Poll

How would you rate Luke Dowlings tenure to date (26 may 2021)

Roaring success, we'll be lucky to keep him
2 (1.8%)
Doing well given the limitations he has to work under
9 (8.1%)
Ok
16 (14.4%)
Poor, could be doing better overall
49 (44.1%)
Abject, needs to be fired or walk,
35 (31.5%)

Total Members Voted: 111

Voting closed: June 05, 2021, 12:28:58 PM

Author Topic: Luke Dowling  (Read 132004 times)

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #100 on: September 21, 2020, 09:22:48 PM »
I have berm watching it too and the narcissistic levy is one talk. He ruined the upward trajectory of the best player we've produced for years with one derisory bid after another.

Transfers are hard. A buyer asks seller how much is so and so through an agent or whoever and then they should decided if they want to pay the price or walk away.

Levy uses the London press to release info to unsettle a player to save a few quid, but when it comes to him selling he wants top dollar.

I so wanted Ericksson to go on free when it happened but stupid inter came in in Jan and stupidly paid £20m and then hardly played him.

Transfers can be complicated when dealing with 3rd party ownership, but it doesn't really effect our clubs.

If levy makes a transfer complicated it is because he he trying to screw the other club.

He does the best for his club as does every CEO and I don’t blame them. And for clarification, it was £17m (€20m)

And no, Berahino ruined his own trajectory
« Last Edit: September 21, 2020, 09:25:11 PM by AlbionFan »
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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #101 on: September 21, 2020, 09:25:14 PM »
You really think Levy was responsible for Berahino wasting his talent? His own team mates at Albion and Stoke thought he was a tool of the highest order. Morrison punched him. The Stoke players wouldn't talk to him. He spent his time inhaling hippy crack laughing gas. Compare that to Zaha who has begged to let go from Palace for two years and still turns it on every week.

Go and look when those things happened, during the time he sat on the England bench or after the spurs bid?

Morrison hitting a younger player for not taking the ball into the corner was disgraceful act of bullying and the fact nothing happened to mozza said everything of the p iss poor management we had at the time, as in any other line of work it would have been instant dismissal.

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #102 on: September 21, 2020, 09:33:08 PM »
He does the best for his club as does every CEO and I don’t blame them. And for clarification, it was £17m (€20m)

And no, Berahino ruined his own trajectory

Send him a letter telling him how much you admire him and ask for his autograph as I am sure he will love that. You could possibly put in your letter to him how you really liked the way the he wanted to furlough his staff until a public outcry  lead to a u turn and how he has now borrowed £200m in public money to fund the signings of bale and Co, instead getting the money from his Co shareholder Joe Lewis.

Btw what was £17m, I didn't mention any figure?

If you are referring to the spurs bid it was rumoured to be £10m rising to £20m in the reports if he manned a rocket ship to the moon.

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #103 on: September 21, 2020, 09:57:30 PM »
There is no point discussing the transfer window from last season in the championship, which was an entirely different remit, unless you want to acknowledge what a good job everyone involved did. Forest signed players galore from the continent, how did they get on compared to us?

Moaning that Dowling knows about Niang from his Watford days is mind-numbing. He played 16 times for Watford and has 209 games elsewhere. He left Watford over three years ago. Do you seriously not think we have been more interested in his form at Rennes for the past two seasons?

The owners of Watford also owned Udinese and Granada, so a large number of players were recycled between all three clubs, you don't seem aware of that yet are trying to judge Dowling business this summer on the shenanigans at Watford.

I've said a few times that moaning about Dowling this summer with the transfer window open and our business unfinished is a classic case of fans moaning for the sake of it. He has a limited budget, lots of players to bring in and a club with limited appeal to many of our first choice targets. Once the window is closed and the players have bedded in we can judge how successful a window it has been.

"Moaning that Dowling knows Niang from his Watford days".


You said I and others were just making up the fact that Dowling doesn't look abroad, then when I presented the case for why I and others think that way, you seem to have just changed the context of what we were speaking about.

