MJ pre-Colchester interview

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p076sjt6

Gaffer sounds like he's getting a bit cheesed off with things at the moment.  

Summary:

• No new injuries.  Ahkeem Rose has started training again.  Jordan Cook might return to the matchday squad before the end of the season.  Öhman unlikely.
  
• Wes Thomas situation is unchanged.  Wants to prioritise players who will be here next season.
  
• No contracts offered yet.
  
• Max Wright likely to be involved with the first team next season.  Says he has impressed at Boston.
  
• Avoided question on whether he would look to replace Adam Forrest (fitness coach) in the summer.  
  
• Emphasises slight progress this season - avoided a relegation battle and threatened play-offs for six weeks.  Wouldn't be drawn on whether he has outperformed the budget.
  
• Praised young players for dealing with 'heavy criticism'.
  
• When asked "What's your biggest frustration at the moment?", he replied "The length of this interview is probably the biggest frustration... you've asked me three questions already that you asked me two weeks ago."  Capped off a slightly edgy interview.
  
• Colchester were one of the better footballing sides to play at BP.  Praised their academy setup.
  

If you listen to the interview on the iFollow it is in a completely different tone. I get the feeling MJ isn't a big fan of RH and why would he? After all it was they who broke the Wes Thomas story which was and still is an internal matter.

When asked "What's your biggest frustration at the moment?", he replied "The length of this interview is probably the biggest frustration... you've asked me three questions already that you asked me two weeks ago."

No excuses for this. Get a grip Michael, it's part and parcel of being a manager.

I propose that this Q&A session be hosted by a Town fan each week. Try telling someone who's been to the other end of the country, spent a packet to watch a non-event as Town splutter and fail to do their stuff once more that YOU'RE a bit fed up.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

If you listen to the interview on the iFollow it is in a completely different tone. I get the feeling MJ isn't a big fan of RH and why would he? After all it was they who broke the Wes Thomas story which was and still is an internal matter.

Radio Humberside are a media/entertainment/ media company so it is their job to report on news, if when a Jolley worked in the city earning his millions and he Financial Times new about a takeover but didn't report it would he have been happy with them?

Quoted from Gaffer58

Radio Humberside are a media/entertainment/ media company so it is their job to report on news, if when a Jolley worked in the city earning his millions and he Financial Times new about a takeover but didn't report it would he have been happy with them?

Exactly. Being media-savvy seems to be a real challenge for the people at BP.

Some of these interviews are like PM questions they never answer a question just skirt round and get on the offence,

So if you do not answer the question they will ask  it time and time again,

It's their job.

These interviews are a two edged sword. Jolley used them relentlessly when he was first appointed as part of his PR initiatives. But if you go back to those days he actually said very little of substance about players, playing style or budgets. Nobody challenged him though because his stock was so high with the fans and everyone was happy to give him some latitude.

Now things are a bit more fraught with performances being criticised and knowing that he cannot say out loud the real reasons for that, he is bound to be fractious when questioned about it.

Tough poop on him not liking questions. its part of the job to handle it. Got a strange feeling he wont be here much longer if things dont improve

I find it bizarre how any criticism of MJ on social media is met by an instant shutting down by a small but noisy percentage of fans. It's almost cult like. I'm not for a second suggesting we get rid of him or that he's been poor but when some fans just will not accept any criticism of him at all, it's rather odd.

He did an excellent job last season in keeping us up. There is also no doubt that he is working with a poor budget. However, our budget is probably in line with where we are in the table so he's pretty much par for the course, nothing more. He has made mistakes, not least in his recruitment in the summer when he didn't buy a single player capable of playing wing back when he was clearly planning on using a 3-5-2 and spent all pre-season practicing that formation. He also gave himself virtually no room for tactical changes by not having a single recognised wide midfielder or winger in the squad. He's made us reasonably solid at the back but only scoring more than once in 8 league games is pathetic, even if you have a poor budget. It's not even just a lack of a "20 goal striker", we're not creating chances and we're not even utilising set pieces which is usually crucial if you're hampered by a low budget. We've also not really had a notable development of a playing style even in the last few weeks when we've had virtually nothing to play for, if anything we've regressed recently  from the level we were playing at in November and January. What's particularly weird is the playing of players like Collins still who I really hope isn't given another contract given that he'll turn 39 before the start of next season. He's been a good player but his age is definitely showing, anything with pace and he's done for.

