charlietoogood

I don't know how he's done for you, but apparently Boyle's reasoning was that he'd double his value by the summer if signed. There's a difference between others having a say & being told the money's only available for some players and not for others.

Not sure if such info has already been posted, if it has then my apologies. It's been no secret that his family still live down here & so he's constantly had to travel a long way to do his job, partly why Jim didn't want to commit himself to a longer contract. Part of the reason he's not been happy is interference. I think the last straw was apparently Boyle wanted to sign Ruddy for half a million - to which Gannon pointed out that if there's that much to spend, he'd rather it went elsewhere. It was extra surprising after money wasn't released for other (much cheaper) attempts to sign non-league players. To be honest I think this is best for both parties. It's not fair on Motherwell to have a man in charge who can't/won't commit himself, and you can't get the best out of Jim Gannon if someone else is pulling the strings (I remember posting on here when you first got him that if you gave him three years to do what he wants then you're guaranteed a very good side, doesn't look like that would ever have happened) He was at EP today, but there's absolutely no chance of him returning to County, not with the people who sacked him still (somehow) in charge. Left to go watch Crewe after that.

Um, yes, it would be. Which was my point. He'd fuck the BBC off but he wouldn't fuck everybody off, because he knows how to manage the media. Jim still doesn't.

Won't be long until he stops talking to your official website, too. I love the man for what he did at Edgeley Park, but he's still making the same mistakes, and they are mistakes. I don't like the media either, but while they aren't a proper part of the game they are part of the circus around the game, and they need handling. Even Alex Ferguson, who's famous for his grudges against certain organisations, still treats journos at press conferences like an audience there to be entertained. He knows how to keep them on his side, especially when it comes to transfers played through headlines. A manager is the figurehead of a club, the face who gets apportioned success & faliure, and there's certain things that go with that job these days... whether you want it to or not. I really hoped he would have learnt that by now.

Part of the reason he turned them down was because he wasn't very impressed with Knight. Jim tried to talk budget, potential signings (including bringing the likes of Mullins and Tommy Rowe with him), that Knight bloke kept changing the subject and talking about the new stadium, etc. There's probably more to it, but that was from the horse's mouth at the time.

Oh god, he does. Just give it time.

If it's who I think it is then his name's Ben Cooper, did a good job down here, think he's the grandson of another County legend named Trevor Porteous. Also, when Jim was down here we didn't have a proper reserve team either, but instead had a 'U21 development squad' that would play friendlies. The reasoning being twofold - first, when there were a number of injuries we didn't have to stick to a rigid fixture list, so games would only be played when the squad was fit enough; and second, you could hand-pick the opposition so you didn't have to worry about facing a bunch of thugs - the young lads could try and play football in a decent environment. I imagine Jim'll try and instigate the same thing up there. After all, he'll always want competition for every place so he'll get a decent-sized squad who'll all need regular football.

His name's actually Jack Dee

If it helps, I can't see them lot sticking him in your first team just yet and, knowing Jim's great admiration of Josh as a player, I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to get him on loan.

Yep, a top notch 'keeper at Edgeley Park... but I remember him falling out with Jim towards the end of the 07/08 season, so I'm surprised he'll work with him again. But then, he is very professional.

It's well known around here that players didn't like him (and something I'm sure we've warned you about before), but it's only over the last half of last season, when off-field problems seriously affected our form, that they started to want to leave. Yet no-one really wanted to leave during the previous 3 years when we'd win every other game - funny that. It's a comparison I've made before, but if you join the army, you don't care if you're sergeant's a nice bloke, you care that he's going to lead you to victory in the battle.

... and Stockport County. Who certainly played better than Leeds & MK, and I'd argue better than the other two as well... with one of the smallest budgets in the league.

