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Mike will probably not be known to many supporters as he was primarily involved with scouting.

He was bought in by Hughes from Blackburn to overhaul our scouting network so that it became global to reflect our new owners ambitions and visions. I first met him at an open training session in Pretoria, during the South Africa tour and found him very friendly and open as he discussed his role within the club, although without going into too much detail.

Another of his jobs was to compile complete dossier's on players that were either targets of the manager or that had come to our attention through our newly formed scouting network.

I know he is highly regarded within the club and within footballing circles in general and I was recently speaking with someone who works for a leading European club when Mikes name cropped up, and he was talked of very highly indeed.

Word seems to be that he has gone to another Premiership club with people suggesting he has gone to QPR, but I'm not so sure. It seems strange that he would go to a club who's Premiership survival is still in doubt and where his old mate Sparky is only on a two year contract, unless the new owners of QPR have hatched a similar vision to ours of four years ago. It could well be that he has been offered more money elsewhere, but then I'm sure that if we had wanted to keep him we would have offered more.

So the question is asked Why would he leave?

Kippax.

.

Kippax wrote:Mike will probably not be known to many supporters as he was primarily involved with scouting.

He was bought in by Hughes from Blackburn to overhaul our scouting network so that it became global to reflect our new owners ambitions and visions. I first met him at an open training session in Pretoria, during the South Africa tour and found him very friendly and open as he discussed his role within the club, although without going into too much detail.

Another of his jobs was to compile complete dossier's on players that were either targets of the manager or that had come to our attention through our newly formed scouting network.

I know he is highly regarded within the club and within footballing circles in general and I was recently speaking with someone who works for a leading European club when Mikes name cropped up, and he was talked of very highly indeed.

Word seems to be that he has gone to another Premiership club with people suggesting he has gone to QPR, but I'm not so sure. It seems strange that he would go to a club who's Premiership survival is still in doubt and where his old mate Sparky is only on a two year contract, unless the new owners of QPR have hatched a similar vision to ours of four years ago. It could well be that he has been offered more money elsewhere, but then I'm sure that if we had wanted to keep him we would have offered more.

So the question is asked Why would he leave?

Kippax.

.

You said it...hes mates with Hughes and QPR do have money to spend so maybe not so surprising mate.

He's either been offered more money than we were prepared to offer him from another club, probably QPR.

Or theres someone being brought in above him as part of an executive reshuffle this summer.

Maybe a bit of both

Maybe it was one of those mutual decisions? (City's site is still showing him as Technical Director at the moment)

Maybe people began scratching their heads about Savic and Dzeko...

Kyle wrote:Maybe people began scratching their heads about Savic and Dzeko...

that's silly...Dzeko was a known quantity who a load of teams wanted, and Savic is a 20 year old kid who shouldn't have been thrown into the fire.

Has little to do with scouting imho. Acquisition of talent is entirely different than the application of it, in ANY people business.

cheers

DoomMerchant wrote:

Kyle wrote:Maybe people began scratching their heads about Savic and Dzeko...

that's silly...Dzeko was a known quantity who a load of teams wanted, and Savic is a 20 year old kid who shouldn't have been thrown into the fire.

Has little to do with scouting imho. Acquisition of talent is entirely different than the application of it, in ANY people business.

cheers

I must say that you have been on the "apply football to life" trip lately. If you buy stock in Apple and they fail, you are still wrong no matter how many people wanted it. I do agree about Savic though.

The players we've signed recently, other than Savic, I could have scouted from watching football on tv. Which hidden gems has he found in all the time he's been here ?

Then there's Savic. If he found him, hanging is too good for him.

If he's closely connected with Hughes, he's probably closely connectd with Kia Joorabchian & they're probably going to carve up QPR between them.

At one point we were supposed to be bringing in that Spanish geezer as CEO, who would possibly have brought in Tricky Burgerstain as the head of player procurement etc. Rigg may have seen that coming & made his own arrangements.

There's a few reasons off the top of my head.

Ted Hughes wrote:At one point we were supposed to be bringing in that Spanish geezer as CEO, who would possibly have brought in Tricky Burgerstain as the head of player procurement etc. Rigg may have seen that coming & made his own arrangements.

