I know that many will disagree with my take on things but it is mine, opinions are individual and this is expressed as my thoughts and not given as irrefutable fact, if you donât agree feel free to offer an alternative point of view. In 2010 Hess took over as manager. The club had just been relegated from league 1 mainly due to our poor away form, we had massive bank debt, no ground, and several high wage players causing internal strife yet offered nothing in return. With funds limited, Hess said he was undertaking a 5 year rebuilding plan which would rely heavily on developing young players to take the club forward in the future. With little or no funds Hess also took the gamble of managing without a backroom team so that wages saved could be spent on the playing budget. Players such as Matt Fish, Joe Martin, Chris Wheldale, Charlie Lee, Paolo Gaziniga were all brought in, Jack Payne, Conner Essam, Callum Davies introduced from our own youth set-up. These players performed with flare and passion but also the inconsistency and naivety that also comes with youth and only time playing and developing together as a team was required. I still think given 1 more season this team would have made the grade, unfortunately football management is a hard task master and Hess paid the price before he could complete the dream. In 2012 Martin Allen took over as manager. The club had just enjoyed 2 very stable years finishing in the top 10 of league 2, the large bank debt had miraculously vanished, money was flooding in from Ryan Bertrand payments, Matt Jarvis sell on clauses, Gazaniga sale, and the released funds from the high wage disruptive player contractâs ending. Martin Allen had a clean slate and wasted no time in building a large backroom staff from all this new found wealth, there were also new players drafted in. I should point out that any player coming in on a âfreeâ is a long way from being âfreeâ free agent just means that the player hasnât got a contract with another club and receives a signing on fee that can be as large as a transfer fee. So under Martin Allen we got off to a brilliant start (largely using a Hess picked and trained team) the longer Martin Allen was in charge and able to dismantle the Hess team, tactics and training the worse we became. By the last few months of the season we were struggling to achieve a win even against the poorest teams in the league, and but for our good start would have never made promotion. This season we have started even worse than we finished the last, the football is poor and showing little sign of improving, yes including the MK Dons win where we struggled to hang on against 10 men with a 2 goal head start (MK have beaten nobody of any note this season) With poor performances, poor/non-existent tactics and no sign of any improvement the only answer seems to be transfer list Charlie Lee, then take him off the list, then transfer list 4 players including Charlie Lee again, take the players back off the list. Iâm very grateful for the Championship but itâs a long time ago when his recent record is 4 wins from 25 games, Scally has made the right decision as Martin Allen is out of ideas and itâs time for a new man.
Sorry Grumpy, I couldn't disagree with you more. The exaggeration of Hess' ability and the dismissive attitude towards Allen's success I find staggering
For the record its a disgrace MA wasn't afforded the amount of time in charge that Hessy was, I'm rather fed up with all this Hessy nostalgia. The 'one more year' for Hessy is utter rubbish. He achieved nothing at our club 2nd time around, if he's that good can anyone tell me why he's still not with a club two years after he got the boot?? A number of players were fantastic under MA when Hessy couldn't do anything with them. MA will walk straight into another job, which can't be said for his predecessor. UTG sorry grumpygit.
I think you have embroidered it a bit Grumpy but your overall analysis is about right. It was madness to remove Hessy because for the first time in years there was a pot of money and Hessy would have used it wisely and MA has blown it. On the other hand it is equally stupid to ditch MA at this time because his motivational skills are outstanding and with no more money to spend he is likely to be better at salvaging something from this squad than someone new.
don't no if it is the right decision but I new Allen would not stay at Gills very long. It really is a crazy world of football when 1 week your the best then the next your the worst. What I do know is because of the great start we had last season we won the league. We were not a great side but we managed to win by scraping results with a mean defence. Scally has taken a gamble by not waiting till Christmas to see if Martin Allen could change things around. Scally has though given the new manager a real chance of getting away from the relegation zone before it is to late. We always seem to be either scrapping to avoid relegation or involved in the play offs, its never a dull season.
