Planet Swans ArchivesI’ve read a lot on here about the £1,000,000 or so splashed on transfer fee alone by KJ in the past year, and the poor return on it.
However, in my eyes, the lack of fitness, continued defensive frailties and poor organisation does KJ more damage than anything else, including the alleged poor return on money spent. One of the reasons the board chose him was that he was perceived as one of the new breed of young modern managers who concentrated on getting players super fit, controlling diet, getting players well-drilled and organised with use of modern techniques and ‘theory’.
In short, everything Brian Flynn was seen as not being. This was KJ’s manifesto. I remember Jenkins saying how impressed the board were when Kenny came to his interview armed with detailed analysis on each member of our squad and their strengths and weaknesses. It was goodbye old-school Flynn, and hello the brave new world of modernity.
Football is a science after all………. Flynn may have had the better eye for a player and better contacts in the game as well as being a ‘player’s manager’, but a modern manager like KJ – an Argos version of Ian Dowie – was the man who could whip any old bunch of jokers into a lean, mean hard working tactical machine. With the talent in our squad combined with Kenny ‘David Moyes’ Jackett, we’d be laughing all the way to the bank (to ask for a loan to pay our scouser’s wages).
Things seemed to be going to plan in the 1st season. Expectations were high, but results, if not always performances, were satisfying those expectations. The defence was shored up and we became hard to beat – a novel change of events given the preceding seasons. Increased levels of fitness seemed a myth in my eyes. People kept going on about how it must be the case, but they seemed to be pointing at something they wanted to see rather than did see.
I saw little increase in fitness, but an increase in muscle, movement and cynical football. It worked in the end though. Marvellous. The whole question of fitness was given huge publicity by the arrival at 05/06 pre-season training of a slim, muscular crew-cutted man purporting to be Lee Trundle. DNA analysis and a check of dental records proved that it was indeed the man we signed from Wrexham. KJ was a genius! If he can slim down Trundle he can do anything!
The fitness of the players was said to have improved dramatically over the summer, and this was put mainly down to the influence of RAF instructor Craig Gill. Famed porkers such as O’Leary looked fit, and another piece in out modernising jigsaw seemed to be in place. However, I’m unsure as to how much we can credit Gill with, as I have not been able to find out when he joined us. If he joined in the 04/05 season then I’d have to have doubts over his impact, as we didn’t look much fitter during that season than before.
If he arrived during the close season of 2005 then maybe there is a lot to it. After all, it was after he left in Autumn 2005 that our slump started and there were moans about the players looking lethargic. Was Gill replaced? If not, why not? If he was, then we can conclude that the replacement was either not up to the job, Gill was a one-off fitness genius, or maybe concentrating on that role in our search for answers is a red herring.
So many other factors played a part in our blistering start to last season. Pinning it on Craig Gill is too simplistic. I’m sure he played a part, but not to the make or break proportions some have suggested. Should we get him back when he returns from duty? Sure, can’t do any harm, but maintaining a high standard of fitness is not some elusive mystery idea. Standards can be maintained by any competent coaching set-up without the need of the bleedin army.
There seemed to be more than just fitness affecting the team during our poor second half of last season. Millions of theories abound, but complacency, allied to the disruption to the squad in January seem the overriding factors, with more than just a hint of ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ about us as the new stadium factor and the warm cosy summer months faded into the distance to be replaced by cold gritty winter battles. So far this season we’ve been far too inconsistent to say make any judgements on where the season will go.
But the type of team unit Kenny Jackett envisages in his mind is not the team that is taking the field for more than the odd game. His biggest danger is his inability to get the players to do what he wants them to do. Kenny is no mug. Believe it or not, I’d wager he knows more about football than all the armchair ‘it’s all so simple’ fans on here who brutally castigate him over every word and act.
He knows what he wants, and how we can win games, but if he continues to fail to get that across to the players for 90 minutes then he’ll be gone. If he can get them organized and motivated, then we’ll be ok. Time is running out though given our egocentric, restless chairman. At the moment, Kenny is on very shaky ground as he is in danger of failing in his core areas.
Those areas that set him apart as a modern manager, those areas that got him the job in the first place – player fitness, player organisation, a hard to beat unit, tactical awareness and ‘win at all costs’ football. If he continues to fail in these areas what will we be left with?
A manager who’s become Brian Flynn but minus the transfer skills? Ouch!
