IT’LL NEVER work, we all sneer when a clueless chairman goes against the game’s merry-go-round grain in appointing his new manager.
It can be a returning hero, a player-manager, joint-bosses or Johnny Foreigner. We’ll find a reason to find fault with every single one, but when it comes to appointing a gaffer, there is no single candidate specification that suits every club – you only have to look at Non-League‘s current tables to see that.
How many times have you heard the phrase ‘You should never go back’ in relation to Chris Kinnear’s recent return to Dover Athletic?
In his previous ten-year spell as Whites manager, he took them up to the top tier of Non-League and only left because he had to look after his kids after splitting from his wife.
OK, there is still plenty of time for it to go wrong and prove the clichés right. But up the A2 and M2 at Dartford, Tony Burman will tell him that the grass can still be green at an old club, while Liam Watson continues to perform miracles in his second spell at Southport.
Pressures
Kinnear has started well enough. Dover had lost five games in a row under Nicky Forster, but followed up an expected win over Truro City in the old boy’s homecoming by ending Welling United‘s record-breaking 12-game winning sequence at the top of Blue Square Bet South last week.
And of course, what – if Jamie Day excuses the objectification – do the second-placed Wings have in charge? A seemingly super-human Jack-of-all-trades who has performed miracles in his three seasons at Park View Road.
There’s been much recent talk about the player-boss being a dying breed, with commentators pointing out that only Edgar Davids and Gareth Ainsworth are currently performing both roles in the Football League at basement boys Barnet and Wycombe, the pressures of both proving too much for anyone hoping to emulate the likes of Kenny Dalglish in his first spell at Liverpool.
But in the BSB South alone we have Day in second spot and Salisbury’s Darrell Clarke at the top, while Andy Morrell’s easy transition into management over the past 17 months at Wrexham while still leading their line could lead to their return to the Football League.
Let’s not also forget that Jay Saunders has Maidstone United top of Ryman One South, while Sean Ray masterminded Hastings United’s run to the FA Cup third round from the heart of their defence.
Hands up everyone who thought Stockport County were off their rocker by going for Darije Kalezic, when surely they had to go for someone with Conference experience?
They’ve tried a big-name who knows English football, though not necessarily the division, in Didi Hamman and failed.
They’ve gone for the returning club legend in Jim Gannon and were no further on.
Reminder
Then they try an unknown Bosnian who’s worked most recently in Holland and Belgium, and admittedly, like swallows and summer, two wins does not a season make.
But thanks to the victories over Nuneaton and Lincoln in his first three matches, the Hatters are already six points closer to staying in a division that other supposed managerial no-no – the co-operative – hope not to be in next year, with Rob Scott and Paul Hurst’s Grimsby top and primed for a League return.
That joint-management lark is something I’ll be hearing a lot about this afternoon when I meet up with a group of my old Bracknell Town team-mates for a few beers. Jon Underwood and Neil Baker, my old central defensive partners, have their Godalming Town side top of Southern League Central.
They’ll be reminding me that next season the Gs could be playing Step 3 football for the first time in their 42-year history – and also of what I told them when they were appointed: “It’ll never work!”
