I haven't been in ages - personal circunstamces and a 3 hour round trip to get to DHFC now they've fucked with the trains - but it's sad to watch all this from afar.
Hak had to go. Whitehawk was bad enough, but Bognor is terrible result. I'm the first to admit I was very excited about Hak coming in, all for it, in fact. I thought surely the bloke that's won the conference south must be a decent manager, but it's been a fucking disaster. I can forgive him for the relegation season - he came in too late, I think - but everything since is very much down to him.
The recruitment was horrific. Many of the players I saw last season were nowhere near good enough for a promotion push, and yet he was standing on the pitch after the Chippenham game promising us a side that would kick arse, that he would get decent players etc. But halfway through last season he was shrugging his shoulders and saying 'you're gonna get some duds when you get an entirely new squad.' I'm only going off highlights and from what others have told me, but we look like we've got some more very average and past-it players this season.
We train three times a week: we should have just be fitter and more organised than most teams at this level. Absolute mess.
For me, the standout candidate is Alan Dowson, particularly given that he's out of a job at the moment. Didn't end well at Dartford, obviously, but what he did at Kingstonian and Hampton was remarkable. Pretty sure he had a decent innings at Woking, too. I assume he's got a wealth of connections for attracting good players. I would imagine he would have the know-how to set up a reserve and youth setup too, which we are absolutely crying out for. Can't say we're a community club and then have nothing running at grassroots level. He's who'd I'd plump for.
Not sold on McKimm at all. What he's doing at Cray Valley is brilliant, without question, but every time I saw his Tonbridge side they were very, very long ball. Didn't go well at Carshalton, either. Sometimes a club and a manager just click, and that seems to be what's happened with him at Cray Valley, but I wouldn't want to bank on him replicating that elsewhere (because he hasn't.)
Tony Russell is a definite no for me. It's all false 9s and death by 1,000 passes which we had more than enough of in the dying days of Gavin. It's not expansive, it's tedious. His Lewes side last year had some brilliant players in it (Sablier and Whelpdale, for e.g.), but the fact he couldn't get them in the play offs says everything to me.
Think the trouble with pursuing an expansive style of play is that there are so many charlatans out there who say all the right buzzwords and parrot the latest Guardiola interview, but actually know nothing. Everyone wants sexy football, but it is very hard to achieve. If it wasn't, everyone would do it. The last person I saw pulling total football off was Harry Hudson at Whyteleafe. He's just left Brentford to become Wycombe's U18 coach. The people who can do total football do not stick around long at this level.
Steve King can fuck off, too.