The Sun It Shineth

The other Chris and I disagree on the much-discussed final placing this season. I empathise wholly with his views but disagree.

The rot was stopped early this season and there is plenty of time for Freeman to sort this mess out. I believe we have a decent enough squad of players and once augmented with a back bone that is surely (well hopefully) to follow, we will be fine.

Years of supporting Palace as a season ticket holder has seen me, when I cared, follow the lower ends of various divisions and at this point in the season nobody can be written off, unless Kevin Keehan is at the helm of course.

I remember Millwall being top of a division at Christmas one season before melting down and getting relegated. If Freeman is what he is cracked up to be and his knowledge of players as good as we have been told, I believe we will be mid-table.

As me old mucker Cliff has alluded to on the forum before… and he knows his stuff, there are a lot of teams worse than us and the last time Chris and I bet on a football league position, Palace ended up in the top 10 and I was correct.

Chris Harris

A Shift Towards Team Building

So the new members of the Board have let loose their perspectives. I liked them. John Peel strikes me as someone itching to get the five year mess on the pitch resolved and that seems his raison d’etre. To me this is the most important thing at the moment.

His wish list of perfunctory demands are what we need desperately and his analysis of the Board being distracted on off-field issues rather than the golden egg is heartening. Whether or not his excellent roll your sleeves up trouble-shooting approach works or has the support of others on the Board remains to be seen. But it looks a very positive way forward

I liked Roger views too. Shame about the Charlton bit! I’d question his view that we are already self sustaining as if we get relegated on our budget it has failed as a season to be self sustained. However of course if we stay up, and I envisage we will, I agree. I’d say a lot of his views are more of a wish list I cannot see being granted unless the harsh ideas of John Peel are introduced. But he is positive and believes league football is possible, which many don’t, but I do too.

However reading through the jungle of management speak his ideas are more long term and his grasp is spot on, he seems to have identified many of the areas of concern, especially the first team and management.

Both candidate address our current on field problems which I feel under the current Board have been left to drift, as they have concentrated on making us live within our means which they have done brilliantly. I feel their inclusion on the Board will be a fantastic addition as the emphasis will drift towards the problem of the dire first team flaws, recruitment and management and hopefully we can gain result momentum and the riches that come with it.

So good luck to them both. They look like really good news.

Chris Harris

New Manager Syndrome

One fairly reliable trait in football is the introduction of a new manager generally means a fresh introduction to some fresh points. It normally always happens. Fairly obvious really, the previous manager has gone because he was incompetent at the role … a la Keehan. He has hit a poor run of form and the owners get the jitters…Mourinho? Results are not good enough or he has lost the changing room. Generally the team framework has lost faith in the manager, confidence, respect and drive have gone, resentments, blame and in-fighting have spread. Time to go.

So it is normally just the appearance of a new face at the helm and hope that gels the team back together. Unusually when Steve Brown at Lewes took over, the previous manager was deemed to have underachieved but nobody thought we’d go down. But under the new manager we nearly did, the new manager bounce certainly was not working in our favour.

It’ll be slightly different for Freeman as Brown didn’t really create much of a team for him to mend, so the quality of the materials are grim. Not I believe that most of the players are not highly capable, they have just operated under entirely the wrong circumstances conducive to teamwork. If Freeman does get a ‘bounce’ from the players then we’ll be very quickly heading up the league. But I wince to think the state the dreadful and baffling appointment of Brown has left the dressing room in. So while I expect Freeman will keep us up I am expecting a gradual improvement as he melds a team with the existing and new players. We need bandages not a plaster. However maybe he is that good that as a bonus he has an immediate positive impact on the team.

Chris Harris

Thoughts on the new manager Darren Freeman

We almost chuckled, when discussing with a friend, the next managerial appointment by the Board. Being creatures of habit we both declared Darren Freeman would be the next manager. There is an air of inevitability about our managerial appointments. Ease and obviousness of appointment with a good track record seems to be the remit as we have an attractive club to manage. He will have his work cut out. Not that the players and any additions will not be perfectly capable of keeping us up but somehow something at our club is not right when whoever seems to be good takes the post and flunks it.

Having read up on him he looks a good choice, but I have not had the chance to wade through and interview the many other applicants and have no idea how heavy duty the interviewing process we have had and whether we have missed out again.

I know enough about football though to recognise that the players for the last few years have been of a perfectly acceptable standard and basically need a massive kick up the backside. I don’t think the problem has been much deeper than that and it would appear Freeman can operate a hair dryer so I am cautiously optimistic about the appointment, one that is a far cry from the bemusing stupidity of appointing Brown, which people who know me will tell you is not hindsight.

If it is true a that he has walked out of Peacehaven where he has already steadied a ship this season because he has always wanted to manage us, all bodes well.

The fly in the ointment is why good managers turn to crap at Lewes and that is something not right at the top. Either the Board are not man managing the manager properly or they simply do not get the best people in who knows. Can Freeman be the first to shake that monkey off our back?

I’m cautiously optimistic, I think he’ll keep us up but does not have a record of taking a club up the league on a limited budget. He is however still cutting his teeth and unlike some of the previous incumbents may actually have the driving ambition to succeed.

So good luck to him and I trust he has been told mid-table this season, heading towards play offs the next. That is the calibre of manager we should have and what we should expect of him.

Chris Harris