Tag: Managers

Midweek fixture | Liam Manning – a Manning for all season?

So, there it is, 141 days later, he’s gone.

It’s hard to deny Liam Manning was getting the results we needed to be on track for promotion. It insulated him from criticism and rightly so. But, and this may not be the most popular opinion, I never really warmed to him.

I get all the corporate hocus pocus about behaviours and values, and we were all reassured by the hypnotic powers of his PowerPoint presentation but, despite our form, I’m not sure I was never excited by his football or him as a person. Which is weird, because we won a lot and you’d think that would be enough.

He was the product of a system, a corporate automaton. He trusted the process more than he cared about the result. It’s what we needed to stem the threat of relegation last season; a sensible pragmatic head as we became consumed by the chaos of his predecessor. 

Once he’d stopped the rot, a structured, mechanistic rebuilding was perfect; new players, new philosophy, great start. But it wasn’t ever truly refreshing or exciting, it was a relief, I was waiting to be caught up in a wave, an unstoppable momentum that would carry us to the Championship. Maybe it was coming, but it wasn’t there, not yet.

The football was very good but it never quite got to great, there were times when we were positively dopey, laden down with his philosophy. We were a very 2-0 team – routine, unenthused. We got results, and for that you can’t deny he was successful, but I was still waiting for that ripsnorting thriller which had us cascading down the stands in delirious abandon. I can’t imagine that ever happening, perhaps because it never did, maybe because it was never going to. 

Immediately after the Maidenhead game, there was a lengthy discussion on the radio about whether Manning would take the Bristol City job. It dwelt on whether he’d turn down The Good Thing he had at Oxford, whether he’d betray the trust the board had placed in him. The conclusion seemed to be that Manning was a twelfth dan mind-ninja who would calculate all possible scenarios and come to the right decision. 

I had little doubt that he’d take it if offered; it’s more money, more resources and more kudos. If Jerome Sale is right, he’s doubled his salary. Who wouldn’t take it? 

It’s hard to give career advice when there’s that opportunity in front of you, but for someone so controlled and measured, this could be a real shit-or-bust move for him. Perhaps he will improve Bristol City enough for promotion and set himself for a move into the Premier League and the higher echelons of the game. Or, perhaps he’ll stall, creating a reputation of a man promoted beyond his ability. Plus, there’s no safety net, his CV is one of unfulfilled promise. If it doesn’t work out, would you invest in a coach who might leave at a moment’s notice and has yet to stay anywhere long enough to be tangibly successful? Or maybe owners are perpetually stupid and will keep recruiting him thinking he might change.

He’s also going to have to deal with a new experience, a small enclave of the English game who will happily want him to fail, who will boo him and badmouth him at every opportunity. Water off a duck’s back, particularly if he’s successful, but it’s a different pressure for someone who until now has been seen universally as a coach with potential who does things the right way. Michael Appleton is a good coach whose failings overshadow his successes, Manning’s risking being put in the same position.

There was no discussion on the radio about whether Bristol City would offer him the job and I’m really surprised they have. He’s completed one full season as a manager in England and while he took MK Dons to the edge of promotion, he didn’t get them over the line. You can almost identify the moments when he failed; twice against us, he conceded points as a result of his players being caught dicking around and playing from the back. An ideological indulgence that cost him promotion.

Maybe he’s learnt, but who knows? There’s a point of the season where science gives way to pragmatism, where players are playing on fumes, through injuries and are scratching out points to desperately drag themselves over the line. We have no idea whether Manning had that mode in his arsenal, he didn’t get there with MK, he left before he got there with us. If Bristol City have ambition for promotion, in that respect, they’ve taken a big punt.

I think, more likely, they want a manager that will guide them to a sensible place, develop players who can be sold on and be part of a corporate machine. Less demanding than Nigel Pearson, less erratic. If that’s the case, he makes more sense. The vanilla option. Maybe when football is paying your mortgage – as an owner or a manager – it’s just about being as bland and compliant as you can be to survive.

As I say, it’s not necessarily a popular opinion, plenty of Oxford fans are unnerved by his departure. Not because they really loved him, I suspect, but because of the fear of the unknown. As a club, we need to move away from being over-reliant on one person bringing us success. A manager is a key appointment, but clubs we aspire to be like; Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth have been able to punch above their weight by easing from one manager to another while maintaining a forward momentum. It’s a key aspiration for any club, the next few weeks will undoubtedly show how close we are to that. 

Above that, I hope we can channel the apparent betrayal and injustice into something positive and to super-charge our promotion push. Maybe the anger and angst will do us good. Without doubt Manning put us back in a good place, perhaps now we can make it a great one. 

Heed the Rix Parable

Hang on, this is starting to sound very familiar…

I remember it as if it were yesterday; Paul McCarthy and Andy Crosby; tree-people with feet like they were encased in concrete, swinging away hopelessly at the ball as though they were trying to kick a panicked buttered piglet. There they were flailing six feet from their own goal while debutant keeper Simon Cox watched with the horror that a child might have if his otherwise dependable and reliable parents had consumed large numbers of hallucinogenic narcotics and were masturbating in the kitchen.

We were playing Doncaster Rovers who were top of the league and what we were watching – wincing at  – was Oxford United’s new more enlightened philosophy. This was a passing game forged on the chalkboards of Ajax of Amsterdam and globalised as ‘the right way’ through the messianic qualities of Johan Cruyff. Total football, sexy football – playing it from the back, on the floor, a style that would become rebranded for the Opta generation as tika-taka.

This was a statement of intent from our new manager, a wiry bubble haired ex-winger turned sex-offender called Graham Rix. The luddite dark ages of the previous manager, Ian Atkins, were over, Rix – one of Europe’s most promising coaches, as Kassam would read verbatim from the manager’s carefully crafted CV – was here to introduce us to the light.

