Hate Luton and never picture them as saints, or anything more than scum tbh, but talking to contracted players, agents and managers behind the scenes is fairly standard now by all accounts, Blooms was within his rights to see what was on offer elsewhere, more so if there's any hint he wasn't being exactly cherished, I would have liked him to stay but none of that means much now, seems pretty unlikely Blooms picked these new players so let's see who the new guy is and what the plan is....and hopefully a win tomorrow.
I think the idea is that you sign someone to a fat extension and a higher release clause and make them feel wanted, not wait until you have to make a counter. See: Walsall with Mat Sadler.
Of course the club are within their rights to do whatever, but there is plenty they could have done if they cared about keeping Blooms around.
The bottom line is that man leaves job for what he thinks is a better one elsewhere. I've done it myself, as have others. Sometimes the grass is greener, sometimes not. I wish him luck.
While I agree that Matt has left for what he perceived to be a better job - which could be more money, more security, feels more wanted, feels it's a better stepping stone for the future, has responsibilities which he enjoys more - the apparent truth is WWFC didn't try and secure a very promising young manager who had been linked with a number of jobs (interviewed for 2 if we are to believe the reports) and who had won 2 MOTM awards.
Why was that?
What plans does the management hierarchy have to replace him?
Time will tell if it was the correct move - for both sides - but currently we've lost a very talented young manager who had taken us to the point where we have a chance of automatic promotion to the Championship.
If we don't at least make the play-offs this year that's on Dan Rice, he had it in his hands to secure Matt until at least the season end and he failed to ensure he stayed out manager (or head coach).
I've no idea what's gone on behind closed doors but our season has been derailed - let's hope we can sustain a challenge for a play-offs spot.
They have come in with an idea and a plan on how the club will be structured going forward. I would bet my house that during one of the very first meetings with Matt they presented a scope or an idea of what the Org Chart for the club would look like under their management including where Matt would sit and what his role would be moving forward, who Matt would report to directly and who he will have reporting to him (which didn’t include Scott Mitchel anymore because that role falls within Dans responsibilities)
They could very well have been happy if Matt wanted to remain in that role.
Matt is/was also perfectly entitled to feel the floor is moving under neath him and he’s not happy or comfortable in what the role will become and so looked elsewhere as the realities of the new org start to kick in.
If it’s no secret in how the leadership want to run the company, and no secret that Matt isn’t happy, what use is it in either DR offering, or MB asking for a new contract?
Honestly, it’s like no one here has been involved in a merger or company acquisition before and not idea what can happen when new leaderships teams come in.
Put very very simply: some of us are questioning the wisdom of not valuing a manager who had us overachieving in the autos. It comes with a whiff of potential pig headedness on the part of the regime to not realize that they had one of the hottest young EFL managers on their hands. To put it in your corporate terms, if you came in after an acquisition and found that one of the high ranking managers from the old company was making obscene amounts of profit for the company, you would be well within your rights to not value him and make his role feel uncomfortable. That does not mean it is a wise decision, or above questioning.
The strawman arguments of them "being within their rights" and "things like this happen in the corporate world all the time" keep coming up despite no-one arguing against those points. My two points, again:
Undermining Blooms with the sackings around him and the passive-aggressive behaviour (even down to not saying his name in interviews) makes me question their character.
Not valuing Blooms despite him being one of the hottest managers currently, makes me question their judgment.
They might turn out to be fantastic owners, but there is nothing at all wrong with the logic behind the two questions above. It may turn out that Dan Rice rescues puppies and is a chess grandmaster, and it eventually becomes apparent he has the finest character and judgment that there is. In the meantime, there is literally nothing wrong in any trust needing to be earned, not given blindly.
The extraordinary level of backing given to Matt Bloomfield in terms of squad recruitment and wages by Dan Rice etc led to unprecedented success and ultimately to him leaving. And Dan is painted as the bad guy by some. Football is a funny place.
Reams and reams of well-thought-out posts explaining concerns and yet strawmen arguments still being used while points made are completely ignored. Football is a funny place.
Its about two people in positions that could recognise it’s not going to work long term and being grown up enough to do their jobs professionally and not waste each others time pretending they’ll be happy.
Gonna be a hypocrite and post again on the subject. Do we know they didn't value him? Perhaps he was offered a new contract and turned it down with his sights set on bigger things (like Luton, who people need to get over their hatred towards and accept are a considerably bigger club with a decent chance of getting to the Prem in the next couple of years).
