Phil Brown

[davewebbsbrain]

For you Webby, oh great one, consider it done!

Thought I’d put a please at the end of my request. I feel a bit rude now

Edit - Just realised I stuck the please in the middle lol...been a long day

 

[AndyT]

Straight in there with the 'sleeping giant' comment I see !!

:smile:

Now, we all know football is full of ridiculous superlatives but really! :blush:

 

[Dubai]

Good luck to the fella.

Yeah we were a little bit ******* than hoped this season, but the last 4 games haven't been much better.

If every manager had a record of "Promotion 1 Vs 0 Relegation" we'd be Premier League!

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Nothing on the STFC forum re Mr B going there. Historically they have a few very anti PB threads with usual orange sun bed singing beach Boys songs stuff.

 

[Mr Plow]

Nothing on the STFC forum re Mr B going there. Historically they have a few very anti PB threads with usual orange sun bed singing beach Boys songs stuff.

Here's a link to the thread talking about the new manager, you'll have to go to the last few pages as it was started a few weeks ago though to get to the Phil Brown part.

http://thetownend.com/index.php?topic=57314.0

 

[kaymac]

Brian Horton is joining him as assistant manager....

 

[Jay_SUFC]

I really don't undertstand the animosity towards him. Yes, his last six months were soured and he made some very questionable decisions in regards to Ranger, but I will be eternally gratefully for that Joe Piggott goal and one the absolutely best days of my life on 23rd May 2015.

I wish him nothing but the best - unless we face them then I hope he gets stuffed. :smile:

I totally agree; and for spells last season we played some of the best football I've seen at Roots Hall for a long time. However there was always some people that never took to hm, and never would, regardless of what he done for us.

I had high expectations this season (I hoped we would be around the play-offs) but once we went on that dismass run, unfortunately his days were numbered.

 

[muffin man]

Hello there Southend fans, Swindon fan in peace (as they say)

Just canvassing a few opinions of how Mr Brown was for you guys, obviously I have read through this and seen some good some bad comments but I have a few questions to relay back to Swindon fans really.

First off, I hope you stay up and that somehow we will get promoted and play you next season, we have had some real ding dong battles with you guys over the years. But alas I can't see us going up now due to our vast injury problems with only 2 fit centre backs (Brown signed the dubious Ryan McGivern yesterday to now make that 3) but we are otherwise relying on Purkiss who is 34 soon who is a right back converted just 5 games ago to CB out of necessity, Robertson a 31 year old with less pace than Douglas Bader and Menayese an untried 20 year old on loan from Bristol Rovers.

We have currently have our best keeper Vigeroux out on loan at Waterford (Lee Powers other club) after a fall out with Flitcroft so are relying on 2 other poor keepers, so much so that we have recalled our England U19 keeper Henry from Hampton & Richmond where he was getting some experience and could well throw him in at the deep end again.

We have Banks our best defensive midfielder out for another 2 games with suspension meaning we have to rely on the innefective unable to tackle and pass James Dunne.

Our injury list is extensive with our best 2 centre backs Conroy and Preston out for the season, our other CB Lancashire also out for most of the rest of the season, Hussey our LB on loan from Sheff Utd has just started training after 5 months out, our midfielders Linganzi and McDermott both long term absentees with injury and our on loan midfielder Elsnik nowhere near fitness after a spell out injured.....now you can probably see why Flitcroft decided that now was a great time to jump ship to another promotion hopeful in Mansfield from our faltering promotion bid!

Getting to the point of the post....I know that Brown was schooled under the Allardyce school of percentage football, long ball into channels, hold it tight at the back and rely on set pieces and corners, is this how he was with you guys?

Was the football "failry dull" on the great scheme of thing? not bein critical its just that Swindon fans seem to have a need to witness good football as well as winning games, we were spoiled by Hoddle, Ardiles and to a lesser extent Steve McMahon and Paolo Di Canio who all played attacking football with passing and creating lots of chances often at the expense of defending.

What should we be expecting football wise? what are his obvious weaknesses? does he have 1 tactic that he relies upon no matter what happens on the pitch (Flitcroft style) what are his substitutions like? and his man management style? does he engage with fans in post and pre match chats or does he criticise the fans (Flitcroft style)?

