Who next for Dundee?
Who next for Dundee following the shock sacking of Tony Docherty?Will they go for a safe pair of hands? Will they go for an up-and-coming young manager? Or will they go leftfield?The club have plumped for the latter option a few times over the years.The two appointments prior to Tony Docherty's arrival – Mark McGhee and Gary Bowyer – ticked the leftfield box.And if you go a bit further back you can add the likes of John Brown and Ivano Bonetti to that list.It will be intriguing to see what kind of road John Nelms and co opt to go down.What is for sure is that whoever is recruited will have to hit the ground running.The decision to move Docherty on will be viewed as harsh by some. Having built a squad from scratch he overachieved in his first season at the helm.And while things didn't go as planned this time round there are some mitigating circumstances, with crippling injuries near the top of that list.When an appointment is made, the new manager will become the fifth person to occupy the Dundee hotseat in just three years - after James McPake, McGhee, Bowyer and Docherty.A high turnover of managers is rarely conducive to steady progress on the park.Stability in the dugout will surely be key to the club's owners being able to preside over the period of on-field success they so clearly desire.
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The Guardian
25 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Paul Mitchell's Newcastle exit leaves Eddie Howe in position of maximum strength
The table was all wrong. In retrospect it offered the first clue that lack of emotional intelligence would prove central to Paul Mitchell's undoing at Newcastle. It was early last September when reporters were invited to St James' Park to meet the club's then newish sporting director. As Mitchell strode into the windowless Sir Bobby Robson suite and took his seat at the head of a very long rectangular table he neglected to notice that journalists at the opposite end were isolated from the conversation. Sure enough, he was questioned so intensely by those clustered around him that others struggled to get a word in edgeways. While it took me more than an hour of a 90-minute briefing to seize a fleeting opportunity to ask a question, an adjacently seated colleague never managed to say a single word to Dan Ashworth's successor. Mitchell appeared oblivious. Supporters might think: 'So what?' But it appeared indicative of a wider carelessness that helps to explain why the sporting director will be leaving Newcastle by 'mutual consent' this month. The previous year Ashworth had conducted a similar exercise at the training ground. On walking into the media room the then soon-to-be Manchester United‑bound sporting director surveyed rows of formal seating, shook his head and began dragging chairs into a more inclusive circle. That way everyone felt equal and could easily participate. It was a common‑sense move that won hearts and minds. Emotional intelligence is an unquantifiable yet imperative component in football's high-stakes world of fragile egos and, sometimes, almost paranoid insecurity. Mitchell shortage of soft skills provoked a needless civil, and turf, war with Eddie Howe last autumn. If failing to recognise the need for circular seating represented a mistake, his repeated reiteration that Newcastle's ostensibly successful transfer policy was 'not fit for purpose' proved incendiary. Given the manager demands a final say on signings and his nephew, Andy Howe, is a key figure in the recruitment department, it seemed arrogant macho posturing. Sadly this humility bypass would obscure the considerable good Mitchell has done on Tyneside, most notably appointing the injury-prevention specialist James Bunce. It might have been different had Amanda Staveley and her husband, Mehrdad Ghodoussi, still been around as directors and minority owners to smooth the sporting director's rough edges. Staveley is all about deal-making facilitated by emollient human connectivity. During the two and a half years she and Ghodoussi ran Newcastle on behalf of the majority owner, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, a sense of harmony prevailed. Yet since the couple were forced out last summer – apparently for assorted reasons, including a confusing overlap with the role of the chief executive, Darren Eales – the club has seemed colder and more corporate. Stress levels have risen. It did not help that Ashworth – admired by Howe for his humility and 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' approach that, paradoxically, would preface his swift Old Trafford downfall – had been persuaded the Mancunian grass was greener. Or that Eales, who had been diagnosed with blood cancer, announced he would depart once a successor was identified. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion With that moment drawing close, the chief executive and Mitchell, old friends from their Tottenham days, leave at a juncture when Howe operates from a position of maximum strength. After winning the Carabao Cup and securing a second Champions League qualification in three years, his fiercely protected power base looks bombproof. The manager's undeniable, if occasionally high‑maintenance, brilliance camouflages considerable behind‑the‑scenes turmoil at a club where the boardroom churn is hardly conducive to stability. While the available funds of about £100m need to be spent urgently yet intelligently on restocking Howe's slender squad, Newcastle's second‑tier women's team have just released 12 players and confront a complicated crossroads. PIF could do worse than replace Mitchell internally. The former Sunderland and Hibernian manager Jack Ross holds an MA in economics, has written two children's books and is head of Newcastle's strategic technical football partnerships. The former executive with the Scottish players' union and the global FifPro is smart, nuanced and empathetic; he champions women's football and, unlike his bosses, is an excellent communicator. Counterproductively, communication between the media and the Saudis is nonexistent. Yasir al‑Rumayyan, Newcastle's chair, has never spoken to reporters, let alone explained the ownership strategy or why potential moves to a new stadium and/or training ground remain pending. That might seem irrelevant to fans. Yet if, as is widely believed, purchasing the club was really all part of a sportswashing exercise intended to clean up the kingdom's blood-stained image while bolstering its embryonic tourism industry, it is also distinctly odd. Perhaps there is an acceptance that Saudi Arabia's human rights record is so atrocious that awkward questions are best avoided, but maybe it's simply a lack of empathy. Whatever the reason, the disconnect jars. The lack of trust between Mitchell and Howe ultimately spelled divorce. When eventually I asked the former whether the manager's instinctive wariness of outsiders meant winning his confidence was hard work, the reply – 'You sound like you know him better than I do' – sounded only half-joking. After that calamitous briefing the manager blanked the sporting director for a fortnight before Eales negotiated a truce that endured to the point where the announcement last Tuesday of Mitchell's impending exit prompted mild surprise. After all this, maybe the Saudis regret allowing the emotional intelligence embodied by Ashworth, now a senior Football Association executive, and Staveley to slip through their fingers.