It's so hard to tell what's based on conjecture and what's based on fact. But only a select few people at the heart of Blooms' departure are really going to know the whole story - and they're not going to come telling it on here.
Yes, they could have been even worse, but that's not exactly going to win them a Nobel Peace Prize.
Regarding the second point, I have not seen a single person say the club did not want to be successful, or deliberately chase relegation to get Blooms out the door. They were always still going to try and make good signings no matter what - I genuinely believe the Ricicles want the club to be successful. I just have questions over their character and judgment in how they have handled things so far, but if we get promoted anyway, who's to argue about the latter, I suppose?
Fundamentally, no matter how much Dan Rice may have respected Matt's tactical nous and ability to get great results, he was well within his rights to want to move to a head coach / director of football model where Matt would lose access to part of his existing role. The model Dan wants to move to is less dependent on us having a strong manager and allows the role to be split better so that whoever is head coach gets to spend more time on the training pitch and less in the negotiating room. This doesn't seem insensible to me.
Yes you can argue that Dan should have given up on that model in order to keep Matt at the club and happy. But even if he'd signed a long contract it wouldn't have really stopped him moving to another club if one had come calling with an offer of Championship football. And then Dan would have to build a whole new system, possibly mid season. Viable, sure, but he's perfectly within his rights to want to build it from the get go and replace Matt with a head coach if and when he chose to move on.
Comments
Hate Luton and never picture them as saints, or anything more than scum tbh, but talking to contracted players, agents and managers behind the scenes is fairly standard now by all accounts, Blooms was within his rights to see what was on offer elsewhere, more so if there's any hint he wasn't being exactly cherished, I would have liked him to stay but none of that means much now, seems pretty unlikely Blooms picked these new players so let's see who the new guy is and what the plan is....and hopefully a win tomorrow.
I think the idea is that you sign someone to a fat extension and a higher release clause and make them feel wanted, not wait until you have to make a counter. See: Walsall with Mat Sadler.
Of course the club are within their rights to do whatever, but there is plenty they could have done if they cared about keeping Blooms around.
A little off topic, but Luton need to work on their interview lighting. They make Blooms look like a crime suspect.
Matt Bloomfield ahead of first match in charge of Luton!
The bottom line is that man leaves job for what he thinks is a better one elsewhere. I've done it myself, as have others. Sometimes the grass is greener, sometimes not. I wish him luck.
While I agree that Matt has left for what he perceived to be a better job - which could be more money, more security, feels more wanted, feels it's a better stepping stone for the future, has responsibilities which he enjoys more - the apparent truth is WWFC didn't try and secure a very promising young manager who had been linked with a number of jobs (interviewed for 2 if we are to believe the reports) and who had won 2 MOTM awards.
Why was that?
What plans does the management hierarchy have to replace him?
Time will tell if it was the correct move - for both sides - but currently we've lost a very talented young manager who had taken us to the point where we have a chance of automatic promotion to the Championship.
If we don't at least make the play-offs this year that's on Dan Rice, he had it in his hands to secure Matt until at least the season end and he failed to ensure he stayed out manager (or head coach).
I've no idea what's gone on behind closed doors but our season has been derailed - let's hope we can sustain a challenge for a play-offs spot.
Why do you feel the owners needed to secure him?
They have come in with an idea and a plan on how the club will be structured going forward. I would bet my house that during one of the very first meetings with Matt they presented a scope or an idea of what the Org Chart for the club would look like under their management including where Matt would sit and what his role would be moving forward, who Matt would report to directly and who he will have reporting to him (which didn’t include Scott Mitchel anymore because that role falls within Dans responsibilities)
They could very well have been happy if Matt wanted to remain in that role.
Matt is/was also perfectly entitled to feel the floor is moving under neath him and he’s not happy or comfortable in what the role will become and so looked elsewhere as the realities of the new org start to kick in.
If it’s no secret in how the leadership want to run the company, and no secret that Matt isn’t happy, what use is it in either DR offering, or MB asking for a new contract?
Honestly, it’s like no one here has been involved in a merger or company acquisition before and not idea what can happen when new leaderships teams come in.
