I totally get your side of the argument Swab and see exactly where you're coming from, also no problem with you speaking forcefully.
For a start I don't think he's getting bullied or coerced but I do have a strong belief that there is something wrong with our transfer committee judging by the way the players bought have been utilised.
Sahin was the first to spark the mind, the lad was played out of his natural position from the start with us and moaned like a bi*ch about it. He's since criticised Brendan like a spoilt brat and lost plenty of respect in the process, but what that did do was offer up a couple of possibilities:
a) He was either bought to play in a different position than his natural one
or
b) There was better available and he simply had to adapt
Well it was Joe Allen that took his role in the team in his (Sahin's) natural position. Now we all know Brendan loves Joe but when it later transpires that Brendan also says that Joe is 10% a better player in the in between of the 3 in midfield it again leaves you confused why Allen and Sahin didn't reverse roles.
That was just the first, then there was the mystery of Assaidi. The lad virtually never played, there was talk that he was a Dalglish signing and I guess we'll never know for sure so we can move on and assume it was.
Next there's the likes of Cissokho and Moses, players even the young lads are keeping out of the side. Brendan has been clearly been irritated on a few occasions regarding that attacking left sided player. Whether that is Sigurdsson, Dempsey, Mkhitaryan, Costa, Konoplyanka to be left with only Moses after this long into his tenure just screams to me that while Brendan may have the last say he isn't exactly being offered the most appetising of choices.
All that is even before Alberto, Ilori and Aspas. There's just too much none use of players that Brendan has supposed signed up that makes me think he's not getting what he's asking for from this committee.
This is why it remains my only doubt about Brendan and as I've expressed above and before I'm not sure if the doubt actually should be with the man himself. While you seem convinced because of what Brendan has said in the media, I'm more open to the suggestion that while someone is indeed the last word and is part of the committee that doesn't necessarily mean he should carry the full weight of the burden.
I'm going to go round the houses a bit with this, but bear with me.
There was a post a while back about who actually made up the members of the transfer committee, and I remember thinking at the time that the only people with any power were BR and Ayre. That's if my memory is working today and I'm not having another senior moment
Now, if rumours are true, Ayre has been pulled up by JWH and told to pull his F***ing finger out, which leads me to believe that BR has had a bit of a moan, and JWH has backed him, and rightly so.
My impression of Ayre in general has never been good. I've said it all along and I stand by it. I think the man's a bit of a spoofer and likes to play politics internally. In fact I'll go a step further and say that he strikes me as a fella who is liable to get involved (needlessly) in power struggles, and fights very hard to protect what he sees as his territory.
If my impressions of the bloke are correct, or even close to correct then there is a definite issue because on the one hand we have a fella who is very good at bringing in commercial deals, but also very territorial when it comes to the purse strings, which in turn makes for a very tricky situation at the executive level when it comes to weighing the pros and cons of how effective he is in his role.
On the other side we have BR, who seems to have little interest in the money side of things but appears frustrated by our inability to bring in the players he wants.
I don't for a second think that money is the only major factor when we have failed to land the players BR wants.
The other thing we know is that managers, and committees invariably have lists of players who fall into different categories (first team, one for the future, squad player etc), and that they budget for these players according to how much they think the player is worth, which is yet another tricky area.
Then we have the football side of things.
A manager can watch all the videos in the world, but they never truly know a player, his capabilities, his strengths, his mentality etc etc until they have trained with them and seen how the player interacts and fits in with his team mates.
So, going back to the list of Aspas, Alberto and Ilori, I can only really see one player who doesn't seem to fit, and let's be honest here, when he was banging in goals during pre-season, we all had high hopes for him and thought he would do pretty well.
Then came the reality of the Premier League, and for now we can safely say that he's fallen short of the required quality when he has got on the pitch.
I'm not sure I'd fault BR for that, because he has proved, to me at least, that he can get the most out of players.
Alberto and Ilori are both very young, and there is definitely a case to be made for NOT buying good young players and trying to make them into stars when our squad is very thin, but at the same time, if it works out and these players become stars it looks like a stroke of genius at a later date.
The opposite is true as well, that if they don't develop, the money will be seen as wasted.
All in all, it strikes me as a bit of a mess, but I think that mess can't be piled at the feet of one person.
Think of it as a group effort to F**k up.
Sometimes the wrong players are picked.
Some players just don't work out for whatever reason.
Some players are not deemed to be worth the asking price (another F***ing minefield) or wage demands are unrealistic.
We can add plenty more to that list, but the bottom line is that our transfer woes (if that's what they are) aren't down to one single person, and everyone involved in the process will F**k up at one time or another.
Lets just be glad federer isn't on the committee, because we'd have paid 50 million for Diame last summer if he was
