Second best is good enough

By Micky Monsoon
June 21 2005

In this case, second best is good enough for Millwall, who missed out on George Burley but have brought Steve Claridge back to the club - this time in a managerial capacity. It helps if you've got the crowd on your side, and Stevie should certainly have their backing.

Though Burley's got a better managerial CV than Clardidge, would he have had a better relationship with the fans?

Probably not.

Claridge understands the fans in a way that only a former member of Millwall's staff could.

So makes him a good appointment in my book.

Pompey fans were stunned when he got sacked as player-boss at Portsmouth in 2001. He lost less games percentage-wise than his predecessor that season Tony Pulis and his successor Graham Rix.

At Weymouth, his dismissal caused similar controversy.

This is what former Terras chairman Ian Ridley said following that shock decision (made by cheif executive Martyn Harrison): "I am saddened by the current sacking mentality which seems to be going on at all levels of the club and by certain goings on which prompted my own resignation and the sacking of Steve Claridge. I genuinely fear for the future well-being of the club I love and can only pray that the fans get the club, team - and new stadium - they deserve.

"I believe that the dismissal of Steve Claridge as manager of Weymouth Football Club marks a very sad day, a day that could set the club back on the road to nowhere it was travelling 18 months ago. People need to remember those dark days. Steve Claridge worked miracles to recruit players and take us to the top of the league at a wage bill below some of our competitors.

"We were still top at the beginning of March, when Martyn Harrison decided that he wanted to get involved with the club, since when he was determined to assert more and more influence - even on selecting the team - for whatever purpose or motive, until it was total. What I cannot understand is that Martyn had been in Weymouth for five years but was never interested in the football club until it turned around.

"Now he appears to be systematically dismantling everything that attracted him to the club - the crowds averaging 1,500, the people who created a buzz around the place and success it had not known for many years. Of course the club was still in financial difficulty due to the problems of the past and one year was never going to put it right."

He added: "Nothing about this short-sighted decision makes any sense to me, either from the football, business or commercial standpoints. Martyn has bought the majority shareholding and guaranteed the debts which the club is still paying off, for which he is to be applauded.

"But, as a supposedly hard-headed businessman, having sanctioned an increased wage bill and paid transfer fees for players in the summer without increasing the income, what happens if his money and commitment run out? And, if the club is being run as a business now - and I contend that it was before, despite statements to the contrary - then what business sense does it make to pay off three and half years of a contract?

"It is a contract, incidentally, that would never have bankrupted the club, as is being claimed now, because as a negotiator involved, I was always confident of Asda's intentions and the increased deal that has now been agreed. I can only presume that Mr Harrison has personally taken care of Steve Claridge's pay-off because the club certainly does not have that money.

"Fair play to him, if so. But, if he was willing to put that money at the club's disposal, why could it not have been made available to Steve to recruit a new assistant or go for even better players in the summer? Weymouth are paying about a third of the Hornchurch wage bill - and Steve was expected to challenge them for the championship - and about the same as another three or four clubs in the league.

"Now the club has to find yet more money to replace both a manager, plus a striker who scores at least 20 goals a season and creates that many more. The best ones, like Steve Claridge, do not grow on trees, not in the South West anyway. Not that there was a problem, in my opinion. Steve was just 16 months into a five-year contract.

"He turned around the fortunes of the team only to go through a sticky period when he needed loyalty not fickleness and panic. What was required was courage and cool heads to keep the big picture in view. This was not a bold or brave decision - hiring Steve was, sticking with him would have been. This smacks of giving in to the braying of a misguided minority without thought of the consequences or vision for the future.

"Some people will probably attack me for what I have to say, or what I did in my time at the club, but I hold my head up high knowing that my motives at the club I have supported for more than 40 years were always honourable and my actions conducted with integrity. I was merely a privileged servant of the club, responsible to fans, shareholders and board of directors.

"I for one will show loyalty to Steve Claridge. He is my friend, yes, but hiring him was a professional, not personal, decision. More important than me, I believe that the best thing to happen to Weymouth FC deserved better treatment than he has received."