2006. I understood he was putting in around a couple of million a year as recently as 2 to 3 years ago. I've never got a real view of his wealth, though I have heard suggestions that it may be £80 million. He has seemed to lurch between paying six figure salaries to poor quality and known to be often injured players to seemingly being incapable or unwilling to secure obviously quality players with a good career to come. I could give countless examples where he has described how the academy is vital only for him to end up with all the poop no one wants whilst his best players left for free or near free. He just doesn't seem to want to provide a 3 year contract or protect his assets. In truth, I think he's given up on the club 4 or 5 times only to be like a drug addict who suddenly gets his heart restarted. Each time it happens the club weakens. He flushes everything. Loses good managers, good players, supporter goodwill. I think the AFC Wimbledon move was to a plan, he had approved. But then he seems to get vexed off. I think he gets to the point he feels cheated and like a cards player pushes the table over. I think also he puts a lot of pressure on his coaches. There seems a lot of relationship breakdowns in his tenure.
The cast is there, pulling but not in the same direction.
Statistics: Posted by markrammond — Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:37 pm