I cannot be the only one connected with Wanderers who is screaming out for some stability this season.
It seems an eternity since people complained about mid-table obscurity in the Premier League under Gary Megson or Owen Coyle, yearning for some excitement at one end or the other.
But for a little flicker of excitement at the start of the Dougie Freedman and Neil Lennon reigns, it has been nothing but doom, gloom and pessimism. No wonder John McGinlay calls me the Grim Reaper – I never have anything positive to write about.
That mentality spreads everywhere, through the fans, the players, the staff, and it is very hard to shift.
Somewhere, though, someone will have to draw a line in the sand and say: “That’s enough.” And I think that man will be Phil Parkinson.
Nothing would please me more than seeing Wanderers bounce back to the Championship at the first attempt but the pragmatist in me suggests it will not be as easy as all that.
Parkinson has inherited an imbalanced squad in every conceivable way. Financially the wage structure is top-heavy, there are huge positional gaps to be filled and from a psychological standpoint the new manager needs to add some character to the dressing room which has been lacking for some time.
Around January last season I felt Wanderers gave up. The takeover had rumbled on forever, financially things were in a mess, and though their words betrayed the looks on their faces I believe Lennon, his staff and his players knew relegation was on the cards.
There was never going to be a Rotherham-style fight-back in the last few months of the campaign. Jimmy Phillips and Peter Reid did everything they could to hold things together – both deserving credit for falling on their sword and sacrificing some of their own reputation for helping the club they love – but it was a losing battle from the start.
Anger and frustration grew among the supporters as the wait for a manager stretched on into the summer. The owners feel a little aggrieved that I described it as 12 weeks spent in limbo, as they had installed Phillips and Reid, but the steadiness offered by a permanent appointment was what the club was crying out for. I am sure everyone can see the difference now.
Steadily, Dean Holdsworth and Ken Anderson are gaining the confidence of supporters and I hope that too continues. What would it be like to work around a football club where the fans regularly hear the thoughts and views of the club’s ownership – and in some cases, even agree?
There is a lot of hard work ahead before the wrongs of the past are corrected. My gut feeling is that it will take longer than this season to get the club back on an even financial keel and give Parkinson the chance to build a team which can get out of this division. Again, I would happily stand corrected in May.
For me, the most important thing for Wanderers to do this season is get back to being a football club again.
I have really enjoyed writing a series of articles for Monday's papers which look back at the days spent by the club in the ‘wilderness’ of the third and fourth tier. There have only been 12 years at this level, but each provides a really important history lesson.
Look at how Jimmy Armfield reconstructed the team with home-grown youngsters in 1971/72, or how financial circumstances forced John McGovern to do the same in 1982/84.
The club has taken unpalatable decisions, like Normid, to save itself from oblivion and though he will never quite get the credit, it is interesting to revisit Phil Neal’s role in guiding Wanderers back in the right direction and how it paved the way for the White Hot era and Bruce Rioch.
In 30 years, how will Parkinson’s job be viewed in the context of Wanderers’ history?
My first impressions of him are of a straight-forward, driven character who isn’t looking to make headlines by throwing out soundbites, but in how he progresses his team.
He seems the reliable type who can change things for the better. That may take time – but Wanderers have spent much of the last decade in a rush to rediscover former glories and look where that got them.
Source
It seems an eternity since people complained about mid-table obscurity in the Premier League under Gary Megson or Owen Coyle, yearning for some excitement at one end or the other.
But for a little flicker of excitement at the start of the Dougie Freedman and Neil Lennon reigns, it has been nothing but doom, gloom and pessimism. No wonder John McGinlay calls me the Grim Reaper – I never have anything positive to write about.
That mentality spreads everywhere, through the fans, the players, the staff, and it is very hard to shift.
Somewhere, though, someone will have to draw a line in the sand and say: “That’s enough.” And I think that man will be Phil Parkinson.
Nothing would please me more than seeing Wanderers bounce back to the Championship at the first attempt but the pragmatist in me suggests it will not be as easy as all that.
Parkinson has inherited an imbalanced squad in every conceivable way. Financially the wage structure is top-heavy, there are huge positional gaps to be filled and from a psychological standpoint the new manager needs to add some character to the dressing room which has been lacking for some time.
Around January last season I felt Wanderers gave up. The takeover had rumbled on forever, financially things were in a mess, and though their words betrayed the looks on their faces I believe Lennon, his staff and his players knew relegation was on the cards.
There was never going to be a Rotherham-style fight-back in the last few months of the campaign. Jimmy Phillips and Peter Reid did everything they could to hold things together – both deserving credit for falling on their sword and sacrificing some of their own reputation for helping the club they love – but it was a losing battle from the start.
Anger and frustration grew among the supporters as the wait for a manager stretched on into the summer. The owners feel a little aggrieved that I described it as 12 weeks spent in limbo, as they had installed Phillips and Reid, but the steadiness offered by a permanent appointment was what the club was crying out for. I am sure everyone can see the difference now.
Steadily, Dean Holdsworth and Ken Anderson are gaining the confidence of supporters and I hope that too continues. What would it be like to work around a football club where the fans regularly hear the thoughts and views of the club’s ownership – and in some cases, even agree?
There is a lot of hard work ahead before the wrongs of the past are corrected. My gut feeling is that it will take longer than this season to get the club back on an even financial keel and give Parkinson the chance to build a team which can get out of this division. Again, I would happily stand corrected in May.
For me, the most important thing for Wanderers to do this season is get back to being a football club again.
I have really enjoyed writing a series of articles for Monday's papers which look back at the days spent by the club in the ‘wilderness’ of the third and fourth tier. There have only been 12 years at this level, but each provides a really important history lesson.
Look at how Jimmy Armfield reconstructed the team with home-grown youngsters in 1971/72, or how financial circumstances forced John McGovern to do the same in 1982/84.
The club has taken unpalatable decisions, like Normid, to save itself from oblivion and though he will never quite get the credit, it is interesting to revisit Phil Neal’s role in guiding Wanderers back in the right direction and how it paved the way for the White Hot era and Bruce Rioch.
In 30 years, how will Parkinson’s job be viewed in the context of Wanderers’ history?
My first impressions of him are of a straight-forward, driven character who isn’t looking to make headlines by throwing out soundbites, but in how he progresses his team.
He seems the reliable type who can change things for the better. That may take time – but Wanderers have spent much of the last decade in a rush to rediscover former glories and look where that got them.
Source