Lepkowski Article

[B68Baggy]

That's a good piece! I've found the Liquidator to be a bit of a whine fest so listen irregularily, but that's on the money.

[Spandaubaggie]

As ever, Chris writes well, but as a journalist and former employee, he does sometimes appear to bask in Albion’s struggles, despite clearly being a supporter.

Oh c'mon CIM.

It's the job of a good journalist to expose what's going on.

He's well connected and he's one of us, a true supporter, getting the picture of what is going on at our club.

It's a painful read, but it's where we are at the moment.

[CarlosCorbewrong]

FFS, what did you expect him to write? Play the ball not the man.

The Lepko hate on here is fucking weird at times.

Yeah, you're getting a bit wba13 there, CIM.

No hate. I said Chris writes well. But, not specifically this article, at other times he has placed disproportionate emphasis on negative aspects.

I’m guessing he left the club around 15 years ago. Has there been anything good to write about?

8 consecutive Premier League seasons with some top half finishes was pretty positive

You keep on telling yourself you’re right mate.

[Duffers]

I have absolutely no time for Lepko whatsoever.

However, that article is very well written and IMHO doesn't descend into his usual snark and condescension. He's right on the money, and provides just enough light on the culture to make the point.

Credit where it's due.

This.

[fuzzbox]

I'm betting the manager he sort of, but doesn't quote was Mowbray as that is who he had a relationship with in his evening mail years. Assuming that, this is quite old news about a manager who under-performed, but was also quite angry by the end (probably rightfully, in hindsight). Who knows what they didn't want him to see on the whiteboard in the recruitment board, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the search for hhis replacement.

The fallout between playouts is a prominent part of the article, yet at the same time he says it's not important and it's what you would expect. So why is it in this story? A story in its own right, fair enough, but why is it in this one? Paragraphs are donated to this and the misery of being around a losing club, yet, in an effort to appear fair minded, he says this is always the case at a losing club. He's put it in to add colour to the image he wants of a club in disarray. It's easy to argue that this indicative of at least something that is not in in disarray. The opposite would be that they were playing 'leapfrog' and having a great time.

There's plenty that suggests that it was right for Nestor to go and he even uses the obvious emotional manipulation of linking him unfairly to the greats we all respect to paint the picture. But if has been sacked (at last) isn't this a good thing? It's not easy to sack a friend (and I'm assuming his other mate who Nestor appointed - the one whose only experience was in failed internet media companies) but he's done it.

Is it any surprise that no-one knew where Nestor was when he already knew he was getting the chop? Again, that's not a signal of a club in disarray, that's more likely the natural, if petulant, reaction of an employee thinking bollocks to this, I'm getting sacked so I''ll f-off back to my home in florida on the first plane out. I'm certainly not going to sit there and explain about the management appointment I had little hand in. And what was that about a 'dishevelled' Patel? I suppose it's open to interpretation and might not be an exaggeration purely to fit a laboriously contrived point, but he didn't look anything close to dishevelled to me...

There's the implication that we use data to make ALL our decision making, except for 'linkedin interviews' and how stupid this is. Does anybody really believe that is all we do? Data analysis was mentioned in the takeover as a USP for the process to give us an edge. Most people were never convinced by that, but that's not to say that's all we were ever going to do. It's a deliberately false impression.

Similarly with the 'linkedin' answers, what does this really mean? That's the beauty of made-up phrases, you can bend them to mean anything you want. People speak well, but that's bad? What's the alternative?

Ramsey, whether you like him or not has more to his career than a couple of seasons in the MSL. CL knows this, but chooses to omit most of his experience. It may (probably?) turn out to be a bad appointment, but at least give the full information on why he was chosen. If he needs the information, maybe he could refer back to his own podcast where he previously endorsed him!

In short, a complete hatchet job from someone who clearly has an agenda. He's toxic to the club and I would be amazed if his contacts are anything more than similarly toxic people and previous managers and players from the time when he was important on the local sports scene.

[SW4Baggie]

As ever I feel CL has speculated a fair bit for the dramatic, but it's a fair summary of the malaise around the place. He's really strung out the data driven approach criticism, he makes out as if we didn't even talk to Mason and Ramsay before appointing them, I am sure there were interviews which analysed their footballing knowledge. They called out Ramsay's knowledge of our squad, and how he'd discussed flexibility of approach so I find it difficult to believe our recruitment was "this guy did well in MLS"

My real takeout from this is that we were probably right to assume there's an element of arrogance and naivety from these owners around just how competitive and advanced the Championship is. Patel - and probably led by Nestor - no doubt underestimated how savvy clubs at this level are, and what they expected to be a huge advantage in their game modelling and data fueled recruitment strategy merely pulled us level with clubs around us in the league and they had mistaken how poorly run we were under Lai for the norm. Add in our PSR pressures (and possibly finance available) and this naivety can't be compensated for with bags of cash.

