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Author Topic: Wellens interview in the Grauniad  (Read 14205 times)
pauld
Aaron Aardvark

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« on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 09:08:48 »

Wellensball starting to attract national notice:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/football-league-blog/2019/sep/11/richie-wellens-swindon-town-sir-alex-ferguson

Not sure if that's a good thing
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Peter Venkman
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« Reply #1 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 09:13:51 »

No, I want us to be a surprise package for as long as we can be.

Lots of the attention has stemmed from the fawning over Wellens on the EFL show on Quest I think.
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #2 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 09:21:19 »

 I think the TEF needs to start a Wellens out campaign
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The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey

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« Reply #3 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 09:21:53 »

Not getting ahead of myself here, but I like the way Wellens is seemingly building a squad ready for next season in L1.

If this lot don’t get promoted this season . . .
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #4 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 09:25:43 »

Not getting ahead of myself here, but I like the way Wellens is seemingly building a squad ready for next season in L1.

If this lot don’t get promoted this season . . .

If you look at contract lengths, loans etc then he isn't.  Nothing wrong with that, first things first.

We've a tricky game on Saturday, 2-0 win for Macc would see them above us.

Of players contracted for next season only 4 Fryers, Doughty, Lyden and Hunt might be considered starters. 5 are uncertain as to whether good enough for Div 4.  Reid, Broadbent, McGilp, Curran Twine
« Last Edit: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 09:50:04 by Reg Smeeton » Logged
pauld
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« Reply #5 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 09:26:25 »

Not getting ahead of myself here, but I like the way Wellens is seemingly building a squad ready for next season in L1.

If this lot don’t get promoted this season . . .
I wouldn't worry about it. We haven't got an experienced right back and we've fallen into the fatal trap of signing not one but two 20-goal a season strikers when clearly what we really needed was lots of longball hoofers and cloggers. You'll never get anywhere like that  #naive
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Wobbly Bob

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« Reply #6 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 09:27:01 »

He's still young so maybe no need to rush with career progression at this time.

IF we get promotion then I think he'll stick around, particularly if the club as a whole is seen to be on the up.
But can't be easy with the family still based up north.

It's a big step up from managing in L1 / L2 to the Championship.
Would Nathan Jones still have taken the Stoke job if he had his time over I wonder.
Will be interesting to see how the Cowleys get on as well.
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« Reply #7 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 10:27:38 »

If you look at contract lengths, loans etc then he isn't.  Nothing wrong with that, first things first.

We've a tricky game on Saturday, 2-0 win for Macc would see them above us.

Of players contracted for next season only 4 Fryers, Doughty, Lyden and Hunt might be considered starters. 5 are uncertain as to whether good enough for Div 4.  Reid, Broadbent, McGilp, Curran Twine
Both loan strikers are OOC at the end of this season - I presume a successful outcome would see them stay perm.
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #8 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 11:04:56 »

Both loan strikers are OOC at the end of this season - I presume a successful outcome would see them stay perm.

In the article, Wellens says that we can't afford players like this on perms so have to settle for loans.... it is what it is, so the aim is short term, get out of 4 into 3, if this is successful then Wellens may well be hunted by bigger fish. That's just how it is.
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The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey

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« Reply #9 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 11:09:10 »

Wellens says a lot of things
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4D
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« Reply #10 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 11:42:42 »

As long as he keeps us up.
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Exiled Bob

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« Reply #11 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 12:18:17 »

In the article, Wellens says that we can't afford players like this on perms so have to settle for loans.... it is what it is, so the aim is short term, get out of 4 into 3, if this is successful then Wellens may well be hunted by bigger fish. That's just how it is.
Where does he say that? It's not in the article that I read:

Quote
The corridor outside the manager’s office and the surrounding arteries of the County Ground are adorned with snapshots of Swindon Town legends of bygone eras – Glenn Hoddle, Paul Bodin and Shaun Taylor – but Richie Wellens is determined to give present-day supporters something to shout about. “That was my message to the players,” Wellens says, matter-of-factly.

