Graham Westley

[daviejones]

Bad appointment IMO but time will tell.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Ex-pros will do any managerial job for a small wage.

Can imagine Westley was on a generous contract and he wasn't interested in any cut in pay.

 

[LordJord]

For some reason I just cant see him being a success. As much as I dislike Westley cant argue he did a good job to reach the playoffs, dont see Sheringham replicating that.

 

[daviejones]

Nope, I think we're about to see how good your team really is. Sheringham is very, very unlikely to do a job as good as Westley did in his first season. Maybe he can pull something out the bag in terms of getting players off some of his contacts but I think I'd rather have Westley still, as much as he is a nobhead.

 

[RavenBish]

Sheringham just doesn't seem like management material. I guess we'll see though.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Oh Teddy Teddy!

I loved Teddy as a player, Not sure he will be able to replicate what Westley did this season though.

 

[Brox]

Ex-pros will do any managerial job for a small wage.

Can imagine Westley was on a generous contract and he wasn't interested in any cut in pay.

I don't know what Westley's contract was like but I'm pretty sure his departure had little to do with his wage packet.

From the little things I've picked up there are a couple of individuals at boardroom level that are the drivers behind GW's departure and Sheringham's arrival. These individuals are seemingly going to up their investment and as result are demanding a greater say. People on our forum seems to be suggesting we're attempting to increase the profile of the club, letting Westley go and bringing Sheringham in appears to be part of this.

 

[Trapdoor]

You are still Stevenage though. Nobody knows where that is.

 

[SF_]

I honestly can't see Westley doing well at any football league club other than Stevenage where his mental management techniques are accepted.

 

[Kim Mitten]

I think this is a very interesting appointment from Stevenage. I also think that Sheringham, as a first job, could not have gone to a harder place in the lower leagues. His biggest job is going to be moulding the team to his style and get them out of Westley's. For some reason I can't see him being a hoofball merchant, think he might want to actually play a bit. Then there is the utter culture change, Teddy will probably hold pre-season out on the lash in London - bit of team building and all that.
We all have no idea if this will work, could be that an entire squad of players will be needed for any success, but if Sheringham can implement his ideas into a Westley team and even get them mid-table I think that would class as success, if he can get them up the top end I'd go as far as to say Sheringham may well turn out to be a ruddy good manger.

 

[LordJord]

Sheringham seems like the sort of guy who will drink a vodka red bull in the dugout whilst watching the game.

 

[Murphy]

Made me laugh when I saw this and Stevenage were instantly given a bump in the odds for League Two promotion/champions up to about 4th or 5th favourites. They've just released 13 players and have replaced someone who although no one really likes, was effective with what he had at a club he knows, and replaced him with a bloke who's got no previous experience managing or working at this level, but is a 'name'. Time will tell if it's an inspired decision, but like others on here, it just doesn't seem to fit for me. JFH is a name you can imagine working in management and has done so very well, Teddy's got a big job on by comparison and I reckon it'll go pear shaped.

*Feel free to save this post if he romps to the league title by the end of April next season.

I like the point about attempting to drive up local interest in Stevenage as well. Isn't it an area with a high Spurs following? Makes sense from that perspective.

 

[TheWednesday]

It's all well and good bringing big names in to increase the profile of the club, but surely getting promotion would raise the profile even more. I think Stevenage's best chance of that would have been sticking with Graham Westley.

 

[Habbinalan]

Disappointed he's not going to Psh - they've given the job to Dave Robertson. He's too much of a nice guy to abuse much - but we'll try.

 

[Brox]

It's all well and good bringing big names in to increase the profile of the club, but surely getting promotion would raise the profile even more. I think Stevenage's best chance of that would have been sticking with Graham Westley.

Agreed. If it was Westley's decision to leave the club, I'd be fully behind the Sheringham appointment, as it seems to be the board who are the drivers behind the switch I can't help but think we're taking a massive, totally unnecessary gamble. Something doesn't quite feel right about the move for me, that said the decision has been made so little point moaning about it!

Will be very interested to see how the summer progresses, with so much uncertainty surrounding the club I don't know whether to be excited or worried! We know next to nothing about Sheringham, in a managerial sense at least, the squad needs adding to and there's talk of "new investment" which could go either way really.

