www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/2926

www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/2926

Is it just me who feels uneasy about this ?

I dunno, but I sort of want my CEO to be obviously very clever, sharp-suited, preferably with a background running various organisations, and ideally with all sorts of useful connections.

Hmm

I wonder if John Bastian is going to take over Rush's old job?

Im putting 2 and 2 together and thinking the same to be honest.

I had a feeling that Bastian may be heading for Sale, they are restructuring their scouting set up, but that was before I saw the Rush announcement.

Now there's a shock. Not.

hmm Director of Rugby or something like that maybe but CEO? It's not a job I would have thought he would have been suited too.

It's just jobs for the boys. Rush has no commercial background so obviously he was ideally placed to become CEO. McManus is just filling the place with his boys, whether or not they are experienced or appropriate for the job.

Ridiculous appointment. He may be good and well respected at what he did previously but this? Our Chairman has completely lost the plot. If, as per the announcement, he actually believes the tripe he's spouted about Rush's experience being ideal for the role, then he's deluded.

Rush is a rugby man - he should stick to rugby.

McManus is a Finance guy - he should stick to Finance.

Wilkin is a back rower - he should stick to being a back rower

A CEO needs to be a commercially astute, strategic thinker with expertise in every area. We may as well have appointed St Bernard.

I am even more worried about our future with our Chairman's current antics.

Spot on.

Just to temper this somewhat, the most successful CEO in Super League is Gary Hetherington, who is a rugby man.

I dont really know his background that well but he is a smart cookie who had plenty experience with Administration before taking over at Leeds i.e. setting up Sheffield Eagles

That's a fair point but bear in mind that Hetherington cut his teeth in building a business with Sheffield Eagles before being appointed as CEO of one of the SL's premier clubs. Hence my point about appointing someone with a track record.

Interestingly, and to make it even more baffling, look at our previous CEO's in Sean McGuire and Tony Colquitt. Both, even on the basis of face validity alone, had some experience of doing what CEO's do.

For the record, I have nothing against Mike Rush. I don't know him and I'd love to be proved wrong, but I just can't get my head around why we'd do this.

One of the many current interesting choices from McManus?

Spot on.

I can understand your reservations, but I think there are more similarities between Hetherington's and Rush's backgrounds than you suggest.

Hetherington formed the Eagles after a career as a player and a coach and basically did everything there from coaching to general management, making a pretty good fist of it in the process.

Rush has gone from youth coaching to overseeing the youth programme (no doubt itself a position with a considerable administrative element to it) to general manager. Throw in a spell as head coach and you've got a candidate who has a pretty unique range of perspectives on how the organisation works.

Obviously that doesn't mean he will be a knockout success, but I think it's unfair to suggest he has no relevant expertise.

Gary was from a coal mining background and he then sold selling double glazing as well as his rugby playing prowess which was only ever steady. I would imagine the problem is with Mike what do you do with him long term, if the business wants to keep him they need to facilitate his development, and with Eamon you would think the finance angle is in an appropriate place. So can you compare and contrast Mike with Gary its difficult to say but we need a forceful voice at the RFL to combat the Yorkshire bias which is reflected in Ralph Rimmer and Nigel Wood not the most dynamic of individuals which allows Leeds to dictate much of the policy coming out of Red Hall. I wish Mike well in his role

Like 99% of our recent recruitments, I am underwhelmed.

At least he would have been cute!

Only if you were a bitch.

Oh Dear.

The McManus Mafia cements its position.

Makes it very difficult for Brown to change direction or for any future coach coming in
to the club.

Suppose they had to make room for the impending appointment of Wellens to some
made up job.

I think fans need to get over the fact that McManus owns the majority of the club and has spent a lot of his own money saving our club. Given this, he is quite entitled to employ anybody he chooses in any capacity if he so wishes.

Certain individuals need to get a grip, McManus mafia indeed

.

If you are unhappy with this, buy the club and sack them all. Individuals are constantly saying 'spend some money and buy a halfback', well maybe we should have a collection at the next home game where everybody pays £25 for the purchase of said halfback.

=#FF0000All fans now in uproar at request to spend their money to buy players.

He owns the club and he can do as he pleases, if you don't like it don't go.

What a silly thing to say.

Owners of clubs are transitory, as indeed are chief execs. Just because we presently have a chairman who likes to surround himself with his chosen boys doesn't mean to say the fans have to approve of or feel comfortable with that approach, which is amateurish to say the least, and not particularly good for the long term future of the club (surrounding yourself with yes men never is). Fans will outlast McManus and indeed any other chairman. Fans can still support the club even if they don't always approve of what the leadership in that club are doing all of the time.

You seem to forget that McManus is also a fan and the fact that people on here think they know better than him with regards to the club is quite amusing.

I wonder how many Multi-Millionaire financial wizards we have in our midst on this forum.

In any case he has a majority shareholding, there are other directors, there are plenty of shareholders.

In reality though he is the main man and the money man or the person who sorts the money out.

I kind of like Mike's style, although he can be a bit jumpy with people comments about him online, only time will tell if this CEO role is really much different from what he was doing anyway and whether indeed he can excel at it.

Whether he likes me is a different story