The NLP says… Our superb gaffers need more respect

By Alex Narey
I had planned to use this column to talk about the weather, and the devastating effect the elements have had on the game this week.
From Steps 1-4, only four matches survived from a possible 138, with little more a trickle making it from the mountain of fixtures in Steps 5-6. But then I thought people would be sick of hearing about the weather, so instead I’d like to highlight the outstanding efforts of the many managers plying their trade in the lower leagues.
The thinking behind this came when I did a phone-in interview with BBC Humberside last week after news had broken linking Macclesfield’s John Askey with the Grimsby job following the sacking of Russell Slade.
During the call, I was asked if Askey’s Herculean efforts this season marked him out as something of a ‘flash in the pan’.
Does his record at Macclesfield really ‘stand’ up? Did he really have the credentials to make the step up to a club some ‘six’ places above his in the football pyramid? What had he really ‘done’ to merit such a wonderful opportunity at Grimsby? Don’t forget, we were talking about a club languishing in the lower reaches of League Two and one that just two years ago was playing its football in the National League.  Do you detect a hint of sarcasm?
Askey’s name wasn’t in the frame for long, the job going this week to Michael Jolley, a 40-year-old Cambridge University graduate with management experience in Sweden and with Burnley’s under-23s.
Jolley may turn out to be an inspired choice, and Grimsby have been down the Non-League manager route before, handing Marcus Bignot the reins in November 2016, only to sack him seven months later – so they know there is talent down here.
But it is starting to irk me slightly when so-called experts come up with the line that a certain manager may not be up to the job because they have no experience of managing in the Football League.
I understand why chairmen are reluctant to take a chance on managers. Unlike a player that will cost next to nothing in the market they are dealing in, there is far more to lose.
Post Jamie Vardy, the scouts are out looking for the next Cinderella story but with managers it’s a different ball game – no chairman wants to fall victim of putting someone in charge of the team knowing his neck will be on the block should it not work out.
But I’m growing tired of hearing clubs say someone hasn’t got the experience to cope with a football environment that is often less tempestuous than what we see in the lower leagues.
Look at the job Askey has done at Macclesfield with such a restricted budget. Look at what Dean Brennan is doing at Hemel Hempstead, or what about Neil Cugley and Gary McCann at Folkestone and Hendon respectively.
And are you trying to tell me that a man with Terry Brown’s infinite knowledge of the game is only good enough to serve the troops in the Southern League with Basingstoke?
Too many Non-League managers are getting pigeon-holed. As I say, I understand the reluctance to employ them but it should never come down to a question of experience.
 
*This article originally featured in The @NonLeaguePaper which is available every Sunday and Monday