MJ has done alright this season in his first full season as a manager but he's got plenty to prove next season and he's made a lot of mistakes which he'll have to learn from or he'll be back coaching kids again.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

These interviews are a two edged sword. Jolley used them relentlessly when he was first appointed as part of his PR initiatives. But if you go back to those days he actually said very little of substance about players, playing style or budgets. Nobody challenged him though because his stock was so high with the fans and everyone was happy to give him some latitude.

Now things are a bit more fraught with performances being criticised and knowing that he cannot say out loud the real reasons for that, he is bound to be fractious when questioned about it.

I think your final sentence is key. Like any manager, Jolley is having to play the game and avoid speaking candidly about the budget/resources available to him, which, I think, exists as frustration and anger, hidden in the subtext of what he says and doesn't say. Only underlines the point that everyone knows - we will have to actually invest some money if we want to avoid ploughing the dismal, go-nowhere survivalism furrow year on year, which is all too evident in every aspect of what we're doing as a club.

On the BBC app, the headline states “I’m not frustrated at all” but the content has frustration running right through it. He needs and wants a bigger pot of money to make a success of GTFC and I sense he now realises what frustrates the fans as well as previous incumbents. He is just the latest in a long line of managers who will not be able to achieve what they want.

If the interviewer was Matt Dean then i dont blame Jolley for getting drunk off...he irritates the fck out of me with his style of interviewing, very quick to fire in questions mid way through an answer and tends to reword a question several times in the same interview...always looking to trip up his subject IMO.

He's cut off at the knees and he knows it. Thing is I don't think he has any choice but to plow on after leaving his last job who would give him a third crack at management with no discernible achievement.

The club should back him for fecks sake, this is now the third manager in three years who has intermated that we don't have the required back room infrastructure.

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

He's cut off at the knees and he knows it. Thing is I don't think he has any choice but to plow on after leaving his last job who would give him a third crack at management with no discernible achievement.

The club should back him for fecks sake, this is now the third manager in three years who has intermated that we don't have the required back room infrastructure.

This.

Absolutely agree

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

He's cut off at the knees and he knows it. Thing is I don't think he has any choice but to plow on after leaving his last job who would give him a third crack at management with no discernible achievement.

The club should back him for fecks sake, this is now the third manager in three years who has intermated that we don't have the required back room infrastructure.

Catch 22 situation, without forward-thinking business acumen from the board, the budget will not grow and remain as it is.  The only other option is for JF not to take his annual £200k out of the club and pump more money in. We then becomes less sustainable and less likely to get rid of JF.

We either need a "football fortune" or a board who know how to grow a business.

Quoted from TheRealJohnLewis

Catch 22 situation, without forward-thinking business acumen from the board, the budget will not grow and remain as it is.  The only other option is for JF not to take his annual £200k out of the club and pump more money in. We then becomes less sustainable and less likely to get rid of JF.

We either need a "football fortune" or a board who know how to grow a business.

Whilst I totally agree, this isn’t new, is it? Even John Fenty has said we are looking for football fortune, well I think he should have worked out by now that it doesn’t grow on trees.

I feel sorry for him.  He's doing the best with limited resources and a club organisation that isn't very commercially-minded or fit for purpose.

That said, and even though we're on a bad run at the moment, we really do need to support him.  He's a young manager in his first full season managing a club.  It's a different skill set to just coaching players and teams within a wider structure, and though he managed in Sweden (part of a season) and had a ten game blitz with us last season, he's still getting used to things like managing and balancing a squad, conducting a transfer window and thinking about the next one, dealing with media, managing supporter expectations, working with a domineering Chairman, facing criticism, dealing with difficult and disruptive players.  All of this on top of being frustrated at not finding a working combination of players and formation.

So he is frustrated and he will make mistakes, but I still think he has the right stuff to take us on and needs our support.  He's bringing youth players through and will continue to do so.  We've had a couple of good runs and have a decent core of a squad.  We've not been in danger of relegation and even up to February were in touch with the playoffs.

The worrying part is that it sounds like he's again being denied the support staff he needs and that facilities and location are proving a barrier to recruitment.  The club need to take a serious look at how we mitigate these factors or we'll always struggle.  I liked Jolley's insistence that players live in the area but surely if we're missing out on some people who don't want to uproot their families we need to have a workable solution that allows them to live further afield and maybe spend Wednesday to Saturday in Grimsby.  Let's give him what he needs in terms of equipment and backroom support.

