AB-solutely Dire Man-Management And Motivation

At a club with limited finances like Coventry City, the onus is going to have to be on the manager to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear – take the players already at his disposal and give them the confidence and self-belief to play above themselves rather than relying on being able to make massive wholesale changes to the personnel. But it’s not clear how good at doing that Adrian Bothroyd is.

Early on in his tenure he had a slanging match with star goalkeeper Keiren Westwood over his contract, which pretty much extinguished any chance of the player signing the extension. He also caused a fair amount of division between the fans with the signing of disgraced striker Marlon King, who had played well for him previously at Watford. 

AB also seems to favour certain players over others. Staying with King, he’s been sent off twice this season, and has been publicly supported by his manager both times, despite one being a clear case of violent conduct. Two other red-cards, for Carl Baker and Aron Gunnarsson (whose dismissal was eerily similar to King’s first) were castigated in post-match interviews.  

In addition Clive Platt and Jutkiewicz have played much more than Freddy Eastwood, despite the latter scoring far more often in comparison. This could be because the physical presence of Platt and Jukebox better suit AB’s style of play, or maybe Eastwood’s effort in training isn’t as high as Aidy expects (no-one’s sure since he had an 8ft high fence built around the training ground to the dismay of some fans) but effort is nothing without ability. I’d rather have someone scoring with ease without trying than someone who doesn’t but gives everything. 

There doesn’t seem to be as much passion and desire in the team as there was earlier in the season either – hardly surprising given recent results – but part of a manager’s job is to pick the players up. Whether that’s by getting them to do it for their teammates, the fans or purely for themselves so they get noticed and can earn a move for more money and a better chance of silverware doesn’t matter, but lifting them is vital if we’re to get out of this slump. 

AB’s motivational speaking hasn’t exactly endeared him of late either - his pre match interviews lately have been spent hailing the virtues and abilities of the opposition more than our own. A few weeks ago you’d have thought we were playing Barcelona rather than a slightly better than average Leicester so wide-ranging was the praise heaped on them by our manager both before and after the game. 

However, in contrast Aidy’s post match interviews are very much of the ‘glass half full’ side – picking out aspects such as effort, solid defensively apart from the odd mistake, physically competing etc. After a game we haven’t won the first thing to say is “I’m not happy – we didn’t win” to get that importance of winning into the players. After that look for positives. 

 keep on hoping to see a CCFC manager who tries to instil some confidence and belief in the players that they're better than they actually are. By all means note that the opposition have some good qualities; just make sure you give the impression that we’re better, otherwise the player’s heads aren’t going to be in a match-winning mood from the off.  

Try extolling our team’s virtues before the match so the players and fans are confident going into the match, and mention more of the opposition’s qualities after it so if the match hasn’t gone our way the team don’t dwell on it too long and the negative mindset hasn’t got as much of a chance to kick in.  

Boothroyd does also appear to be showing further signs of CCFC manager disease with some slightly odd recent comments – almost delusional at times - seeing things in a game nobody else has. Looking for positives is fine but making stuff up that didn’t happen is fooling no-one.  

Also slightly worrying is AB’s apparent refusal to accept that relegation might be a possibility – saying he’s embarrassed to even be mentioning it - and if his head stays in the sand much longer he risks being fossilised.