McGinity off

[Tiglon]

Just my thoughts on a few of the valid points raised...

All the new players have said they want to work with Borthwick. Well, yes, and 6 months ago they (as well as Borthwick himself) were all saying they couldn't wait to work with Murphy. It's just what you say when you join a new club.

Was McGinity really involved in any of our signings? Did we need him to find them, they were hardly hidden gems? We'll never know, but are we really confident that Borthwick will have time to coach the team (with only 2 permanent assistants) while also doing all the recruitment? I still believe Borthwick is the right man, but if he or Tigers think he can do everything and do everything well, they are sorely mistaken. Either he is too arrogant to think he needs support, or the board are unwilling or cannot afford to give it to him.

Why do we need to go and find players, agents will bring them to us! I am truly baffled by the logic behind that. You would want to let the sales people dictate who you sign? That's like choosing your utility companies based on who cold calls you, or only purchasing things from junk mail that drops through your letter box. To not have a proactive approach to recruitment in any industry, let alone professional sport, would be suicidal for anyone other than very small companies. Utter madness.

Everyone was asking for a clear out, what's the problem? McGinity only joined a year ago, he sort of replaced Ged Glynn, which was supposed to be part of the clear out. We are now clearing out the clear out. One minute we're being sold the dream of Murphy as our brilliant new DoR, the next we're assured that there is no room for a DoR in our long term strategy. One day McGinity is the man to rebuild our team, the next we don't need to worry about recruitment, it's all done. Rob Taylor was the up and coming hot prospect in attack coaching here to take us forward, then 2 months later he suddenly remembers he has "personal reasons" that prevent him from being at Tigers. Things had to change, but they don't need to change every single month.

This whole saga is just indicative of an organisation that has no strategy, no long term thinking and no control. It doesn't feel like we're trying to turn an oil tanker, it feels like we're trying to turn a runaway horse drawn carriage going down a steep hill.

[jgriffin]

Once again a cogent post that deserves an honest answer. Come on, Gary, lets hear one!

[JP14]

Whilst I agree, I do personally feel that Taylor's departure was genuinely personal and unrelated to anything specifically at Tigers.

[TigerCam]

Anyone got any advice for a rugby fan on the lookout for a new club to support? Asking for a friend...

I heard that there is an up and coming club in the Championship - Saracens I think they go by? They might win a game or two should they get into the Prem next season

[TigerBoy1880]

A replacement for Jan has already been sorted apparently.

[chappie]

To say the least this decision seems peculiar , we simply do not know or appreciate what does on behind the scenes - the seemingly many machinations....
For those expressing a desire for LTTV to explain the situation please , lets not kid ourselves - we will be given what The Club want us to be given.There is a possible clue in the 'Leicester Tigers' element of Leicester Tigers TeleVision'....

LTTV is the mouthpiece of Tigers and as with any such media it has to be adjudged accordingly

Regarding LTTV it will take the powers that be 24hrs to come up with a transparent excuse???
Maybe we should change the music from’ Smoke on the water’ to ‘There’s no smoke without fire’

[Tiglon]

A replacement for Jan has already been sorted apparently.

A direct replacement? But... I thought the strategy dictated that we did not need a Head of Elite Performance Recruitment? I thought that the entire reason for him leaving was that we did not need someone in his role?

You couldn't make this up, could you?

[longlivethecrumbie]

A replacement for Jan has already been sorted apparently.

If that's the case then I can only fathom that there was an element of personal issues involved. I'm also led to believe that there was no communication between Geordan and SB towards the end of Geordan's time at the club.

I am going out on a limb (and this is pure conjecture on my part) but could it be the case that the board have been seen to bring in SB as the messiah to take us back to the promised land. For whatever reason, SB says 'I can't work with X, Y and Z'. The board has a problem to resolve - do they remove SB and stick with the rest of what we have or do they back 'their man' and remove the parties that he believes he cannot work with?

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

A replacement for Jan has already been sorted apparently.

If that's the case then I can only fathom that there was an element of personal issues involved. I'm also led to believe that there was no communication between Geordan and SB towards the end of Geordan's time at the club.

I am going out on a limb (and this is pure conjecture on my part) but could it be the case that the board have been seen to bring in SB as the messiah to take us back to the promised land. For whatever reason, SB says 'I can't work with X, Y and Z'. The board has a problem to resolve - do they remove SB and stick with the rest of what we have or do they back 'their man' and remove the parties that he believes he cannot work with?

All the eggs in one basket, risky at anytime, with a novice at the helm, positively daft, if someone calls Iceberg ahead will anyone listen?

[Tiglon]

A replacement for Jan has already been sorted apparently.

A direct replacement? But... I thought the strategy dictated that we did not need a Head of Elite Performance Recruitment? I thought that the entire reason for him leaving was that we did not need someone in his role?

You couldn't make this #@?$ up, could you?

Apologies, I have re-read the club statement, and retract my above post. The statement is more complex than I gave it credit for and warrants a more thorough read. Let's have a look...

(Club statement in italics)

Leicester Tigers can confirm that Jan McGinity will leave the club as head of elite performance recruitment. This bit is pretty straightforward, Jan has left the club.