 

[Etienne Vermeer]

Good luck Tedward! Shall be keeping an eye on Stevenage next season.

 

[Super_horns]

Just had the Stevenage chairman on Talksport.

Seems to suggest he felt things were going stale with Westley in charge and Sheringham would bring new attention and even fans to the club.

Appeared pretty confident he would be a success.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Going stale, but making the play offs? Pretty poor excuse that. What does Wallace expect?

Westley was an idiot that was hated by his own fans for his style of play.

 

[Brox]

Westley wasn't hated on the whole, there's a section of fans that didn't like him but I'd say even they appreciate the fact he did well to get us in the play-offs this season.

I don't believe this decision was made by Wallace. It doesn't make sense, back in November when the club would have had every reason to get rid of Westley, Wallace stood alone in wanting him to remain as manager. Why having turned a corner and then guiding us to the play-offs would he not want to keep him?

 

[dedwardp]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32832999

There's something about him in this video interview that just makes me feel like he hasn't got a clue. Doesn't seem like a managerial type, although I know that's obviously impossible to discern from this and I can't really put my finger on what it is that's making me say that.

Also surprising when he says: "I've been told the training facilities are good." Surely you would have had a look yourself or been shown them before taking the job anyway?

 

[Tom_CUFC]

Just had the Stevenage chairman on Talksport.

Seems to suggest he felt things were going stale with Westley in charge and Sheringham would bring new attention and even fans to the club.

Appeared pretty confident he would be a success.

Dangerous thing to be saying, strikes me as a club getting ideas above their station. I think Stevenage have the infrastructure and a reasonable enough backing to make themselves a long-term addition to the Football League, but I think to a point you always need to get the right balance between forward-looking optimism and realism, and the reality is that whilst Stevenage have a fairly big area to pull in fans from, they're not suddenly going to start attracting 4-5,000 home fans on a regular basis at any point in the next decade, regardless of who is manager, and that's always going to stop them from becoming established at League 1 level, which I imagine is what the chairman is thinking of, which just seems to be aiming far too high off the back of 1 very good season in the 3rd tier.

You see this happen at the top level a lot, Curbishley getting sacked by Charlton, Allardyce at Blackburn, McCarthy at Wolves, teams who either don't "belong" in the top division or certainly shouldn't be expecting much more than survival every season, but got rid of those managers with the aim of pushing the club on, and instead taking a step, or in Wolves' case two, back, from where it's very hard to recover. Similar with Stevenage, they're still "new" to this level of football, if they're finishing in the top half of L2 every year they're doing very well, and anything better should be considered a massive success, but not the norm.

I find it hard to see Stevenage going much higher without Westley at this time, nor Westley suceeding any higher without Stevenage. It looks like a big, and fairly unnecessary, gamble.

(For the record, I have the same view about Cambridge aiming to be an "established Championship" side like we've mentioned in our ground redevelopment plans, which seems completely unrealistic to me whilst we're staying at the Abbey, long way off making this sort of decision yet in order to get there but I fear at some point in the future we'll do something stupid because of it)

 

[oakroader]

talk radio should be renamed talk bollocks

 

[Super_horns]

Dangerous thing to be saying, strikes me as a club getting ideas above their station. )

He did talk about a "honeymoon" period so maybe is aware it could all go wrong...

Sheringham might have some good contacts but as suggested their players will be used to a certain way of playing in the division.

Also I remember hearing quite a bit about how poor the pitch was in terms of playing a passing game?

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

I remember just after Westley left for Preston under Gary Smith Stevenage had a huge budget after finishing 6th. Whilst they generated funds from selling the likes of Bostwick and a huge FA Cup run, they bought Freeman, Dunne and Akins for sizable fees and underachieved, hence a lot of cost cutting. However Wallace said last year that Stevenage had overachieved to be in League One so now he appears to have changed his tune.

 

[Brox]

Freeman was signed prior to Smith's arrival but yeah the general point you're making is correct, that's why I don't think this was Wallace's decision, just doesn't add up to me.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32832999

There's something about him in this video interview that just makes me feel like he hasn't got a clue. Doesn't seem like a managerial type, although I know that's obviously impossible to discern from this and I can't really put my finger on what it is that's making me say that.

