Phil Brown: My work rate as Southend United manager cannot be questioned

[rlb999]

As Papa John provided all the pizza for the Junior Blues' day on Tuesday, I have no problem at all with this. Promotion works both ways.

Hang on a minute! Why are the elite sportsmen of tomorrow stuffing their faces with Papa Johns. This is a scandal!

 

[Ricky Otto]

Hang on a minute! Why are the elite sportsmen of tomorrow stuffing their faces with Papa Johns. This is a scandal!

I think the Junior Blues are the future fans not future players, getting fat and believing you can do better than professional sportsmen is par for the course:winking:

 

[onceknownasrab]

I don't see it as questioning his work rate but I do question his priorities. With the slump we are in he should be looking for any and every opportunity to work with the players and try to resolve the problems we have.

 

[OldBlueLady]

I think the Junior Blues are the future fans not future players, getting fat and believing you can do better than professional sportsmen is par for the course:winking:

Indeed! :smile:

 

[fbm]

No **** off WE ARE THE CUSTOMER and WE will judge as we see fit!!!!!!

You have some front brown

Are we fans or customers?

 

[sufclee]

Are we fans or customers?

Fans firstly but i guess we are customer's too as we are paying for a product.

 

[fbm]

I think the issue here is that first team players were involved and given the current bad run it could have been an opportunity to try something different. The whole thing has been badly handled by PB and the club. In future he should consider far more carefully what he says to the press, we didn't really need to know that some first team players had asked to play, his appetite for the media attention sometimes works against him. He made it sound like this game was more important than it actually was.

Over reaction by some of us on SZ ? Maybe. Bad PR by the club and PB, certainly.

As for the moron on the echo site saying that most fans earn minimum wage and PB should donate his media fee to charity, wtf is that all about ?

But the club hasn't handled anything, it was the fans that brought it up and made a mountain out of it. How can the club be accused of bad PR?

And he probably told the press about the first team because he is aware that fans have this thirst for knowledge that has to be sated by them living, breathing and judging the manager by his every move. If he says nothing, he'd be shot down equally.

The bloke can't win.

 

[Napster]

The bloke can't win.

Literally. LOL.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

But the club hasn't handled anything, it was the fans that brought it up and made a mountain out of it. How can the club be accused of bad PR?

And he probably told the press about the first team because he is aware that fans have this thirst for knowledge that has to be sated by them living, breathing and judging the manager by his every move. If he says nothing, he'd be shot down equally.

The bloke can't win.

That's certainly true.

 

[Napster]

That's certainly true.

Too slow mate. :winking:

 

[fbm]

Fans firstly but i guess we are customer's too as we are paying for a product.

Interesting. Personally, I think there is a huge difference. Customer implies that we could go anywhere for our football entertainment, which we obviously don't and wouldn't. It also implies that only paying fans have an entitlement to complain.

So we are fans... which implies that we will support the team through thick and thin and almost makes the issue of cost irrelevant.

Take the admission price out of it for a minute and let's imagine it was free... would we still be as vocal in our support for the club? Naturally, if not more so, as the financial barrier to entry will have been removed. Would will still moan if we lost 6 games on the trot? Again, naturally, but purely for the fact that our heroes were faring badly.

So the fact that we pay a price doesn't actually make us a customer... therefore TB's claim that we are customers and will therefore judge accordingly (presumably around the analogy that the customer is always right) doesn't apply here as most of the fans aren't customers in that sense of the word.

No matter who they are and no matter how many times they have got Southend to the Champions League final on Football manager, there isn't one fan that would achieve better results than Brown and that's because they would neither have have the respect of the players nor the knowledge of what is actually involved in running the team. For living proof of this I offer up Mr Dick Bate, probably the most unqualified manager we have ever had and it was no co-incidence that he was associated with some of the worst results this club has ever had.

So I don't actually reckon any of our opinions are even valid when it comes to commenting on what Brown should or shouldn't do.

However, if he mucks up and the team fails to perform then he will pay with his job. That much, in football, is a roaring certainty.

 

[Barry.C]

Any chance amidst his huge workload he could just occasionally be there first to sign one of the 37 strikers he has said we are interested in and watched, and then see go elsewhere? ( admitted slight exaggeration )

 

[IronMike]

If a fan wishes to question the commitment of the manager (as they would do their players), then that is their right.
It wasn't the work rate people were questioning.
I personally believe his work rate, like most managers, is up there - it becomes their life, it isn't a job like mine where when I'm finished for the night, that's it - I switch off, because I can.
However I do question his commitment - also, because I can.

Maybe the reporter should have articulated this to him instead, if he had the bottle.

 

[ooh-andy-ansah]

But the club hasn't handled anything, it was the fans that brought it up and made a mountain out of it. How can the club be accused of bad PR?

And he probably told the press about the first team because he is aware that fans have this thirst for knowledge that has to be sated by them living, breathing and judging the manager by his every move. If he says nothing, he'd be shot down equally.

The bloke can't win.

Because they tried and failed miserably to put out a statement saying that some of the players from the first team squad had volunteered to play to stake a claim as replacements for the current failing first XI as if this was something positive. Fact is PB and/or the club didn't need to make any such comments, this whole situation was entirely avoidable and has just inflamed the opinions of those who question PB's commitment. Sometimes it's best to just keep it shut. PB loves being the centre of attention, someone needs to remind him he isn't Jose Mourinho.

 

[geoffmundo]

Work rate, possibly not? Success rate, ah that's another question!

 

[Fiftyone]

Is he more likely to get a grip on our League form and the form of potential replacements by watching our squad players or by watching Chelsea ? Losing an Essex Senior Cup is unfortunate (not least because a good few of the club's keener supporters were there and would like to have seen a victory, but also because it deprives the club of further competitive development fixtures) but not the end of the world. The fact we lost is not the issue; the criticism would have been just as valid if we'd won.

Excellent post Mick.:thumbsup:

 

[united we stand]

If he can't delegate to the rest of the coaching staff ,and if they are incapable of reporting back accordingly then some thing is wrong. At the same time from a 'how does this look' this thread demonstrates that it wasn't a great move

 

[fbm]

If he can't delegate to the rest of the coaching staff ,and if they are incapable of reporting back accordingly then some thing is wrong. At the same time from a 'how does this look' this thread demonstrates that it wasn't a great move

Absolutely.

I think people are overlooking the fact that there was nothing that Brown was going to learn from the game v Harlow by being there. If we had won and the fringe players performed well, then shock horror he would have realised that some professional fringe players could turn it on against opposition 3 or 4 levels below us. As it was, then they didn't perform which was disappointing and it confirmed what he already knew; that these fringe players aren't currently up to it.

He didn't need to be in attendance to come to either of those conclusions. As for how it looks, it's not a big deal and people are only making it so because of our poor league form and it's another criticism they can level at PB.

 

[buffalowolf]

The bloke cant win ! and at present neither can the club he is manager of.:sad:

 

[Tampa Blue]

As for how it looks, it's not a big deal and people are only making it so because of our poor league form and it's another criticism they can level at PB.

Well that statement is incorrect and a huge generalization, I think it i p*ss poor behaviour and would maintain that opinion whether we were top of the league and unbeaten all season.