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Thread: Mad Dog on Team Talk

  1. #11
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    Jun 2003
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    Quote Originally Posted by The_Don_ORiordan View Post
    I think folk seem to have a very short memory when they remember Martin Allen. Away from the pitch he was easily the best manager we’ve ever had. Everyone loved him, he’d turn up at kids birthdays, he made the team walk over the Trent to play the reds, he had them helping houses get renovated for disabled soldiers etc etc. What’s not to like?

    As for on the pitch, it was clear from day one that his speciality was motivation, but when it came to tactics and getting more talented players to work in his system, it was clear he hadn’t a clue.

    His team was one dimensional, and contained many players who would run all day but couldn’t play a ball, and that’s why many of our fans loved him.

    His record was decent for a while, but as Brentford fans told us, he can only take a team so far and his domain is league 2 and the conference.

    He was sacked because the football was awful and we would have dropped like a stone at some point if something hadn’t changed. We had only taken 13 points from 16 games when he was sacked.

    Everything else is just noise.

    Because we had somehow picked up a few points in the last few games, it was seen as a surprise by those who didn’t watch them........

    The bloke is terrific. But as a manager, he doesn’t have it to manage higher than league 2.

    The Sutton fire alarm incident happened as we went into December, lost 4 in a row after that. Something that serious affecting your star player would derail any team. Trew was then putting pressure on him to buy players, presumably one's that Allen didn't think would be right for his team and - as he says in the interview - he was thinking more longer term. We weren't ready to go up that season because we still had high earners on the books who needed to be moved on.

    Trew prematurely spunked a significant amount of money on trying to get into the play-offs, failed, then a year later had next to nothing left with Kiwomya now in charge and saying on Radio Nottingham he regretted buying the club and was now open to offers. Sacking Allen has to be seen as a huge mistake in that context, whether or not he would have eventually got us promoted is another question. He probably wouldn't have done but we wouldn't have sunk like a stone either.

    We'll be able to move on when we eventually recover to being in a similar position as we were then. Until that time, it's the only memories we've got this century of being a half-decent 3rd tier outfit with the majority of the support backing the manager.
    Last edited by upthemaggies; 12-10-2018 at 07:49 AM.

  2. #12
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    Oct 2009
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    6,291
    I still maintain Jude Stirling wasn't as bad as people made him out to be. He was a utility backup player that gave cover for multiple positions but barely played and happened to have a giant throw in. On the few occasions he did play he wasn't horrifically bad, just average, at worst you could say below average but we've had plenty of players that have played a lot more often and been god awful.

  3. #13
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    Feb 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by slack_pie View Post
    I tend to agree. He was a great character - I remember queuing outside ML for my ticket for the Forest cup game and MA drive past, stopped his car in the middle of the busy road, wound down the window and shouted to everyone "What's going on here? Have we got a game coming up?" I can imagine he'd be a bit of a nightmare as well though, especially for RT.

    He was definitely a motivator. He cobbled together a team and managed to get the best out of them, but I'm not sure he's the man for sustained success. Some of his signings were great, like Gavin Mahon, some were rubbish, like his son and the guy who could literally only throw the ball (Jude Sterling?). His biggest success was bringing a good feeling back to the club - something that was massively important at the time. He was then duly sacked at the wrong time, much like Short, Curle and Moniz were.

    Trew had no idea what he was doing.
    Trew, and potentially AH, are blinded by their 5-year plan to the Championship, a goal that you cannot write a business plan for. MA had taken a side that missed relegation by a whisker to the top half of the table at the time of sacking.

    I'm not saying MA was our long term answer, I do enjoy listening to him, and his career to date shows that he's limited in how far he's going to get. Didn't RT say (prior to throwing the towel in) that they were still on good terms?

  4. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by DelroyFacey22 View Post
    I still maintain Jude Stirling wasn't as bad as people made him out to be. He was a utility backup player that gave cover for multiple positions but barely played and happened to have a giant throw in. On the few occasions he did play he wasn't horrifically bad, just average, at worst you could say below average but we've had plenty of players that have played a lot more often and been god awful.
    Didn't he only used to just bring him on late in games when we needed a goal as he could launch it into the box? 8 sub apps and no starts suggests as much. Always remember him being picked up on mic shouting at Alan Judge "you fa[k!ng idiot" for coming short for a throw against Juventus. I think he might have also been brought in for his influence in the dressing room as much as anything else.

  5. #15
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    Feb 2010
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    I can understand the fan love in with MA but I think it is very clear there are two sides to his persona, the side fans love and the real MA. I remember inadvertently getting on the wrong side of him on one occasion and it left a bitter taste in the mouth. However, he remains one of footballs characters for sure.

  6. #16
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    May 2018
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    Quote Originally Posted by ncfcog View Post
    I can understand the fan love in with MA but I think it is very clear there are two sides to his persona, the side fans love and the real MA. I remember inadvertently getting on the wrong side of him on one occasion and it left a bitter taste in the mouth. However, he remains one of footballs characters for sure.
    Yeah, he definitely had two sides! For instance, he'd go on about his wife back home during interviews yet go out with his female assistant/analyst friend to the cinema, now I'm not at all suggesting an inappropriate relationship but just highlighting that he has a media persona as well as his normal one

  7. #17
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    Mar 2006
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    It's a pity Plym pie isn't around any more because he worked at Notts when MA was there, always spoke highly of him to me though.

  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by DelroyFacey22 View Post
    I still maintain Jude Stirling wasn't as bad as people made him out to be. He was a utility backup player that gave cover for multiple positions but barely played and happened to have a giant throw in. On the few occasions he did play he wasn't horrifically bad, just average, at worst you could say below average but we've had plenty of players that have played a lot more often and been god awful.
    Youre having a laugh, Sterling was nothing more than a long thrower. Other than that he was useless..

  9. #19
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    Feb 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by i961pie View Post
    It's a pity Plym pie isn't around any more because he worked at Notts when MA was there, always spoke highly of him to me though.
    Maybe as an employee he couldn't say anything other? And who's to say he's not still around on here? I'll have to ask him now!

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
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    4,323
    MA isn't doing a particularly good job at Chesterfield - close to the relegation places so perhaps he is not that great a manager after all!

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