It's up to you your view on Dowling, maybe he is good enough and my view that he is too limited for what we need will be proven wrong in the long run, but if you are going to debate then I think you need to debate what's being said rather than twisting what is said

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #104 on: September 21, 2020, 10:06:51 PM »
Send him a letter telling him how much you admire him and ask for his autograph as I am sure he will love that. You could possibly put in your letter to him how you really liked the way the he wanted to furlough his staff until a public outcry  lead to a u turn and how he has now borrowed £200m in public money to fund the signings of bale and Co, instead getting the money from his Co shareholder Joe Lewis.

Btw what was £17m, I didn't mention any figure?

If you are referring to the spurs bid it was rumoured to be £10m rising to £20m in the reports if he manned a rocket ship to the moon.

I suggest you read your own post and “Erickssson” is actually spelt Eriksen or where you referring to another player with a similar name that went to Inter? Which would have been an absolute coincidence.

And what did this Albion player with a “trajectory“ do to enhance his own career and overcome disappointment like many other players have had to and then get on with their job?
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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #105 on: September 21, 2020, 10:14:13 PM »
Go and look when those things happened, during the time he sat on the England bench or after the spurs bid?

Morrison hitting a younger player for not taking the ball into the corner was disgraceful act of bullying and the fact nothing happened to mozza said everything of the p iss poor management we had at the time, as in any other line of work it would have been instant dismissal.

With the greatest of respect, Morrison didn't punch him because he didn't take the ball into the corner. He punched him because the snotty arrogant piece of fecal matter didn't give a toss about why his fellow professionals were vexed, and also went on to call Morrison a fool, despite his actions potentially costing our place in the Prem' and his teammates money via relegation clauses. It wasn't bullying, it was shop floor justice. If anything Saido got off lightly. Personally speaking if I were in the dressing room I'd have been tempted to rip his head off.
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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #106 on: September 21, 2020, 10:19:20 PM »
With the greatest of respect, Morrison didn't punch him because he didn't take the ball into the corner. He punched him because the snotty arrogant piece of fecal matter didn't give a toss about why his fellow professionals were vexed, and also went on to call Morrison a fool, despite his actions potentially costing our place in the Prem' and his teammates money via relegation clauses. It wasn't bullying, it was shop floor justice. If anything Saido got off lightly. Personally speaking if I were in the dressing room I'd have been tempted to rip his head off.

Amazing this even needed explaining, god knows why anyone on this forum wants to defend Berahino for throwing his career away.

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #107 on: September 21, 2020, 11:46:58 PM »
Amazing this even needed explaining, god knows why anyone on this forum wants to defend Berahino for throwing his career away.

Didn't defend berahino at any stage, but as he himself as stated the spurs "bid" kicked it all off for player rated as a better prospect than Kane at the time.

Whatever, the hearsay of what was said by him to Morrison I won't ever condone any player, especially a senior one hitting an idiot like bambino in any circumstances.

Scream and shout as much as you want at each other but when you start to gang up on younger players, as has been hinted by odemwingie too, maybe that's why we cannot retain the traitors like Ferguson and Co.

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #108 on: September 22, 2020, 12:02:35 AM »
I suggest you read your own post and “Erickssson” is actually spelt Eriksen or where you referring to another player with a similar name that went to Inter? Which would have been an absolute coincidence.

And what did this Albion player with a “trajectory“ do to enhance his own career and overcome disappointment like many other players have had to and then get on with their job?

Thanks for the spelling lesson I really appreciate it. Your extensive spelling prowess and use of Google to spell check will make that letter to levy very riveting reading I am sure.

Bambino is a joke for what he has done on and off the field and I have written of my disdain of him many times, but it does not change the fact that he was a home grown player who was on the England bench until he was unsettled by levy.


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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #109 on: September 22, 2020, 09:52:59 AM »
Thanks for the spelling lesson I really appreciate it. Your extensive spelling prowess and use of Google to spell check will make that letter to levy very riveting reading I am sure.

Bambino is a joke for what he has done on and off the field and I have written of my disdain of him many times, but it does not change the fact that he was a home grown player who was on the England bench until he was unsettled by levy.


Berahino to bambino is an amazing autocorrect ha

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #110 on: September 22, 2020, 12:03:02 PM »
re:- Berahino
Spurs 1st bid, 18 Aug 2015

Speeding M6 100mph plus, 25 nov 2014
Laughing gas, 19 Apr 2015
Brentford send back, 04 apr 2012

The lad was a problem before levy intervened, Fact !
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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #111 on: September 22, 2020, 04:55:19 PM »
re:- Berahino
Spurs 1st bid, 18 Aug 2015

Speeding M6 100mph plus, 25 nov 2014
Laughing gas, 19 Apr 2015
Brentford send back, 04 apr 2012

The lad was a problem before levy intervened, Fact !

