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Speakman gone


Brian_Mooney said:
He was brilliant I agree but everything you mention and everyone have us back down in the Championship in 2026. Bellingham doesn't count lol .

Brilliant job but realistically a change had to be made to get us where we sit today.
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But we had a summer once we were promoted to sign new players. Players like Roberts and so on weren't expected to necessarily make the step up with us.

Our plan was clear, get promoted under the sensible business model of signing under 25s (iirc) and free older players. Then spend all the PL money and money from players sales that first summer. Executed perfectly

Speakman has played a huge part in that and just because a lot of the players that we used to get from League 1 to the PL couldn't make the leap, doesn't make them bad signings
 
Gloucester said:
Still doesn’t explain the “with immediate effect”
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I don't think there's anything in the "immediate effect" bit tbh. January window is done so the focus will obviously turn to planning for the summer. He's seen out the majority of what he'd do in 25/26 so there's no point agreeing a long notice period or anything. The club don't need it because they've got Ghisolfi in already, speakman doesn't need it because he wouldn't have much to do. So likely made sense to pay him off so he can leave now and the immediate effect bit is just making sure there's no ambiguity. He's stepped away now, Ghisolfi will be doing all the summer planning, so players and agents can be confident when approached that there aren't any conflicting interests. When Ghisolfi came in they likely always hoped to have this season with the two of them as a smooth transition and now, with January done and survival virtually assured, it's a good time to part ways
 
woodlebert said:
But we had a summer once we were promoted to sign new players. Players like Roberts and so on weren't expected to necessarily make the step up with us.

Our plan was clear, get promoted under the sensible business model of signing under 25s (iirc) and free older players. Then spend all the PL money and money from players sales that first summer. Executed perfectly

Speakman has played a huge part in that and just because a lot of the players that we used to get from League 1 to the PL couldn't make the leap, doesn't make them bad signings
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Plus Speakmans remit was a lot bigger than just deciding who to sign. He was sporting director for the whole club. Getting the recruitment and support functions in place, improving the data and analytics, making sure the academy is set up to perform as well as possible, basically all the off field stuff has been his remit. Ghisolfi has come in initially with a pure first team recruitment focus. If he just had a few phone numbers and contacts then it's down to him, but if we've scouted the lads we brought in, decided if they were a cultural fit etc, a lot of that would have had Speakman's influence.

So even a few of the signings in previous years not working out can't really be held against Speakman when we look at how far we've come from when he walked in and we had pretty much no scouting, no data analysis, were stripping the academy. He's had a massive job to get us performing as a club to a premier League level. Now just need to hope Ghisolfi can do that stuff in addition to continuing to develop the recruitment team with the focus more on other leagues
 
Ghisolfi will 'build a team' now

expect quite a few new arrivals behind the scenes over the course of 2026
 
Looked more and more ominous with Ghisolfi more and more involved.
Thank You KS, you have done an incredible job bringing this club back to where it belongs. Hope he has a well deserved break and he will be not short of suitors for another exciting project. What a job he's done
 
Guinness Guzzler said:
So even a few of the signings in previous years not working out can't really be held against Speakman when we look at how far we've come from when he walked in and we had pretty much no scouting, no data analysis, were stripping the academy. He's had a massive job to get us performing as a club to a premier League level. Now just need to hope Ghisolfi can do that stuff in addition to continuing to develop the recruitment team with the focus more on other leagues
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Absolutely this. Every club signs players that don’t work out.
For every one that didn’t, plenty did, proven by the fact of where we are now vs where we were when he joined.
 
Guinness Guzzler said:
Plus Speakmans remit was a lot bigger than just deciding who to sign. He was sporting director for the whole club. Getting the recruitment and support functions in place, improving the data and analytics, making sure the academy is set up to perform as well as possible, basically all the off field stuff has been his remit. Ghisolfi has come in initially with a pure first team recruitment focus. If he just had a few phone numbers and contacts then it's down to him, but if we've scouted the lads we brought in, decided if they were a cultural fit etc, a lot of that would have had Speakman's influence.

So even a few of the signings in previous years not working out can't really be held against Speakman when we look at how far we've come from when he walked in and we had pretty much no scouting, no data analysis, were stripping the academy. He's had a massive job to get us performing as a club to a premier League level. Now just need to hope Ghisolfi can do that stuff in addition to continuing to develop the recruitment team with the focus more on other leagues
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Think someone may come in who is more centred to that role than KS was
 
Johnny Gently said:
There may have been a dispute that has arisen between Speakman and Ghisolfi over who is in charge of what and KLD has clarified in favour of the man who brought in a decent premier league squad for buttons. Maybe it came to a head and Ghisolfi won the power struggle or maybe Speakman's nose was put out of joint, who knows. I would have been devastated if Ghislfi had left instead of Speakman but good luck to him in his next job as long as it isn't at the Saudis.
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I'm really not sure that will have been case. Prior to promotion our recruitment strategy was focused on identifying emerging talent from within UK. This allowed us to tap into players who were ready for the championship, but the jury was out on them for the Premier League... Speakman appears to have mastered this role. That recruitment strategy is no longer good for us as a premier league team. We are no longer recruiting talent that may one day make in premier league... we now recruit from talent ready to step into the premier league. That type of talent in the UK is crazy expensive and we are looking for value... that comes in European leagues that talent wise sit between the gulf in class from championship to Premier league... Speakman is not the go to man for this role. I really think the club have kept him onboard for past 6 months to oversee the sales and moving on of the previous talent pool. We still need that role in the club, but Speakman won't understandably want to be that man.
 
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xmfd said:
Wonder how big a part he played in the signings of Poveda, Hemir, Pembele, etc.
Adingra too. Massive flopperooni there.
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Now name all the successful ones? Bit weird naming Adingra and not naming the rest of them who have been deemed a success. Or were they all Ghisolfi signings?
 
Thatheaderman said:
Think someone may come in who is more centred to that role than KS was
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Wouldn't surprise me, it's a pretty huge role for one person. Aye, would make sense for Ghisolfi to get the promotion to sporting director, which is the title he's had in his previous roles, and then someone comes into the director of football role for the first team recruitment focused stuff, someone who knows the global game more than speakman did. It should be a positive, knowing how aggressive KLD is about improving
 
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