We are impressed that Lee Power acted quickly in appointing Brown (unlike our neighbours Poxford who have taken 7 weeks so far!) and Brown is on a no lose situation really, if we get promoted or at least mount a challenge for the play offs then he will be with us next season, if its an unmitigated disaster then he leaves and we appoint a new manager in the Summer, I think 99% of all Swindon fans have written off the play offs now due to our injury crisis really and anything more would be a success, we are easily pleased after the (fairly) successful yet dull as dishwater reign of Flitcroft who insisted on hoofball and lumping it up to a huge target man all the time (we don't have a target man in Norris but he insisted he play as one!).

Anyway sorry for the long post and taking the time to read this if you have!

Any thoughts on his style much appreciated.

 

[GROWLER]

I used to go to Swindon for the Speedway but there are other lads here being much closer to "ICARUS" and Roslin bed hoarder who can give you a "considered" opinion

 

[Ricky Otto]

Hello there Southend fans, Swindon fan in peace (as they say)

Just canvassing a few opinions of how Mr Brown was for you guys, obviously I have read through this and seen some good some bad comments but I have a few questions to relay back to Swindon fans really.

First off, I hope you stay up and that somehow we will get promoted and play you next season, we have had some real ding dong battles with you guys over the years. But alas I can't see us going up now due to our vast injury problems with only 2 fit centre backs (Brown signed the dubious Ryan McGivern yesterday to now make that 3) but we are otherwise relying on Purkiss who is 34 soon who is a right back converted just 5 games ago to CB out of necessity, Robertson a 31 year old with less pace than Douglas Bader and Menayese an untried 20 year old on loan from Bristol Rovers.

We have currently have our best keeper Vigeroux out on loan at Waterford (Lee Powers other club) after a fall out with Flitcroft so are relying on 2 other poor keepers, so much so that we have recalled our England U19 keeper Henry from Hampton & Richmond where he was getting some experience and could well throw him in at the deep end again.

We have Banks our best defensive midfielder out for another 2 games with suspension meaning we have to rely on the innefective unable to tackle and pass James Dunne.

Our injury list is extensive with our best 2 centre backs Conroy and Preston out for the season, our other CB Lancashire also out for most of the rest of the season, Hussey our LB on loan from Sheff Utd has just started training after 5 months out, our midfielders Linganzi and McDermott both long term absentees with injury and our on loan midfielder Elsnik nowhere near fitness after a spell out injured.....now you can probably see why Flitcroft decided that now was a great time to jump ship to another promotion hopeful in Mansfield from our faltering promotion bid!

Getting to the point of the post....I know that Brown was schooled under the Allardyce school of percentage football, long ball into channels, hold it tight at the back and rely on set pieces and corners, is this how he was with you guys?

Was the football "failry dull" on the great scheme of thing? not bein critical its just that Swindon fans seem to have a need to witness good football as well as winning games, we were spoiled by Hoddle, Ardiles and to a lesser extent Steve McMahon and Paolo Di Canio who all played attacking football with passing and creating lots of chances often at the expense of defending.

What should we be expecting football wise? what are his obvious weaknesses? does he have 1 tactic that he relies upon no matter what happens on the pitch (Flitcroft style) what are his substitutions like? and his man management style? does he engage with fans in post and pre match chats or does he criticise the fans (Flitcroft style)?

We are impressed that Lee Power acted quickly in appointing Brown (unlike our neighbours Poxford who have taken 7 weeks so far!) and Brown is on a no lose situation really, if we get promoted or at least mount a challenge for the play offs then he will be with us next season, if its an unmitigated disaster then he leaves and we appoint a new manager in the Summer, I think 99% of all Swindon fans have written off the play offs now due to our injury crisis really and anything more would be a success, we are easily pleased after the (fairly) successful yet dull as dishwater reign of Flitcroft who insisted on hoofball and lumping it up to a huge target man all the time (we don't have a target man in Norris but he insisted he play as one!).

Anyway sorry for the long post and taking the time to read this if you have!

Any thoughts on his style much appreciated.

I don't think you'll see the best of Brown this season, he didn't do much when he came here mid season and needed transfer window and pre season to put his mark on the team. A lot of our fans don't like Brown but his record here was very good, apart from this season, he improved our league position every year.

Phil does put a lot of emphasis on defence and you will hear the phrase "clean sheet mentality" a lot! He is not like Alladyce in his long ball and percentage play though, our previous manager Paul Sturrock was much more that kind of manager. Phil very much likes to keep possession but this can be a bit backwards and sideways at times and his teams can be a bit slow getting the ball up the pitch. Last season we played some lovely football and I honestly think he brought in the players to do that this season but was let down with the state of our pitch and injuries (one criticism levelled at PB is that he has signed a lot of injury prone players). Overall I'd say he's a very good manager at this level, I'd back you to be successful under him if he's there next season i'll have a bet on you going up.

