I should say first off that these thoughts are my own and in no way reflect those of the Bulls News politburo...as far as I know!
I’m no fan of headless-chicken
hiring and firing, and I’ve held off from saying this, but…
The much-vaunted grand projet that’s hinted at every time
Marc Richards says ‘They’re starting to buy in to what it says on our laptops’,
or whatever, is starting to look like the theoretical nonsense it has always has
proved to be in practice, unless the laptops are saying ‘Let’s haemorrhage 1000
fans every home game in setting up not to lose, and then lose anyway’.
Those laptops should have been
shouting ‘Bring a striker in, bring a striker in!’ for weeks. I’ve tried to
subtly suggest it here, and it’s been universally demanded elsewhere. Everyone
understands that it’s difficult, but surely you’d throw money at it to find the
right person, and with a better balance and a few goals thus start to recover
the revenue lost by people staying away from watching a team punting hopeful
balls up to a target man who can’t possibly chase his own knock-downs. Instead,
a midfielder from bottom club Nuneaton was brought in who will possibly never
play again. That’s awful for him, obviously, but it’s not very clever
strategically from us either.
I absolutely don’t want to be
spiteful, and I’m a glass half-full person, but I wonder as much for their sake
as ours whether Richards and Tim Harris are at a club too far, in terms of
their abilities?
I hope in my Bulls News musings
that I’ve tried to relate a balanced opinion since Pete Beadle was sacked,
giving credit where it’s due, and constructive criticism where it’s not, but it
increasingly seems to be the case that the sporadic good performances and
results since that sacking are almost accidental, and not a result of the
tactical mastery of the turquoise cagoules.
I naively suggested in my
preview of Saturday’s match that the gap in quality between us and Brackley had
surely narrowed since the defeat to them away in the league when Beadle took
charge of what turned out to be his final league game as HFC gaffer. It’s now
apparent that we’ve not really progressed at all, and in standing still have lost a management team
generally well thought of in exchange for a group of people who look…very
non-league.
I heard it said this weekend
that Brackley are a strong outfit, and that by inference there was no shame in
such a hopeless Bulls capitulation. If we’ve reached the point where we have to
suck up a home loss against Brackley because, relative to us, they’re a
footballing giant, and I mean no disrespect to a club which attracts 500 people
to its home games, we’re well and truly stuck at this level at best, and ‘that’
song can be put to bed.
Maybe for Tim Harris being
underdogs to Brackley at home is acceptable, given that he came from Tamworth
and before that Redditch, and has never really done much above that sort of
level, and perhaps for him staying safe from relegation in National League
North a la Gloucester City should give cause for celebration. Well, it won’t
here, unless you want to lose another 500 off the gate.
I’ve a suspicion that the management
team have a mentality borne of that background at Tamworth, Redditch etc, and
are a bit shellshocked to be given control of a club with a League 2 fanbase.
It’s not their fault, that’s what they’re used to, but if the board thought
they could somehow get lucky with a cut-price option they’ve now been disabused
of that notion, and are losing thousands of pounds every home match as a result
of alienating the best part of a thousand people who have understandably chosen
to do something else with their Saturday afternoons, like cutting their toenails.
There’s a distinct Simon Davey
feeling about this. I have to admit that at the time I thought he was a progressive
appointment, and although he quite rapidly turned out to be the wrong fit he was
at least turfed out quite quickly. When Tim Harris and then Marc Richards were
appointed (and I'd gently and humbly suggest that we’re being scandalously patronised as
idiots in being told that the latter appointment was anything other than an act
of utter nepotism rather than ‘Woah he was the outstanding candidate’), the
supporters were as stitched up as ever they were in following HUFC. A near universal
feeling of anti-climax has, it has to be said, been vindicated. This feels like
a Simon Davey ‘wrong fit’. I personally think that this club could do a good
deal better, and despite saying last week that we’d be fine in terms of safety
I don’t really think the same now, particularly after FCUM’s win on Saturday.
We may have been in the same situation
if the board had stuck with Peter Beadle, but I very much doubt it. The bounce
effect often experienced when bringing a new manager in (or in this case a whole
cavalcade of people doing goodness knows what) didn’t happen, and given the CVs
involved it’s hardly surprising.
A big mistake’s been made, but
it’s not too late to rectify it, although I suspect egos and pride may get in
the way, and that’s a shame. It’ll be much more of a shame if it results in
relegation.
Anything other than a win, and
a convincing one at that, on Saturday, and egos and pride can go hang. It’ll be
time to bring someone capable in.
COYW