Page 16 - All at Sea Fanzine Issue 68

16 All At Sea Issue 68
committed to your club while the manager goes on TV and says he’d love to manage Bolton. It can’t have been inspiring and it’s no coincidence that the quote about Sunderland was followed by just three wins in 13 games, including eight defeats which subsequently led to his departure. The players had realised that the man leading them didn’t want to be there, and the downward turn in morale, motivation and ultimately form was inevitable.
The Blame Game
“I’ll take the blame for Paul Smith’s display. He hasn’t played for a while and did show signs of being rusty.” Phil Brown, 8th October 2013
Talking of a drop in morale, how happy would you feel at work if every time something went wrong in your team, your manager publicly shifted the blame onto you? And when things went well, they soaked up the praise? It’s got to be pretty soul destroying.
Youngsters getting their rst experience of professional football would have been buzzing, until they read things like “I’m not blaming the young lads, I put them in but one or two got exposed today”. No sentence that begins “I’m not being _______, but...” ever ends well. And if you’re one of those young lads, the next time you play you’re going to be thinking about that. Worrying that you’ll be exposed, worrying about what the manager will say about you if you make a mistake, worrying about whether you’re even good enough at this level.
Managers are supposed to be encouraging. Eric Cantona literally karate kicked a spectator in the chest and Alex Ferguson didn’t criticise him, while Arsene Wenger has made a career out of not seeing his players’ errors and controversies. But Phil just couldn’t help himself whenever there was a microphone in his face.
The Farce Of It All
“We didn’t show them enough respect. I did but the players didn’t.” Phil Brown, 4th November 2017.
Aside from destroying players’ morale and wishing he was anywhere but where he was, there were other moments that made our club a laughing stock.
The above quote about respect was three days after he described a di erent club as his dream job. And other statements gave a real view of the ego of the man, such as “I’m fully to blame for what’s going on. I’m letting them down and they’re letting me down.” Where do you even start with that?! It’s an absolute non-apology apology, he may as well have nished o that answer with hashtag sorry not sorry. He’s a real-life walking, talking and yes, singing (remember his on pitch karaoke at Hull?!), David Brent. (As an aside, according to a Guardian article from 2010, there were 267,000 results from a Google search of “Phil Brown David Brent” – this has now grown to nearly six million, yet I’m still surprised it’s not more)
And let’s not forget the most farcical story of all. The Jeremy Kyle asco. How Jeremy Kyle coming in to do a team talk to the players doesn’t constitute gross misconduct, I will never know. Thank god for Arsenal Fan TV for taking the attention away from us.
The Finale
“I very much believe I can turn things around.” Phil Brown, 13th January 2018.
Ultimately, the run of results and the clear lack of motivation of the players meant Brown’s time was up. Chris Powell’s rst press conference was an absolute breath of fresh air. We’ve now got a manager who really wants to be here, who won’t be distracted by self-created distractions and I really feel like I’ve got my club back again. I wish Chris Powell and his team every success with the club on his return.
I’ll leave you with one last quote – “Be careful, because there’s always somebody ready to step into your shoes and do your job better than you do it.” – David Brent.
Bye bye Phil. Close the door on your way out.
Peter Searles @shen eldpete