 

[muffin man]

Thanks Ricky Otto thats pretty much how I thought it wouldbe with him, build on the defence first, did not know so much about the slow build up though as from what I had read he was liek Allardyce in getting the ball forward into the channels quickly and making good use of set pieces.

We have some good passing players (when allowed as Flitcroft didn't like that side of the game) and we have some hard working strikers as well as 3 or 4 players with bags of pace but they were never allowed to use it rather having the ball hoofed at them at 100mph all the time, not their strengths as you can imagine.

I am cautiously otimistic that he can get the best out of our players at his disposal but fear play offs could be out of our reach.

Thanks again.

 

[FarmdogSUFC]

Hello there Southend fans, Swindon fan in peace (as they say)

Just canvassing a few opinions of how Mr Brown was for you guys, obviously I have read through this and seen some good some bad comments but I have a few questions to relay back to Swindon fans really.

First off, I hope you stay up and that somehow we will get promoted and play you next season, we have had some real ding dong battles with you guys over the years. But alas I can't see us going up now due to our vast injury problems with only 2 fit centre backs (Brown signed the dubious Ryan McGivern yesterday to now make that 3) but we are otherwise relying on Purkiss who is 34 soon who is a right back converted just 5 games ago to CB out of necessity, Robertson a 31 year old with less pace than Douglas Bader and Menayese an untried 20 year old on loan from Bristol Rovers.

We have currently have our best keeper Vigeroux out on loan at Waterford (Lee Powers other club) after a fall out with Flitcroft so are relying on 2 other poor keepers, so much so that we have recalled our England U19 keeper Henry from Hampton & Richmond where he was getting some experience and could well throw him in at the deep end again.

We have Banks our best defensive midfielder out for another 2 games with suspension meaning we have to rely on the innefective unable to tackle and pass James Dunne.

Our injury list is extensive with our best 2 centre backs Conroy and Preston out for the season, our other CB Lancashire also out for most of the rest of the season, Hussey our LB on loan from Sheff Utd has just started training after 5 months out, our midfielders Linganzi and McDermott both long term absentees with injury and our on loan midfielder Elsnik nowhere near fitness after a spell out injured.....now you can probably see why Flitcroft decided that now was a great time to jump ship to another promotion hopeful in Mansfield from our faltering promotion bid!

Getting to the point of the post....I know that Brown was schooled under the Allardyce school of percentage football, long ball into channels, hold it tight at the back and rely on set pieces and corners, is this how he was with you guys?

Was the football "failry dull" on the great scheme of thing? not bein critical its just that Swindon fans seem to have a need to witness good football as well as winning games, we were spoiled by Hoddle, Ardiles and to a lesser extent Steve McMahon and Paolo Di Canio who all played attacking football with passing and creating lots of chances often at the expense of defending.

What should we be expecting football wise? what are his obvious weaknesses? does he have 1 tactic that he relies upon no matter what happens on the pitch (Flitcroft style) what are his substitutions like? and his man management style? does he engage with fans in post and pre match chats or does he criticise the fans (Flitcroft style)?

We are impressed that Lee Power acted quickly in appointing Brown (unlike our neighbours Poxford who have taken 7 weeks so far!) and Brown is on a no lose situation really, if we get promoted or at least mount a challenge for the play offs then he will be with us next season, if its an unmitigated disaster then he leaves and we appoint a new manager in the Summer, I think 99% of all Swindon fans have written off the play offs now due to our injury crisis really and anything more would be a success, we are easily pleased after the (fairly) successful yet dull as dishwater reign of Flitcroft who insisted on hoofball and lumping it up to a huge target man all the time (we don't have a target man in Norris but he insisted he play as one!).

Anyway sorry for the long post and taking the time to read this if you have!

Any thoughts on his style much appreciated.

Agree with RO on the first bit, you won't see an immediate impact IMO. He needs a pre season and his own stamp on things before you notice any real change. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the start of his first full season here. We seemed to play a bit of football and was a real change from what we had seen at the time. We slightly changed to a more direct style after a poor run and this became his main style throughout his time here.

