With Graham Barlett the club's commercial director leaving in March and now Comolli leaving, it looks strongly as though there is a major rejigging going on. If Ayre was to replace Bartlett and go back to his previous role this would free up the space as 'managing director' or possibly lead to a C.E.O. Obviously if FSG are to stick to their model, as Werner claimed publicly last week Comolli would need replacing too. However, the remits for the roles may change, especially if we do get a C.E.O.
One of the matters that everyone, us fans and the media alike, seem to have let slip from our thoughts when discussing Comolli leaving is the 'racism row'. As the above NY Times article states we've won just 3 of 14 league games in 2012. Basically since the row. It was turned into the biggest football story around and engulfed the entire club for a period of 2-3 months. The article also shows the far reaching effects of a controversial bad news story.
It could be argued that our failure as a club to successfully stave off the attention it generated was just as significant a factor in destabilising our season as our signings or tactics and has prompted an urgent reshuffle.
Having no one above Kenny publicly handling this affair may well have led to buck passing and confusion behind the scenes and something which slapped FSG in the face as an obvious need for a major change. Maybe Comolli was asked to step up, maybe Ayre was, maybe neither wanted to or was capable of, maybe they blamed each other. FSG have had a look at it and decided that they need a new man and also want to keep Ayre more than Comolli as the pair cannot work together anymore.
It strikes me that just as the media only peddled one sellable angle for the 'racism row' they are now only interested in feeding us one angle for this story too- namely the transfer 'failings'. Not saying there are not questions to be asked about our signings, of course there are, but just that there is possibly more depth to the whole affair.