A thread about a storm in a tea cup...... posts above from Mariner 91 & Hackney Haddock are bang on for me.

MJ is a young manager making mistakes and learning his trade at a club with minimal resource, what do people inc the media expect? Much more experienced managers are equally as frank and make numerous mistakes throughout the season.

Remember MJs got a bit of form from last season like when he asked Dave Burns “I’m sorry what’s your name?” after the Wycombe game and followed it up with “Pirlos wasn’t available for selection today” personally I think it’s quite funny.

Over this season he’s done a decent job on the whole e.g. trying to build a squad that’s not completely based upon 1 year journeymen and has a mix of longer term deals and youngsters coming through. A job that’s been done like many clubs in the lower part of L2 on a tight budget.

I just hope he never cups his ear..... that will send many of the doom mongers completely into overload.

It feels like the same old people are getting on the managers back because we’re not playing champagne football or after nearly going down last year in contention for promotion over Easter.

MJ has a plan and should be allowed to get on with it to be honest.

Quoted from HackneyHaddock

I feel sorry for him.  He's doing the best with limited resources and a club organisation that isn't very commercially-minded or fit for purpose.

That said, and even though we're on a bad run at the moment, we really do need to support him.  He's a young manager in his first full season managing a club.  It's a different skill set to just coaching players and teams within a wider structure, and though he managed in Sweden (part of a season) and had a ten game blitz with us last season, he's still getting used to things like managing and balancing a squad, conducting a transfer window and thinking about the next one, dealing with media, managing supporter expectations, working with a domineering Chairman, facing criticism, dealing with difficult and disruptive players.  All of this on top of being frustrated at not finding a working combination of players and formation.

So he is frustrated and he will make mistakes, but I still think he has the right stuff to take us on and needs our support.  He's bringing youth players through and will continue to do so.  We've had a couple of good runs and have a decent core of a squad.  We've not been in danger of relegation and even up to February were in touch with the playoffs.

The worrying part is that it sounds like he's again being denied the support staff he needs and that facilities and location are proving a barrier to recruitment.  The club need to take a serious look at how we mitigate these factors or we'll always struggle.  I liked Jolley's insistence that players live in the area but surely if we're missing out on some people who don't want to uproot their families we need to have a workable solution that allows them to live further afield and maybe spend Wednesday to Saturday in Grimsby.  Let's give him what he needs in terms of equipment and backroom support.

I can understand his frustrations but I do not feel sorry for him. Here is a bloke who has mapped out his career very carefully and will have done his homework before coming to this job. Everyone and his dog knows that Hurst left because of budget and the only players Bignot and Slade could get were cheap or loanees. So he knew full well what Fenty’s position is when it comes to funding. While he was doing OK it was OK. But once the cracks began to show in the side it was not OK so he feels miffed. Understandable ....... but he ain’t the only manager to feel like that.

Personally I do not think he is a great manager. He could be an asset to a club, including Town in this, as a Football Director in overall control of that side of a club like Huddersfield and Norwich have done with Stuart Webber, working with a head coach who knows more about actual football game play and team building.

when he asked Dave Burns “I’m sorry what’s your name?” after the Wycombe game and followed it up with “Pirlos wasn’t available for selection today” personally I think it’s quite funny.

Yes, that's humour. Not at all comparable to getting arsey with the local media as in this case. I'm hoping MJ was just having an offday so no storms/teacups to see here but I have the right to remain vigilant and see if the next step in the erosion of our once great club is happening, a fresh faced manager full of ideas and vigour slowly worn down by the out of date, disrespectful and frankly cantankerous Fenty board.

More unnecessary and distracting crankiness for a dismayed and jaded fanbase to digest...
MJ has a plan and should be allowed to get on with it to be honest.

Quoted from RoboCod

when he asked Dave Burns “I’m sorry what’s your name?” after the Wycombe game and followed it up with “Pirlos wasn’t available for selection today” personally I think it’s quite funny.

Yes, that's humour. Not at all comparable to getting arsey with the local media as in this case. I'm hoping MJ was just having an offday so no storms/teacups to see here but I have the right to remain vigilant and see if the next step in the erosion of our once great club is happening, a fresh faced manager full of ideas and vigour slowly worn down by the out of date, disrespectful and frankly cantankerous Fenty board.