As part of strategic change led by chief executive Andrea Pinchen, They are saying that he has left because of change. Stating the obvious a bit, but fine. To elaborate, they say that this change is "strategic", so it's part of a long term plan. So that surely rules out covid reasons. That's ok, I love a long term plan, although I worry that it seems at odds with the other, recent, long term plans. That is explained by the fact this is Andrea Pinchen's strategy, presumably replacing the previous strategies of Howard, Murphy, Tom etc. and alongside structural change regarding the role of Director of Rugby, Here it gets rather ambiguous, but I'll try to decipher it. So Jan's departure is alongside structural changes - if it is alongside, it is not part of. Therefore, it is not a structural change and the position has not been discarded, just the person who held it. This ties in with Tigerboy's assertion that a replacement has been found already. resource I assume this means money, but ssshhhh, PR don't want us to call it that publicly! is to be invested elsewhere This threw me the first time around, I assumed it meant in other parts of the club, but not so. Nevertheless, the money - sorry, resource! - is to be invested elsewhere. So zero costs saved. Not a response to covid. in developing the club’s recruitment and retention function, but still in the same area as Jan's role and identifying the best available talent at all levels. Here is perhaps the difference, there is a new role that also covers recruitment and retention at age grade rugby. But, hold on one dang second, wouldn't that be a structural change? Or is it merely alongside structural change? A slight contradiction there, but we'll move on. We must conclude that the "elsewhere" means in a different person to do a very similar (but broader) job. The implication there is that Jan was not doing his job very well, did not have the skillset to take on the broader aspects of the new role, or did not want to. Essentially he was no longer the right man for the job.

The decision has been taken now, so this has been decided now, not 3 months ago, not 6 months ago. At least that means they weren't planning all along to let Jan do all the hard work then get rid of him. That's nice, but doesn't sound very strategic (remember, strategy means long term planning, not doing things off the cuff) with recruitment finalised for 2020/21, Again, this part threw me before, I though it was saying that we now didn't need anyone to do recruitment. On reflection, I now read it to mean that now is the time to make the change from one person handling recruitment, to another. to allow the new team led by head coach Steve Borthwick Interesting, this suggests that the new person handling recruitment will report to SB, whereas Jan most likely worked alongside him. Perhaps my interpretation of "alongside structural change" earlier was incorrect, and it actually meant that this is structural change to the recruitment function, alongside structural change to DoR role. That sort of works, although structural change would generally refer to the organisation as a whole, not individual roles. We'll put that down to poor wording by the comms team. to have the best possible opportunities, time and resource in looking ahead to strengthening the squad for the future. Here we are saying that the new person in the new role will make the squad better in the future than it would have been if we had stuck with Jan in his role. So, either they felt we weren't doing enough on the youth side of things, or Jan just wasn't performing as well as they think someone else could.

The club thanks Jan for his service and wishes him well for the future. You would hope so.

Conclusions?

1) Categorically not a cost saving exercise.
2) SB is definitely the new chief, everyone to do with rugby will be part of his team. We are building the new Tigers around him - no pressure, Steve. Some might argue that sounds more like a DoR, but if he's still doing the coaching I suppose you could call it either. It does question the "we don't need a DoR" claim regarding Murphy's departure though - we do still want one, we just want to call it something else and give the job to someone else - we brought SB in to replace Murphy, but only told Murphy about the plan after he had, in good faith, helped SB to settle in.
3) Jan has been invited to leave because the board felt someone else could provide better value to the club and his job title was too senior to fit into point (2).
4) More of a question than a conclusion, but are there people in the academy system whose jobs might be under threat by a replacement for Jan with broader remit?

[Redstripeman]

I actually give up with this club, ran by a bunch of clowns

...I beg to differ, there is only one common denominator!!!

[Grumpy of Crumbie]

Personally I can’t see any other explanation than unrest in the camp. Assuming a ‘strategy’ has been adopted, be it Pat Howard’s or something else surely the appointment of the team to implement it would have taken place a while ago. Surely no right minded business would be trying to put their ‘A’ team in place at the very time the business should be starting to deliver; in Tigers case performances on the pitch at the start of a new season!

I can see no explanation for the loss of Boris, Geordan, Rory and now Jan in the space of a few weeks other than they could no longer work in the current environment. I was gutted at the loss of Geordan but I now find a level of solace in the fact that he is probably better off out of it! He like many of us is probably starting to see a Leicester Tigers he doesn’t recognise.

If it’s the Borthwick show from here on in then as others have said his honeymoon period has now been reduced from a couple of years to a few months at best.

Yes I know times are tough financially but I think this is still being used to justify these decisions. To be confirmed if and when new appointments are made. What we don’t know is the answer to the did he jump or was he pushed questions.

I’m quite pleased that we can’t go to the new Mattioli Woods Welford Road as it would take some effort to drag my :censored: of the sofa in the current climate.

[Greenwhiteandred]

Just a thought - would McGinity have been involved/been deemed responsible for the contract renegotiations in the summer which is resulting in legal action and a financial settlement/court case?

[Tiglon]

Just a thought - would McGinity have been involved/been deemed responsible for the contract renegotiations in the summer which is resulting in legal action and a financial settlement/court case?

Someone posted earlier that Murphy and McGinity did a great job with all the contract negotiations - perhaps the club felt very differently and that's one of the reasons behind their departures. We were certainly the only club that experienced such public fallout.

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

I would suggest that after the excitement of going back to seeing Rugby in the flesh at WR, people will let their feelings known pretty, rapidly, the next few years (probably decade) finances will be tight, it's quite easy to cut certain disposable income expenditure if you dont like what you see or feel.

Would I of started going to WR without a free school boy ticket, doubtful, did what I saw on the pitch, the atmosphere at the ground then make me a fan beyond that initial perk & keep me getting disproportionately angry at results & general events of recent times, yes. Would I bother now...interesting question, not just a Tigers issue but the game in general, every week that goes by makes me think professional rugby has made the game less attractive.