Speeding and laughing gas in a teenager, must be the first time a teenager did that.

Funny how you don't mention his stint at Northampton who said he was great for them.

Also, for clarity sake re the comemmt about bambino, it wasn't an auto correct, it was what I called him ( Saido bambino which is sad baby to be precise) at the time he spat his dummy out and said he'd never play for peace again.

Don't agree with what he did at the time or now, but I cannot say he was the best finisher I have seen in my time going to the Albion for his age. I was very proud when he got his England call up and gutted when RH didn't bring him on.

Not only did he waste his talent, but we lost tens of millions in what he could have been and it was reported even after his hissy fit Newcastle bid £23m but Pulis didn't want lose him, despite his antics.

I maintain his downfall was triggered by levy's penny pinching and nothing is going to convince me otherwise.

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #112 on: September 22, 2020, 05:10:24 PM »
Speeding and laughing gas in a teenager, must be the first time a teenager did that.

Funny how you don't mention his stint at Northampton who said he was great for them.

Also, for clarity sake re the comemmt about bambino, it wasn't an auto correct, it was what I called him ( Saido bambino which is sad baby to be precise) at the time he spat his dummy out and said he'd never play for peace again.

Don't agree with what he did at the time or now, but I cannot say he was the best finisher I have seen in my time going to the Albion for his age. I was very proud when he got his England call up and gutted when RH didn't bring him on.

Not only did he waste his talent, but we lost tens of millions in what he could have been and it was reported even after his hissy fit Newcastle bid £23m but Pulis didn't want lose him, despite his antics.

I maintain his downfall was triggered by levy's penny pinching and nothing is going to convince me otherwise.

Was it Brentford on loan where he fell out with the manager ( Uve Rosler)and loan was ended.
His problems started the moment he sniffed money, never mind the laughing gas!
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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #113 on: September 22, 2020, 05:18:52 PM »
Was it Brentford on loan where he fell out with the manager ( Uve Rosler)and loan was ended.
His problems started the moment he sniffed money, never mind the laughing gas!

If he was so bad, England don't come calling.

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #115 on: September 22, 2020, 05:55:45 PM »
If he was so bad, England don't come calling.

Geoff Thomas, Jake Livermore and Michael Ricketts, are at the head of a long queue who want a word...
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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #116 on: September 22, 2020, 07:07:04 PM »
I maintain his downfall was triggered by levy's penny pinching and nothing is going to convince me otherwise.

Fair enough, everyone is entitled to an opinion but I think that's delusional. We're talking about a player that wasted the best part of a decade despite being given numerous chances by different clubs and coaches. Berahino has to accept personal responsibility for his own career, or lack of.

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #117 on: September 22, 2020, 07:58:16 PM »
Dowling in this thread now please guys
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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #118 on: October 25, 2020, 06:23:25 PM »
Article in today's Sunday Times:

After an hour of interviewing Luke Dowling he has had ten missed calls and countless messages, and as we keep talking, notification alerts keep chiming on his phone. Ding. Ding. Ding. Like a metronome, set to the breakneck tempo of the football world.

Welcome to the life of a Premier League sporting director. The transfer window may have finally shut on October 5 but the work continues, and as strategist for newly promoted West Bromwich Albion there is plenty that Dowling needs to affect. Training ground, travel, academy, nutrition, communication with fans, support for manager Slaven Bilic — he wants to be progressing it all.

“Something I learnt at Watford is keep making small improvements. Let the players see something different: an office change, a little upgrade in the gym, new furniture in the canteen. Make slight differences because we don’t want them to just be comfortable. We want them to know we’re always looking to make things better,” he says.

At Watford, whom he joined in 2014, Dowling was one of Europe’s youngest sporting directors and helped to plot promotion, then three years of survival in the top flight. Aged 42, he took his present post in 2018 after a brief stint at Nottingham Forest and hopes his previous experience will help West Brom to stay up — despite having the Premier League’s smallest budget. “I have to overachieve, Slaven has to overachieve and the players have to overachieve,” he says. “If nobody ever overachieved, every league table would just be what the bookies predicted.”
The key is recruitment. West Brom have taken a different route to Leeds United, who spent £96 million after being promoted, or Aston Villa, who invested £143 million after going up in 2019. West Brom’s net spend is about £27 million and their record signing remains Salomón Rondón, bought for £15.3 million in 2015.

