Page 14 - All at Sea Fanzine Issue 68

14
g“ etting my club back
HOPEFULLY Ron Martin, the board a centre back playing left mid eld left a
All At Sea Issue 68
of directors and the players will nd
bitter taste in the mouth. The only person who came out of the whole charade with any decorum was Sturrock, who declined the invite to lead the team out and instead spent the day with the fans – I certainly wouldn’t have begrudged him a wry smile at watching the on- eld debacle, and the way we capitulated that season with one win in seven when Brown came in.
The Media Man
“It’s been a long 14-15 months but the media’s been fantastic to me.” Phil Brown on Talksport, 27 March 2013.
Phil Brown being appointed manager drew a fair amount of media attention, given Brown’s status as a former Premier League manager.
However, very little was said about his actual managerial record. He’d had some success, notably with Hull’s promotion to the Premier League, yet he was mostly known for his on- eld team talk. I will de nitely not miss having this conversation:
Generic armchair fan: “who do you support?” Me: “Southend”
Generic armchair fan: “oh. Who’s your manager now?”
Me: “Phil Brown.”
Generic armchair fan: “Phil Brown? The one who...”
Me: “yes. The one who did the teamtalk on the pitch.” <sobs>
And of course there was his media career. During the early years of his tenure he continued to appear regularly on Talksport and 5 Live as a match summariser, a pundit and an all-round banter merchant. It felt at times that managing Southend was an after- thought to his media career, and it took a while for him to start reducing his media appearances and focus more intently on the matter in hand.
However his media career always remained ongoing, with appearances
out what the real me is.” Phil Brown, 25th March 2013.
So there we have it. Phil Brown is no more, paying the price for a terrible run of form which has seen us dragged into a relegation battle for the months ahead. Plenty has been said about how it was the right time for him to go, but that we should be grateful for what he did for the club and how he left us in a better position than when he joined. While the latter is indisputable given the league we’re in, please forgive me for not joining in with these platitudes.
Phil Brown was an egotistical self-centred individual who at times made a laughing stock of the club and at others showed downright disrespect to it, and everyone associated with it, and his only saving grace was us trundling over the promotion line when we’d done almost everything in our power to throw it away. I for one am extremely glad to see the back of him.
The Appointment
“I’m delighted to have been given the opportunity here and it’s a challenge I’m really looking forward to.” Phil Brown, 25th March 2013.
Now it’s safe to say that from the very get-go, I wasn’t Brown’s biggest fan. Obviously I’m not Phil Brown’s biggest fan, because Phil Brown’s biggest fan is of course Phil Brown.
But the events of late March 2013 still haunt me. All the excitement about our rst Wembley cup nal evaporated with that ridiculous, bullet-pointed, gibberish statement sacking Sturrock, appointing Brown but letting Sturrock lead the team out at Wembley which Brown then refused to allow anyway. It was like an episode of Jeremy Kyle (more on that later). It was just an absurd idea and the fact that what should have been a great occasion for us turned into an absolute farce and a 2-0 defeat with