The Football Project

Sometimes I'm bitching over stuff that could as well be applauded and sometimes I seem to focus on the good sides of something less than optimal but hey, I'm West Ham and I am true to the legacy of Contempt for Consistency!

Jason Burt of The Independent, a West Ham board backdoor to the public, wrote an interesting article last Saturday (HERE).
He reveals that there is a document at West Ham called “Football Project”.
It’s pleasing to know that the board is aware of our core business but it would be interesting to know what it contains.
Jason tells us it is a paper written by our CEO Scott Duxbury and is a economically based policy document to avoid future cock-up’s. He calls it an overhaul plan of how the Club is to be run and he mentions 4 topics in this document – scouting, the medical and fitness team, coaching and the way we buy and sell players.

Here are the policies on these subjects :
1. We shall find good youngsters and bring them to West Ham
2. We shall coach the youngsters to fit our needs
3. We shall look after our players according to common scientific knowledge
4. We shall not do daft business

Do I sense a whiff of common sense?
I’d say that there is not one mid level boss at any reasonably sized company that has not been forced to produce a document along the lines of “come up with the 4 most important changes to maximize the production at your unit”.
One can say “It’s about time” but maybe one shouldn’t criticize it when it is at last taken care of. But what really is astonishing and worrying is that the present CEO has, until lately, worked in an organization that has NOT had such a policy document, at least not lived according to it.
What is usually the hard part for the mid level boss is to be specific about how this is to be pursued. When Jason Burt comes back with an article about the action plan I’ll be very interested but I doubt that the Club will be as obliged to help him with that information.

I think there is a reason we learned about this document.
West Ham wants to emphasize that we run a “tight ship” heading in the right direction and we are not in economical trouble.
This is important for several reasons, at least two of them of current interest - to show that we do not need to sell players and to show that we are a good business opportunity.