Agree with Grumpy,Lenny,Bristol n Ashford But hey no manager is gonna come in with a magic wand and turn us into world beaters Would be quite happy with Hess in charge for life , doubt we would ever find ourselves being relegated out the league and where we are now is around our natural position in the league pyramid.
Errrrr, ?????? Who do you agree with B.A.G? Ashford agrees with Grumpy. Bristol reckons Grumpy's embellishing it somewhat. Lenny thinks they are all Bananas Personally, I reckon Hess was good but ultimately couldn't achieve what was asked. MA has given us all the only Title we'll probably ever see and I thank him for it. He also got most of the fans back onside with the club and it was never a dull moment. PT will hopefully get us playing a bit of football and will have my backing whether interim or permanent. He's done pretty well at Brighton and Hull (and a promo with Wycombe) so not all rubbish after us. If it's to be someone else longer term, I have no idea who out there could be guaranteed to do a better job than MA or PT. Over the years, plenty of very good managers have gone to decent clubs and failed miserably.
I agree with you grumpy. But of course I would because of my views with the youngsters. Choices: League Two trophy...in season one, folllowed by possible relegation or Play off winners....followed by sustained League One status with youngsters I would take the latter every time. Next choices: Experienced players for season one, who will have no pace for season two or Young players who will struggle in season one but get through, and be more than adequate for season two The latter again please Next Choices: Building for now or Building for the future you guessed it, the latter please Final Choice Hessy or Mad Dog Shock horror the latter please, and there is my dilemma, in character...MA has loads of character but basically broke the foundations that would have supported his experienced team. Therefore Scally's five year plan was screwed up after 16 months but maybe can still be recovered...hopefully. ps. grumpygit I'm going to promote your article.
An interesting sideline to all of this is the fixture list. 5 of the next 8 games are at home and some of these are against fellow strugglers. If Taylor does not collect 12+ points from the next 8 games it may be all too difficult for anyone to turn it round from December onwards. Like it or not Gills fate may well be determined by Taylor regarless of whoever is manager by December.
I am still with the opinion that the 2011/12 squad was good enough to get promoted but it was Hessenthaler's tactics that failed to get us across the line. Too often we were too leaky at the back and he was too afraid to drop the likes of Lawrence and Richards when they weren't playing well. Playing Lawrence at Right Back basically cost us getting into the Play-Offs. Evans was regularly impressing in the youth/development team but wasn't being given a go. When he was it was too late, the damage was already done. If he had been given the third year, he would have made the right signings to get us up, but probably not have done so by using the wrong tactics. Also his personal slating of the players in the media probably did nothing for their morale. MA used the right tactics to get us out of League Two with a team that was built on a solid defence. He didn't waste the money, Hess was still there as Director of Football to make the signings happen and regulate the contracts. The money afforded the transfer fee of Leon Legge and any compensation that were paid to Brentford and Bournemouth for them to pay up the contracts of Weston & Barrett. He tied Matt Fish, Callum Davies and Bradley Dack down to long term contracts for the Future of Gillingham FC with all of these players showing real promise. He also bought Devante McKain from Maidenhead for the future of our defence. Joe Martin has become a new player in the attacking full back role, something that Allen instigated, not Hessenthaler. He may have killed some of the future by letting go of Essam & Evans for free, two decisions which I didn't agree with. Payne I didn't want to leave but £750,000 is a lot of money which we aren't in a position to turn down. But he brought in his son which is probably a Danny Spiller minus ten years, that shows promise. German was signed as a potential for the future up front. Letting Jackman go was probably a contributing factor into our dip in form towards the end of last season with not having a real midfielder be able to slow the game down and dictate play. Being given a reduced budget this summer and not having Hess as Director of Football has lead to the downfall of Mad Dog. Having to spend most of the smaller budget on buying Antonio German, Devante McKain, paying the compensation to Coventry for Cody which was probably not small and Bayo's notoriously high wages have left us with a thread bare squad. Employing tactics which were closer to Hessenthaler's this year have lost us too many games and cost him his job. Inhouse fighting and Mad Dog's old regime of FIFO (Fit in or **** Off) has returned and unfortunately meant he is no longer our boss. The way he set the team out against Crewe and MK Dons showed that he was willing to change and could turn it around. Martin Allen's sacking probably was inevitable, it is probably the timing of which has caused the most shock and disarray of fans. I've said before that I didn't always agree with Mad Dog which is true, but he deserved to still be in the role. If Hess was given the money he was, I still don't believe he would have taken us up. If anyone ever says that MA killed the youth prospects of this club then they need to analyse the situation deeper. Hess still got rid of players with potential too. Anyone remember Charlie Howard? looked really good under Stimson, Hess soon chucked him out.