On the penultimate day of the window, Dowling captured Karlan Grant, 23, from Huddersfield Town for £14.85 million but structured the deal so the fee is spread across the six years of his contract. An up-and-coming striker for £2.47 million a season — that kind of prudence will look ingenious if they avoid the drop.

A youth full back at Tottenham Hotspur, Dowling had two years at Reading before stints in non-League with Kingstonian, Hampton & Richmond Borough and Walton Casuals, whom he managed. From there, he became a scout at AFC Wimbledon and Crystal Palace, then head of recruitment at Portsmouth and Blackburn Rovers.
His knowledge of the different levels and people’s potential to rise contributed to the shift in thinking he brought about at West Brom at the end of 2018-19, after they lost in the Championship play-off semi-finals.

“We were relegated the previous season with an experienced team: Ben Foster, Craig Dawson, Jonny Evans, Chris Brunt, Gareth McAuley, Gareth Barry . . . these were older players who helped give this club eight years on the spin in the Premier League but ultimately they got relegated.

“Darren Moore [then the manager] wanted to keep the majority together, which we did. We collected a few loans, had a go but fell short again. That was when we reached a point where I wanted to appoint a manager, reduce the age of the squad and get in some younger, hungry players.”

Bilic got the dugout gig in June 2019, his charisma and experience of managing Croatia, Besiktas and West Ham United convincing Dowling he was the man. Poster boy for the new breed of signings was Semi Ajayi, who had been relegated to League One with Rotherham. Ajayi had hidden pedigree — three games on the bench at Arsenal in the Premier League — and his career had faltered after making a wrong move, to Cardiff City. Dowling and the scouting team he had appointed saw Ajayi’s physique, determination and ability on the ball, underneath the rawness.

The 26-year-old arrived for £1.5 million. Darnell Furlong (£1.5 million from Queens Park Rangers) and Romaine Sawyers (£2.9 million from Brentford) were similar buys. All three played big roles in the promotion and have not looked out of place this season.

For a club careful with their budget under the ownership of Chinese investor Lai Guochuan, loan deals present a valuable see-before-buy opportunity. They also allowed West Brom to sell themselves to rising talent — such as Grady Diangana, who signed after a successful loan spell despite being in demand elsewhere. Callum Robinson and Matheus Pereira are others who have turned loans into permanent moves.

“With players, too many people look at what they can’t do whereas I want my scouts to look at what they’ve got. If their weaknesses are things we can improve on, we’ve got half a chance. Sometimes it’s about putting people in a better environment, alongside better players,” Dowling says.

“Semi has shown that. We believe we have another in Cédric Kipré, who we got from Wigan for £800,000. We’ll make this boy into a player. Put Kipré in a squad with better footballers, give him better nutrition, put him in hotels before games, get him to Newcastle on a flight instead of a five-hour road journey — it might just get that extra 3 per cent from him, and you don’t know what that 3 per cent brings.”

“I sometimes feel there’s a bit of snobbery,” Dowling, who himself commutes every day from Berkshire, says. “We’ve signed players from Rotherham and Wigan. If they were from Everton Under-23s and Manchester United-23s, they’d be more appealing to many clubs, I believe, but when you play for Rotherham or Wigan you develop character. And when you scout them in that environment, playing in front of 8,000, 9,000 — not big crowds — you see who can motivate themselves.

“These are West Brom signings. West Brom have never been a club to spend £30 million on a player. This is a hard-working area where families go without a holiday so Dad can afford his season ticket. It’s finding players who reflect that passion. Pereira [a Brazilian from Sporting Lisbon] might not be from here but his attitude reflects the area.”

There was no family holiday this year either for Dowling, his wife Patricia and 12-year-old Liberty. “Would I like a holiday? Do I need one? Probably. But I’ll be fine,” Dowling says. “It’s still the best job. I never wake up on a Monday morning and think, ‘Oh, work . . .’ ”

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #119 on: October 25, 2020, 06:42:46 PM »
Interesting interview on Dowling. I think it's obviously based around praise rather than a hit-piece and he's modelled as a kind of Ashworth 2.0. Undoubtedly he's had some success with his signings and he's helped lower our debt.

