As one of English football’s longest serving managers moves upstairs, Frank Gregan salutes a true football man and discusses the unique scenario which sees Hereford with a chairman who knows more about the game than his manager.
Last week, Graham Turner moved aside at Hereford bringing to an end a very impressive 31 year career in football management. During that time he has managed Shrewsbury, Aston Villa, Wolverhampton Wanderers and for the last 14 years Hereford United.
He won’t be giving up the ghost completely however as he is the majority shareholder at Hereford and also the Chairman. John Trewick, who has been working alongside Turner as the first team coach has taken up the reins and will now be able to implement his own ideas as to how the club should be run.
It will be difficult for Graham Turner to step back and let Trewick get on and run things his way, but that is what he has to do. As has been proven on many occasions, football management by committee is a recipe for disaster. The young bull will be grateful for advice when he seeks it – unsolicited guidance leads to resentment.
I’ve worked under similar circumstances in non-league football when I was first starting off on the management path. My Chairman had recently bought the football club and appointed himself manager! He brought me in with the appointment of First Team Coach responsible for the day to day running of the club: player recruitment, training, team selection, substitutions, team talks and just about every other task apart from driving the bus. He was responsible for “Strategy!”
It was a disaster. Our first pre-season game was in a god-forsaken place in Hampshire, it was the proverbial one man and his dog but the dog must have been at the vets and the one man must have taken him! Most of our squad of 19 had not met each other as there were three contracted players and sixteen trialists.
The Chairman/Manager introduced himself and explained he was responsible for “strategy” and that my role was to deliver strategy. So what is the strategy? Simple, using a white board and magic marker he explains that: GK – the goalkeeper, passes the ball to FB – the full back. FB runs up to the half way line and then cuts inside before playing a reverse ball to WM – the wide man, on the touchline. WM then runs down the wing and centres the ball to – HM – the hit man, who heads the ball into the goal!
It was tumbleweed! You could hear the scuffling of boots and see the heads being lowered and the shoulders starting to shake. Blood was starting to appear at the corner of some of the player’s mouths as they bit hard into the lip in order to stop laughing. What a great way to start a new job.
But John Trewick needn’t worry about Graham Turner’s knowledge; this is a unique situation where the Chairman knows more about football than the manager. Hereford are already down but there is still some life left in the relegation market in League One. Crewe are all but mathematically down and the last remaining spot appears to be between Carlisle, Brighton and Northampton.
Brighton appear to have the easiest final game at home to Stockport and their odds of [4.3] reflect that and Northampton’s superior goal difference (14 better than Carlisle and two points ahead) means that despite a tough game at Leeds they are [4.4] for the drop. These last day affairs always produce drama and non more so than when goalkeeper Jimmy Glass got Carlisle out of the deep brown stuff with the last kick of the season a few years back. But I can’t see history repeating itself, Carlisle have not won in 11 games and the bottom line is they have to win on Saturday and hope other results go their way. They are available to back at odds of [1.63] and that looks like a very big price.
So Hereford have to prepare for life back in League Two. It’s not long ago that they were a conference side but under Graham Turner’s leadership the club found stability and success. One thing’s for sure – as a Chairman nobody will be able to pull the wool over his eyes unlike the Chairman/manager I worked for. “What a pro,” he said to me in the dressing room at half time pointing to our star striker, “see that, he will only drink water at half time, no tea, see – that’s because tea’s diuretic.” “No it’s not,” I replied, “it’s because he was on the lash until 3 o’clock this morning, he’s rehydrating – he’s drunk!”
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