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26-05-2007, 17:20
We’ve had four new football managers to get to know on our patch this season and there’s no question that Albion’s Tony Mowbray remains the most remote of the quartet, writes Martin Swain.
Martin O’Neill has charmed the birds out of the trees at Villa Park, Richard Money took a welcome pack to Walsall which contained promotion while Wolves fans are already petitioning for Mick McCarthy to be given the freedom of the city.
But the man born on the day JFK was assassinated remains a far more difficult character to fix in the crosshairs of our football’s focus - even, it seems, for his players.
Curtis Davies was asked by one press man yesterday if he could throw any further light on the man behind that stern mask Mowbray wears to work and a little smile crossed the lips of the Baggies articulate young captain before he answered.
“He’s totally the same with us as he is with you,”said Davies. “We don’t get much out of the gaffer other than what we need to hear.
“If he has something to say then he will say it. He has a little bit of banter but that’s all. But he gets the best out of us which you have seen. We’ve not seem him lose his temper. He doesn’t do that but if he has a criticism he says it in his own way.”
Respect for Mowbray very clearly shaped Davies’ words but it was if he, too, was looking forward to seeing his manager let the mask slip a little more. You sense that probably reflects the views of the Baggies fans too.
There’s a simple but very accurate test to guage a manager’s relationship with his public - how many times they sing his name.
Money, McCarthy and O’Neill have no problems on that score as they have been swiftly grafted on to those “red-and-white/claret and blue/ gold and black army”songs.
But Mowbray has yet to enjoy the same affection from the Brummie Road Enders and much of that will be due to the manager’s fairly dour public face as his team’s haphazard progress to this dramatic moment in their season.
Perhaps he is not yet fully relaxed into the job or indeed this area. It’s the first time he’s earned his corn in the Midlands and his chairman Jeremy Peace can be a difficult guy to work with as Gary Megson and Bryan Robson will testify.
And Mowbray is still working with someone else’s players. Not for the first time since he took on the job in October, he yesterday gave the distinct impression of a manager itching to further shape this Baggies squad into his own image. If the signings prove to be as successful as Dean Kiely and Robert Koren, two modest signings who have become major figures for the team since their January arrivals, then that is something supporters should be excited about and not fearful of.
But most of all, those same fans are waiting to, well, simply like as well as respect the man and there is no doubt that Monday’s dramatic setting will clinch a major PR coup for Mowbray as well as a promotion triumph if it goes as we all hope. Tomorrow will be Mowbray’s 226th day in charge and most Albion fans are none the wiser about what makes this manager tick than they were 225 days ago. But he’s promised us a grin if his team are successful. I can promise him in that event, he’ll hear a rousing rendition of “Tony Mowbray’s blue and white army.”
And then the quiet man of the Hawthorns will really know he’s on to a winner.
More... (http://www.expressandstar.co.uk/2007/05/26/remote-tony-in-albion-control/)
Martin O’Neill has charmed the birds out of the trees at Villa Park, Richard Money took a welcome pack to Walsall which contained promotion while Wolves fans are already petitioning for Mick McCarthy to be given the freedom of the city.
But the man born on the day JFK was assassinated remains a far more difficult character to fix in the crosshairs of our football’s focus - even, it seems, for his players.
Curtis Davies was asked by one press man yesterday if he could throw any further light on the man behind that stern mask Mowbray wears to work and a little smile crossed the lips of the Baggies articulate young captain before he answered.
“He’s totally the same with us as he is with you,”said Davies. “We don’t get much out of the gaffer other than what we need to hear.
“If he has something to say then he will say it. He has a little bit of banter but that’s all. But he gets the best out of us which you have seen. We’ve not seem him lose his temper. He doesn’t do that but if he has a criticism he says it in his own way.”
Respect for Mowbray very clearly shaped Davies’ words but it was if he, too, was looking forward to seeing his manager let the mask slip a little more. You sense that probably reflects the views of the Baggies fans too.
There’s a simple but very accurate test to guage a manager’s relationship with his public - how many times they sing his name.
Money, McCarthy and O’Neill have no problems on that score as they have been swiftly grafted on to those “red-and-white/claret and blue/ gold and black army”songs.
But Mowbray has yet to enjoy the same affection from the Brummie Road Enders and much of that will be due to the manager’s fairly dour public face as his team’s haphazard progress to this dramatic moment in their season.
Perhaps he is not yet fully relaxed into the job or indeed this area. It’s the first time he’s earned his corn in the Midlands and his chairman Jeremy Peace can be a difficult guy to work with as Gary Megson and Bryan Robson will testify.
And Mowbray is still working with someone else’s players. Not for the first time since he took on the job in October, he yesterday gave the distinct impression of a manager itching to further shape this Baggies squad into his own image. If the signings prove to be as successful as Dean Kiely and Robert Koren, two modest signings who have become major figures for the team since their January arrivals, then that is something supporters should be excited about and not fearful of.
But most of all, those same fans are waiting to, well, simply like as well as respect the man and there is no doubt that Monday’s dramatic setting will clinch a major PR coup for Mowbray as well as a promotion triumph if it goes as we all hope. Tomorrow will be Mowbray’s 226th day in charge and most Albion fans are none the wiser about what makes this manager tick than they were 225 days ago. But he’s promised us a grin if his team are successful. I can promise him in that event, he’ll hear a rousing rendition of “Tony Mowbray’s blue and white army.”
And then the quiet man of the Hawthorns will really know he’s on to a winner.
More... (http://www.expressandstar.co.uk/2007/05/26/remote-tony-in-albion-control/)
