After the desperately poor show at Darlington, caretaker manager Paul Simpson has not been short of advice, well meant most of it but not particularly well thought-out. The main thrust of what has been said is that we should rip our squad to pieces and start again. The reasons for this include the fact that these players are Collins's signings, that they form cliques, drink too much, wear white boots (!) and don't care enough. If the predictions come true, we are heading for something akin to Armageddon. Well....I don't think that's necessarily going to happen. There's been a lot of talk about managers who can make a silk's purse out of a sow's ear and the like - well I would rate this squad significantly stronger than the one with which Ian Atkins kicked off the 2000-01 season - the man hardly had two brass farthings to rub together. Yet that team was fashioned steadily over the season with shrewd and shoestring acquisitions and could have gone on to be mid-table the following year had IA been allowed to bring in 2 or 3 more faces. This squad can surely improve out of sight with the right man in charge. No time for a revolution methinks. I can easily imagine Glennon, Murphy, Raven, Summerbell and Foran forming the backbone of a promotion squad. McDonagh, Andrews, Kelly, Baldacchino, Rundle, McGill and Farrell are all capable of significant improvement as they are young - in 2 years time this team could be championship material, with the right man behind them. Hartlepool were in a similar position in '99 - they made 3 play off semis and then went straight up. Got rid of Beardsley and brought in youth. Worked for them. Had a good man in charge in Chris Turner. How many of their fans thought the class of '99 would be good enough? Not many I'd wager! Two weeks ago we had a major problem and a big decision was made. There was a significant departure from the club. As the manager's the one who's gone I think it's fair to say we know where we thought the problem was. Now's not the time to get rid of half the squad too - such drastic surgery could well spell disaster. We need to identify the strongest XI and play them week in, week out and let's see if a few results don't start coming our way, eh? We haven't been settled enough for the past two seasons due to a number of factors. Now we have an opportunity to be settled and the fans are calling for wholesale changes? Not the way I see it at all. The fact is we've spent huge money by Division Three standards over the past 12 months or so. We can't go on doing so and wheeling and dealing will be difficult unless there are a lot of buyers out there. I don't think there are in today's financial climate. In the meantime we have a good squad of 25-odd players a lot of whom have played Div 1/Div 2 standard in recent years. They should be able to cope in Div 3, don't you think? Slagging them off for 3 or 4 bad displays is one thing but then using this as justification for 'getting rid' is ridiculous. Knee-jerk reactions? Now that's what I would call knee-jerk!! There are still 40 games for a new manager to make a heck of a difference. Plymouth chalked up 100 points 2 years ago, after losing 3 of their first 4 matches. Long way to go and we're not doomed by any means. As for the problem of finding a new boss - well we don't have a bad one in the making in Simpson. He may not be the right man for the current job in hand, but I suspect he'll develop into a more than useful boss one day. There will be no shortage of candidates because there never will be when a vacancy arises at a league club. Mick Wadsworth, Steve Cotterill, Nigel Clough, Shaun Teale, Brian Little, Kelham O'Hanlon - they've all been linked, inevitably. I would urge a bit of restraint in the rush to appoint a new man and hope the Board think this one through thoroughly as the club's future wellbeing is at stake. Make a sound judgement and back the man chosen with the same vigour shown to his predecessor. Bearing in mind that our players can do much better than some people seem to think, all is certainly not lost. Al |
