From Holte End to the Dug Out

From my Birmingham mail column-Weds Oct17th 2018

So the search for a new manager at Villa is finally over with the appointment of Dean Smith a self-confessed Villa supporter. A lot will be made of the fact that he is a Villa fan but let’s be clear about it he has not been given the job because he stood on the Holte End as a lad but because he has earned the opportunity.

Serving his managerial apprenticeship at Walsall and Brentford he built a reputation for playing entertaining, attacking front foot football and for being competitive despite having to sell his better players.

Having known Dean and his coach Richard O’Kelly for many years I would suggest that this is a decent appointment. A young English coach getting the chance to manage a big club when at one stage it looked like a foreign coach was the most likely appointment.

Dean is a very good coach but he is not a magician he does not have a magic coaching wand and will need time to get his ideas and playing philosophies across to the players.

Any player who thinks Dean’s nice guy demeanour means he will be a soft touch is in for a rude awakening. Every player will have to buy into his methods, standards and way of playing or risk not being a part of it.

The appointment of John Terry as his assistant was a surprise but on reflection it could just turn out to be a masterstroke. A lot of media attention will be on the former England and Chelsea defender leaving Dean to get on with managing the club.

In the dressing room Terry also get a lot of respect from players at all levels having been there done it and got a wardrobe full of Tee Shirts.

I am sure they will have been told that it’s vital to get the club out of the Championship from a FFP perspective let alone the desire of the new owners to have their team in the top flight.

I am certain Villa supporters will be delighted at the way he will get the team playing. However it’s not entertaining football that will win promotion but winning games.

Dean I am sure though will be equally determined to provide both wins and good football.

Real football in the community.

From my Birmingham Mail column on Wednesday Oct 17th 2018

Growing up in Birmingham Football Clubs were an integral part of the local community with most fans living within a few miles of the ground. However in the 60’s as the slums were knocked down and replaced with new estates lots of fans were moved out to other areas in the case of my own family they were moved to Erdington by Brookvale Park. This along with the increase in wealth in the “you’ve never had it so good” era of 60s and 70s saw people moving out of the inner city to areas such as Erdington, Short Heath, Sutton Coldfield, Castle Bromwich, Solihull et al. The football club’s fan base was spreading further afield but the reality is that it was no longer a close knit community other than on match days.

All clubs have a “football in the community” department usually funded by outside sources rather than the club itself. They do some fantastic work within the community providing opportunities and facilities for the disabled to enjoy playing the game as well as working within the community at schools etc.

But fans also want to see the first team players being out and about within the community and to a large extent most clubs do provide players for the usual hospital and school photo opportunity visits which is never-the-less to be applauded.

However I have noticed a culture change at Blues which has coincided with the arrival of manager Garry Monk and PR and Engagement Manager Claire Boden.

Some weeks ago Garry Monk was telling me how his players were knocking on his door and asking to get involved in the community and that to be honest is unusual to say the least. Most clubs have a rota for community/hospital visits with players doing what they are asked in line with that rota and posing for PR pictures.

However it is different at Blues where the board led by Dong along with the manager and players are definitely re-building a bridge between the club and its supporters. A bridge that, in recent times, was virtually demolished by owners and some directors.

Garry Monk, who definitely gets what Blues as a club is all about, has been out feeding the homeless with Geoff Horsfield while his assistant Pep and winger Viv Solomon Otabor both went to a house that Geoff was renovating to house the homeless and helped out by doing some DIY work.

I was somewhat sceptical at first but it transpires that this came from coaches and players asking to go and do something positive.

The club captain Michael Morrison led by example and rallied to the players to donate stuff for the homeless.

Kristian Pedersen who has only been at the club a short time heard about a young fan who was ill and asked the club to arrange for him to get involved and do something.

Similarly with Jacques Maghoma and Lee Camp who approached the club and insisted they visited a lifelong Blues fan who was in a care home and celebrate his Birthday with him.

There was a story in the newspapers about a young 3 year old girl who had a very complex medical condition and needed a special bed. The players heard about this and without any prompting raised money for the bed.

The list is too long to go through and to be honest I was amazed at how long the list was of things the players are doing over and above the usual hospital and school visits.

