It Would Have Ended All the Squabbling
Coventry City’s long-running battle for the future of the Ricoh Arena looked to have taken a dramatic twist on May 20th, when images trending on Twitter appearing to show the Arena on fire.
.@Muse rehearsals at Coventry's Ricoh Arena spark fire concerns after picture is tweeted http://t.co/Dvdl59T41V PIC: pic.twitter.com/TrHBmJ0kRn
— BBC News England (@BBCEngland) May 21, 2013
It turned out that it was just pyrotechnics ahead of a Muse concert planned for the following evening. Given the long-running and uncompromising battles for ownership and rent payment, it wouldn’t have been totally surprising if someone had decided arson was the ideal solution.
Walsall’s Bescott Stadium has been suggested as the best alternative home for Coventry’s matches, but understandably, not all Walsall fans are in favour, with fears over the condition of the pitch being cited by the local paper. In addition, Walsall chairman Jeff Bonser isn’t universally popular at the Bescot, while 11,000 Coventry fans have signed a petition declaring themselves against the move. So there are a few obstacles to be ironed out.
Paul Appleton, joint-administrator, has set a deadline for sale of Coventry City, wanting the fantastically named American bidder Preston Haskell IV to submit an offer by the end of May. Evidently, there’s at least an appetite for a quick solution to the Coventry City mess, which has already dragged on for over a year.
Yeovil and Bradford Promoted
Despite the bile-inducing events at Coventry, the big news stories this past fortnight in Leagues One and Two were both on the field, and they were both positive enough to restore faith in the romantic side of the game.
Bradford’s League Two final was first. They’d ended the season remarkably well just to earn the right to take part in the game. The Bantams had fallen outside of the play-offs while chasing League Cup success, and after a heavy defeat to Exeter on March 16th, were 10 points adrift of seventh with only nine games remaining. But they closed the gap, and with the lack of pressure on them as latecomers, could even be described as underdogs.
Bradford City have been in slow decay for over a decade, not helped by heavy spending on wages when they were in the Premier League, or appointing Bryan Robson as manager. The decade since the Premiership has been one of slow decay – this season, Parkinson’s first full year in charge, is the first year since 1999-2000 (the year of the dramatic last day win over Liverpool) when Bradford finished more than one place higher on the league ladder than the previous season.
In the final, Bradford raced into a 3-0 lead within half an hour with James Hanson and Nakhi Wells, key parts of their successes this season, grabbing a goal each. It’s been an amazing season for Bradford – after five years in League Two and 12 years of decay, making the play-offs would have been sign of progress in itself. Their cup glories seemed to be their emotional high for the season, but there was another truly remarkable twist, the kind of ending more in keeping with Roy of the Rovers than the modern football that makes cynics of almost every fan.
The following day a different, lesser football fairytale took place, when Yeovil defeated Brentford.
A year and a half ago, Yeovil were in the League One relegation zone, and manager Terry Skiverton stepped aside to allow Gary Johnson, who’d recently left Northampton by mutual consent, to return. With Skiverton staying on as his assistant and the aid of a series of loans, Yeovil pulled away from danger, finishing 11 points above relegation. Johnson had initially guided Yeovil from the Conference to League One during his first spell in charge – if last season’s survival had been the totality of Johnson’s second spell, it would have been a pretty decent second coming. But, inspired to a large extent by the relationship between experienced goalscorer James Hayter and his young Irish protégé Paddy Madden they’ve climbed even higher, getting into the play-offs ahead of Coventry, MK Dons and Preston then beaten Sheffield United and Brentford to climb into the Championship. It’ll be their first ever season at that level, just 11 years after first entering the Football League. While not as dramatic as Bradford’s, Yeovil’s success is pretty remarkable in itself.
Dickov? Paul Dickov?
Following their promotion to the Championship, dramatic title win included, Doncaster Rovers caretaker manager Brian Flynn announced his decision to step back, preferring to act in a development role at the club. The man appointed as Flynn’s replacement was linked with the club for a few weeks before the appointment was officially announced, but the official word is still surprising – former Oldham manager Paul Dickov.
Despite the cup exploits at the start of this year, beating Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, and drawing with Everton, Dickov doesn’t seem to have had strong support from the fans. Rumours suggested the reason for Dickov’s coaching staff being sacked in January was that Dickov was to follow shortly, before the cup successes then gave him a stay of execution. Dickov later resigned after the draw with Everton but before the replay, with Oldham locked in a relegation battle. They were in the relegation zone when Dickov walked. Under caretaker manager Tony Phillisirk, Athletic won their first three games after Dickov, with Lee Johnson completing the escape.