Put very very simply: some of us are questioning the wisdom of not valuing a manager who had us overachieving in the autos. It comes with a whiff of potential pig headedness on the part of the regime to not realize that they had one of the hottest young EFL managers on their hands. To put it in your corporate terms, if you came in after an acquisition and found that one of the high ranking managers from the old company was making obscene amounts of profit for the company, you would be well within your rights to not value him and make his role feel uncomfortable. That does not mean it is a wise decision, or above questioning.
The strawman arguments of them "being within their rights" and "things like this happen in the corporate world all the time" keep coming up despite no-one arguing against those points. My two points, again:
They might turn out to be fantastic owners, but there is nothing at all wrong with the logic behind the two questions above. It may turn out that Dan Rice rescues puppies and is a chess grandmaster, and it eventually becomes apparent he has the finest character and judgment that there is. In the meantime, there is literally nothing wrong in any trust needing to be earned, not given blindly.
The only thing I dislike about Dan Rice is that he probably wears Hugo Boss.
I will revise my opinion when further information is discovered.
The extraordinary level of backing given to Matt Bloomfield in terms of squad recruitment and wages by Dan Rice etc led to unprecedented success and ultimately to him leaving. And Dan is painted as the bad guy by some. Football is a funny place.
Reams and reams of well-thought-out posts explaining concerns and yet strawmen arguments still being used while points made are completely ignored. Football is a funny place.
Time to move on, lads. We've got a promotion to win.
The clubs have just posted this tribute to Matt on X
https://x.com/wwfcofficial/status/1880329244578091113?s=46&t=MXj_dXc6l_z44oHP077XZQ
Bloomsgate is the Gasroom's Brexit, right down to being told "you lost, get over it" and people who've had enough of experts.
https://youtu.be/Nl_I1DK_tQo?si=xvc8pXDndMlMVvIk
Did lol
People will be moaning about how short the video is. Not me, I'll be moaning about the music.
It’s not about undervaluing him.
Its about two people in positions that could recognise it’s not going to work long term and being grown up enough to do their jobs professionally and not waste each others time pretending they’ll be happy.
Club website if you prefer
https://youtu.be/Nl_I1DK_tQo?si=GfiLxF_uZwoaKUEH
I couldn't begin to tell you who it is, but yeah it's shit
Whoever posted that will be sacked by Monday.
Yes, because refusing to say "the manager's" name in interviews was very grown up.
It's very difficult to watch that and hold back the tears.
A lot more professional than it could have been. I mean, that’s been the case since they came in so I have to assume the rift started from day one.
Weird how they sanctioned all those signings during that period.
Yup. Definitely hit in the feels
Nail on the head, seems dumb to not change your mind once person is performing above and beyond
Gonna be a hypocrite and post again on the subject. Do we know they didn't value him? Perhaps he was offered a new contract and turned it down with his sights set on bigger things (like Luton, who people need to get over their hatred towards and accept are a considerably bigger club with a decent chance of getting to the Prem in the next couple of years).
It's so hard to tell what's based on conjecture and what's based on fact. But only a select few people at the heart of Blooms' departure are really going to know the whole story - and they're not going to come telling it on here.
For such a big business brain, I'm surprised you don't know what constructive dismissal is.
Yes, they could have been even worse, but that's not exactly going to win them a Nobel Peace Prize.
Regarding the second point, I have not seen a single person say the club did not want to be successful, or deliberately chase relegation to get Blooms out the door. They were always still going to try and make good signings no matter what - I genuinely believe the Ricicles want the club to be successful. I just have questions over their character and judgment in how they have handled things so far, but if we get promoted anyway, who's to argue about the latter, I suppose?
Fundamentally, no matter how much Dan Rice may have respected Matt's tactical nous and ability to get great results, he was well within his rights to want to move to a head coach / director of football model where Matt would lose access to part of his existing role. The model Dan wants to move to is less dependent on us having a strong manager and allows the role to be split better so that whoever is head coach gets to spend more time on the training pitch and less in the negotiating room. This doesn't seem insensible to me.
Yes you can argue that Dan should have given up on that model in order to keep Matt at the club and happy. But even if he'd signed a long contract it wouldn't have really stopped him moving to another club if one had come calling with an offer of Championship football. And then Dan would have to build a whole new system, possibly mid season. Viable, sure, but he's perfectly within his rights to want to build it from the get go and replace Matt with a head coach if and when he chose to move on.