Well, now we know what the meeting on Monday at the training ground was about – and it was exactly what I said it was. BRG got David Barnard (I assume BRG was elsewhere otherwise he would have been doing it himself) to tell the players that not only was TB coming back, but if we went down, they would DEFINITELY be playing in the first division. No ifs, buts or maybes.
Of course, we’ll get the usual gubbins about that it’s inevitable that people like Cort, Euell, Maggie etc will go, but given his record so far, don’t believe that BRG doesn’t mean it. Thing is, we have got the money, and I don’t believe any of the players have relegation clauses in their contracts…..
You probably all heard what JK said – you would think that somebody who claims to love WFC would put that love into practise and actually keep quiet, instead of fueling the shit. But then, we ARE talking about the same man who tried to move us over the Irish Sea. I think the guy has made an absolute prick of himself, and frankly I’d rather ignore him.
More worrying is a quote from KC, who said that Drillo asking what the other teams did after the Spurz debacle “was wrong”. Now, chances are it was totally taken out of context, and given that KC has actually praised the zonal system in recent weeks makes me believe that, but unfortunately it’s just become typical that ANYTHING even remotely resembles criticism of Drillo will get blown out into a major anti-Drillo piece. I think it’s just become a vendetta against him now, it’s actually quite unpleasant, and I think the players really ought to be careful – remember, the next manager of WFC, if there is one, may not be quite so forgiving….
Actually, with all the speculation going on, I’ve been thinking about the appointment of TB. It is widely believed that the players wanted TB in, and BRG obliged. However, Drillo said that it was him who appointed TB, and TB is probably just grateful he’s back with the first team. Now, I think that the relationship between the various factions of the club have clearly reached an all-time low, tends to happen with organisations that are going through major change, and my guess is that TB is there to stop the entire thing imploding.
My guess is that Drillo may well stay at WFC, because BRG still wants him around, but it’s clear that many of the players don’t – hence the appointment of TB, just to keep things aimable during this most vital of periods. I still stand by my belief that many of the players will (and should) leave in the summer if we stay up, and that EO and TB will form quite a nice partnership (here’s one for you : Drillo to move “upstairs”, TB to do the day to day stuff, still sticking with Drillo’s tactics etc, but this time the players will be made to play them properly), but I think that if we did go down then at least TB will be there to stop things getting totally unworkable. That said, there’s too much “Drillo will be gone soon” type articles about, no smoke without fire?
To demonstrate what I mean, there were a couple of interesting snippets from a couple of papers. One, Trond was interviewed by a Nog paper (Aftenposten, I think), and whilst having a drink with Ole Gunnar Sjolskar in the Prince of Wales in Wimbledon (yes, you read that right), he said that he found it strange that people like Cort, Euell and Hughes wanted JK back “even though they were often yelled at by him”.
Couple this with what TP said in the programme last week about how managers who yell and scream a lot “are counter productive”, and you do get a feeling that the Scandos aren’t exactly impressed by the battered wife mentality adopted by some of our most “established” players. He never read the English papers, saying how shit they were etc, granted most players don’t really read them, but Trond seemed to treat them with utter disdain. Sound guy.
The other one was by JH, who made a comment that he thinks most of the new players “haven’t settled”. Perhaps the Nog (and Icelandic, maybe???) contingent aren’t made to feel welcome? Given what TP and Trond said, I would not be surprised one little bit. Wonder if BRG knows about this, if so I bet he won’t be overly impressed….remember who holds the real power at WFC nowadays. Of course, JH is getting into my good books because he says that if he’s in the dressing room come Sunday, he’ll be the one winding the players up. Thank fuck for that.
Speaking of JH, he reportedly had a “who’s hardest” competition with VJ at about 1am in the morning this week. How clever, I don’t think.