His successes shouldn’t entirely be written off, but Dickov has the worst record in terms of points gained of any Oldham manager to get past 100 matches in charge. That weeds out the awful managers, but it still looks odd that Dickov has been appointed to a club who’ll be a division higher, presumably locked in a similar relegation battle to the one Oldham were losing under him. Outside definitions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ managers are rarely as simple as reputations suggest, but it does seem that Doncaster have made the appointment based on Dickov’s reputation as a player, or having their eye drawn by successes in a handful of eye-catching matches rather than the whole.
Super Cooper, Hopefully
Another recent managerial appointment was that of Colin Cooper – who left his role as Middlesbrough’s U18 manager to be appointed as Hartlepool United manager. As a Hartlepool fan, I’ve discussed my mixed feelings on John Hughes’ departure previously (in essence, he organised the team and built a fighting spirit, but there’d been reasons to doubt his long-term vision), but Cooper seems a fairly smart choice. Formerly assistant manager at both Middlesbrough and Bradford City (and caretaker manager at both), he’s respected as a coach, having held his key position in an impressive academy for two years.
Hartlepool United have been on a downward spiral with two successive seasons of poor results, particularly at home. This season Hartlepool won nine games in total, five at home; although 14 were won the year before, only six were at home. It’s led to a sense of jadedness around the club – although both Cooper and his assistant manager Craig Hignett are in their forties, both have an air of youthful energy – which they’ll need to drill into the team.
Sheffield United Search
Following Danny Wilson’s sacking with five league games remaining, Sheffield United have yet to appoint a permanent replacement. Former captain Chris Morgan (a coach under Wilson) was in charge of the remaining league games and the play-offs. Another former Sheffield United centre half, Stuart McCall had been heavily linked, but pulled out of talks, and MK Dons boss Karl Robinson has publically ruled himself out. Given that Wilson had to make large cuts to his budget last season and the intense pressure on Sheffield United to gain promotion from a division many feel they shouldn’t be in, both men’s reluctance to come in is understandable. McCall in particular was in a similar situation at Bradford, a club where he was held in even higher regard.
Media coverage suggests that both men were on the seven-man shortlist United have publicly discussed, with Morgan the only man to be officially announced as part of the shortlist. Whoever comes in will need the talent to take Sheffield United up, the strength of character to cope with the pressure, and have nowhere better to be. The man who comes in might very well end up being a lesser man than Wilson.
A club without a manager. Courtesy of Richard Barrett-Small
Wolves With Sharp Teeth
An additional problem for the Blades as they seek to appoint a new boss is Wolverhampton Wanderers – in competition for the same talent pool of managers. Wolves fans understandably aren’t happy with their situation, having been relegated two years in a row, with the new boss set to be the fifth permanent manager in a year and a half. But on the positive side, compared to Sheffield United, Wolves don’t have the same types of debts, don’t have the slow build-up of toxic negativity and they still have parachute payments coming in.
Crewe boss Steve Davis, the man who ended the post-Dario Gradi slump at the club, led Alexandra back up into League One, their first promotion after years of decay while blooding talents like Aston Villa’s Ashley Westwood and Manchester United’s Nick Powell, is favourite for the Wolves job.
He interviewed for the Burnley vacancy in October, and despite signing a rolling 18-month contract at the end of the year, the speculation hasn’t gone away.
Actions have already been taken to shape the squad for the next season.
Jody Craddock has retired; after becoming the second top scorer in the SPL while on loan at Hibs, the extension on Leigh Griffiths’ contract has been taken up, while Stephen Hunt, Christophe Berra and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake have all been released. Ebanks-Blake’s release is particularly harsh – though the forward didn’t set the world alight during his time in the Premier League, last year he grabbed 14 goals in 40 league games before breaking his leg in April. The forward has spent five and a half years in the Midlands, where he scored 12 goals in his first half season at the Molineux, and 25 goals in their promotion season. His presence in the Premier League, while not spectacular, was useful. making over 25 appearances in each of Wolves’ three seasons in the top flight.
The actions of the Wolves hierarchy in shaping the squad appear decisive, brutal even. The board now just need to break the habit of the last 18 months and make smart decisions when appointing and backing the boss.
Wolves With A Parachute
In a way, the speed of Wolves’ fall will help them, as they’re set to rake in an astronomical £16 million in parachute payments in League One next season, on top of their naturally superior resources. There is a certain amount of the ‘too big to fail’ principle helping Wolves – the gulf between the Premier League and the Football League is so great, that teams who’ve been in the top flight recently enough to still be receiving parachute payments have to be pretty deeply mismanaged on the financial side to not be one of the richest sides in their division – and this applies to an even greater extent in League One.
That isn’t intended as a criticism of Wolves, more the system that has allowed this to happen. This season Bury, in League One themselves, don’t seem to be run particularly badly but faced a threat to their existence over a sum one sixteenth the amount Wolves will be paid for being a former Premier League team. A division lower, Accrington and Aldershot were among the teams to have cash flow problems, again, without any clear signs of dysfunction. Port Vale and Southend also had problems at that level while Wycombe had to make the sacrifice of shutting down their youth system.
