16-08-2018, 11:14
We`ll never know, Blue, but personally I`m inclined to doubt it. I`ve always been a bit sceptical about the official line that MA was approached about the job at the end of the Barnet game; I suspect that he was, in fact, tapped up some time before that. I`m intrigued by the references he has made a few times in interviews to his being at our place for the Newport game last season and what he was he was doing there. Could he have already been offered the job and was getting the feel of the place before deciding? We all know how these things work in football.
I always thought that Tuesday was a potential banana-skin for us and in some ways these 100% records can be more and more of an albatross the longer they go on. It`s always disappointing to lose, but I`m actually as much encouraged as disappointed this time. I listened to the game on Spireites Digital and got the impression that, but for a moment of stupidity on the part of JBW, we would probably have won it. Even down to 10 men, we still weren`t being over-run. So to judge the respective merits of IE and MA as managers on the basis of that game would be unfair, I think. I happen to think that MA has done a pretty decent job to date; I`m confident that - whether or not he gets us back in the EFL next year - he`s stopped our nose-dive down the leagues, he`s got the supporters back on-side and I get the distinct impression that the morale in the dressing-room is 1,000% better than it was last season. And he`s done that in the space of a few games.
Whether IE could have done that so quickly I personally doubt- for the simple reason that he doesn`t yet have the years of (man-) management experience that MA does. I always had great respect for Evo as a player and I hope he goes on to have a great career as a manager, some of it possibly with us. I just think that MA`s experience makes him the better manager for us right now.
I always thought that Tuesday was a potential banana-skin for us and in some ways these 100% records can be more and more of an albatross the longer they go on. It`s always disappointing to lose, but I`m actually as much encouraged as disappointed this time. I listened to the game on Spireites Digital and got the impression that, but for a moment of stupidity on the part of JBW, we would probably have won it. Even down to 10 men, we still weren`t being over-run. So to judge the respective merits of IE and MA as managers on the basis of that game would be unfair, I think. I happen to think that MA has done a pretty decent job to date; I`m confident that - whether or not he gets us back in the EFL next year - he`s stopped our nose-dive down the leagues, he`s got the supporters back on-side and I get the distinct impression that the morale in the dressing-room is 1,000% better than it was last season. And he`s done that in the space of a few games.
Whether IE could have done that so quickly I personally doubt- for the simple reason that he doesn`t yet have the years of (man-) management experience that MA does. I always had great respect for Evo as a player and I hope he goes on to have a great career as a manager, some of it possibly with us. I just think that MA`s experience makes him the better manager for us right now.