Meget bra innlegg i YEP idag:
I don't blame Heckingbottom at all for this mess, the blame rests firmly upon the shoulders of Radrizanni.
Heckingbottom can only be blamed for agreeing the terms he was given at the time of his appointment, he threw away any responsibility for player recruitment by agreeing to work alongside a director of football, therefore he knew he would be undermined at every opportunity.
Heckingbottom hasn't got one single player whom he can call his own and has to work with what he he's been given by Orta.
Having said all that, the fact still remains he is way out of his depth and this has been a continuous theme since Cellino was running things and appointing relative unknowns like lambs to the slaughter.
Since we were relegated from the premiership you can count on the fingers of one hand how many decent coaches/managers we have had. Grayson brought us up from League 1, Warnock was (in theory at least) a guy with an undeniable track record of success in the championship but came unstuck with Bates undermining and over-ruling him at every opportunity, Steve Evans did a half-decent job but perhaps had too much mouth and lastly we had Garry Monk who gave us the best season we had for many a year, failing at the last hurdle.
Radrizanni should have ignored the advice he was given about appointing a Director of Football and should have stuck with the tried and tested method of a manager dealing and overseeing everything. But the problem was he had/has no knowledge of how to run a football club and whilst being a successful bsuinessman in his own particular area of business, he was used to telling people what and when to do it so identified in Monk a manager of strong personal character, but in whom Radrizanni knew would not be a 'yes' man, wanted his say in who came and went and wanted to run the first team squad without any involvement from third parties.
Therefore, Radrizanni concocted a method for dispensing with Monk's services and forced him out of Elland Road in order to appoint people he felt he could trust and could rely upon to cover his own shortcomings and virtually run the club in his absence. Basically, he wanted 'yes' men with nobody rocking the boat.
All that was needed was sensible investment of perhaps £20 million on 3-4 players as that was all we needed initially to build upon last season's near miss but no, he decided to completely re-build the entire first team squad with cheap, foreign unknowns.
No doubt, he also took advice from Cellino whilst they acted together as co-chairmen and adapted some of his methods to suit his own, particularly on telling the fans what they wanted to hear and operating on a limited budget over a short-term period whilst maximising the real estate potential for making a hefty profit.
At the end of the day, another huge slice of blame rests with the people who support the regime indirectly by parting with their cash every Saturday, and despite their reservations about the first team, despite their frustration and desperation about the way the club is being run, despite forcing themselves to believe it will all come good, all get what they ultimately deserve for putting up with it, those people are us, the fans!
The stagnation will continue under Radrizanni and next season we can look forward to a relegation battle. Really do hope I am wrong!!!
