Quote Originally Posted by On Balance View Post
I see what you are saying Matt, and I guess you may very well be right regarding the model. As a business, we have a system/model that each office in an area follows. It is our system and it works for us. We do though allow management to work in each area as they see fit, as long as they do so within our remit. It works as we do not often need to recruit.

Football though is a different business. I just see it has not worked for us, at least that is, with the last two incumbents and possibly three of you include Corberan. As I say, you may be proven correct and I will be more than happy if that is the case, and we begin playing decent football once more. With or without Mason.

I am just not convinced in regard to the Nestor model, but that is what having differing opinions and football is all about.
Personally, I think it's likely to be a mixture of both the model not properly suiting and Mason's inexperience at this level.

Like yourself OB, I have worked for companies that have certain models and procedures that work well for them but they avoid being too didactic by allowing managers a degree of "freedom within the framework" to better meet local situations/opportunities and not stifle individual initiatives. However, I have also worked for those who have introduced new systems/ procedures that do not work well mostly because the resource available doesn't match the needs. The common problem here is that those at centre wanting to implement these new systems are too divorced from the realities at the sharp end. If the systems fail, however, they tend to blame the local management teams for not implementing them correctly. You're right in that running a football club is a bit of a different animal but there are still commonalities and things to learn from the above.

I don't doubt that, with the right players and coaches, the Nestor model could work and I see no problem with working towards this. The issue seems to be in facing up to the reality that we do not currently have a squad capable of implementing the game plan that model ultimately wants. Rather than forcing it upon players, it would surely be much better to make compromises and try to allow us to better play to the strengths of the players we do have. If we don't do so, we will lose more points, slip further down the table and the rebuild to meet the requirements and aims of Nestor's model will be made even harder.