A Reminder of Laurie Dalrymple (Harlequins CEO) lowlights
I thought it might be good to remind and inform people of just how incompetently the Harlequins CEO, Laurie Dalrymple, has been running the club in recent years
In March 2025, DOR Billy Millard announces he will be leaving the club at the end of the season having helped lead the club to Prem title. Months go by and people in this forum and beyond are questioning why a replacement hasn't been announced and wonder who is in charge of recruitment with no DOR. The club eventually announce a de-facto replacement in Andrew Sanger as General Manager two weeks before the start of the following season. The DOR position technically remains vacant to this day over a season later
Simultaneously, the club allow Head Coach, Danny Wilson, to complete a secondment with Wales in the off-season at the end of 204/25 with the intention of returning to the club. Again, nobody is sure who is in charge of recruitment or training as the club has no Head Coach or DOR in-post during this period. Wilson then resigns 2 weeks before the start of the season to join Wales. There is no plan in place to replace him before the start of the season so Jason Gilmore is chosen ahead of the fan favourite Nick Evans.
The club goes on to a horrific season finishing 9th in 2025/26 still with no DOR but Gilmore keeps his job for consistency reasons and Dalrymple re-assures fans the club will do better for this season and the club will conduct a 'WORLDWIDE SEARCH' for a new Head Coach
In the off-season just gone, Quins sign no forwards of note (save for James Dunn), their biggest area of weakness which everyone and their mother can see, and instead sign George Furbank, a quality player but not in an area that Quins are particularly weak (Tyrone Green, Jamie Benson and Marcus Smith covering all come to mind)
Dalrymple also concludes that after completing a 'WORLDWIDE SEARCH' the best option is the bloke who's already in the building and the best DOR that can be found is Robbie Deans. Sounds good on the surface. Robbie Deans is an experienced coach who enjoyed success with the Wallabies. That is until you realise he will only be with Quins for 12 weeks of the season with the rest being conducted via Zoom. I wish this was a joke
We fast forward to now where Quins have had another horrific start the season where the same consistents seem to a CEO who may as well be replaced by my nan, a Head Coach who is a nice bloke very clearly out of his depth, no DOR and a coach who won't even coach the club for most of the year
Big Game and Big Summer Kick Off attendances have dropped off a cliff as a result and we have been niled three times in the past year and half, which hadn't happened once in the 10 years prior to that
Oh yeah and we're spending up to the salary cap and consistently have among the worst injury records of any Prem team every season which is never investigated
I could throw in that couple of players *cough cough Jack Walker* have been stealing a living for at least 3 seasons now blocking the pathway for younger hookers with more potential but it would be tough to say that's exclusively Laurie's fault
I saw multiple posts on here before the start of last season highlighting that we are in trouble because we didn't have a DOR and Head Coach in charge 2 weeks before the start of the season. If I and the fans on here, with no true insider knowledge, can spot that then what on earth is Laurie Dalrymple doing on a day-to-day basis?
I'm keen to hear other people's thoughts but I'm astonished how it could get much worse from here with no change at the top. Perhaps Laurie can bankrupt the club next and free up my weekly trips to the Stoop for something less torturous?