More unnecessary and distracting crankiness for a dismayed and jaded fanbase to digest...
MJ has a plan and should be allowed to get on with it to be honest.

Almost as cranky as “once great club” quotes.....

I seem to remember driving away from the Wycombe game last season listening to the Dave Burns interview with the impression MJ wasn’t being humorous but it was alright then wasn’t it as we didn’t expect anything?

I guess as the season winds down the conspiracy theorists ramp up their efforts.

Matt Dean has a really interesting interviewing style in that when he asks a question and doesn’t get the answer he tries to rephrase the question which is a bit patronising to the person being interviewed TBH. He also as MJ points out asks the same questions week in week out.

It's obvious the manager has hit the same brick wall that many other managers before him (and some players come to that).

The club is light years behind the rest of football in the 21st century, but a manager eager to make his way in the game would see a club with our tradition and history as a great first step, but then they come up against the immovable object of John Fenty and his "board."

We have no ambition, no plan, no investment and are basically stuck in a time warp unable to go forward. I feel for the manager, but the greater tragedy is that the board cannot even see that they are to blame for the clubs stagnation. They probably feel they are doing a good job. Laughable.

Quoted from TheRealJohnLewis

We either need a "football fortune" or a board who know how to grow a business.

Something like a recent promotion, or sale of a striker to a championship club, maybe?

Lew Chaterley's Lover is spot on - couldn't agree more
We are run like a 1970s fifedom - I'm of an age when I can remember people like Bob Lord at Burnley; ruling the roost  for the sake of 'ruling the roost' and seemingly oblivious to changes in the game etc

99% of success these days (and perhaps it's always been the case) is built upon investment, a bit of luck (Lincoln spring to mind with Cowleys being appointed and 'once-in-a- century' FA Cup run) and good management on and off the pitch... you have to keep moving forward and adapting to changes in the game

I think GTFC managers are under extra pressure - a large section of the supporters remember the 'glory days' under Buckley (Forest have same issue with legacy of Cloughie) and struggle to accept where we are now

Which is an under-funded club (in terms of being able to seriously compete), in a deprived area (hard to attract quality players - as confirmed to me by a leading light in the Mariners Trust), no sign of a new stadium, and a board with a very insular and old-fashioned attitude.

Unless we unearth a few gems in the summer window I cannot reasonably see how we can expect to be anything much better than mid-table for the foreseeable future - although like all fans I remain hopeful and optimistic

I don’t see it as being out of order for Matt Dean to ask awkward questions. I often wish JT were more direct after games.

Similarly, in terms of achievement, I think it’s ok to ask about where we do stand compared to budget. If the limits of the budget is to be a mid table League 2 club then patience will run very thin...I remember Mr Day professing Championship football in 5 years and that was over a year ago!

Quoted from MuddyWaters

I don’t see it as being out of order for Matt Dean to ask awkward questions. I often wish JT were more direct after games.

Similarly, in terms of achievement, I think it’s ok to ask about where we do stand compared to budget. If the limits of the budget is to be a mid table League 2 club then patience will run very thin...I remember Mr Day professing Championship football in 5 years and that was over a year ago!

What Mr Day said is a perfect example, if any were needed, how the board members are completely detached from reality. Not just a bit adrift, but oceans apart.

There is not one shred of evidence to support the claim he made that day. He may well have said we will win the Champions League in a few years; it is difficult to comprehend a board member saying anything like he did, after nearly two decades of being in League 2 and non league and not even making a success of that.

It is beyond reasoning he would say such an idiotic thing, when he himself has done absolutely nothing, ever, to get us one inch closer to any success whatsoever, despite being at our lowest ebb.

We cannot organise ball boys or turnstile operators or a permanent sound system; perhaps Mr Day will come on here and tell us in his own words how we can go from that to have the serious investment of millions of pounds to even get to the upper reaches of league 2?  

It is beyond bizarre what has happened to GTFC. We will never progress until the current board are gone.  

Quoted from Gaffer58

Radio Humberside are a media/entertainment/ media company so it is their job to report on news, if when a Jolley worked in the city earning his millions and he Financial Times new about a takeover but didn't report it would he have been happy with them?

Jolley was never earning 'millions' doubt he was earning six figures either...

Quoted from 139847

Jolley was never earning 'millions' doubt he was earning six figures either...

He’ll soon be earning eff all 😡

Well the post match interview wasn’t any more exciting. How much difference is there between last season and this, what’s going on?