The Guardian
25 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘People are welcoming' – Goal Diggers FC hold inclusive tournament as FA ban on trans women starts
On Sunday morning more than 100 players gathered in north London to compete in an inclusive women's football tournament to protest against the ban on transgender women in women's football on the day it came into effect. Last month the Football Association announced that trans women would no longer be able to compete in women's football as result of the supreme court's ruling on 16 April that the terms 'women' and 'sex' in the Equality Act 2010 refer only to biological women and biological sex. This is believed to affect 28 FA-registered trans women. Before the ban trans women had been able to play in the women's game if they agreed to meet certain criteria, including providing medical records showing their testosterone levels were below a specified level, records of hormone therapy and having a 'match observation' by an FA official, who would have 'ultimate discretion' on whether they could continue to play on a case-by-case basis. The FA said its previous policy was based on its aim of 'making football accessible to as many people as possible, operating within the law and international football policy defined by Uefa and Fifa' and was 'supported by expert legal advice'. It added: 'This is a complex subject and our position has always been that if there was a material change in law, science or the operation of the policy in grassroots football then we would review it and change it if necessary.' Goal Diggers FC, an inclusive London-based football club, brought together players from across London to play in a tournament aimed at showing solidarity with their trans players and protesting against the ban. The club previously acted against the announcement of the ban by organising a 12-mile walk from their training pitches in Haggerston Park to Wembley to deliver a petition to the FA opposing it. 'I'm aware that there are people in the FA that don't agree with the decision,' said Billie Sky, a trans player for Goal Diggers and London Galaxy. 'The FA reviewed its guidance [as late as] 11 April and they decided to keep trans women in. So anyone who's arguing that this is to protect women's safety in sport is misguided; they've done this because they have to politically. That guidance [for the decision on 11 April] was based on research from World Athletics and the IOC [International Olympic Committee] which showed that trans women's muscle mass reduces, among many other physiological factors. 'It would be nice to see the FA say something more substantial and support the people who have been a part of their organisation for a long time. A lot of trans women have stuck by the FA through not always the easiest times, there have been a lot of difficult cases with trans women and cis women being questioned over their gender identity.' Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Having won promotion with London Galaxy, who play in the eighth tier of the pyramid, Sky will no longer be able to play with the team – 'though I was on the bench a lot so that tells you something about how good I am compared to my cis teammates'. Sky added: 'In terms of my own experience as a trans woman, when I first came out I didn't know any of that and I wasn't sure whether I should be playing football but cis women welcomed me in, they're the ones that invited me to play at Goal Diggers and also my other team London Galaxy.' Paula Griffin, a trans goalkeeper for Goal Diggers, said the tournament on Sunday showed 'that the people who play the sport, the women or non-binary people who play football, are welcoming and accepting'. Griffin said: 'As trans women we play together with other women, we play alongside them, they're our teammates, they're our opponents, but more importantly, they're our friends. This tournament shows people that this community exists, is there for them too and will not be divided.' Tackling the argument that there are safety concerns over trans women competing in women's football, Griffin said: 'Football by its very nature is a contact sport. I've had some of my worst injuries, only a couple, against women. Everyone's conscious of injuries. Injuries will happen, and they're not going to stop happening because we banned 28 women from playing. Nothing is going to change on that front.' There are some, however, who have welcomed the ban. Jane Sullivan, from the Women's Rights Network, said: 'We welcome the FA's move to protect women's football, making it safe and fair for females. Women have suffered season-ending injuries, been disciplined for questioning the presence of males on the pitch, seen their places on teams taken by males and suffered horrendous levels of abuse for demanding female-only football. Males playing in women's teams also have access to female changing rooms and toilets, which is unlawful and a safeguarding risk for women and girls.' Fiona McAnena, the director of campaigns at the human rights charity Sex Matters, said: 'For every trans-identifying male player who dislikes this policy, there are dozens of female players who are relieved that they won't have to face them on the pitch any more.'
BBC News
26 minutes ago
- BBC News
Gossip: Everton keen on O'Riley
Everton are interested in Brighton midfielder Matt O'Riley, 24, but are unsure if the Seagulls will sell the Denmark international. (Sky Sports), externalWant more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip columnFollow the gossip column on BBC Sport
