Phil Brown

[Tribal Chief]

Based Phil will have the Harriers soaring.

 

[londonblue]

I quite liked Phil Brown. Any promotion winning Southend manager deserves respect but he was found lacking when he didn’t have money to spend and feel he will struggle at Kidderminster.

Hope I I am wrong.

Indeed. And if we want to realise our slim chance of the playoffs we could do with him succeeding and taking points off other teams.

 

[Strykr]

 

[Mad Cyril]

I remember at the time a Dagenham fan commenting that back then, you needed fresh younger players wanting to make a name for themselves, rather than players in their final season or two?.
Fast forward from then, the Dagger's fan was right?.

In that particular instance yes but they clearly made some very poor life choices.

 

[Tommy2holes]

PB is a poor man's redknapp. Redknapp did the same at Pompey. Got them success but it all came crashing down financially. PB did the same to us.

The signings of Ferdinand, Cox and kightly would probably cover our wage bill for the whole team now. No sell on value at all.

Sign experienced players at the end of the careers on high wages.

We are now light years away from that. Young talented players from the leagues below that can improve and be sold with real value.

Longevity is key

 

[fredheim_holm]

Also worth noting it was Phil who brought in Sam Dalby, which was a very astute signing. If Sam had been signed by John Still & co it would have been one of, if not their most successful (at least judging by career progression).

What I'd give for us to unearth another Sam Dalby now.

 

[Harriers9]

I suppose we're stuck with him so what is his style of play?

Will we still start the game hoping for a 0-0 and go 2-0 down in the first five minutes. Or will he throw the attacking kitchen sink at it?

 

[Blue Yonder]

I suppose we're stuck with him so what is his style of play?

Will we still start the game hoping for a 0-0 and go 2-0 down in the first five minutes. Or will he throw the attacking kitchen sink at it?

There will be no attacking kitchen sink. Neither will there be much effort in scouting the opposition. There will be an over reliance on gnarled experienced (ie knackered) old pros and tactics honed decades ago with Sam Allardyce. It will be every body else’s fault when you lose and every interview will be self serving drivel.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I suppose we're stuck with him so what is his style of play?

Will we still start the game hoping for a 0-0 and go 2-0 down in the first five minutes. Or will he throw the attacking kitchen sink at it?

It's difficult to know what to expect as in his second stint here he was definitely dialling it in. I’d suggest how you set up will likely depend more upon his assistant’s philosophy/style and he’ll just do the big team talks. Historically he was more on the defensive side: he likes a clean sheet mentality, his teams to work hard and to do the sportsmanship stuff like stand in front of a free kick to stop it being taken quickly. His teams were always very streetwise in the dark arts.

Expect victories to be all about him and defeats to be all about the players. Bingo phrases to look out for include “that’s not how a Phil Brown team plays” and “when I was in the Premiership”.

Hopefully it’s only a short term contract and he’s gone before he can cause too much damage. If you want cause for optimism his last three stints in management have only gone 32, 16 and most recently 9 games.

 

[rlb999]

Dean Holdsworth is the technical director at Kiddie. An old Bolton connection there.

 

[Fairport]

'If truth be told' and the players 'bring everything to the party' then the 'clean sheet mentality' means that as long as 'a Phil Brown team doesn't play that way' Kiddie should be OK.

 

[GBJ]

I suppose we're stuck with him so what is his style of play?

Old school and rigid.

On paper, Brown was fairly decent for us first time round. We were regular playoff chasers across two divisions & of course did win the (best) playoff final of all time at Wembley. It’s easy to look back and enjoy those times, as we were relatively successful under Brown. The trouble is, that’s on paper.

The reality is, we were a relatively big fish in a small Lg2 pond when he took over. We had a budget that could rival most of the big lg1 teams and as a collective, we expected results. We coasted. We were ok, without ever really being great. I don’t recall ever playing great football under Brown, aside from the very first few games he took charge.

We flattered to deceive at times and often lacked the belief/ability to really live up to expectations. We seemed to lack that 5th gear that all top teams possess, despite having a really good team on paper.

To me, when it came to big games, we just felt second best with Phil at the helm. The Burton playoff games, the Wycombe game at Wembley, even chasing Millwall for that last playoff place in Lg1, I never really felt we’d do it, despite it being in our own hands at one point.

If those were the good times, the downfall was horrific and Phil had to take his share of the blame as one of the reasons we find ourselves in the NL now. Handing out lucrative contracts to players who were well past their use-by date was criminal.

