A LOT of people were surprised when Steve Burr walked into one of Aggborough’s suites to be unveiled by Kidderminster four years ago next week.
I wasn’t, because I knew then-chairman Barry Norgrove had been haggling with Stalybridge counterpart Rob Gorski for a while over the £30,000 compensation the Monaco-based businessman wanted if Burr was to replace Mark Yates.
Equally, Tuesday’s announcement of the England C No.2’s exit shocked many in Non-League. Again, not me. I’ve had an uneasy feeling about his future there since I watched his team at Barnet on November 2 – unlike Burr. He was at Burton v Morecambe.
The reason, which is well-documented, was because he’d expressed a desire to speak to Forest Green Rovers about their vacancy, and would be meeting them on the following Monday.
For me, it was the strangest decision to prevent Burr being with his team that day – and there was probably blame attached to both parties.
Unnerved
The manager’s agents had undoubtedly been pushing his name in Nailsworth, and Kiddy chairman Mark Serrell wasn’t happy with the way it was being engineered. But with his manager under contract, the Rovers approach have been rejected.
Instead, a club statement appeared the day before the Barnet game saying Burr had been granted permission. He had been told not to travel to The Hive, where they lost 1-0.
If you’re selling your star player in January, as Kiddy are with Joe Lolley, you don’t stop him playing through December. And let’s not be mistaken, this was a potential sale; there was a six-figure fee for Burr that Kiddy would gladly have banked.
It was always going to be difficult when he went back, with some players who thought they might get a chance under a new manager having their chins on the floor again.
Harriers’ results have certainly suffered. They were second then, but took just ten points from the next eight games to drop to seventh after the 6-0 hammering at Luton, although they were well in that game at 2-0 when Chey Dunkley was sent off.
That run has been against a backdrop of added uncertainty, however, with Serrell having courted Jed McCrory and the ex-Swindon chairman – officially offering only advice – spending several weeks working on Harriers’ behalf.
No-one would have batted an eyelid if Serrell had sacked Burr ten games into last season when his team hadn’t won a game.
The chairman deserves credit for sticking by him then, and the recovery Harriers made to push Mansfield all the way to the final seconds of the season in the race for the title was the stuff of legend.
With that on his CV, not to mention two sixth-placed finishes and titles with Hucknall and Northwich, Burr would understandably question why he would have McCrory and his colleague Paul West – the ex-Evesham boss – question tactics, formations and recruitment.
Then there was the uncertainty of having main striker Michael Gash touted to Newport for £25,000 without Burr’s knowledge.
Word was that Kiddy were looking to offload and trim a players’ wage bill of around £600,000. It’s the highest Burr has had and a third higher than he had to play with in 2010. But gates had gone up from an average of 1,338 then to 2,197 last term, not including 6,202 at the Wrexham play-off, and there was the £300,000 Jamille Matt fee, too.
McCrory and West are off the scene now, and have been since a fortnight ago when the Gash situation emerged. There is no suggestion that either was trying to undermine Burr, but a manager can understandably become unnerved by perceived interference and his relationship with Serrell had deteriorated over some time.
Bizarre
The only thing that surprised me about Burr’s exit was the manner and the timing, three days after holding League One Peterborough.
I thought he might have walked, but sacking a manager who the fans love, who plays entertaining football and whose team has been near the top of the division all season, and were out of the play-off places only on goal difference, seems bizarre.
Serrell stated that Harriers’ aim is to win promotion this season, but Burr wasn’t the man to achieve that.
Even new boss Andy Thorn can’t believe his luck at landing such a swift appointment with a club still in a great position, admitting himself: “The previous manager has done a fantastic job.”
Good luck to him. He had a top playing career and has been scouting for Roy Hodgson recently. But if you offered me a man with no previous or recent Conference experience (Hamann and Taylor, anyone?) and a relegation in his only season as a manager, or one who played open, free-flowing football with 13 years’ primarily positive experience at this level, I’d have stuck.
Even Serrell admits it’s a “gamble”. Time will tell if the twist brings triumph.
