B20

it can vary from club to club, but generally no.

I imagine if a new man comes in, he will have ideas of whom he'd like brought in and whom should go. A good DoF will probably be eager to try and accommodate him as well. A good part of his job is to make sure the head coach is happy with what he is working with as he is the one who has to deliver the results. And much of the DoF assesment of transfer strategy will come from the coaching staff's assesment of strengths and deficiencies in the current squad.

But it is still the Dof's job to make sure it can be fitted into the overall transfer strategy of the club. If it doesn't make sense within that scheme, he'll have to tell him no. And if the manager thinks it makes sense to offload a player to help fund it all that the DoF regards as a prized asset he might tell him no as well. And I imagine especially so if the new man thinks an overhaul of the squad is needed.

And on the other hand, the DoF might well present him with the current shortlist when he arrives and ask him to consider those targets carefully as options to sign. Which he might be inclined to do as well, seeing as he won't enjoy the benefits of having his own scouting network to pick out alternatives.

I think a lot of managers when they join new clubs are often very casual in their assessment of players, because they have in the back of their mind that ideally they'd be bringing in their own men anyway.

Essentially, as head coach, none of them are 'your' men (or conversely they all are - point is, he doesn't get room to start thinking like that). Your job is to coach them and get the best of out of them. And that's a different perspective that necessitates bringing the best out of the players you have.

Of course, all this also necessitates that you appoint a head coach that shares common ground with the DoF on some fundamental footballing points. But this is an essential element of longterm planning in the first place.