Interesting Read

[Wickford_Shrimp]

My club, Southend United, has been in the public eye for all the wrong reasons lately what with the possibility of administration. My question is how much does the manager of a club know about the financial goings on at a club and how much would that affect their choice to stay at a club?
Matt Adlington, England

He would be told there is no money - not that the club owed the taxman £2m!

But of course, in cases like Southend, the manager will have an idea of what is going on and obviously it has a big effect on his team - look at Steve Tilson's side there. Up until two years ago, they had a really experienced - and good - squad and been at the top end of League One or even in the Championship. That's not the case now.

It's actually a slight surprise to me that Steve hasn't left before now, when they were doing well - he probably could have done.

He might think he should have gone now because, through no real fault of his own, his team have become one of the potential strugglers in League One. They were badly beaten by Gillingham too in the FA Cup on Saturday which is not going to do their cause any good.

Steve's stock was very very high when he was building Southend up so it will be interesting now to see how they treat him now the boot is on the other foot.

This should be payback time. He stuck with them; now things are not going so well, they should stick with him and give him the chance to start again - he has certainly earned that.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8349345.stm

 

[haveaguiness]

Just read that and was about to post an article, because it got me thinking whether Steve Claridge actually keeps up to date with football or whether he gives all of his "expert" opinions on the performance of the previous match.

How are we one of the potential strugglers in league one? We are currently sitting 4 points outside the playoffs, have a very young and talented squad. He says we had an experienced team, well yes we did, but then most of them retired or were passed it and what Tilson has done is bring in young players that are willing to help build back up what we had 2 or 3 seasons ago. Looking back i'm actually glad we don't have a lot of money to spend (although some would be nice) because that is really the only thing you could say Tilly has wasted over the time he has been here. The big money players have never performed, yet the players we bring in for free like Granty, or on the cheap like Barnard have shown there is always a bargain.

Steve Claridge is useless on that show and to be honest it should just be renamed the "Newcastle and Leeds show (with some goals from some other teams that we can't be assed to talk about or research)".

 

[BrettieAngell]

Well we have stuck with him!

What is he now 4th longest serving manager?

 

[ShrimperChef]

Typical Steve Claridge statement, 'It's actually a slight surprise to me that Steve hasn't left before now, when they were doing well - he probably could have done.' why would he want to leave? He might if ron say no more signing this season! but maybe he like the challanges he has with us?

'He might think he should have gone now because, through no real fault of his own, his team have become one of the potential strugglers in League One. They were badly beaten by Gillingham too in the FA Cup on Saturday which is not going to do their cause any good.' the fa cup game was a bad result, but look at the team he had to put out, i dont think we will struggle if we keep hold of barney till the end of the season.
'Steve's stock was very very high when he was building Southend up so it will be interesting now to see how they treat him now the boot is on the other foot.' Was very high till he made mistakes on team selection and buying the wrong players to keep us in the championship!

Dont get me wrong, tilson is the best manager for us and I hope he is here for many a year to come.

 

[seany t]

This should be payback time. He stuck with them; now things are not going so well, they should stick with him and give him the chance to start again - he has certainly earned that.

One of the best things Ron has ever done is extend Tilly's contract at a time when the team were struggling as a sign of belief and intent in the guy, so this statement seems a bit odd.

It's primarily the reason why I still give Ron the benefit of the doubt over so many issues of late.

 

[Pubey]

Could you amend the title of the thread to "warning, contains Steve Claridge" so that people don't have to suffer reading that drivel!

 

[David Essex]

Steve Clarridge...hardly an expert....his analysis based on the last performance where we fielded players out of position and a mix of youth...Ron stood by Tilly back in the Championship now Tilly is standing by us.....rebuilding is what its all about next year maybe a team to challenge the likes of Ipswich !

 

[Ron Manager]

I don't think Steve Claridge's managerial record makes him qualified to comment on Tilson, however that's the media for you. If someone is good enough to do a better job themselves then they'd be a manager, not working as a pundit.

However I'd support much of what he said in that answer -

his team have become one of the potential strugglers in League One - not one of the strugglers but one of the potential strugglers. Which we are, look at the squad..we are potentially a struggler in this league. I don't think we will be, mainly due to Tilly, but the potential is there.

They were badly beaten by Gillingham too in the FA Cup on Saturday which is not going to do their cause any good. - To be fair it won't have done us any good. A decent cup run would have boosted confidence and potentially brought in some much needed cash which could have boosted our playing stocks. In the circumstances it was probably inevitable and not something you can blame on Tilly, but to be fair to Claridge he didn't say it was the manager's fault.

and finally

This should be payback time. He stuck with them; now things are not going so well, they should stick with him and give him the chance to start again - he has certainly earned that. - Could anyone actually argue with that? 100% accurate in my opinion...and exactly what I think will happen.

So before we get on our high horses how about we actually read what he's written and judge it rationally? I think what he's written is correct. It's not going to win any Pulitzer Prizes and basically stating the bleeding obvious, but correct all the same.

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

Very true, potential strugglers, yes. Everyone on here seems so happy that we are 4 points off the play-offs, and don't get me wrong I am delighted, however the league is so tight, we are only 6 points off relegation.

We have a tricky looking away game at Yeovil this week, then a very tough home game against an in-form MK Dons, who we have never ever beaten.

If we don't win at least one of those 2 and only pick up a point or worse, we will probably slip to about 16th in the table 3 or 4 points off the bottom.

With the current squad, it would be a Tilly masterstoke if we aren't stuggling soon.

However, if the club had, as promised, given a full statement about the current situation, we may be looking forward to a couple of new players this week, but nobody knows. :unsure:

 

[DTS]

Just sums up my feelings that Steve Claridge is a total idiot and knows nothing about football.

 

[Hooly]

I agree with Libertine, which will annoy him immensely. :clap:

You may not like Claridge or think he's qualified to comment, but I don't see much wrong with what he said.

- We had a better side than we have now, that's simply fact
- Clubs have approached RM about ST, we know that as Ron's told us he's said **** off.
- Who knows if ST is now regretting not going for one of those jobs? If my company had been on the verge of administration & I'd not been allowed the chance of a decent job a few months before I might think a bit ruefully over the past few weeks, that's all he's saying. It happened to me last year in a slightly different way via redundancy & a boss who was economical with the truth & I know how I felt.
- Of course we are "potential" strugglers. We still have no money, we still have no squad. Yes we have a team which has performed well in spite of everything but last weekend showed what happens if you can't put out a full 1st team & with just 2 bodies out we can't.
- What's wrong with him saying that it's time for the club to stand by Tilly. More importantly "the chance" they need to give him is to actually build a squad back up as without that the previous "strugglers" point is more likely.

He may not be everyones idea of an expert, but I can't disagree with what he said.

 

[Ron Manager]

I agree with Libertine, which will annoy him immensely. :clap:

Very annoyed!

;)