I disagree with RO on the second, as I actually think his style is pretty much hoof percentage football but it was effective for most of his time here so I'd say give him a chance. If you can get a decent target man in your side (Barry Corr) then you'll certainly have a chance of promotion under him. Last season when the team were flying was probably some of the most entertaining football I've seen so he can get his teams to play no doubt. You'll also rarely see the other team outwork you as for the most part a PB team are workmanlike.

He's also had his fair share of critics here, and rightly so. Banished our club captain Adam Barrett, fell out with numerous players, had training ground bust ups, changing room bust ups, you name it, he's had a go at it. You can also forget getting past the first round of any cup competition you enter as well.

I'd say his main weaknesses are not having a plan b, a marmite style man-management, can't keep his mouth shut and paying too much attention to the opposition. Oh, and he loves himself.

Overall though, you could do a lot worse than PB put it that way.

 

[buffalowolf]

He done bloody well while he was here ,Injuries and Nile Ranger caused his downfall this season, Give him a preseason to get his own team and im positive you will be in the promotion chasing next season. Yes he speaks his mind sometimes to his own detriment im afraid, but you certainly will improve under him and hopefully be in league 1 after next season, shame of it is though we will be in the championship.You want a decent target man come after MAF at our club ,he maybe old but plays like hes in his mid 20s not mid 30s ,dosent score a lot off goals though ,but is very clever.

 

[RHB]

The chances are he will come in and your players will do the 'new manager got to impress him' dance. There's not long to go to the end of the season so he just might get you over the play-offs line, failing that you will have a very near miss attempt. Before this season started most of us thought he had put together a squad capable of an auto place to the Championship, our Chairman certainly did as he backed Brown to the hilt financially. Last season, as other have said, we played some delightful stuff at times but we still contrived to blow it at the end.

Long term Injuries and behind the scenes stuff did for him here this season. For whatever reason certain players didn't hit it off with him and eventually the squad's form suffered. Give him a little time and he will get you out of the swamp that is FL2, but he is the nearest thing to marmite man I have ever seen at Southend.

 

[AndyT]

I very rarely felt we played long ball football under PB. Sometimes we mixed it up a little. This season we went a little bit more direct, but that was mainly due to the pitch at RH.

If anything, we overplayed on the ground and gave the ball away in tight areas or where we could be counter-attacked.

We also scored some wonderful goals playing neat passing football. I can think of many like that, but hardly any where we lumped it up to someone.

I also think it was a myth that we sat back. Yes, at times we would come under pressure, so it would look like we had chosen to go defensive, but in essence we tried to play on the front foot.

If you have the players that fit a hard working passing system and the pitch is OK at Swindon, you might be pleasantly surprised that the style of football will be more entertaining than you think and I definitely wouldn't rule out the play-offs. They really are up for grabs for anyone in the top half of the division.

 

[jarvisyeh]

The negatives are

1) His man management. According to people on here he seemed to fall out with a fair few players who then got shipped out never to be seen again.
2) When the chips are down it all seemed to fall apart. I remember commenting on how Preston fans said that once the bad form hit he could not stop it, this seemed evident with us too. The long spells of bad form happened in each of our league one seasons.
3) Can sometimes forget his teams strengths to focus on the oppositions weaknesses. Sometimes this worked, often we ended up losing a game we really should have won.

The positives are

1) He can build a team that works hard and has the ability to play some decent football.
2) When the team is on a roll he seems very good at keeping that roll going, such as the form we had at the end of our promotion winning season. The Morecambe game aside (An example of forgetting our strengths) we did so well, even taking our form in to the play offs.!


A side note

People often say he signs old injured players, he did for us, however I’m not sure how much of that was down to him. I’m not privy to any inside information so it could have been all him but I always felt like despite the backing of our chairman, to a certain extent he still had one hand tied behind his back. Will be interesting to see what players he signs if he does stay on past this season.
He definitely favoured the experienced players over the untried but he brought in players like Coker who is now captain and helped to develop Leonard in to a commanding midfield player.

 

[Ozzer]

Agree with RO on the first bit, you won't see an immediate impact IMO. He needs a pre season and his own stamp on things before you notice any real change. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the start of his first full season here. We seemed to play a bit of football and was a real change from what we had seen at the time. We slightly changed to a more direct style after a poor run and this became his main style throughout his time here.

