Sporting director Stuart Webber has spoken to club channels about a variety of topics. You can read the full transcript below:
Q: So Stuart, it’s not been the best start to the season on the pitch. Could you tell us your feelings and emotions after the first nine matches?
SW: It’s been a challenging start – not completely unexpected. The way the fixtures fell, it was always going to be difficult. That said, we’ve earned the right to be in this league and we should expect some better results. We can’t go into games writing them off as ‘oh, we’ve got no chance in that game.’ There’s no point fighting as hard to get in this league if that’s going to be our mentality. Saturday against Chelsea was unacceptable, and we have to own that. That’s on us as a club and everyone in the club. We’ve not come to this league to be tourists and swapping shirts with other players, we’re here to show we can stay in this league and compete in this league. We’ve invested heavily in the squad and heavily in the infrastructure and heavily in our staff to give us the best opportunity to fight to stay in this league. Now, that doesn’t give us the right to stay in this league because it’s the hardest league in the world, but we know that we can do better. For us now, it’s less talking and more action. We need to back this up and we know we need to put some better performances in.
Q: The club has come under fire from supporters and the media for recent results and performances. Can you give us your reaction to some of the criticism that’s come our way?
SW: When you lose games, you get criticised and that’s a fact in life. For example, after Saturday, I’m not sure what was said but I can guess it was quite unpleasant, and deservedly so. We all deserve whatever we got for that. But where I do struggle is some of the stuff that’s been said about the club that’s just not factually correct: that ‘we haven’t had a go’, ‘we’ve not spent’ - we’re the eleventh highest spenders in Europe. ‘We don’t deserve to be in the Premier League’, I’d say that’s pretty disrespectful to our 22,000 season ticket holders and the history of this club. We’re a founding member of the Premier League back in 1992, we’ve been in European competition, we’ve got a training ground that I’d now argue is in the top ten training grounds in the whole country. We’re got a thriving youth academy, the work we do within CSF (the club’s charity) is outstanding. So, for anyone to say we don’t deserve to be at this level is wrong. For people to say that we’ve given up and that we’ve accepted relegation already, I can’t accept that. Everyone at this club works too hard to accept that. It hurts and I’d heard enough and said that I felt I wanted to come out and say something. I don’t believe in being bullied and sitting in the corner when people throw punches and insults at us. It’s time to fight back. Some of the people and some of the stuff that’s been said is from people who’d never get a job here and they wouldn’t have the ability to work at this level, and would never be able to step on the pitch for this club because they’re not good enough. So, when they’re chucking slang and comments around about our club, they’re ultimately talking about our owners and our fanbase and we can’t sit there and take that – we’ve got to swing back. Ultimately, it’s about getting results on the pitch. If we lose, we’ll keep getting hammered and we’ll feed that narrative - we’ve got to change that. We need to own that. But at the same time, we can’t keep getting beat up, we’ve got to say something.
Q: In terms of our summer recruitment, many new players came into the club. How do you think they’ve settled in?
SW: It’s too early to tell, it’s been a tough start for everyone. It’d be unfair to judge players, some players settle in quicker than others for sure. I think all of them have shown glimpses of what they can be but I also think we need to remember that there are a lot of young players. For example, Josh Sargent is 21, Christos Tzolis is 19, Brandon Williams is 20, Billy Gilmour is 19 – these are young players. They’ll need time, especially the foreign players, it’ll take time for them to adapt into the Premier League which is unforgiving, we know. But that’s our way, and we need to back them. Certainly inside, we are backing them and outside they need patience and support now, not finger pointing. It’s the same as people talking about the head coach position: ‘Does Farke need to go?’, ‘He’s got a game to save his job!’ – what? We’ve got 300 people who work for this organisation and we’ve got 11 players who play every game and squad of 20. We all have to own this and we’re all responsible. This isn’t down to one man, it’s down to everyone from the board right through to the supporters, we can all be better. If anyone says they’ve been perfect this season, then they’ll be lying. We’ve all got to get better. Too many times it’s all about one person and, likewise when you win, it shouldn’t be about one person. We won the league last year with 97 points and Daniel (Farke) quite rightly gets plaudits for that but also we had quite a good team and pretty good staff. Everyone played a part in that success, but likewise now, unfortunately when you’re sat in the head coach chair, you get a lot of stick and flak because you’re a public figure and I understand that. But it’s also not all down to one man when it’s going wrong, we all have to own it. Ultimately, I’m the one who sits at the top of the football side of the business and the buck stops with me. Now’s the time when we need to get behind people, we know we’ve got enough quality to compete at this level. We know we’ve got good staff, a good coach, a great environment, fantastic supporters, great facilities. Now we need to put it all together for sure. We’ve definitely got no excuses on why we can’t be a lot better and competitive. That won’t mean we’ll stay up, but we should certainly have enough to be a lot more competitive than we currently are.
Q: Looking ahead, we’ve only got two points from nine games so far so every match coming up is vitally important. How important at this weekend’s game against Leeds is a positive performance and result from the team but also a positive performance in the stands from the supporters in terms of getting behind the team?
SW: Now is when you need everyone. Listen, we need to put a performance in to encourage the supporters, I get that. That’s on us, that’s not on them. But also, we need the supporters to make this a good atmosphere to play in. We need them. We’re in a difficult moment, let’s not kid ourselves here. At times like this, players need our support. We don’t need the supporters when we’re 4-0 up in a game. They could go home then, we showed that last season in the Championship. We did it with no supporters here because we were just winning every week. We don’t need the fans to get us over the line, but times like Sunday, we do. We’ve got a young team and we’ve got a team that needs help from all corners. The supporters are massive for that. We don’t want to sit here and say we got outsung by 2,500 Leeds fans, because they will come and support their team from the first minute to the last. Out supporters need to do the same, and if at the end they’re not happy with what they’ve seen, not a problem – they can say whatever they need to say, that’s their right and we fully respect that. But support the players, please. They need the fans, and this is a time as a club when you come together. It’s not like: ‘Oh, it’s us and them’. We need to sort this out and the fans can play a huge part in that.