I never thought that my view of Alex Neil could sink any lower and then this! AN could have just said he needed Preece to come in a bit early - but no, he put in the bit about going over things. Having done this then AN should have at least been present to explain his position, how letting him go wasn't due to poor performance and wishing him well for the future, etc. That would have been the right thing to do and would have been the professional thing to have done - important because football is a small world. Because of this I am surprised Speakman let it go down this way. Whilst it made AN happy at the time, at the end of the day it reflects badly on SAFC and seems totally at odds with building a positive club image. Speakman might be better football-wise than the Chuckle Brothers, but to me he seems just as sly and slimy.
Unfortunately you could look at it from another point of view, AN asked Speakman to do his duty as he was uncomfortable/incapable of giving Preece the bad news and wanted somebody else to do the hard job. Now whilst I do not know about Speakmans character I do work in Management and I have seen men/women (who are all I am the best at what I do types) but will not go and do the worst/ hardest part of the job and tell somebody they have been let go or have been sacked. It is not as easy as you may think but is a part of working and managing people, at least Speakman stood up and did this part of the Job which on this report it looks like AN did not have the balls to do himself .Speakman may not be to everybody's taste but he has a vision and a job to do and being everybody's friend does not come in to it. It is hard to manage people and be friends as well because when you are in charge there has to be a bit of a gap.
Seems to me like everyone who actually works with Speakman in any capacity thinks he's great and gets on with him just fine. Professionally speaking nobody has a bad word to say about him and that'll do me.
He has a job to do for the club I call my club and at the moment apart from a few errors it seems he is helping to transform us into something resembling a very professional well run club. Can he steer us to the next level (not premiership as i think he can do that) to be competing near the top of the Prem, well that remains to be seen but as far as I am concerned so far so good. I don't need to like him I need to like what he does for my team and club.
How does Alex Neil being too much of a coward to sack Preece become an oppportunity to bask Speakman?
what's Preece done in his career to be a coach ? his dad was a better keeper for Grangetown in the Sunday league
Spent a lot of time coaching in Scandinavia after he finished playing. Very intelligent bloke who spends a huge amount of time analysing goalkeepers. Don't know how good he is, but he's very well qualified.
