Yes, I know I am in dream land with this one, but just humour me for a few moment please!
I know things aren’t going to change at Chelsea any time soon due to the belief they have in this project. But for me, this is my ideology on how to run a football club in terms of the setup in the hierarchy.
I’m not naïve, I know it takes many people to do many different jobs and roles in a football club. But at the very top, this is what I would ideally like to see, in this order…
Owners
The owners of the club, the custodians of the club. Either a group, or one person. But their job needs to be solely as an owner. They can chair the club, they can give the final sign off on all decisions because after all, they are the ones who know the budgets, the rules they are working within, and what they can and cannot do or get away with. But they must only act as a sign off to the decisions made by the Director of Football along with the Manager of the football team.
They will need to provide the budgets that the DOF and Manager can work within, and work as the head of the organisation covering all the business side of it.
Director of Football
This is the main decision maker. They will not have final sign off as that is with the owners, but they are the ones who put it to them. Need a new striker? They find one. Player has a contract running out? They sit them down and negotiate a new deal within the realms set by the owners. They are fully aware with what they have to work with, the budgets that are set, and any other parameters they are working within such as the idea around keeping a young squad, just as an example.
They can make suggestions, have new ideas, and put anything forward to the owners that they believe will help. But they will need an understanding of what they are working within and they would need to know that final sign off comes from the owners. It can’t really work any other way because it’s not the DOF who will be setting the budgets – only a business owner can do this. The DOF must implement it all to within any restrictions set.
So if you are building a new squad, that is done by the DOF. He selects the manager for the project, one that fits the ethos at the club. Then when said manager is in place, they work alongside the DOF to search, scout, and bring in any new players. The manager for me simply MUST get a say in this because they are the ones playing a certain style of football and may need certain players or profiles to help that. I think this is the most important bit, for the DOF and the manager to be in-sync with the needs of the squad. And they work collaboratively to make sure that squad has what it needs. Both the DOF and the manager need to be football geniuses and have a superb footballing knowledge. These will be your football experts, whilst the owners will be your operational experts.
Technical Directors
These will be Directors UNDER the DOF. They will be his team of people who can go and close a transfer deal that just needs to be tied up in terms of the final bits. They can call up the players and the clubs and register our initial interest. They can negotiate the easy contracts. They can do the ‘dirty’ work if you like. They can make suggestions and raise ideas to the DOF, like the DOF can do to the owners. But they are working under the DOF, who has the final decision to take to the owners.
Scouting and recruitment team
Obviously this will be a worldwide network of scouts and recruitment experts. They are looking every day for the next biggest thing. Or they will get tasked by the DOF or the technical directors to look for a certain profile of a player, or they will get sent to watch and speak to a certain player that the manager and/or the DOF has asked about and would like to bring in. They draw up all the scouting reports and offer strengths and weaknesses but most importantly, they find out what kind of personality the player has, they check in on his mentality and if he will fit the club and adds value.
Loan Directors
These will be one or two directors who purely look after the players out on loan and deal with all of that side of things. Quite a simple one this, but it’s needed so the DOF can concentrate on the more important jobs that he needs to do.
Manager of the team
First and foremost his job is to coach the first team. He picks his team, his style of play, makes all the team decisions, and as I said above, works closely with the DOF for any needs that he thinks the squad has or any players he believes are not good enough and may need to be moved on. That’s up to the DOF and the manager. The manager will also take advice from the medical staff on any injured players, but then it will be his decision to make based on the advice given. The DOF can also give advice on rotation and such things but again, this will solely be down to the manager. He is the one in the firing line and the one who has to face the media every week and the pressure, so he is the one who makes all team decisions once taken on the advice given. He’s the MANAGER of the team, not just the head coach.
Then everything else…
Of course, a football club needs 100s of other staff members and all of these people above will need help. The manager will need his coaching staff, the DOF will need admin staff to help do paperwork on transfers etc. And there will be PA’s needed, PR people, fan liaison people, and everything else in between. They’re all very important because there is so much to do at a football club like Chelsea.
This is my ideology. I realise that this isn’t really the norm these days in modern football. But for me, this is how I see a football club being run at it’s best. I just think you can have too many chefs and not enough kitchen space.