Sunderland Till I Die - Netflix

[Cicero]

9 minutes ago, Smiley Culture said:

It was marketing comms, which is a branch of sales but not a proper sales role.  I work and I’ve worked in sales for about 3-4 years now and no self respecting manager in this industry works the way Methven worked. He was a walking parody, right down to the bright red socks. 

He’s no different than many executives in a sales/marketing operation. I know plenty of industries that threaten their staff to make their sales quotas or else their gone. Car salesmen, inside sales representatives, insurance reps, etc.  They set goals for them vs the staff taking accountability and setting their own. It’s a form of management that I completely disagree with, but not uncommon. 

 

[IgnisExcubitor]

On 27/04/2020 at 00:03, Cicero said:

He’s no different than many executives in a sales/marketing operation. I know plenty of industries that threaten their staff to make their sales quotas or else their gone. Car salesmen, inside sales representatives, insurance reps, etc.  They set goals for them vs the staff taking accountability and setting their own. It’s a form of management that I completely disagree with, but not uncommon. 

 

Yep. Sales department is the worst. You have to meet the targets, or face absolute vitriol from your bosses. 

@topic

I watched All or Nothing and was absolutely bored. Apart from the second last epsiode, every other episode was a bore. 

Of all the sport documentaries of this kind that I have watched (Mumbai IPL, Australia's The Test and Sunderland 'Til I die), Manchester City's was the worst.

Kinda tells you that unless it's a fairy tale (which Australia's The Test was to an extent), series with teams that see only success is just boring.

[Smiley Culture]

As this series goes on and the pressure of the business end of the season comes to fruition, you can see the real business plan of Methven and Donald which was throwing money at it and hoping for promotion, which is no way to run a football club. This Checkatrade Trophy Final episode shows that and I’m sure it will be the case as this goes deeper into the season.

They’re both a pair of blaggers, who’ve seen, what they thought was an opportunity, to get promotion and flip the club as if it was a piece of real estate. 

[Dan+]

Watched this last week. There's one part of it that I found ridiculous and couldn't get my head around - why did they sell Josh Maja? Yes the agent was in his ear, but surely they could've held out until the summer and lost him on a free, considering they got a pittance for him and then went and blew £3.5mil or whatever it was on an ageing Will Grigg anyway. I just don't see what the idea there was - if it's to make a bit of money on Maja while they can then they totally blew it by panicking and signing Grigg so it was basically completely pointless anyway.

Maja played 7 times for Bordeaux that season. Would they not have accepted the summer move while he gets more game time?

Just a bizarre set of circumstances to me.

[Smiley Culture]

9 hours ago, Dan said:

Watched this last week. There's one part of it that I found ridiculous and couldn't get my head around - why did they sell Josh Maja? Yes the agent was in his ear, but surely they could've held out until the summer and lost him on a free, considering they got a pittance for him and then went and blew £3.5mil or whatever it was on an ageing Will Grigg anyway. I just don't see what the idea there was - if it's to make a bit of money on Maja while they can then they totally blew it by panicking and signing Grigg so it was basically completely pointless anyway.

Maja played 7 times for Bordeaux that season. Would they not have accepted the summer move while he gets more game time?

Just a bizarre set of circumstances to me.

Suppose that originally it was either let him go for nothing or cash in and spend the million or so on Will Grigg, however, Donald then panicked last minute, despite being told not to by Coton and Ross, and paid over the odds for Grigg. 

In hindsight, I bet they would have risked Maja leaving for nothing if they could do it again. 

[Dan+]

4 hours ago, Smiley Culture said:

Suppose that originally it was either let him go for nothing or cash in and spend the million or so on Will Grigg, however, Donald then panicked last minute, despite being told not to by Coton and Ross, and paid over the odds for Grigg. 

In hindsight, I bet they would have risked Maja leaving for nothing if they could do it again. 

To me I think the big flaw is how little they had lined up to replace Maja. Surely you try and sort the Grigg thing before Maja goes so you aren't having to scramble around at the last minute? It was hardly a shock that he left was it?

What they made there was an absolutely classic transfer window howler.