Financially, our (soon-to-be) ex-chairman will always cop the blame for our current predicament (and rightly so), but it was his naïvety (I’m being generous) which allowed Brown to hamstring us. We stopped bringing players through our youth system, we stopped recruiting young players and we started down a road of planning for today and bollocks to tomorrow. Old names from yesteryear became the norm and if it meant shelling out to ensure their signature, then so be it.

Once things went wrong, he fell out with players, staff and fans quite quickly. He had his favourites, who could get away with things that others couldn’t & he’d verbally (and publicly) destroy anyone who he didn’t like. The team stopped playing for him eventually and inevitably he was sacked.

His second stint in charge was divisive and will not be remembered fondly. He was brought in with 6 games left of a what had been a terrible season in which we were battling relegation. But when Brown came back to save us, he almost seemingly made us worse. The team who had started and continued the season so poorly, who were hampered by an embargo, were clearly unfit, and who were breaking records for being so ****, had somehow tightened up and we had actually become hard to beat. Phil’s man management undid that overnight, and we coasted to relegation in those final 6 games, which included being drubbed by our most hated rivals. It wasn’t his fault though. He said he was gunna drop a bombshell and reveal exactly why we lost that game although several years later we’re still waiting for that excuse Phil.

Relegating us from the football league wasn’t enough though, and Brown decided he’d have another crack at sending the good ship SUFC further down the football pyramid, by staying in place for the beginning of our NL phase. Recruitment was mixed to say the least, and we got off to a very bad start. 2 wins from 10 games which culminated in an humiliating 4-0 battering at the hands of Chesterfield at Roots Hall. That was enough to provoke a pitch invasion & a halt to the game, to demand both Brown and that rat **** Martin leave the club ASAP.

The one thing you’re guaranteed with Brown, is old school methodology. 442, Big nasty cloggers in defence, a winger or two, a box-to-box midfielder and a striker who’ll score you 10 goals per season. If they lose, he’ll punish them in training by making them run. If you win, it’s down to the hard work HE (and they) have put in on the training ground during the week. His style of football is mainly route one, with the hope of midfield following up, but don’t be surprised to see your midfield completely anonymous for large portions of a game.

Oh and I’m sure Nile Ranger will darken your door at some point. He’s Phil’s favourite poison.

Best of luck. You may need it.

 

[Napster]

Once things went wrong, he fell out with players, staff and fans quite quickly. He had his favourites

Rigsby?

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

The one thing you’re guaranteed with Brown, is old school methodology. 442, Big nasty cloggers in defence, a winger or two, a box-to-box midfielder and a striker who’ll score you 10 goals per season.

He wasn’t actually a big 4-4-2 man. He played a lot of 4-5-1 in his first stint and 5-3-2 in his second stint.

 

[Chrisb]

'If truth be told' and the players 'bring everything to the party' then the 'clean sheet mentality' means that as long as 'a Phil Brown team doesn't play that way' Kiddie should be OK.

Let's not forget 'pulling up trees in training'.

 

[Sammy Shrimper]

Let's not forget 'pulling up trees in training'.

Or ’brutally honest’ !!
The cravats will be getting an airing as well his Cotswold Barbour.

 

[BoyWonder2]

. I don’t recall ever playing great football under Brown, aside from the very first few games he took charge

That’s harsh.

Some of the football with Wordsworth, McLaughlin, Cox, Ranger & Fortune linking up was superb for a spell.

Don’t forget the famous half at Bramhall Lane too.

Other than that, a pretty fair assessment.

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

to be honest I don't know why our fans are so negative towards him. he took us up where Sturrock couldn't, playing much better football. allowed the likes of Bentley and Leonard to go from promising youngsters to established first team players who made us a few quid, and we were a late Millwall goal away from the 3rd tier playoffs.

He certainly did fall out with plenty and threw a few under the bus, but we've had worse managers, even if none of them got through as many stories of when they worked with X, Y, and Z big names

 

[Harriers9]

Oh and I’m sure Nile Ranger will darken your door at some point. He’s Phil’s favourite poison.

Best of luck. You may need it.

[Twitter]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1745439191687745659

 

[Avl1983]

to be honest I don't know why our fans are so negative towards him. he took us up where Sturrock couldn't, playing much better football. allowed the likes of Bentley and Leonard to go from promising youngsters to established first team players who made us a few quid, and we were a late Millwall goal away from the 3rd tier playoffs.

He certainly did fall out with plenty and threw a few under the bus, but we've had worse managers, even if none of them got through as many stories of when they worked with X, Y, and Z big names

The arrogance doesn't help with his likeability does it, he hated admitting when he was wrong and his style of play I would say for the majority was dire, I hated sitting on a 1-0 lead every week in his first stint it used to drive me nuts. But he did get us promoted...just!