Binmen doing ballet, shot-putters lacemaking, the analogies of the early days of Graham Rix’s reign are nigh on endless. Keyhole surgery with a crossbow, there’s another one. Out on the wing, looking like a frightened kitten who had just been promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer was Courtney Pitt. This was Rix’s marquee signing; a tricky winger who would dazzle all those in front of him. He would be supplying the crosses that would harvest a hatful of goals while, in his wake, defenders untangled each others’ legs as though tending to the dead and dying on a First World War battlefield.

It was horrible, terrifying and completely unnecessary. Under Atkins we had charged from the blocks in 2003/4 like a North Korean dictator sensing treachery before breakfast; topping the table at Christmas and beyond. We were undone 4-2 in mid-January – only our second defeat of the season – in an early promotion selection at Hull before hitting a patch of troubling form which saw us into and then out of the play-off spots. The Atkins philosophy was of single minded belligerence, a triumph of science and rationalism over art and inspiration, and he had faith – nay, he had calculated, that by following his template our form would eventually return. And there was a suggestion that he was right; after six games without a win we squeezed out a 1-0 win over Cheltenham.

But, rumours began flying around before the game which only grew after. Things were afoot; Atkins had become frustrated with his owner and particularly his reluctance to extend the manager’s contract. The lack of trust stretched the patience of both sides. He would also, later, claim frustrations with a lack of quality signings, especially when Rix started the following season with Lee Bradbury, Tommy Mooney and Craig Davies amongst his number. Atkins cited a need to protect his family and pay his mortgage. When Bristol Rovers came sniffing around; Atkins took the opportunity to jump.

Sounds familiar? No, it’s not familiar, it’s allegorical, it’s prophetical, it’s a parable. A story from the past that teaches us things about the future. The Chris Wilder story is simply a re-run of the Ian Atkins story. And while it is nearly impossible to control the will of an individual and their decision to seek financial and job security elsewhere, we can definitely learn from what happened afterwards.

Firoz Kassam and Ian Atkins were at loggerheads, the fans weren’t particularly thrilled by the product on the pitch, but we were on the cusp of a play-off place with a style which was prosaic but effective. More importantly we had players designed for a particular job; deep sea trawlermen not sushi chefs (that’s another one, but notably less good than before).

The Rix philosophy was completely at odds with that of Atkins. But, it played to Kassam’s fantasy of having a team to be proud of which would sweep all in front of them with panache and grace. Qualities of which Kassam himself held little. Kassam’s core belief is that people are capital that can be changed at will. What Rix tried to introduce in style would be completely eclipsed by a profound lack of substance. We would take just six points from a possible 27 – three of which were from the last game of the season when all was lost –  we finished the season with a whimper some way outside the play-offs.

Speculation surrounds Chris Wilder’s replacement. Martin Allen and Paolo Di Canio have been mentioned. In the main, they’re favourites because they’re free and famous. As someone more eloquent about ways of the book said; the book is small, any sizable bet will swing the odds wildly at the moment. It seems pretty fanciful that either would be considered.

But, if Oxford were even tempted – both managers have done what we want to achieve in recent years – then they’d do well to take heed from the Rix Parable. Allen and Di Canio are narcissists, their ‘own men’, they are likely to want to change things to their image. Introduce a new style, sweep away any remaining fragments of the Wilderian era. As dry as that philosophy became, players will be forced to change to something else or risk being moved along. Ryan Clarke, James Constable and others are Wilder’s men and therefore prime targets for being shipped out, just to do little more than prove a point, to ‘own’ the space that Wilder recently occupied.

Thankfully, I can’t imagine someone like Ian Lenagan, with his dry, calculated approach, finding these characters appealing. Remember after the Swindon win at the Kassam, with adrenaline coursing through every sinew, the greatest compliment he could pay Chris Wilder was that ‘he understood budgets’. But, if he is ever tempted by the likes of Allen or DiCanio he must remember; we’re not broke, we don’t need fixing, we just need managing. Rix’s failure to realise that from day one killed us stone dead that season, he was gone the next, and it has taken us 10 years to get that close to promotion again.

The managers: Graham Rix (2004)

Graham RixWhilst idly flicking over to check the England score, I found myself not necessarily wanting them to lose, but not really wanting them to win. I want them to suffer, I guess. It’s not the individual players, necessarily, it’s the institution of England football that I dislike. Overpaid, under-performed and still demanding our respect.

I found myself almost wanting Oxford to lose during Graham Rix‘s reign at The Kassam. He arrived with a reputation; partly from his conviction for underage sex, but also as one of the best young coaches in the country.

However, the truth belied this reputation, at Portsmouth he spent something like £4 million and steered Portsmouth to 17th in Division 1.

Although Oxford’s promotion push in 2003/4 was stuttering, it was far from over. Rix’s first mistake was made on day one; the squad was made up of big lumps of concrete drilled to lump the ball to more big lumps up front. The first game against Doncaster we were treated to the sight of Andy Crosby and Matt Bound passing the ball along the six yard box in an attempt to play ‘proper football’. The season ended with just one more win; against Rochdale on the last day of the season.

New season, new start. Rix invested heavily in the likes of Lee Bradbury and Tommy Mooney. Despite this, 20 more games and only 5 more wins left Oxford in no man’s land, meanwhile the strict regime of Ian Atkins‘ time collapsed, and Julian Alsop was sacked for sexually assaulting a youth player with a banana. One of the club’s finest hours.

‘Proper football’ was tedious because it always seemed to end in defeat; and in the end I was left hoping that each loss would be so cataclysmic that he’d be fired. He did, of course, eventually, re-appearing at perhaps the only club in Britain more mad than the Us at that time: Hearts.