Plan B went well wrote:Perhaps our current management team could follow TB’s example and ‘lose interest’ and then maybe we will somehow end up having a fantastic season like we did last season.
Ridiculous thing to say.
I must admit, that comment irked me too. TB has achieved more for our club than any other individual in our entire history. His commitment and integrity are second to none and to accuse him of losing interest is, in my opinion, ludicrous.
I'm afraid I wouldn't describe last season as fantastic though, given the quality we had at our disposal, I thought it was disappointing. In my view TB had assembled the best squad in the league, which on our budget, was in itself a massive achievement. Nevertheless, splitting up Pavey and Pugh and insisting on starting with Mills didn't go down well with the fans, even the ones who usually had TB's back. Not that Mills did badly, it just didn't seem to make sense to split up such a successful partnership and even now, I still think it was wrong. I think it was part of TB's general philosophy to be over-cautious and not let the team off the leash. I just don't think we ever really just went for it. A good example of this was when we played Bath City a couple of games before the end of the season. We knew it was going to be very tight and possibly come down to goal difference and yet at 2-0 up and with Bath reeling, we started running the ball into the corner to waste time, instead of trying to get a couple more goals. I was absolutely gutted watching that and yet TB described the performance on the radio as "job done". I thought it was "opportunity thrown away".
None of that changes how I feel about TB. He is still the greatest person ever to be associated with our club and if I was manager it would no doubt end in complete and total disaster. But I do understand why the dissenting voices were more prominent last season and contrary to what others have said, this was clearly getting to him and I do feel that it played a huge part in his decision to stand down. Despite the criticisms, I still think he had more support than he realised, but I also think it may well have been the right decision for him personally. I'm just glad he left on a partial high and that we are lucky enough to still have him at our club. He remains the best thing that ever happened to DFC and is a near impossible act to follow, in fact we may never see the likes of him again.
We now have two guys who have clearly struggled with recruitment, the bit we all took for granted with TB. If and when they manage to get that sorted, they will still have a massive job ahead of them. They are decent guys and I have no doubt they are giving it their best shot, but it's not going to be easy. I guess all we can do is cut them some slack and not make their job any more difficult than it already is. In my case that probably means waiting 2 or 3 days before posting after a particularly disappointing game.