I disagree with RO on the second, as I actually think his style is pretty much hoof percentage football but it was effective for most of his time here so I'd say give him a chance. If you can get a decent target man in your side (Barry Corr) then you'll certainly have a chance of promotion under him. Last season when the team were flying was probably some of the most entertaining football I've seen so he can get his teams to play no doubt. You'll also rarely see the other team outwork you as for the most part a PB team are workmanlike.

He's also had his fair share of critics here, and rightly so. Banished our club captain Adam Barrett, fell out with numerous players, had training ground bust ups, changing room bust ups, you name it, he's had a go at it. You can also forget getting past the first round of any cup competition you enter as well.

I'd say his main weaknesses are not having a plan b, a marmite style man-management, can't keep his mouth shut and paying too much attention to the opposition. Oh, and he loves himself.

Overall though, you could do a lot worse than PB put it that way.

Pretty much agree with all of that. Looking at it objectively, he got us promoted but never set the world alight. But for some accurate pens and saves from Dan B, it could easily be us still in Lge 2 and Wycombe in our spot. It will be interesting to see how he gets on at Swindon.

 

[rigsby]

What we think of PB won't make any difference he's only signed for 10 games so Swindon can decide for themselves. Looking at the table, Swindon have conceded more than anyone else in the top half but as they point out that's mainly to do with injuries.

We are only in L1 because back in 2015 we won 7 games in a row in the month of April without conceding a goal. He hardly has much time to change things but If PB gets them in the play-offs then good luck to them.

If he stays for next season its worth remembering that his budget with us in L2 was less then half of what Di Canio had when he won L2.

Forget Allardyce we didn't play long ball football, in fact far to often we over passed in the last third and we weren't very good at set pieces, defending or attacking.

What you will get from PB is 100% commitment and a genuine respect for the fans. He may well dress smart and look the part but one thing he has not forgot is his journey up. He did play over 600 games, starting at Hartlepool and Halifax where he used to have to work as an electrician in the afternoons and evenings. You won't find many fans unhappy with anything he did regards the community or for charity etc.

Yes he fell out with one or two but he certainly doesn't suffer fools and cheats. We have had far to many of them at Southend over the years so I had no problem with him moving people on. Not one of them has proved PB wrong so far.

If you miss out this year and he stays I might have a little flutter on Swindon next season.

 

[muffin man]

Again - many thanks it all sounds fairly positive after our last manager who was another marmite manager, he didn't make many friends at Swindon even though our away form was almost as good as Man City at home our form was almost relegation standard, certainly up till Christmas.

It all sounds fairly positive so heres hoping for a successful reign, fingers crossed for a good season for both of us, you could still make the play offs but at minimum you seem well clear of any relegation battle.

Most Town fans loved Big Bad Barry Corr when he was with us a fair few years ago but his shoulders were made of balsa wood, if he stayed fit he would have been a real star performer for us.

Oh and by the way can we have Simon Cox back? he is such a cult hero at Swindon, he scored 2 absolute worldy goals for us (as well as many other good goals) his goals vs Walsall at the County Ground and in a friendly vs Fenerbahce were outstanding, check youtube if you haven't seen them!

I hope hes doing well for you, he doesnt seem to score quite as many as he did for us but he is an outstanding footballer IMO and would welcome him back.

All the best for the rest of the season.

 

[Ozzer]

What we think of PB won't make any difference he's only signed for 10 games so Swindon can decide for themselves. Looking at the table, Swindon have conceded more than anyone else in the top half but as they point out that's mainly to do with injuries.

We are only in L1 because back in 2015 we won 7 games in a row in the month of April without conceding a goal. He hardly has much time to change things but If PB gets them in the play-offs then good luck to them.

If he stays for next season its worth remembering that his budget with us in L2 was less then half of what Di Canio had when he won L2.

Forget Allardyce we didn't play long ball football, in fact far to often we over passed in the last third and we weren't very good at set pieces, defending or attacking.

What you will get from PB is 100% commitment and a genuine respect for the fans. He may well dress smart and look the part but one thing he has not forgot is his journey up. He did play over 600 games, starting at Hartlepool and Halifax where he used to have to work as an electrician in the afternoons and evenings. You won't find many fans unhappy with anything he did regards the community or for charity etc.

Yes he fell out with one or two but he certainly doesn't suffer fools and cheats. We have had far to many of them at Southend over the years so I had no problem with him moving people on. Not one of them has proved PB wrong so far.

If you miss out this year and he stays I might have a little flutter on Swindon next season.

We are in League 1 because we won the lottery of a penalty competition.