
Originally Posted by
upthemaggies
LW succeeded, I think, for reasons they were not expecting, that he had the personality to transcend the restrictions placed upon him and man-manage and inspire the fans as well as the players as if he was a manager in the traditional sense, not just seamlessly filling a space as a cloned jigsaw piece just to hold some corner section together whilst the owners and the recruitment team set about completing the rest of the picture all by themselves.
That the whole thing fell apart once LW was linked and then left for another club revealed the model for what it was and had been since the owners arrived, not adequate to get out of tier 5 (with Ardley and then Burch both failing) and not adequate to challenge in L2 (once LW had left). In that sense the club has fallen short at every step of the current owners reign other than during the period LW was here. LW made all of the difference between success and being left frustrated at missing out.
Clearly they've now had a re-think in terms of recruitment of playing staff, opting for experience. Whether or not they will need to extend the more traditional approach to recruitment to the point of bringing in an experienced manager, or at least one who's played at a professional level, depends on Maynard being able to work with decent L2 standard players (which he hasn't done before) as well as having the nous to navigate the business end of the season and get a promotion challenge over the line (also something he has no prior experience of).