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´óÏó´«Ã½ BLOGS - Paul Fletcher

Archives for January 2009

The dangers of the transfer window

Paul Fletcher | 11:02 UK time, Sunday, 25 January 2009

I don't think was being in any way boastful when he made the following claim:

"I like to think if you asked me a question about any player in the country I could give you a pretty good insight into what he is good at and what he is not good at, where he has been and what he has done."

It is not bragging or being big headed but a necessity of the job, especially when you are in charge at a club like the Bees.

The League Two side don't have much money and, as we move into the final week of the transfer window, Scott knows that they may not be able to turn down a good offer for one of his players.

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Billy Davies on Forest, Derby and the price of success

Paul Fletcher | 14:02 UK time, Wednesday, 21 January 2009

never met , but he has had plenty of communication with the Clough family.

Clough's wife and both made contact with Davies ahead of Derby's successful Championship play-off campaign in 2007.

Davies was Derby manager then and told me that "they were very supportive and wished me well. They made phone calls and did things that were very pleasing to me".

Derby won at the end of Davies's first season in charge but he had been with the club struggling to come to terms with top-flight football.

Fast forward 14 months and the Scot has followed Brian Clough's path in .

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Huddersfield aim to paint League One black

Post categories:

Paul Fletcher | 09:30 UK time, Monday, 19 January 2009

After a 40-minute telephone conversation with performance director I felt strangely optimistic, as though everything was all right with the world.

At different times Black quoted an American football coach, a motivational speaker, an expert in the management of change and celebrity chef - the last point relating to the importance of putting ingredients together in the right way if you want to produce a wonderful dish.

He also told an uplifting story about the first round of golf played by an American prisoner of war after he was released following several years in captivity and, just for good measure, threw in a Japanese business term - Kaizam - which relates to the concept of continual improvement.

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Harris set to become the Lions king

Paul Fletcher | 18:29 UK time, Thursday, 8 January 2009

It was 19 September 1998 and Millwall were trailing 1-0 at Northampton Town in a League One fixture.

A young striker named picked the ball up on the left, cut inside and bent it into the far corner from the edge of the penalty area to level the scores.

It was Harris's first goal in professional football (co-incidentally scored his first league goal for the Lions in the same match) and a moment to savour for a striker who had learnt his trade playing for in non-league football.

More than 10 years later and the 31-year-old has amassed 111 goals in his two spells at Millwall to stand on the verge of becoming the all-time leading scorer at the London club.

And in some ways nothing has changed.

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Burnley and Derby flying the flag for the Championship

Paul Fletcher | 11:10 UK time, Monday, 5 January 2009

The Football League has two representatives in the semi-finals of the Carling Cup this week as and Derby face Manchester United.

"No-one would ever try to pretend there was not a massive gulf between the Premier League and the Championship, but to have two clubs from that division - and two of the game's great old clubs like Burnley and Derby at that - in the last four of a major competition is fantastic," is how appraises the situation - and that seems pretty accurate to me.

Yet there is little else that currently unites the two Championship sides, as they go into their ties with sharply contrasting fortunes.

Burnley are reaping the rewards of a clear strategy and a bold managerial appointment that is paying handsome dividends.

Derby, managerless and alarmingly mediocre this season, have yet to recover from their disastrous one-season stay in the Premier League.

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The perils of Football League management

Paul Fletcher | 10:00 UK time, Thursday, 1 January 2009

Ever heard of ?

Possibly not, but he has the distinction of managing a club from the top four divisions longer than any other person. Everiss was appointed secretary-manager of West Brom in 1902 and held the post until 1948, although in a move that might seem eerily familiar to supporters of certain clubs it was the directors who often picked the team.

Everiss tops the longest-serving list on the . The highest placed current Football League manager is and even that is something of a cheat given that he is only holding the reins for Gudjon Thordarson. The period at the helm referred to relates to the 24 seasons Gradi was in charge between 1983 and July 2007.

In fact 1902, as it turned out, was a good year to be appointed a manager. Sam Allen lasted 31 seasons at Swindon and Syd King 30 years at West Ham.

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