“I’m not sick of it because I think old players should be remembered but they should be in the boardroom, in the upstairs rooms – not in the tunnel. The tunnel should be about the here‑and-now players but there have not been any here‑and-now players that have had any success. Why should they reward mediocrity by putting posters up? We need to start achieving.”
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It is a case of so far, so good this season, with his free-scoring team fourth in League Two following two wins in a row, and no EFL side have more league goals than their 14. Wellens, who took charge in November, is ambitious, exposed to Sir Alex Ferguson’s standards as a teenager after being spotted by Brian Kidd aged 10 near his Moston home in north Manchester.

“Certain people have an aura about them when they walk in the room, where the feeling in the room changes, and [Ferguson] was definitely one of them,” says Wellens, whose sole Manchester United appearance came at Villa Park in 1999, five months after the club had won the Treble. He left the following year and went on to make more than 600 appearances before moving into management at Oldham, initially as first-team coach, then caretaker manager before taking the job permanently in October 2017. Before doing so, he picked up the phone to consult a trusted voice.

“I did ring Sir Alex up when I first got the job,” says Wellens, who cites Sean O’Driscoll and Nigel Pearson, former mentors at Doncaster and Leicester respectively, as other major influences. “At that stage I didn’t really want the role because I was seeing what was going on but I’d won my first four games and I thought: ‘I’m probably going to have to take this.’ I could see a takeover was about to happen; it was like: ‘Hmmm, it’s probably not in my best interests to take this.’ But sometimes you have to learn on the job, sink or swim.”

The 39-year-old continues: “I couldn’t switch off and I needed a few little bits of advice. The two hours you’re at the training ground with the players are the best two hours of the day. It’s the rest of it – the three hours before training, the five or six hours after, managing upwards, managing agents, managing players who are not starting. He helped me with loads of stuff that I’ve taken forward. He was just the master of everything regarding management. If I was even one-tenth as successful as him, I’d snap your hand off.”

His time as manager at Oldham – where he had two spells as a player – was punctuated by politics, financial problems and player-registration embargoes. “It’s difficult when you wake up on a Saturday morning and you do not know who’s available and who can’t play,” Wellens says. “It was all a big eye-opener. I had afternoon meetings with the chairman, discussions on who to play and not to play and certain players who had been signed and certain agreements with their parent club where they had to play.

“I had a certain say on some players but there were others that would turn up and I’d never heard of them or seen them play. The number of trialists continued to come and in and players I deemed not good enough were then signed. Sometimes as a young manager I had to bite my tongue a little bit and try and survive and get through it. I also thought it was a great learning curve because I thought: ‘No matter what job I get next I’ll never have to go through these scenarios again, so I’ll be a lot stronger for it.’ I needed a thick skin during my playing career but when you come into this side of it, it’s even tougher.”

Wellens acknowledges the rough and tumble nature of League Two – “It can be 100mph at times, Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday” – but he is unwavering in the way he wants his team, who host Macclesfield on Saturday, to play. “If you’re a long-ball team or just go to defend, you might win one game because you’ve put bodies on the line, the opposition have missed chances or the goalkeeper has made some great saves, but you cannot work long term like that. Look at the best teams in the country.”

At Swindon Wellens, together with his assistant Noel Hunt, first‑team coach Tommy Wright and the director of football Paul Jewell, is laying building blocks that he feels will put his team in the mix. “The club has been on a downward spiral for six or seven years so there has to be a time where it slows down, which we think we have done, and it turns into an upward direction. I would love to win promotion, don’t get me wrong, but my main aim would be to get a football team heading in the right direction every single time they go on the pitch.”

In any case, should Swindon be promoted this season, next season's budget would obviously increase and he might well be able to afford such players.
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Exiled Bob

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« Reply #12 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 12:20:04 »

We've a tricky game on Saturday, 2-0 win for Macc would see them above us.
Is that your prediction?
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Super Hans

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« Reply #13 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 12:59:20 »

My gut feeling is we'll easily get promoted this season and be doing well in League 1 next season before a Championship club tempts Wellens away from us.

Think he has the makings of a very good manager.
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #14 on: Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 13:03:06 »

Where does he say that? It's not in the article that I read:

It was in another article.... mixed up the 2, but doesn't alter the substantive point.

Quote
“Sometimes, you can’t compete with strikers’ money, so you have to move to the loan market. You get better quality players for a cheaper price.
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