It's hard to pin down to an exact formation, but it was more 4-2-3-1 when County were at our best, pretty similar to WellAyrshire's suggestion. A central midfield trio with one playing a more attacking role than the others; sometimes it'd be the opposite and we'd have Michael Raynes playing between the midfield and defence. And wingers slightly ahead of midfield (like the old fashioned sense of 'winger') who, whenever one was attacking with the ball, the other one'd move in to be a second striker, swapping round when needed. It really was lovely to watch. But I wouldn't expect him to play that right away, he'll do what's best with the players currently at his disposal.

I'll just have to find a stream somewhere. By the way, apparently Peter Ward is also going up there, he was Jim's assistant down here. Good partnership they hd going - Jim was the boss, bit of a schoolteacher role, players sometimes didn't like him as a person. But Wardy was the inbetween man, always kept spirits up and entertained, and also a decent coach too. If any of you get the chance to speak to him, ask him what his opinion of Burnley is

Is your game against Llanelli is on TV anywhere? There's an interested audience down Cheshire way

Five-A-Side?

Could do, but there's the small matter of a local derby game at Oldham that day, and we don't have a squad big enough for two games... in fact we don't have a squad big enough for one game, when it comes to that

The latest bit of news going round is that there should be a friendly between County and Motherwell. Don't know where though, if it's down here then Stockport's also on the West Coast Main Line, and anyone who likes a drink will love Edgeley...

No, Feeno left about 10 months before Jim came back. Thanks for the kind words everyone btw, my gut feeling is we'll be okay short-term. The current rumour is that Fabrizio Ravanelli(!) is lined up to be the new manager by the consortium, and he wouldn't come in unless he'd get given money to spend. It's the sort of thing that'll end in tears though, everyone round here would prefer names like Keith Hill or Alan Knill, similar managers to Jim.

We turned down £250k from Posh for Johnson, and apparently were asking for £400k, so maybe your figures are low. But yeah, if you get in before a takeover is completed (which is taking forever) that could easily happen.

That's when I started having a soft spot for 'Well in the early 00s, I had a girlfriend from Lanark (I even tried to convince her that we should take in a game at Fir Park, no luck though). At least you owned your ground, though. There's another lad called Anthony Pilkington who left for Huddersfield in a firesale. He reminds me very much of McFadden in those days. Sold for £350k, now Everton are around to be after him for 4-5 times that, and of course there's no sell-on. It's heart-breaking stuff.

Probably. But hopefully he'd insist on a sell-on clause (I forgot to mention sell-on clauses earlier, when listing things that have screwed us... we've sold a lot of good players the past couple of years, but got sell-on clauses for all of them... but with our recent problems we sold those clauses back to those clubs to get some quick money. Now there's the likes of Ashley Williams being linked with a £4m move but we no longer have a 25% sell-on clause... 'cos we sold it for £40k. Sickening!)

I forgot about Dom... he's a great player on his day, but I remember Jim saying he has a few reservations about him. A bit soft when he comes to niggling injuries, not a great trainer. But he is out of contract so he'd be available for nowt.

We had a lot of very decent players in our squad, but the recent money troubles has seen the best ones go for a quarter of their value. I know he's a very big fan of a lad who came through our youth system called Josh Thompson, who's an 18-year-old centre half. And he's f###ing superb. Although he's been on trial with Man Utd this summer so I think if/when he leaves it'll be to a big club. He's also a huge fan of a striker called Oli Johnson, but apparently we turned down a £250k bid from Peterborough so I can't see him moving either, unless he gets a lot of the Clarkson money to spend. If he does, then I can also see potential bids for Johnny Mullins (attacking right back, been captain at every club he's been at) and Owain Fon Williams (Welsh international 'keeper). If he only gets a bit to spend, then it'd be younger lads like James Vincent and Matty Mainwaring (both central midfielders with about 20 games behind them, very promising). I half hope he does come & raid us, though. He's the only person I'd trust not to try and rip us off.

Expect him to raid the League of Ireland for good young lads. Plenty of bargains to be had there.