What I found odd though is that he's talking about giving Kipre the extra 3% by travelling less, better nutrition etc. Then in the next paragraph it says Dowling commutes from Berkshire daily. Surely the same applies to him? Imagine the time he could sink into his job without such a long commute.

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #120 on: October 25, 2020, 06:47:08 PM »
He does the best for his club as does every CEO and I don’t blame them. And for clarification, it was £17m (€20m)

And no, Berahino ruined his own trajectory

Totally agree. Levy didnt do much wrong as he was acting in the best interests of his club. Berahino blew his career - no-one else to blame.

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #121 on: October 25, 2020, 09:10:29 PM »
I'd have probably liked a bit more analysis in the article really, it just felt like a snippet of an interview rather than something that gave any real insight. A quick piece with no real digging.

Couple of things.

Dowling's role at Watford feels a little overstated. Their success was built on signing players through their Pozzo family network with Udinese and Grenada. When Dowling was bought in, Watford said in the release that it was to give them a domestic angle to their recruitment to supplement their foreign business which they had well covered and while he must have done something right to get 3 years there, they didn't sign many domestic players in his time there and he eventually left to go down a division, hinting he wanted a greater influence somewhere.

He says our scouts don't fall into the trap of looking at what a player hasn't got and instead look at their positives. Personally, i'd prefer a bit more of a balanced view than that as you should be looking to rule players out as well as in. It does explain how we ended up with Zohore ("the lad doesn't score and jumps like a frightened turtle, but look how big, strong and fast he is, he has all the mechanics"). It's the sort of scouting Billy Beane and Moneyball rallied against.

As for the snobbish line, i've said on here a few times that you get the impression that Dowling's one of those blokes from the lower reaches of English football who will have that view. The "just because he doesn't have a fancy, foreign name" outlook. I guess you are a product of your up bringing so to speak and that's been his footballing education, but that did confirm something i've long suspected.
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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #122 on: October 26, 2020, 11:04:36 AM »
Interesting that there's a piece on The Athletic about Dan Ashworth by Steve Madeley at the moment. Not had chance to read through it in its entirety but will post a summary when I get chance, as it will be interesting to see if there are any parallels to Dowling
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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #123 on: October 26, 2020, 02:19:39 PM »
I'd have probably liked a bit more analysis in the article really, it just felt like a snippet of an interview rather than something that gave any real insight. A quick piece with no real digging.

Couple of things.

Dowling's role at Watford feels a little overstated. Their success was built on signing players through their Pozzo family network with Udinese and Grenada. When Dowling was bought in, Watford said in the release that it was to give them a domestic angle to their recruitment to supplement their foreign business which they had well covered and while he must have done something right to get 3 years there, they didn't sign many domestic players in his time there and he eventually left to go down a division, hinting he wanted a greater influence somewhere.

He says our scouts don't fall into the trap of looking at what a player hasn't got and instead look at their positives. Personally, i'd prefer a bit more of a balanced view than that as you should be looking to rule players out as well as in. It does explain how we ended up with Zohore ("the lad doesn't score and jumps like a frightened turtle, but look how big, strong and fast he is, he has all the mechanics"). It's the sort of scouting Billy Beane and Moneyball rallied against.

As for the snobbish line, i've said on here a few times that you get the impression that Dowling's one of those blokes from the lower reaches of English football who will have that view. The "just because he doesn't have a fancy, foreign name" outlook. I guess you are a product of your up bringing so to speak and that's been his footballing education, but that did confirm something i've long suspected.

I agree with the Watford bit. After their promotion their fans loved the Pozzo scouting system which was almost entirely foreign-based, alongside foreign managers and staff. The article then glosses over his time at Forest where most of their fans were against him.

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Re: Luke Dowling
« Reply #124 on: October 26, 2020, 02:27:59 PM »
I agree with the Watford bit. After their promotion their fans loved the Pozzo scouting system which was almost entirely foreign-based, alongside foreign managers and staff. The article then glosses over his time at Forest where most of their fans were against him.

Is Mr Dowling touting himself about for another job ?
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