The great Phil Parkinson debate kicked-off again this week on the back of our failure to get promotion. "Failure" of course was actually a very close success but the emotion of losing an all-or-nothing game means the knives are out again. I have been vocal in the past about Phil Parkinson but today we were given a very timely reminder about the perils of changing your manager, when Aidy Boothroyd jumped ship at Colchester.
Parky first. I don't believe we should have extended his trial managerial period 18 months ago after he failed to win a game and we got no "bounce" having sacked Alan Pardew. The Board managed this badly because appointing another manager wasn't a realistic option and they should have just given him a contract until the end of the season rather than setting an artificial deadline, probably in the hope that it might galvanise a change in results as the players stepped it up for the new manager in his trial period.
Having gone down, his contract covered him into this season and again we didn't have the money to spend on a new manager when we needed to strengthen the squad. Parkinson managed the unthinkable when we started the season unbeaten and looked invincible with an unchanged side. Kelly Youga's injury, the first of a series with full-backs saw the start of the slippage but we battled on and were still on track for automatic promotion at Christmas. It was our early 2010 form that saw us drop off the pace, although we weren't losing many matches. The late rally was a reminder of the quality of the side and what we were capable of but the damage had been done. I can't blame Phil Parkinson for the fact that we are still in League One. He came very close and making the play-offs can hardly be described as "failure." Our fans should remember that there were very few who were betting on promotion in August.
Aidy then. A man who clearly rates his own managerial abilities much higher than his managerial record indicates. Three average years at Watford which culminated in the sack as they narrowly escaped relegation. He was out for a while before Colchester threw him a life-belt following Paul Lambert's hasty exit for Norwich. Boothroyd inherited a Lambert side who had won 7-1 at Carrow Road on the opening day. They had a very good start to the season and looked like being serious automatic challengers but they eventually faded and failed to make the play-offs. Note, I think they "failed." I think Boothroyd failed. In return Aidy has today jumped ship for comatose Coventry only nine months after being put on the pay-roll at Colchester. More fool them I say. Boothroyd's playing career was hardly impressive and the longest he managed at any club was three years. A bit of a pattern if you ask me.
Sometimes you have to be grateful for small mercies and the stability we may get from another season under Phil Parkinson might be worth taking now rather than gambling on a new man who would probably be a huge risk bearing in mind the job he's being asked to do - rebuild a side from next to nothing for a club, many of whose fans have hopelessly unrealistic expectations.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Living up there, I know a lot of Coventry fans and they are royally fed up with their side. Remember that this is a club that hired Dowie (admittedly one of many to make that mistake). These days a lot of Sky Blues are to be found at the city's championship winning team, Coventry Blaze.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post. At least someone is thinking laterally!!!
ReplyDeleteDave, a great article and I couldn't agree more.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you saw the statistics released by the LMA yesterday showing that the average time a league manager in England is given before he is sacked has dropped to an all-time low of just 1.4 years.
We have obviously contributed significantly to this in recent times (!), but I really do feel that we need to show a bit of faith in Parky.
Like an employee at any company, there are obvious 'areas for development', but he is still relatively young in managerial terms and has had to put up with a lot since he took charge. He ran us very close to promotion and I see absolutely no benefit with dispensing with his services now.
Regarding Boothroyd, I also concur ... not many managers have shone at Coventry in recent times (Coleman, Dowie, Strachan, Reid, Adams) and I would be surprised if his tenure didn't go the same way.
To be honest, Dave, I sense this Parky debate would have raged even if we'd have gone up, as some would have questioned whether he would have been capable of keeping us in the Championship.
ReplyDeleteI like Parkinson. I like his honest approach, which I find believable and genuine. I am also puzzled as to why the Charlton fans don't seem to have taken to him (I don't subscribe to this being a relic of the Pardew era), especially at the start of the season when it looked like we'd take this league by storm.
Post-Curbs I think, if we're honest, we struggle with anyone not perceived from the outset to be 'Charlton', whatever the hell that really means. Take Mooney as another recent example (who was nowhere near as bad as some made him out to be). Charlton could do far worse than stick with Parkinson, but can we afford to do better?
I agree with all the above. There's no debate as far as I can see. We'd be crazy to ditch him unless we were bought about by a sugar daddy and handed a £100 transfer kitty.
ReplyDeleteA 100 quid kitty. Blimey, can we trust Parky with that much money?
ReplyDelete:-)
£100 Million! There are 2 people I wouldn't trust with a £100 kitty: Dowie and Pardew.
ReplyDeleteWell put comments, Dave. There's no way we should be thinking of anyone other than Parky...hopefully we've learnt something the last few years! We need stability...
ReplyDeleteAs far as Colchester is concerned, I'm guessing they're wondering how they can have had two managers walk out on them in similar circumstances...