Story on him in the Independant today. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/mad-dog-martin-allen-now-a-canny-old-p
Beaten to it.. curses. Wha amazes me was the commen sense changes that Allen has brought in, not because they are ground breaking or cutting edge but simply because they haven't been in place under Hessy. The more I read the more I am starting to think that Hess was pretty incompetent... and that is not just based onthe results now!
Agree with what you say about Hess, BSG. The changes Martin has made seem to be pretty fundemental, and treating the players as adults and not treating them as robots to do as the manager says with no arguments, which seemed to be Hess's way. Lots of things in that article make me pleased we've got him and long may it continue. I just worry that if he does a good job here, bigger clubs will come calling.
The article does not deal with the real questions. Why have you had 9 clubs in 9 years? Why is your track record characterised by short periods of success which are not sustained? The answer to the latter is that keeping players motivated by surprises is all very well but after a while you run out of surprises. Only Brian Clough could do it for any length of time. All we can expect is that if Allen is successful he will be off and if he is unsuccessful he will be off after 12 months or so. In reality he must think he has struck gold this time. He inherits a first class squad with Dimson's underperformers finally off the payroll. He has a production line of talented youngsters at his disposal and the luck has gone with him in the opening 3 tight fought matches. It would take a cock-up of monumental proportions to miss out on promotion this time (so long as he steers clear of loan players).
Hang on, can anyone else see the obvious flaw in the argument? How can you say his surprises only offer a short term success when he hasn't been at a club for any significant lenght of time? Lookng at his previous clubs Allen can hardly been seen to be unsuccessful on the pitch. Barnet from Conference relegation fodder to top of the league, the same with Brentford and MK Dons but relegation fodder to playoffs, saved Barnet from the drop (twice) before moving onto bigger things (who can blame him), and clashes with the Chairman at Leicester over player signings cost him a job there. The only fly in the ointment was the Cheltenham job, where there were huge financial problems and his time a Notts County was neither great nor bad. The times he stayed more than a season he made steady progress (generally saved for relegation then the playoffs) so the accusation that he is a short term "flash in the pan" success is unfounded. You are right though to point out that if he succeeds and a bigger club comes knocking he has a tendency to move on but who wouldn't do that in his position, to be fair the Gillingham managers job isn't the pinnacle of anyones career (fans excluded of course). Yes I think you were right in saying that promotion this year would be seen as a failure, like it was the previous two years, and only time will tell if Allen is a success here. But don't underestimate the changes he has made to the club and the players. Your statement that the squad was "first class" simply isn't borne out by the facts (no promotion), it may be all well and good having good players but if you can't get them to perform as a team you won't be a success. So having the right system, training regimes and attitudes are equally as important as the player's talent. To hammer the point home Jackman said it was a hard preseason but the players are really feeling the benefits... when did a player ever praise the previous managers like that?
Wow, that is a statement of monumental proportions bristol. 3 wins, and we are basically a shoo-in for promotion? With a similar squad to last year, plus 5 freebies? I reckon if we do go up, the credit will be entirely MA's. And steering clear of loanees? Why? It's probably all we can afford.
You may not agree with me Keefy (BSG doesn't) but you should be aware that I have been entirely consistent for many months in my argument that the Gills squad from last season will walk promotion this time, (even with a cardboard cutout as manager)' so long as we steer clear of loanees. The quality from last season was most evident in stuffing two league 1 sides in the Cup and it was only the silliness of Spiller against Crewe that cost Gills a playoff place. The loanee issue cost Gills many points last year with poor runs every time they left/arrived best illustrated when Nouble cleared off with the club in a promotion place. I am not obsessively opposed to loan players but you need no more than one or two available for an entire season, a good example being Macdonald. Obviously there can be situations where a loan player can help in an injury crisis but loans should be a last resort not a starting point especially if the club has a stock of good youngsters.
I am with Bristol on this one. The squad is looking very healthy for the forthcoming campaign for which a "lesser" manager should be confident of a top seven finish. With a Tilson type character coming in, I believe the approach would have been to simply identify and correct the mistakes of Hessenthaler's time at the helm. What we are seeing instead is a complete overhaul of the club's culture which is paving the way for great things at this club. It might be me hoping against history but I'll disagree with you Bristol in predicting that MA will want to be a long term part of that growth. IMO, Chairman Scally has absolutely hit the nail on the head with Allen's appointment. This manager, coupled with his higher league managment ethos, is exactly what this club needs to even think about a return to those magnificent Championship days.
Nice to hear a gills fan that is so optimistic Most of us can only see the gloom. As for promotion, I think that there are probably 6 or 7 other teams in L2 with arguably as good or better squad as ours, so I don't think it is as easy as just saying "we are good enough so we should go up". Having said that, I thought Chesterfield would be top 5 and they haven't set the world alight yet. There are so many things that can affect a season, injuries, suspensions, bad luck, bad form (that scuppered us last season with the 6 or 7 defeats after new year). I too would like to think that we can/will go up, but if Martin Allen manages (literally) to guide us through the 46-game minefield then I reckon he will deserve praise from us all. I'm not in the camp that says promotion is just his job, anything else is failure. I think there is a lot more to it than that. As for loanees, I do see your point about when they arrive/leave. But you could also argue that without the likes of Frank Nouble even for a couple of months, we might have got nowhere near promotion. We were certainly on fire whilst he was here. And I doubt we could afford someone of his ability as a permanent.
Well, I wanted Martin Allen when the managers job became vacant. I've only missed 1 match this season and so far I've not seen anything in this division, either live or on TV, that will prevent us from being champions. I was convinced before the first ball was kicked, that with Martin in charge and the squad he has so far assembled, plus his training and tactical know how that we would finish top of the pile, and I've bet on us at 20-1 to do just that.
Allen could well go down in history as something very special for this club. I respect him totally and enjoy watching his team play football. I hated the announcement, thought he was the cheap choice and that it would be Stimson all over again, without tempting fate by speaking too soon since coming in he has not put a foot wrong. Long live the Mad Dog.
