Emenalo appointed as Technical director

[madalista 30]

I hope your confidence in him proves correct ,,lets just say I am sceptical of his experience and ability. but to compare him to those you have

mentioned is ludicrous .

fine be skeptical.....by the way , the only person i compared him with was arnesen. the others were just to prove to you that u dont need any coachin experience to be director of football. but y would it be ludacris to compare him to them?

[zolayes 14,489]

I will leave you to your faith in your fellow countryman

Edited July 9, 2011 by zolayes

[madalista 30]

I will leave you to your faith in your fellow countryman

its not just my because he is my compatriot....i have faith in the people that run the club.......i take what they do in good faith unless proven otherwise. i have no qualms with any of the appointments made

[Kostas 1,468]

Interesting, although unpopular appointment. The Technical director role is quite different to the Director of Football role because recruiting youth players (ie U17) and being in charge of the academy won't be Emenalo's work. Moreover we don't yet know whether he will have be part of the Football Board as our previous DoFs were.

Having a technical director who is not the Head of the Academy is going to be an improvement over the previous situation as there won't be anymore a conflict of interests like mismanaging the squad to promote your own work at the academy...

Seeing as there is bound to be some (unjust) negative response to this move I'll post this detailed profile of him from the Irish Independent.

Journeyman Emenalo'sunlikely rise to big time

It should be read by even the most informed fans as it goes beyond the overplayed U12 girls coach bull. Of course the writer couldn't avoid making assumption on his relationship with Roman Abramovich but he can be forgiven partly because some might have thought his write-up was incomplete without something like that and partly because he fell into the same trap everyone falls when trying to figure the connections of a man who doesn't even speak Russian.

Juni also wrote a good article (The Emenalo Controversy) on the unfair criticism he gets, analyzing both the problem people have with his role and the accusations of having no experience.

Knowing this might make this post even more annoying I have to admit that he looked quite intelligent to me in his short interview. Nothing like the bloke who the fans turned into a scapegoat during our last season.

[Kostas 1,468]

No response?

Go!

[Blue Armour 4,289]

Knowing this might make this post even more annoying I have to admit that he looked quite intelligent to me in his short interview. Nothing like the bloke who the fans turned into a scapegoat during our last season.

Felt the same as well...

[ZanSnake 1,211]

[Peace. 4,352]

Villas-Boas wins important battle

Shrewd operator, Andre Villas-Boas.

Michael Emenalo, the under-qualified and over-promoted assistant to his predecessor Carlo Ancelotti, has been made director of football at Chelsea with the new manager's blessing.

As it was suspected Emenalo's real job was being Roman Abramovich's eyes and ears in the dressing-room, this is a handy resolution.

Directors of football do not need to be hovering around the first team, or even on the bench. It is a job for a man in a tracksuit in an office during the week and in a suit in the directors' box on match days.

Villas-Boas can then be pleasant and accommodating, while keeping Emenalo - a bizarre Avram Grant appointment, from the Tucson Soccer Academy in Arizona, where he had been running the girls' Under 12 team - at arm's length. If he has engineered this, an important battle is won.

Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz1RnBdvNf1

[Guest justin_3d]

I say give the man a try.

Roman is not that stupid at this stage to put a total imbecile in charge of TD.

Roman just got AVB, so that shows how smart he is.

[Corlett 202]

I liked him when he sang in the Halifax adverts.

[steve5221 91]

I think this could be a good appointment for us. He has been at the club awhile now and knows the setup. I like the wording of his statements and he appears an intelligent man. What I like most about the appointment is that this could give us an advantage in attracting young African talent given his nationality and if you look at alot of the kids coming through our academy now from England they are of African descent. What with the lack of black senior figures at football clubs he could be someone for these kids to look up to.

Also how well did Arsensen really do in his time at the club??, how many first team players did he produce with all the investment he made??. I don't think he will do a worse job than Arnesen at the very least...

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Emenalo giving an interview to SkySports. Don't have a link yet.

He speaks intelligently. Smiley character.. Seems a shame he was made such a villain on the back of last season. Asked about Modric he replied "Luka is a Tottenham player, I will not comment on this"

Edited July 13, 2011 by Sh0n3x