Not that I'm disagreeing, but if it was an easy process to achieve success like Rangknick did in such a short period with the Red bull clubs then anyone could do it and they'd be more similar examples to draw from. Ragknick is a confident guy, perhaps even arrogant. He modeled his plans for Liepzig on capital, concept, and competence. His diligence, wise spending, work ethic, precise delegation of roles (including handpicking managers like Nagelsmann and the DoF who succeeded him), mad obsession for the game and penchant for the finer details are the ingredients that led Liepzig to unprecedented prominence much to the chagrin and jealousy of opposition clubs in Germany.
I feel if the other factors at play (and other characters involved) didnt come together swimmingly then the project would've failed no matter how simple the process appears on paper. Rangknick depended on a slew of things to work in his favor but he was the major driving force and that can't be taken from him, not even by himself
Not to be pedantic but isn't the term 'plastic' technically reserved for a certain type of fan and not a club or footballing institution? Are the multitudes of Die Hard match going Liepzig supporters mostly plastic? The club treats them great and by all accounts the match day experience at Red bull arena still stands up to the high quality experiences you get at other famous German clubs that adhere to tradition like Dortmund and Bayern. The region of East Germany where Liepzig is also deserves a club playing top flight football.
I understand the hatred Leipzig receives, they went against a long standing tradition in German top flight football that has remained unchanged for decades, but nothing lasts forever. Exceptions to the 50 plus one rule were made for Wolfsburg and Leverkusen, simply because they were bankrolled for over two decades by the same ownership. The unprecedented is a guarantee every so often even if it comes in cycles many years apart and Liepzig are representative of this. Manchester united fans have been undeservedley blanket called plastics by opposition fans for a long time now due to the club's financial strength and global fanbase and global appeal. They are plastics in the fanbase yes, but that's part and parcel with the scale of popularity the club has attained. Is united a 'plastic' club for having ambition and for having foreign and some plastic supporters?
Liepzig still fall under/meet the 50 plus one rule as they cleverly circumvented the system to ensure it was achieved under their terms. The club did this by issuing a small amount of shares, buying 49% of them then pricing the rest prohibitively and choosing who could invest, chiefly Red Bull employees. I find them an appealing club, but then maybe I biased as I can see parallels with them and my local billionaire bankrolled club in Atlanta united. I didn't mean to write a novel
I think we've gone off track slightly, and i'm probably to blame for that. But i'd like focus on Rangnick and his work as a Sporting director at Hoffenheim/Redbull clubs.
And I didn't say the job he did was easy at the clubs he was at, but we have to acknowledge that the clubs he worked at as a Sporting director were financially doped up which is a advantage against the competition. Now that doesn't mean things were easy for him, but what did he do at those clubs apart from bringing in scouts etc that made a big difference to the clubs he worked at? And what he did at those clubs was very simple, and that was to align recruitment towards a guiding principle which focused on signing players for a attacking brand of football with counter pressing capabilities.
So he was the driving force behind that push to sign players for a high octane, highly intensive brand of football. And that also required him to make sure the recruitment departments below him were functioning at optimal levels.Because he knew if the departments below him didn't function to a high level, it would effect his work as the Sporting director. Because believe it or not, the recruitment teams below him did the bulk of the work when it comes to identifying players. And the players they were targeting were mostly young players who were either 16/17, or second contract players who were 2 or 3 years older.
So it was a particular idea which Rangnick implemented at the clubs he worked at which required everyone to work towards in a uniformed approach to recruitment, which was the key difference towards the success he had as a Sporting director.
And where did he get the idea to work in such a way, where a uniformed approach to recruitment became a big part of his coaching and DoF roles? He got those ideas from his mentor/adviser Helmut Groß (controlled chaos and the Stuttgart school) who is the person that is the architect behind the approach in question, and he's been a consultant to Rangnick for decades. And it's a simple approach, that even Liverpool adopted under Klopp, and their recruitment team led by Michael Edwards, which was widely ridiculed is now the envy of Europe. Edwards whose reputation was at all-time low after several failures was now deemed a genius.
The above tells me that the DoF concept is very simple. And hence why it's important for the DoF to hire the head coach and not the board. Its also easy to understand why top clubs hire DoFs from within the club, and hire the guys working below the DoF in recruitment from outside the club utilising headhunting firms, which both Rangnick and Murtough have used.