Also surprising when he says: "I've been told the training facilities are good." Surely you would have had a look yourself or been shown them before taking the job anyway?

Exactly my thoughts, something doesn't feel right, everything seems so rushed, he hasn't seen the training ground, when asked what are your aims for next season he didn't know what to say, almost like it's something that hadn't been discussed.

That said, will have to wait and see how things pan out, is a little unfair to totally write him off before he's even got started!

 

[Dave-Vale]

Bizarre appointment. Gutted that one of my favourite former pro's has gone to a club I detest. Might start liking them a bit now Westley has gone now though.

Can see Teddy employing a very attack in style of football which can work well in League Two against some of the big, ugly sides.

If he brings in a more experienced assistant which I assume he will do then I can see this being a good fit.

 

[AROCOSIA]

Discussed elsewhere already on this forum but the driving force re the exit of Westley and appointment of Sheringham is the need for more 'total football' to be played. The trouble with the previous siege mentality is that most other clubs improved and moved on season by season by playing balanced defence with creative attacking football whilst Stevenage stayed the same. Forget 2 year contracts and regularly changed squads, the main focus is on taking a team that is used to and happy with punching above it's weight back into League 1 and the only practical way of doing this is by actually playing some football. Whether this happens or not is unknown but the vision is there at least and this does involve some risk hence Sheringham appointment. It may work, it may not.
Growing the fan base is also now a massive driver. A huge potential fan base in the surrounding areas and no inroads into this leaves Stevenage still with one of the worst home turn outs for home games. The number of Stevenage supporters who live outside the territorial boundaries of Stevenage but drive in to watch the home games is also alarming hence a drive for greater season ticket holders within the 'Borough' particularly and a well known manager in the dug out. Risk worth taking relating to the inexperience at this level. 3000 attendance speaks volumes.
The final marker for Westley G (and unfair in part) is that Smith - who no-one seems to like at Stevenage - took Stevenage to the Championship play-offs and to a return to Spurs in the Cup where they should have been 2-0 up. The timing of the exit by Westley to Preston (reasons well known) could not have been worse to disrupt momentum. We all know what happened to Smith after but on Westley G's reappointment the club were actually relegated (not threatened with relegation as was the case with Smith) and in that particular season were appalling regardless of squad. The truth is that Stevenage never looked like ever being promoted back to League One (there was only one team in the Southend - Stevenage games) and the club have decided that a fresh start with new management at field level and new style of play will boost Stevenage's chances in going forward. What actually happens in the next season is anyone's guess with several teams already good bets for promotion. Westley G's time was up at Stevenage and that is basically that.
Stevenage the town and Stevenage the football club are not fashionable places on the UK map and to be honest no-one cares in Stevenage about that. Do not confuse fashion, however, with the drive and determination that the club owners have in seeking to take the club forward.

 

[Pooliekev]

Only problem is, when Sheringham moved to Colchester, his only experience at this level, he was too intelligent. He was playing top level football with low level players. He looked daft because they didn't know what he was doing.

'He was feeding balls round the corner that Premier league strikers would thrive on, but they were stood on the half way line picking their noses' to quote Paul Merson.

I think he'll try and make league two players play like Premiership players and believe me, I know what happens thereafter, after our Colin Cooper experiment.

 

[Luke Imp]

We had a similar situation under Sutton.

"In the PL, you show and tell a player to do something once and he'll remember and do it all season. Tell a player at this level and he'll have forgot everything by the next training session" or words similar.

 

[JE93]

I'd say we had something similar with Steve Staunton in our relegation season. Ge seemed to constantly be flapping his arms about as players weren't doing as he wanted.... or judging by the signings he brought in too. He was just a shit manager.

I was surprised to see Westley go tbh. Think he is a really top manager in L1 and 2 and he won't be out of the job for long. Not the prettiest football style but he certainly gets players in who can do a job and gives them the organisation to perform. Wouldn't surprise me if he was the first manager back into the job when sacking season starts around November time.