Mike Emenalo

[Term-X 7,891]

[LDN Blue 7,903]

LOOL. I thought we already had a caption thread

[Shane 2,275]

Yay, Term tried to start ANOTHER argument about Kalou! I suppose we haven't had one for a week.

[Term-X 7,891]

Yay, Term tried to start ANOTHER argument about Kalou! I suppose we haven't had one for a week.

Lighten up.

[kwylino 329]

Here we go again *facepalms*

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Here we go again *facepalms*

Don't worry, it's just a joke

[Steve 10,227]

[Badboy 1,526]

Yay, Term tried to start ANOTHER argument about Kalou! I suppose we haven't had one for a week.

Oh come on, we all know you do not like TX very much, please don't follow him around the forum and get a new hobby.

[Manuf 1,448]

Oh come on, we all know you do not like TX very much, please don't follow him around the forum and get a new hobby.

[Steve 10,227]

Oh come on, we all know you do not like TX very much, please don't follow him around the forum and get a new hobby.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Emenalo: King of Diamonds

Lately, I have seen a lot of comments on hiring Guus Hiddink for the Director of Football role, but I have not asked various members why we need to hire him?

For what purpose, to duplicate the position Emenalo occupies?

If not that, are we saying we should fire Emenalo and then replace him with Guus?

Emenalo was promoted to the Technical Director position in July 2011. His responsibilities are outlined clearly on the Chelsea website. Most clubs in Europe call this the Sporting Director of Football position. As a matter of fact, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR is the name of the office occupied by Zubizarreta and Txiki in the past for Barcelona.

It should be recalled he was brought in by Avram Grant; retained by Roman after Avram left; worked in our scouting and coaching departments; worked as assistant first team coach (don't think he did anything for Carlo to be honest, but had a hands on experience of understanding the relationships between the manager and players); and then his current position.

Recruiting: This is probably the most important responsibility used to judge the success of technical directors.

How much was paid for talents? How successful are talents within the squad? And how do the talents meet the team requirements over the next couple of years?

Graham Carr of Newcastle is praised for his talent acquisition such as Papii Cisse, Demba Ba, Tiote, Ben Arfa etc...

Before we judge the purchases, we need understand Chelsea's current philosophy imposed by our Billionaire owner which is to compete and win in many trophies as much as possible while preparing to meet the UEFA FFP as well as REBUILDING the squad with replacements of outgoing out of contract players.

How about Emenalo, what has he done?

He was promoted in July 2011 and since then we've signed:

• Thibaut Courtois - £7 million (One of the best young keepers in the world and easily top 3 in La Liga)
  
• Oriol Romeu - £5 million (Was fantastic when he initially started, but faded as injuries piled up). Still glad with his signing and could compete with Mikel for years to come.
  
• Romelu Lukaku - £18 million (I believe the time to judge the purchase will be appropriate in 2-3 years time)
  
• Juan Mata - £23.5 million (Joint top assister in the premier league. The fact that he wasn't nominated for PFA young player of the year while Kyle Walker and co makes me want to throw up).
  
• Ulises Dávila - £1.75 million (Just like Lukaku, his purchase will truly be assessed in 2 - 3 weeks)
  
• Raul Meireles - £12 million (Probably one that leaves a bad taste in most people's mouth)
  
• Gary Cahill - £7 million (Almost self financed by using the cash proceeds from Alex to purchase him and he has been quality, quality, quality since he signed)
  
• Kevin De Bruyne - £6.7 million (Has been involved in 17 of the 22 goals scored by Genk in the last 11 games playing in the CM position. In 2010-11, De Bruyne scored five goals and had 16 assists. This season - now over for him - he has had 13 assists). I wish he was not going on loan, but it seems certain he is going.
  
• Patrick Bamford - £1.5 million (An assessment won't be proper at the moment)
  
• Marko Marin purchase for €8m (£6.5m) - We will assess next season, but I like the purchase given the production in the past, age and the fee paid for him.
  

It is not entirely clear how many of the purchases above are club purchases or coach purchases, but all have been under Emenalo. If we assess the signings that have been done under him in the near term, he will actually score a B+ or A. Merieles is truly the only player that doesn't tick all the boxes however Mata, the loan progress of Courtois, initial start of Romeu and Cahill should provide some optimism about future signings under Emenalo. While Man City and Man U are battling for popular Eden Hazard, Emenalo is exploring for further uncut diamonds around the world.

Read more: http://www.chelsea.v...1#ixzz1tccD4hzQ

[Igi26 346]

When you see, Meireles wasn't even a bad signing, he was one of the better performers in CL this season.

[francozola 2,040]

I like him. He speaks very well and we've definitely made some good signings.

[Kostas 1,468]

I guess that article makes a fair, yet lacking (transfer fees are useless without contract details), assessment of what little we know of Emenalo's work but it misses broader picture with its introductory point.

The most important thing to understand about Emenalo's role is that he does not hold a position in the Football Board.

While this may be a great situation in contrast to Arnesen's role and the fact that the Technical Director does not overlap the manager, having different person assembling the squad and different assessing it is hardly normal.