See, this is where people need to engage brain before saying things.
The 2 relegations were in many ways out of his hand. For the first, he had the lowest budget in the CCC to play with and was thus unable to get in the players to keep SUFC up. The second relegation was ultimately out of his hands. Anybody with a brain would realise this. And any other club would, I am sure, be aware of the circumstances surrounding the relegations. It's not just a case of "Oh look, he has 2 relegations on his CV, so he MUST be a **** manager".
His man-management skills were second to none. His players didn't just want to play for the club or the fans. They went out onto the pitch not wanting to disappoint Tilly. He had the vast majority of them on his side, and I know this for a fact, so I am not buying that one!
2 Championship clubs did come knocking on the door asking to speak to him whilst he was here.
Eastwood was not the sole catalyst for Tilson's success. The majority of successful teams have good strikers in their teams. Was Dalglish lucky for signing Shearer at Blackburn? Was Ferguson's success only because he happened to sign van Nistleroy? Or Cantona? Silly comment - successful prmotion winning teams have for the most part a goalscorer. Tilson had a bunch of very good individuals at this level who ALL contributed to the club's rise up the leagues, and Tilson did a fantastic job to motivate them, to bond them, and to get a team spirit and team dynamic instilled which would have been the envy of almost any football club in the country.
Oh, and I'd say he was one of the best players of the decade at Southend.
As someone said, what does someone have to do to be a legend? He gave years and years of service to this club, he was a very good player with a cultured left foot. He could have left numerous times when he was on the bench in the mid-90s and didn't. It took Whelan to boot him out to get him to leave, and when he did leave in 1997, he was devastated. He came back first chance he had, started as a youth team coach and held almost every position possible on his way to becoming manager. When he did get that job, he gave 7 years of excellent service, brought us success, had several clubs come in for him and could have left but didn't, made it good to be a Southend fan again, only to have all of his hard work torn to shreds by Ron Martin. Martin made Tilson look like an idiot last year. But he still battled on bravely until he got the sack. He told me that he would never leave 'his' club of his own accord and that that '*******' Martin would have to drive him out if he wanted him gone. When it did eventually happen, he was on the phone to my dad in tears, he was so upset. He loves this club, absolutely loves it, and its fans. What more does the poor guy have to do to be labelled a 'legend'?