I think this might be it. They want to do it "Barcelona style" so I expect them to brought some major player from their organisation sooner than later.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:At one point we were supposed to be bringing in that Spanish geezer as CEO, who would possibly have brought in Tricky Burgerstain as the head of player procurement etc. Rigg may have seen that coming & made his own arrangements.

I think this might be it. They want to do it "Barcelona style" so I expect them to brought some major player from their organisation sooner than later.

Either that... we live in that hope... and also, fancy a Patrick step up? which is bound by the things, sooner rather than later, as Mancini' s refurbishment is gonna completing. next stop Brian?

Ted Hughes wrote:The players we've signed recently, other than Savic, I could have scouted from watching football on tv. Which hidden gems has he found in all the time he's been here ?

Kompany?

City wont lose execs they dont want to.

Maybe the Soriano/Txiki Begiristain thing is still on?

Fesan wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:The players we've signed recently, other than Savic, I could have scouted from watching football on tv. Which hidden gems has he found in all the time he's been here ?

Kompany?

had already been under spot lights when still at Anderlecht Youth. I remember Sampdoria bidding for him, then [1996/7?]. hardly an hidden gem.

Maybe he had told Bobby that the result of all his scouting trips led him to believe that we should get RSC back

Fesan wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:The players we've signed recently, other than Savic, I could have scouted from watching football on tv. Which hidden gems has he found in all the time he's been here ?

Kompany?

Not that he hasn't been brilliant, but Vinnie was one of the most sought after defenders in Europe (and had been since he broke into the Anderlecht side as a teenager). We were lucky that he'd been injured at Hamburg, so interest had cooled somewhat and that brought the price down.

Strange to think that Kompany and Zabaleta cost as much as Savic did.

Esky wrote:

Fesan wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:The players we've signed recently, other than Savic, I could have scouted from watching football on tv. Which hidden gems has he found in all the time he's been here ?

Kompany?

Not that he hasn't been brilliant, but Vinnie was one of the most sought after defenders in Europe (and had been since he broke into the Anderlecht side as a teenager). We were lucky that he'd been injured at Hamburg, so interest had cooled somewhat and that brought the price down.

Strange to think that Kompany and Zabaleta cost as much as Savic did.

Vinny & Zabba were good signings of course but Vinny was a known talent for years & if I'm not mistaken, Hughes had followed Zabba's career personally.

The only real 'off the radar' signing I can think of is Savic. Even Boateng & Kolarov were well known players.

Lately City have been picking up very young talents from abroad.(I am bad with names of the most recent ones) Maybe Rigg has been involved getting us these players and it's not just about knowing who is a talent but doing the more in depth stuff to identify all their strengths and weaknesses,what are they like when they get kicked,how they react to losing, if they will fit into our club,if they will fit into the way of life over here and so many other things.

They don't get watched once at home,score a hat trick and yes we will have him.We need to know everything about them. What about Rekik,Suarez,Roman who brought them over here?

Where's he originally from, does anyone know? As he's 59 (turning 60 in 3 months), he may have decided he'd prefer a working environment where he can take a back seat, or be closer to where he wants to settle after retiring.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Lately City have been picking up very young talents from abroad.(I am bad with names of the most recent ones) Maybe Rigg has been involved getting us these players and it's not just about knowing who is a talent but doing the more in depth stuff to identify all their strengths and weaknesses,what are they like when they get kicked,how they react to losing, if they will fit into our club,if they will fit into the way of life over here and so many other things.

They don't get watched once at home,score a hat trick and yes we will have him.We need to know everything about them. What about Rekik,Suarez,Roman who brought them over here?

I think there is a scouting network which he put in place rather than him doing it personally, so it will still be there when he leaves.

BlueinBosnia wrote:Where's he originally from, does anyone know? As he's 59 (turning 60 in 3 months), he may have decided he'd prefer a working environment where he can take a back seat, or be closer to where he wants to settle after retiring.

Doesnt sound like he's taking a backseat if Chinner's bollox is accurate - he seems to have moved because he was offered more responsibility.