One thing that makes me think he has a bit about him and will do what he thinks is best … is the fact the million ££££ dane boys still not getting a look in… DR must have said to him
… we spent ££££££ on these lads… make it work!
Mike Dodds in the meeting… chewing gum with a wide open mouth…
"Nar mate… they’re shit " 
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Why “must” DR have said that?
What better way of telling the mangerial market that you are willing to spend money and able to look to the European market as a whole to get players than spending a million+ on foreign players and attracting more people to your vacant role than just putting ads out to be “head coach of little Wycombe wanderers that may or may not currently be over achieving and you’ll be on a hiding to nothing if you apply and slip down the league”.
The above is, obviously, speculation. But I am increasingly beginning to think there were more tactics behind the signings of the Danes than just improving the team.
In all honesty though we don’t know what ML preaches to DR behind the scenes… Dan coukd well have been told “I want our own head coach… gently push MB out”
He may have also been pushed to look into foreign markets for new players…
Sadly its seemingly not paid off??
I mean data looking at players in Denmark leagues will not necessarily translate to good data in the EFL… totally different ways of playing etc.
I know a few on here appear or act lke the are privy to inside intelligence… but i can o ly failrly judge on what i see
… i cant get too deep. Also i dont personally know the ones that claim they have inside info so i cant be swayed by them in this scenario
Indeed… all speculative comments from myself as i.know nothing… take it as thinking out loud
Dodds’ interviews are like a fan who won a competition to do media duties at full time, He’s getting better so we should enjoy this while we can.
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It might not be a “must” but I think it’s conceivable that Dodds has been asked why they’re not playing and if the answer is “they’re not good enough”, it’s slightly alarming. They were record signings, not makeweights. I personally don’t buy into the narrative that they’ve been bought for the future if they’re (presumably) not deemed adequate enough for the present. I assume some accountability for those decisions has to lie somewhere. But for the time being at least, that witch hunt will have to wait.
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I’m glad (someone thinks) there might have been a reason to sign the Danes other than just improving the team. It would at least mean their signing wasn’t a complete waste of time & money @thedancingyak.
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I do believe ours had zero involvement in the January window because we didn’t have one. Can’t imagine Danuard calling Sam Grace in for his views.
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I can imagine us being pioneers in this area, because I am struggling a little seeing DR giving Dodds too much say at all.
Jury still out for me. We have seen an improvement in our attacking intent the last three games but except the Rotherham 20 minutes we have really failed to score many goals and look a potent threat.
First half against Birmingham we were woeful, as we were for the first hour against Wrexham.
Shrewsbury have lost 9 and drawn 2 of their last 11 matches, drawing against us and a Bristol Rovers.
We really took the game to Reading and I thought we were excellent, and I thought we also played well at Huddersfield.
My main concern is he has a habit of taking off ball winners in midfield and bringing on additional attackers. Those attackers get in each others way and when you put an attacking midfielder in a more defensive role they can make a rash challenge - Humphreys against Reading. I appreciate he may have got the ball but Grimmer was covering. His choice to move Humphreys deeper was not a good choice for me.
Some starting XIs have been very bizarre, as have substitutions.
I hope he can continue to improve and the last three games we have deserved more than 4 points but equally we won two games against Lincoln and Rotherham that were fortunate. Swings and roundabouts.
I agree with other posters that we bought far too many players into the club in January, and DRs signings have been a mixed bag so far, I would say disappointing overall.
Finally, given our indifferent signings since Mitchell and Bloomfield departed, I do fear for next season. Taylor, Norris, Bradley, Simons, Reach, Humphreys have all played significant parts in the last few weeks and all are not signed for next season. Add to that the likely departure of Kone and Low if we do not go up, then next season could be very tough.
I was hoping by now Westergaard may have managed to get himself involved a bit more.
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My gut feeling is we’ve been sold a couple of duds at inflated prices in the Danes.
Of course, I really hope I’m wrong. Hagelskaer actually came in just before Bloomfield left as he was on the bench against Pompey, whereas Westergaard came in when we had no manager.
Sorry… Head Coach.
If they really were of a particularly high standard, wouldn’t there have been a bit more in the media about other clubs looking at them? I just don’t recall seeing that myself.
There are lots of clubs in England who have spent obscene amounts of money on players nowhere near the standard required. This isn’t something we have been accustomed to before, but just because they are record signings by our standards it doesn’t mean to say they are any good.
Just look how much Birmingham have spent. If one of their signings turned out to be a bit naff but cost them a million quid, we would probably say from the outside looking in “oh well, that one didn’t work out for them”.
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I cannot believe Dodds will have no say in future signings. Obviously the signings in January were when we didn’t have a manager. Now that Dodds is in situ , he will have some input. Cannot see someone taking a job without some say even it’s not the final say.
Based on….?
For the record, my belief is their (DR et al) main focus is and will be the academy, so any work needed in bring in first team players will come quite heavily from the HC with Data Dans “system” narrowing down the targets but Dodds/the HC of the day will have quite a big say in which of those players come in.
Given the number of people the club are hiring, I don’t think DR has any ambition to micro manage every decision that’s made - including first team players. The first team is less of a priority to them, imho. This is about the one major area of concern I have about those in charge. They could throw the baby out with the bath water because their focus is on the academy
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Based on the fact that I don’t think that is what Blooms’ diminished role was going to entail (if he accepted it). Hopefully that is not the case with Dodds and he is indeed “heavily” involved, but I do think it is going to be interesting to see his interviews over the summer after players come in.
I agree very much with your concern at the end there - they have seemed much more excited about the academy than the first team from the beginning.
I think the last part goes hand in hand with the Blooms feeling his role was diminishing in size/influence/importance even, within the football club.
He was right at the very top of a football club fighting for the championship. The tip of the spear.
The reality of where the club/new ownership saw him was “only” the head coach of the first team at a football club that is aiming to get much bigger in areas that were being created and which he would have zero influence on.
The head coach role is a smaller role than a Football Club Manager. Taking on a head coach role would have, without doubt, been a demotion to Matt Bloomfield. I can see why Matt wouldn’t want to take that role on and feel his role eas diminished.
I can also see the logic in restructuring the football club to represent the reality: The academy is a bigger priority than the first team.
Do I agree that the academy should be a bigger promoter than the first team? 100% Not. But I do think that’s where ML, DR etc priorities are currently, and while they will have a say on who gets signed and setting budgets, they aren’t going to be making all those decisions.
The other thing to consider is that Huddersfield signed Taylor for a reported £3M and Charles for around £750k.
Neither have exactly set the world alight. I’m not sure what we spent does actually buy you a quailty League One player anymore. Maybe we’ve found that out the hard way.
Not setting the world alight is one thing. Not even making the bench quite another.
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Spending a record amount of money on something that nobody asked for and nobody can use would get you sacked from pretty much any other job in the world. How is Rice still employed?
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We’ve come a long way from our biggest transfer enigma of the season being someone like Max “I can’t believe we’ve got him” Müller, signed on a free.
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Might have something to do with him being one of the three Directors of the Company!