Michael Jolley and the 3rd round of the Cups.

First of all, I’d take issue with a couple of comments in above posts. The idea that Lennie Lawrence gets a red cross when he took us to the top of the championship, and victory over Liverpool at Anfield is, at best, harsh, and at worst, crackers, especially when you think of how cr@p the structure/budget of the club was in comparison to rivals.

Secondly, the notion that Michael Jolley was shocking tactically, and the most ‘anti football’ manager we’ve had I find ludicrous.
Jolley has the highest level UEFA coaching licence and can speak eloquently about the game, systems, strategy etc. He’d probably be better deployed working with top level players where his directions can actually be implemented by players who are technically capable of it.

I really liked Jolley. I really wanted him to do well. Articulate, honest and impressive, I thought he did brilliantly in that first half of his tenure, even though he had some bang average players, a poor budget and sub standard facilities. I was astounded by his tirade at RH. I just didn’t see him as that kind of character. Maybe he had a point in some of that, maybe he was way out of order, but he effectively sacked himself because of it. However, if we didn’t have Fenty and a particular ethos strangling the club, he’d have had a sporting chance. In reality, his hands were tied and he was never going to achieve anything here because of that. I see him as a real asset as an U23 coach at a top level club, more realistically.

Quoted from chaos33

First of all, I’d take issue with a couple of comments in above posts. The idea that Lennie Lawrence gets a red cross when he took us to the top of the championship, and victory over Liverpool at Anfield is, at best, harsh, and at worst, crackers, especially when you think of how cr@p the structure/budget of the club was in comparison to rivals.

The debate was about leaving us in a better shape than when they arrived so memories like Liverpool and being top of the Championship in the middle of it fall by the wayside. Paul Groves performed a miracle keeping that Lawrence squad up in 2002. I accept it's harsh but it's also hard to argue that we were worse when he left than when he came in; although I accept there are a lot of reasons for that.

AB III left us with Matt Heywood as captain, so he can't possibly have left us in better shape!

This thread is like a Soviet re writing of history. People on here were baying for him to get sacked and abused him to hell and back.

Yes there were a few good days, but a lot of bad ones. A long run of defeats that seemed never ending....

Quoted from MarinerRob

the sheer ecstasy when Town scored the wining goal against Notts County by Jamille Matt deep into extra time to secure our place in League Two.

Even though I wrote that I still get that highly emotional feeling remembering that. Close to the feeling when Nathan scored the third goal at Wembley.

Quoted from headingly_mariner

He was a shocking manager, tactically possibly the most anti-football manager I can remember.
His time at Barrow also shows what a total crackpot he was.

Anyone who’s ever been in a management role at a company would have met a Michael Jolley type. Talks a good game when it matters (in meetings and job interviews), but is in reality useless and a bullish!tter.

It says it all that Fenty never worked him out whilst the Barrow board took about a month to reaise what he was really like.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

but is in reality useless and a bullish!tter..

Where was he on the Runaway scale - no where near! Runaway took that to a whole new level.

Quoted from MarinerRob

Where was he on the Runaway scale - no where near! Runaway took that to a whole new level.

Personally I’m inclined to believe IH had a mental breakdown during COVID. Unfortunately he had been put in a bizarre position of total authority on all footballing matters and nobody realised. Well maybe his assistant did and that’s why IH sacked him.

Another manager who’s time here was beset with rumours about problems behind the scenes and just outright bullshít from some people. I can remember the rumour that he only got the job because of the involvement of his dad at boardroom level or something similar, this despite his dad being long dead in reality. Or the suggestion that he himself had basically paid for his own job through wealth accumulated on Wall St, even though he held a fairly junior role for a small period of time.

Rumours about groups of senior players not respecting him & ignoring his during training which, looking at who was in the squad at the time, I could fully believe. He did seem to ride on the back of 1 decent result against Malmo (was it?) for a few years mind, and don’t forget his rant came after getting humped 4-0 at home against Orient.

Did Jolley keep us up or was it a combination of a dramatic goal by Matt, Mitch Rose penalties and probably Macca' best season? Benefit of the doubt here as I think under Slade we'd have died on our backside before we inevitably dd.

One thing he did do when he arrived was to bring a bit of feelgood and positivity after the chaos of Bignot's cameo and the negativity of Slade. He was visible, approachable, open and seemed to bring fresh perspective.

On the pitch it was a bit mixed but it felt like he was doing what he could with what he had, he also brought in a few decent additions in Fox, RHJ, Embleton and Hess but the fact he had a Fenty budget meant he also had to settle for the likes of Hanson, Cook, Green and Welsh who all for different stories never made a telling impact.  

Before he left I think he realised the squad was actually weak and he went a bit negative as I think he'd put a lot of faith in playing to Hanson who just couldn't be relied on. Off the pitch you could see he was struggling as well especially in the media, his Mrs was also feeling the strain as she insisted on blocking anyone on twitter who dared to criticize.

I think some form of meltdown was inevitable and the volley of abuse he gave Matt Dean and John Tondour was pretty poor and I think it was unacceptable, I would love to know though who felt so what do they call it? "woke" that they had to leak it to the media.      

Clearly he has/has ambition but it always looked like he lacked a mentor though I'm led to believe that he was starting to build a relationship with Adkins who he could have learned some good stuff from. Maybe he needed to work for someone experienced in a bigger management structure and bide his time but as he has no playing career that kind of role is difficult to land.    

Not sure where he is now but I'd assume his proffessional career as a manager has now come to an end unless he's working in a developing nation somewhere.