The sad thing is that they and the club can only do so much and as Claire said “we as a club would love to help every single supporter however that is just not possible logistically”

It is refreshing to see how much the CEO Dong Ren and director Edward Zheng along with the manager and players are doing to demonstrate that the fans really are important and are vital members of the club and not just a revenue stream.

Their support for what Claire and David (Davo) Brown are doing is exactly the way it should be.

Finally how fantastic that on the 5th of December thirty vulnerable people will be treated to Xmas lunch at St Andrews with the players serving the food. While on 14th December 40 women who have suffered domestic abuse will be served lunch by the players of Blues women’s team.

On 21st October the Women’s game v Chelsea will be dedicated to Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid.

Of course like fans of any club I want my club to be winning games but I also expect my club to embrace the community and use their profile in a positive way. Fans want to feel part of the club and when I see what Blues are doing it makes me feel extremely proud.

I am sure a lot of local clubs will also be doing some excellent work in the community however the change in culture at Blues regarding those less fortunate than ourselves is something to be proud of and admired by every supporter

When did personal abuse become acceptable?

When did personal abuse become an acceptable way of communicating a football fans displeasure at results, manager, owner players, or anyone else for that matter?

Having broadcast sport on the radio for the last 41 years I fully understand a fans right to have an opinion on anything to do with his club. I have not and will not always agree with their opinion but would defend to the hilt their right to have it.

And very often it can lead to quite a heated debate and I love it. It’s brilliant that fans show great love, passion and enthusiasm for their club and are prepared to argue their point but of course that does not automatically make them right but neither does it make me right- it’s just a difference of opinion. Sadly some cannot come to terms with other having a different opinion to themselves.

Be it a manager, player owner or referee they can choose whether or not they like them, rate them, or if they would like to see them gone from their club. However when they step over the line and become personally abusive and even throw things at them then it just isn’t right.

When results are not living up to expectations then atmospheres at grounds can and often does become toxic.

Also on social media platforms twitter and facebook which are fast becoming the biggest problem the game has in my opinion.

I have seen individual players at two of our clubs on the end of abuse from their own supporters.

To be honest every club has a minority of very vocal supporters who get a buzz out of abusing players and managers from behind the safety of a keyboard. It also comes from the terraces as there are supporters who believe their match ticket gives them the right to be abusive. Ironically if a player or manager has a pop back he is deemed “unprofessional” to be honest you couldn’t make it up.

It is not just football that suffers from social media abuse. On Monday the Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey club had to issue this statement 

“As an organisation we will not tolerate social media communications which are clearly inappropriate and offensive towards any member of the club or which go beyond the realms of an acceptable nature. Personal insults or comments that show little regard for the well-being of any member of the club are simply not acceptable

It’s often easy to post an opinion on social media channels without a second thought given to any possible consequences or the well-being of the person to whom it may be directed.

We would encourage all supporters to please consider that any post on any platform becomes a public record, whether intended as something light-hearted or not, posts which might appear harmless to you, could be construed as offensive by others, or have a severe impact on the well-being of others.

The Blaze reserve the right to, have, and will, deny entrance to our games to any individual who does not show consideration of the above”

The Sheffield Steelers Head Coach Paul Thompson was forced to walk away from the job because of the personal abuse he was receiving. I have also seen it in Boxing and without doubt it needs policing. I have read some of the keyboard cowards post’s pontificating about “freedom of speech”. That freedom allows you the right to an opinion but does not allow you to abuse others either aggressively, or in any other anti-social ways.

However it is vitally important to make it absolutely clear that it would be wrong to tar all tar all fans with that particular brush as the majority of supporters manage to express their displeasure and even anger without being personally abusive to any individual.

They make social media a joy because they engage in honest discussion and debate and realise that people can have different opinions. However the minority are always the most vocal.

I understand that players and managers have to accept the boos and jeers from the terraces as part and parcel of the job-it simply goes with the territory. One day you are the rooster and the next day you are a feather duster. However accepting personal abuse is definitely NOT part of the job.

Those fans who are abusive should remember that managers and players are human beings with families and feelings also however I suspect they don’t care one jot.