I also disagree with Lepko that we need experience; Williams, Hammond, Gourlay, Burton all had experience and they were all shite, indeed our most successful TD had no experience and an amateur footballing career. What we need is nous and intelligence. We need someone with vision (not a vision) and we need someone who understands (not just has experienced) what is required to be successful at this level. Whoever gets our DoF job will have the opportunity to completely rebuild and reignite a failing club, they will be given autonomy and patience from an ownership and there will hopefully be some money to spend. We also have good infrastructure and the foundations for success are there, but we need to get this appointment right - sadly we've been saying this for 14 years since Ashworth left.

A lot is made of our managerial churn over the last 10 years, but look at the DoFs weve also churned through. Off the top of my head - Garlic, Burton, Hammond, Terraneo, Dowling, Gourlay, Nestor - we've had 7 since Ashworth left, and most have lasted 12 months at best. This lack of planning, continuity and strategy is why we are staring League fucking One in the face.

[CIM]

I didn't notice Patel being "disengaged and dishevelled" at the Ramsay unveiling press conference. Seems it's just me.

[Cheshire East Baggie]

I'm betting the manager he sort of, but doesn't quote was Mowbray as that is who he had a relationship with in his evening mail years. Assuming that, this is quite old news about a manager who under-performed, but was also quite angry by the end (probably rightfully, in hindsight). Who knows what they didn't want him to see on the whiteboard in the recruitment board, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the search for hhis replacement.

The fallout between playouts is a prominent part of the article, yet at the same time he says it's not important and it's what you would expect. So why is it in this story? A story in its own right, fair enough, but why is it in this one? Paragraphs are donated to this and the misery of being around a losing club, yet, in an effort to appear fair minded, he says this is always the case at a losing club. He's put it in to add colour to the image he wants of a club in disarray. It's easy to argue that this indicative of at least something that is not in in disarray. If it was, they would be playing 'leapfrog' and having a great time.

There's plenty that suggests that it was right for Nestor to go and he even uses the obvious emotional manipulation of linking him unfairly to the greats we all respect to paint the picture. But if has been sacked (at last) isn't this a good thing? It's not easy to sack a friend (and I'm assuming his other mate who Nestor appointed - the one whose only experience was in failed internet media companies) but he's done it.

Is it any surprise that no-one knew where Nestor was when he already knew he was getting the chop? Again, that's not a signal of a club in disarray, that's more likely the natural, if petulant, reaction of an employee thinking bollocks to this, I'm getting back to my home in florida on the first plane out, I'm certainly not going to sit there and explain about the management appointment I had little hand in. And what was that about a 'dishevelled' Patel? I suppose it's open to interpretation and might not be an exaggeration purely to fit a point, but he didn't look anything close to dishevelled to me...

There's the implication that we use data to make ALL our decision making, except for 'linkedin interviews' and how stupid this is. Does anybody really believe that is all we do? Data analysis was mentioned in the takeover as a USP for the process to give us an edge. Most people were never convinced by that, but that's not to say that's all we were ever going to do. It's a deliberately false impression.

Similarly with the 'linkedin' answers, what does this really mean? People speak well, but that's not important? What's the alternative? What does it really mean, anyway? That's the beauty of made-up phrases, you can bend them to mean anything you want.

Ramsey, whether you like him (thats him over there by himself) or not (that's everyone else) has more to his career than a couple of seasons in the MSL. CL knows this, but chooses to omit most of his experience. It may (probably?) turn out to be a bad appointment, but at least give the full information on why he was chosen. If he need the information, maybe he could refer back to his own podcast where he previously endorsed him!

In short, a complete hatchet job from someone who clearly has an agenda. He's toxic to the club and I would be amazed if his contacts are anything more than similarly toxic people and previous managers and players from the time when he was important on the local sports scene.

OK Fuzz, that's about 500 words assassinating Chris Lepkowski. Now write a few about how we find ourselves in the Championship relegation zone if everything is going well down at The Hawthorns. Lepo's comments ring true to me. All journos add a slant to their reporting, but that doesn't discredit them totally. The club is in a mess, and sniping at people who comment or report on it doesn't achieve a damn thing.

[petty sniper]

This is my take on Lepko. He was brought in to replace another local journo who was also a home and away fan before he got his dream job. He was pushed out which suprised many and lepko was brought in. When he finished he went on to senior PR roles in the EPL and UEFA. When lepko finished he turned into a jobbing journo who kept himself relevant by writing ITK toss about the alsbion.

[Derek Hardballs]

Employ Mowbray using some random stats as a reason - tick
Don’t employ a DoF - tick
Don’t employ someone who can increase revenue away from selling players - tick
Employ a manager with no experience in one of the toughest leagues in world football - tick
Employ a manager who seemingly won’t budge from a system that requires players we didn’t have - tick
Sell our best players and replace with no better if not worse - tick

That’s where the clubs decision making has been this year. Yes the owners are managing PSR problems but almost every decision they’ve made that is related to the football side of the game has been badly thought out, either through naivety or arrogance or perhaps both. Anyone who is still arguing we have a coherent plan in place has been asleep since we appointed TM.