WHAT DOES FLORENT DO?

In a week where the other two clubs in the relegation zone have sacked their manager, it would be easy to say we should join in, after all there are clearly some things in the club that aren’t working as they were last year, but I don’t think those problems rest with the manager.

So what else has changed in the football side of the club? The obvious change is the replacement of Kristjaan Speakman and Stuart Harvey as Director of Football and Chief Scout respectively, with Florent Ghisolfi and his colleague from Lens and Roma, Baptiste Favier.

While it was clear what Speakman’s role entailed, I just can’t work out what Ghisolfi brings to the club.

He seems to involve himself far more with the first team than Speakman ever did, travelling on the team coach, appearing in the tunnel before, during and after games and frequently popping up on the training ground. But what does he bring to those situations? He has no coaching experience to speak of and does not take the external communications away from Regis, which might be of use as Le Bris seems to me uncomfortable with that aspect of the job.

He has previously said that he believes his role is to change the culture of the club but not the identity. It would be interesting to hear, after a year and a half, where he believes he has made a difference to that culture. Xhaka and O’Nien have changed the club beyond recognition in terms of professionalism, fight and never-ending belief. I wonder what Florent has added.

Ghisolfi has been Director of Football, or held similar titles, at three previous clubs: Lens, Nice and Roma. His year at Roma was not a success: the club had three managers and finished fifth. At Nice, the team fell from a fifth-place finish to ninth, and his managerial appoints were, as we’ll see shortly, questionable. Credit where it’s due though, his two-and-a-bit years at Lens saw the team promoted and then hold their position in the top flight.

Lens fans praised his signing of Seko Fofana, their record signing, and young players with potential such as Christopher Wooh, as well as his ability to persuade players to sign. Fofana and Wooh are represented by the French agency Sport Cover, a company which a number of people on social media have suggested Ghisolfi is linked to, some suggesting financial links and even ownership. There is no proof of this in publicly available records.

It is interesting though that, from the published Sport Cover client list, 44% of their players have signed for at least one of the clubs where Ghisolfi has worked. Of the four managers on their books, two were given jobs at Nice by Ghisolfi and a third is Regis Le Bris. The fourth is Patrick Vieira. Pembele and Ba are two of five clients on the list with links to Sunderland.

But what of the signings made at Sunderland since his arrival, many of whom have been great players for us? If you take out the players signed through our existing scouting operation in Scandinavia and the Low Countries and our links with Sartori’s South American networks, Sunderland have signed nine first-team players since his arrival, excluding Enzo Le Fee. Technically, Le Fee signed after Ghisolfi’s arrival but had been on loan from Roma and the deal was already in place. It had been arranged by Ghisolfi while Roma Director of Football.

Of the other nine, his managers at Roma and Lens had tried to sign Diarra and Adingra, and Kevin Danso had been signed while Ghisolfi was at Lens. At Sunderland, he signed Sport Cover clients Nordi Mukiele, Brian Brobbey and Arthur Masuaku. That leaves only three - Ta Bi, Fofana and Methalie.

I am not saying these are good or bad signings. I am asking what the record tells us about our Director of Football’s judgement and contribution to recruitment. Even with those three, despite us being told how well thought of he is in French football, our chairman was the one who had to get involved in getting the Fofana deal over the line.

The role of Director of Football seems to be a more and more important role in modern football and yet holds an almost ethereal place within a club – ever present but with full deniability of any blame. When everything is going well he can get away with being on the pitch post-match but he should be as available to the media and fans to explain when things aren’t going as well. Does he have the skills required managerially, in recruitment, in motivating, in supervising coaches, in developing youth players and representing the football side of the club at board level to help our club? I’m seeing nothing to suggest he does and an ever-lengthening list of questions about his motivations, links outside the club and what exactly he does day to day.