Sometimes abuse at games and on social media can be drink inspired although that is no excuse. Being abusive on social media is nothing more than a default mechanism for those who cannot or will not debate or discuss or appreciate opinions other than their own.

Cup success please?

We are celebrating or should that be commiserating a sad anniversary with the fact that its 50 years since a local West Midlands team won the coveted FA Cup.

Why does the West Midlands have such limited success in senior cup competitions in the modern era? I know owners and some managers and head coaches will say that they have “bigger fish to fry” which means winning promotion to the Premier League or staying in Premier League. In other words money is the “bigger fish to fry”.

You have to go back to 1968 for the last time any local West Midlands team won the FA Cup and that was West Bromwich Albion’s terrific 1-0 win against Everton.

Before that it was Wolves in 1960 when they comfortably beat Blackburn Rovers 3-0 and prior to that was in 1957 Villa beating Manchester United 2-1. Three wins in 61 years doesn’t make great reading.

Villa have reached the final twice in recent times losing to Chelsea in 2000 and then to Arsenal in 2015.

It’s the same in the League Cup when the last team to win it from the West Midlands was Blues who beat Arsenal 2-1 in 2011.

Villa have been the most successful of our teams with two wins in the 90’s beating Manchester United 3-1 in 1992 and then Leeds United 3-0 in 1996-but even that is 26 and 22 years ago respectively?

Why is it? Could it be that managers and coaches more often than not field so called weakened teams preferring to save their best players for important league games’?

When did League games become more important than cup games? Amazingly I think you will find that the rot set in from 1993 onwards and we all know what happened then. It has been getting progressively worse as the TV money for getting in or staying in the Premier League has increased to today’s astronomical figures of one hundred and sixty million pounds minimum just for reaching the Premier League.

Even the added incentive of European football for winning the cups has not changed attitudes towards the cup competitions. I am sure that attitude would change overnight if there was 50 million pounds for winning the FA Cup. At the moment winning either the FA Cup or League Cup is all about glory, prestige and history and, as I am sure most owners will say, where do you see glory, prestige or history on a balance sheet!

But what about the supporters? What do they want? I see a growing number of younger fans dismissing the value of the cups especially in the early rounds. However on the whole I think fans would love to see their team win at Wembley in either the FA or the League cup finals. I know Villa fans still talk about the wins against Manchester United and the win against Leeds United in the 90s. Blues fans will never forget the day they beat Arsenal at Wembley and the great times they had in the UEFA Cup just 7/6 years ago.

More of the same from all our local clubs is long overdue but promotion and relegation equates to massive money and until that changes sadly I don’t believe we will see much cup success around these parts.

Feed the Horse and he feeds others!

From my Birmingham Mail column Weds 29th Aug 2018

I and others have often been quite scathing about modern day footballers and how they can accept cheating as part of the game with apparently no conscience and are out of touch with their fans and the local community. Well two things have impressed me this week and I am sure there are many other similar stories from all our local clubs.

Firstly was Blues boss Garry Monk highlighting that his players have asked the club to organise more community visits to hospitals etc. for them to do. This is so refreshing when I have seen in the past some players reluctantly doing these sort of community based things and making it clear that they would rather be at home. Some of the things Garry and the players have done restores your faith in the game. Having said that they have to be selective because they cannot possibly make an appearance at every request.

Secondly I continue to be impressed with the time, money and effort former Baggies and Blues striker Geoff Horsfield puts into helping the homeless people in Birmingham and the West Midlands through his Geoff Horsfield Foundation. Geoff started this because he wanted to put something back into the area that had made him so welcome.

I have been staggered at the amount of energy Geoff puts into helping the vulnerable and homeless from offering them somewhere safe for them to stay - to helping feed them-to providing clothes and other essentials for them that the rest of us take for granted.

If you have anything including, clothes, bedding, toiletries that could help go to his website and find out how to get them to him. And he and his team of helpers organise some fantastic fund-raisers again his website or his social media pages will have all the information you need. The latest event is on October the 5th in West Bromwich and is a Q and A with former Baggies Paul Robinson, Andy Johnson, Jonathan Greening and Geoff and is called “The Great Escape” reunion. The stories will be amazing and hilarious and not to be missed and of course all proceeds go to the Geoff Horsfield Foundation. See you there.