agree with 99% of this Pegleg. With Taylor being appointed so quickly it would suggest the writing was on the wall for MA irrespective of the result last Saturday, which I find very surprising. Would he of gone if we'd won 3 in a row? I think people have very short memories Hessy bought some shockers.
Having read MA's statement on the FMA site I took a look at the stats for longest serving managers, it seems that the Chairman and boards of nearly all the league clubs are simply in love with sacking! It seems all too easy to fire the manager especially when there are always managers out of work so it's easy to replace anyone. Clearly in this case Taylor was ready to step in and was an easy choice to make given his history with the club. Surely though it's no step forward to appoint an ex manager? We can find fault with every manager it's a not hard task given the attitude the "your only as good as your last game" that seems so prevelant! MA did seem to have run out of ideas to me and seemed so stubborn - why bring in Bayo and Cody and never play the pair together for example? Was that enough reason to sack him - well Mr Scally and "the board" thought so so that's all there is to be said on the matter! I am sad to see MA go as I was when Hessy went - It remains to be seen what my attitude will be when Taylor is sacked or leaves which is likely to be within two years (assuming he is appointed as long term manager) Saturday will be interesting Roy
This is what drives me crazy... Why would you be happy with Hess in charge for life? What has Hess done for the club as manager... let me tell you sweet FA!! He took over a very talented squad from Pulis and Taylor, failed to add any real quality to it or replace its aging stars and oversaw the being of the decline of the club, leading it the return of the basement division. And to rub salt into the wound, Ternant almost saved the club from relgation by buying Micky Flynn! That is it, that is all he did, one player and sensible tactics and he almost turned a hopeless team into a Championship surviving team. Move on a few years and "the saviour" is back. This time tasked with gwetting the club promoted, anything else this season will be a failure". Unthinkable surley... but know wait Hess, ****ed it up again, even with Bayo and Cody banging the goals in for fun, Hess blew it. On the plus side... no wait there wasn't a plus side at all. The player Hess is widely believed to have brought through was Jack Payne, but Payne of course made his debut, and played many games under the hated Stimson. Hess also gave us the central defence pairing of Frampton and Lawrence, and fans are complaining about Legge and Barrett.
Oh lighten up everyone . We all have our opinions and it does'nt really matter who is in charge these days because a six month poor spell and God would be sacked from Priestfield !!!
BSG - I can't tell you how thankful I am for your post, at last a man that speaks sense and doesnt see Hessy through rose tinted glasses. Well done.
Sorry BAG, that wasn't meant as a attack on you... it just came across that way. But to me reappointing Hess would show a lack of ambition in the club.
Hess did take over a good league 2 (league 1) team and had to turn them into a league 1 (championship team) with little money from gates of between 8 and 10 thousand, yet still managed to put up a good show. During this time there was a large overspend on the Medway stand coupled with the loss of ITV digital revenue which put the club in severe debt and forced the sale of some of the better players (only Hess's fault if you look through the red haze of hatred) The great Stan Ternant was in charge for 25 games and won only 7 games a win ratio of 28% one of the worst in recent times including Cooper and Jepson 31.82% and 36.78% respectively.
