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Stuart Harvey


Just been appointed Technical Director at Stoke to work alongside Sporting Director Jon Walters. Not quite sure on that particular cosy club and how a Technical Director works with a Sporting Director but he was at Sunderland wasn't he?

What's the story with him?
Here’s the thread from his leaving being announced

Basically he did a really good job of finding diamonds in the rough. But when that’s the market you’re shopping in, you’ll also find some turd sandwiches.

It’s difficult to say who is responsible for what with our recruitment, but he’s thought to have played a hand in a lot of our signings from other clubs academy’s like Cirkin, Alese, Mundle, that French midfielder whose name escapes me
 
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Stuart Harvey is very highly regarded in the game. In all honesty he would have had a lot of offers since leaving us so I suspect this is about personal choice as much as anything.

Also John Walters is one of the nicest people in football. I’d surmise Stoke have a plan to develop talent and a big budget to do so because Stuart won’t be cheap.
 
He was head of recruitment during a very successful period for us, although we don't know exactly which signings he was responsible for.

He arrived as we transitioned to 'the model' of signing young players. The club described it as data driven recruitment but I suspect we relied more on contacts and networks than data. Our domestic signings were excellent and formed the backbone of two promotion teams from League One to the Premier League. We also signed a lot of cheap youngsters from abroad - mainly from France - who were by and large terrible and still have a few of them on the books running down their contracts.

He pushed to appoint Tony Mowbray as they'd worked together at Blackburn who was very popular here. Our recruitment in the summer before Mowbray was sacked was dire and Mowbray has been very vocal in claiming he was encouraged to pick certain players who the club had invested in. One of our foreign signings, Jewison Bennette who was a Costa Rican International and initially did well then was frozen out, claimed we had two separate recruitment teams - one led by Harvey, the other by the then Sporting Director Kristian Speakman - and was frozen out because he was a Harvey signing and the club favoured Speakman's signings. Whether there's any truth in that I don't know, but even as head of recruitment it still isn't really clear whether he was responsible for the duds or not.

Would expect him to do well though, he's clearly well connected at Championship level.
I didn't know that story about the factions 👍
 
How the fuck is Walters still there? :lol:
I'm getting the feeling this is part of a bigger plan to phase him out slowly rather than make headlines with a sacking. I'm guessing we'll get some news around January time, 6th paragraph of an article that says he's left. If it was me he wouldn't have been in the job in the first place but would have been sacked a long time ago, after his disastrous appointment of a coach from Norwich City as our Head Coach.
 
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Interesting comments on the whole. He isn't a head of Recruitment as we already have one of those, an ex Southampton lad who worked under Les Reed.

It's been described as him being responsible for a wide range of football operations at the club, even touching on the women's team.

So not specifically Recruitment based. Sounds like we've promoted him. Just hope it isn't above his level of ability.
Keep the binoculars away from your ex Southampton lad. And keep any bloke away from touching on the woman’s team ! 👍
 
Just been appointed Technical Director at Stoke to work alongside Sporting Director Jon Walters. Not quite sure on that particular cosy club and how a Technical Director works with a Sporting Director but he was at Sunderland wasn't he?

What's the story with him?

Did a great job at Sunderland
Real shame he left
Stoke have appointed a great recruiter
 
Aye but Harvey isn't Reidy. Did some good stuff but had some proper expensive stinkers.

You're being ridiculously harsh on him basically because he's not Ghisofli.

Also Poveda is hardly an expensive stinker. Took a gamble on a talented waster with the hope of turning a quick profit but turns out the talent had left him years ago and not even the "model" could fix him.

I get the impression Walters isnt popular at Stoke so Harvey is on a hiding to nowt as he'll be associated with Walters however Harvey done a great job with us 👍
 
You're being ridiculously harsh on him basically because he's not Ghisofli.

Also Poveda is hardly an expensive stinker. Took a gamble on a talented waster with the hope of turning a quick profit but turns out the talent had left him years ago and not even the "model" could fix him.

I get the impression Walters isnt popular at Stoke so Harvey is on a hiding to nowt as he'll be associated with Walters however Harvey done a great job with us 👍
Poveda was actually very expensive, was on high wages (for us at least), big signing on and agent fees with it being a free transfer, then having to pay him off so he could find a new club. All for about 20 minutes of first team action.

Harvey did some great work with us, particularly Trai, but his success rate and influence plummeted long before he left.

He is on a hiding to nowt now but wouldn't be surprised to see Mowbray join Stoke now, they seem to have a good rapport and it might work out.
 
Seemed decent here. Alongside Speakman we had some excellent windows, and one or two poorer ones. Helped leave us in a MUCH better position than when he arrived
but wouldn't be surprised to see Mowbray join Stoke now, they seem to have a good rapport and it might work out.
Not sure who the Stoke manager is these days, but they could do a lot worse than Tony Mowbray.

Miss his biscuit munching interviews :lol:
 
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Seemed decent here. Alongside Speakman we had some excellent windows, and one or two poorer ones. Helped leave us in a MUCH better position than when he arrived

Not sure who the Stoke manager is these days, but they could do a lot worse than Tony Mowbray.

Miss his biscuit munching interviews :lol:
Robins, they've just approached Mousinho to replace him.
 
Just been appointed Technical Director at Stoke to work alongside Sporting Director Jon Walters. Not quite sure on that particular cosy club and how a Technical Director works with a Sporting Director but he was at Sunderland wasn't he?

What's the story with him?
Don't expect much - probably a few lads who haven't quite made it elsewhere.
 
Just been appointed Technical Director at Stoke to work alongside Sporting Director Jon Walters. Not quite sure on that particular cosy club and how a Technical Director works with a Sporting Director but he was at Sunderland wasn't he?

What's the story with him?
Was excellent for us.
 
Interesting comments on the whole. He isn't a head of Recruitment as we already have one of those, an ex Southampton lad who worked under Les Reed.

It's been described as him being responsible for a wide range of football operations at the club, even touching on the women's team.

So not specifically Recruitment based. Sounds like we've promoted him. Just hope it isn't above his level of ability.
I’ll be honest, that’s a massive jump in power and responsibility compared to what he did at Sunderland.
 
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