With the increased Premier League TV money, next year the average Championship club will receive 3.5% their Premier League equivalent, and League One and Two clubs significantly less still.
The financial gulf between the Premier League and the rest of English football is a fundamental structural flaw, which parachute payments address in an amazingly superficial manner. There’s enough money in the industry to help the struggling clubs lower down; instead the higher wages paid near the top mean that players have a major incentive to stay on the books of a bigger side rather than dropping down a level.
The continued existence of parachute payments in place of an attempt to more fully redistribute money to the divisions is staggering. If nothing else, the fact that the Football League allowed Swansea, Norwich and Southampton amongst others to build up a head of steam and try out new ideas before reinvigorating the Premier League – a strong Football League is in the Premier League’s own self-interest.
- The cause of as many problems as benefits to the lower leagues. Courtesy of EEIM
Early Summer Moves….
Lee Croft and Matt Smith both look set to move on from Oldham, with Smith reportedly catching the eye of Leeds scouts. Smith grabbed a few key goals for Oldham in the FA Cup, but despite scoring four goals in the Cup (two strikes against both Liverpool and Everton) he scored only six times in League One. Despite being impressively physically imposing on his day, Smith was left on the bench for a significant number of games in the run-in – there still seems a significant gap between the player he is and the player he has the potential to be.
Steve Evans’ newly promoted Rotherham have started their summer signings early again, tying up on-loan left-back Joe Skarz permanently, while Carlisle goalkeeper Adam Collin has signed, despite the presence of a strong keeper in Scott Shearer. Andy Warrington played the majority of last season only to end up being released, but both keepers are too good to spend a lengthy time as back-up at League One level.
The side who look to be this season’s League Two nouveau riche spenders have acted quickly – Fleetwood have added Matty Blair, who has been impressive for York in recent years, and Steven Schumacher and Jeff Hughes, who were regulars in League One with Bury and Notts County this season. Damien Johnson and the eye-catching Steven Gillespie will be allowed to leave. After losing in the FA Cup to Aldershot on December 1st, Micky Mellon was sacked, just seven months after winning the Conference with over 100 points and sitting 6th in League Two. Graham Alexander, highly thought of as a coach when in charge of the youth team at Preston, oversaw a drop to 13th, with a record of 29 points in 26 games - two fewer than his predecessor in six more matches. Alexander’s moved quickly to make some impressive additions, but given the amount of faith shown in Mellon relative to his achievements, he’s going to have to hit the ground running next year.
… And Northampton Broken Up
Clarke Carlisle, the centre half on loan from York for the second half of last season, has retired. Star striker Adebayo Akinfenwa, scorer of 17 goals, has been surprisingly released, and Lee Nicholls, the young keeper on loan from Wigan, will probably not be allowed to return. Chairman David Cardoza has announced the need for cuts, saying that
“We spent far too much this season. Next season it will be less but it won’t be very noticeable because we were carrying two or three big earners who weren’t playing anyway.”
Still, the release of Akinfenwa, seemingly a choice made entirely by the club, will be worrying for fans.
Bury Down to Eight
Elsewhere amongst the teams preparing for next season’s League Two, Bury are down to eight professionals, after the sales of Schumacher and Skarz and several more players being released.
Their financial problems saw them miss out on a Belgian junior international and manager Kevin Blackwell claimed that several players were being paid £200 a week or less. The current arrangement is obviously only temporary with a takeover currently in the works. With over a month before pre-season starts and Blackwell seeming a pretty connected guy, getting in numbers in shouldn’t be a problem.
The new board, expected to complete their takeover this week, have pledged to “support him 100 per cent in his vision” despite leading Bury to relegation. Blackwell has already ‘offered’ to resign when he was told of the club’s financial troubles, so there’s no guarantees he’ll be around to put together the second half of a squad when their financial troubles have been sorted out, but it seems that the choice will be his to make.
He’d be a Sharp Signing for Stanley
One transfer that probably won’t be going through is that Billy Sharp, after scoring 12 goals on loan at Forest from Southampton, probably won’t be spending next season on loan at Accrington Stanley. Of course he’s not, you’re probably yelling, and Neymar won’t be signing for Stoke either. Well Sharp has announced the transfer:
Delighted 2 announce season long loan 2 @asfcofficial & to work 4 my mate @1jamesbeattie deal done by @jlfomnisports pic.twitter.com/K8V9piLTIJ
— billy sharp (@billysharp10) May 27, 2013
There’s been no official contradiction at the time of writing from Southampton or Accrington. It’s almost certainly a prank, but it’s being played pretty deadpan…
What do you think about what I have to say about your club? Are those mentioned under-appreciated or overrated? Did I miss someone or something that should be covered? Spread the word if you enjoyed what you read, or join in by commenting below, or find me on Twitter @Joe_Bloghead
