I do feel for managers, I think in modern football today the expectations are too great, but is that surprising as even most Gills supporters aspire to the Premier League ie second club.
It's well known that I hate that aspiration with a vengeance and you only have to look at the latest SKY TV negotiations to understand why. The deals in 1992-1997 witnessed the beginning of the death of football as we once knew it, when the first £191M deal was struck, it was to change the face of football forever. Today we now have the greedy top six wanting an even bigger slice of the money. Currently for 2016-19 that stands at over £5 BILLION! It beggers belief what the next deal is going to be on the table.
So what does that do for the little clubs like Gillingham - well to give you that answer I would have to break it down in to a load of expletives. And in turn this all puts every manager under pressure at all levels to satisfy the mainly juvenile dreams, because it's what they have been born and bred to grow up and know.
I will never forget the time some so called fans turned on Andy Hessenthaler after the Dover game, it was the most appalling show of support or lack of that I have ever known. That tide in with the graffiti and anti Scally vitiolic behaviour I have been unfortunate enough to witness.
Then to please those same supporters Maddog also became a victim, when anyone who was travelling to the games knew we were turning a corner, yes the Chairman was there that day to witness our defeat at the hands of Shrewsbury, but anyone that was attending the immediate prior matches knew we were about to turn a corner but as always we were too quick and hasty to wield the sword. Must admit on that Shrewsbury day, I had to double take, I thought alwaysright had sneaked off the coach to don a Scally fancy dress outfit.
Then we had Peter Taylor what an f'ing disaster that was, yes, I witnessed that episode every step of the way, but those prior supporter outcries brought us to that day. Taylor was ready to jump on Maddog's coffin in my honest opinion, if memory serves me correctly without finding media publications, the Chairman denied any prior talks. Albeit I found many contradictory timings of publications back then of what was said when but time has passed and I have forgotten them. Yet more recently the very same man back in the hot seat was claimed to have said via media reports that he had no time for people that were applying before AP's departure. Really, well blow me down with a feather! Someone make me a cuppa because the pot needs to talk to the kettle.
So what about JE, I felt he had the biggest crack of the whip, I felt like and believed that the Chairman was putting in every last dime to achieve his ultimate fantasy, was Dack staying an indication of that? Well that one failed in the grandest style ever. At least Hugh Hefner made it to the grand age of 92 and actually HAD the money to live his fantasies. Sometimes round here it's like waiting for a closing down sale at another O2 stadium somewhere near you, I'm sure some will get what I'm on about.
Forget the dreams we always have been a League One or League Two club and always will be and I'm happy with that. Division Three and Division Four in old money. And before anyone says I lack ambition, no I don't! I support my club that's the difference between YOU and ME. And if we were by any miracle ever to get to the Premier League I may very well consider taking a break from that support until we again find our rightful place, the home of true traditional football.
What about AP, well I cannot be a fair judge of that one, I set my consistency based on the same dished out to MA. I was five days short of when I said he would be dismissed, not a bad judgement in the reality of things. But let's side track from AP for a few seconds, Dack went, strange that, does anyone remember something I highlighted in another thread about Dack not playing a particular game under PT's reign, a game where we got annihilated, oh what short memories we have, but it's easier to blame AP for everything.
So here we are again but what I will say before I end is that I don't judge managers on aspirations, I judge them on fairness and consistency in relation to other appointments. And based on that Taylor should not be standing at the helm under any circumstances. Proof in the pudding regarding my words on that is when MA said the prior season that we were going to smash League One, the Gills not606 lads took weeks to lift me back off the floor where I had been rolling about laughing so much.
Mr Chairman I thank you for saving our club but your dreams are not my dreams, the club is my blood and that does not involve pound signs or flash new stadiums. I don't want an Ancelotti, I just want an half decent manager that can do a reasonable job on a shoe string budget, you Mr Chairman are the Primark not the House of Bijan. Look at it this way you had a Pulis and even a Maddog and you f..... it all up - as I see it now, you need a serious damage limitation exercise before I ask you to leave OUR club, Brexit means Brexit and all that stuff.
Oh and Mr Chairman before you get your legal team on me, it's called tongue in cheek, well I've had to endure it for over 40 years and it's cost me a fair fortune too! But I must admit your great big white elephant still gives me a laugh and I'm going to keep laughing at you until you prove me wrong. Sorry five years, ten years, please remind me. In truth I'd rather have the devil I know than the one I don't but I just want to see grumpygit smile again as Hugh forgot to leave him the secret formula.
Pegleg get the beers in! Oh and up the Northern Elite and all that stuff.