SR 35 minute special on Radio Lancashire Sport tonight

[redrobo]

https://twitter.com/danjewellmedia/stat ... 4965256194

104.5fm

6pm

Tuesday 22 June 2021

Our manager to discuss all aspects of his career to date and plans for our club plus details of signings to date.

His intention is to build up the squad utilizing players from our Academy...which we've heard nothing about for the last couple of seasons. Looks as though Drummy is going to have an influence in the first team squad.

[AndyReifman]

Bringing youth through the academy is always my strategy in FM.

No idea what our academy is like but I'm actually surprised we don't hear more from them.

[redrobo]

Wow...what an excellent interview.

Probably know more about our new manager than we ever did with DA.

Wish him every success.

Interesting that he's signed up those players he wanted to keep.

So no John O'Sullivan or Knight-Perceval.....interesting....

More signings in the pipeline and a Training camp at our rugby colleagues in the Midlands thank to our owners of both sporting clubs. Good team bonding exercise.

[Redalert1970]

All managers are different Neil

I liked listening to Derek and Stephen will be great to listen to as well

Personally I think we are very lucky to get a guy like Stephen at our club

[alicanteshrimp]

That sounded as if he did,nt want j o"sullivan

[P/T Indie]

You interpreted it the same as me redrobo that he kept all the ones he wanted apart from Yan who already said he was going.

Maybe he was after a different type of winger and couldn't guarantee John a regular starting place.

[RapidShrimp]

I get why KP wasn’t mentioned, because he was in a similar position to Songo’o with signing for Tranmere.

However it’s Songo’o & O’Sullivan who are the interesting ones - we know about Songo’o obviously, but I wonder whether Stephen doesn’t want to give the impression that John turned down the club as that may create an unnecessary bit of negativity.

Seems similar to Derek’s comments a few weeks ago when he said (I’m paraphrasing) ‘The players here are the ones that wanted to put the work in to improve’ - it creates a good atmosphere amongst the players with that type of media comments.

[RedRedWine]

In the clip that's available online, Stephen is referring to potentially missing out on a few initial targets because they were assessing who they would like to keep and playing a bit of catch-up. Once they had offered deals to the players they wanted to sign/retain (of which John O'Sullivan was one - albeit he turned down our contract offer and opted for a longer deal at Stanley) then the attention quickly shifted to bringing in new players/targets.

Regarding Yann Songo'o, we already know he told the club that he was going to pursue other opportunities as per the retained list article on the clubs website - and Nathaniel Knight-Percival had already signed elsewhere. So its my interpretation its not that these players weren't wanted by the manger (perhaps he did, perhaps he didn't?) as implied in this thread, more so that such players were precluded from any decision making process by the manager. "I didn't know who I was going to keep, or who had already agreed to leave - so that was difficult to pre-plan".

[tim-sanchez]

Seems similar to Derek’s comments a few weeks ago when he said (I’m paraphrasing) ‘The players here are the ones that wanted to put the work in to improve’ - it creates a good atmosphere amongst the players with that type of media comments.

That's the impression I got. He signed the players he wanted, and he only wants players who want to be here. Maybe he did want O'Sullivan, but once O'Sullivan made it clear he had other offers then he's no longer interested.

[RedRedWine]

Seems similar to Derek’s comments a few weeks ago when he said (I’m paraphrasing) ‘The players here are the ones that wanted to put the work in to improve’ - it creates a good atmosphere amongst the players with that type of media comments.

That's the impression I got. He signed the players he wanted, and he only wants players who want to be here. Maybe he did want O'Sullivan, but once O'Sullivan made it clear he had other offers then he's no longer interested.

O'Sullivan did an interview with Radio Lancashire earlier in the week - he said leaving Morecambe (his decision, we offered him a contract) was the most difficult decision he has had to make in football. He loved his time at the club, but basically the offer he got from Accrington - a three year deal - and the opportunity was too good to turn down at this stage of his careers (27 years old).

IMO - the club can't compete with that offer from Accrington, and nor should they be looking to given where we are now. We are trying to stabilise as a League One outfit, whereas Stanley are well established. As much as I liked John as a player and for his effort, three years is a bit of a gamble for a club for a player that is largely unproven at the level.

[red shrimp]

As much as I liked John as a player and for his effort, three years is a bit of a gamble for a club for a player that is largely unproven at the level.[/quote]

Agreed, personally think he'll struggle in league 1. He turned into a key player for us last season, simply because of his work rate, and tracking back etc, but before Adams took over and got the best out of him, I thought he was pretty average under JB.

[Little Shrimp]

The impression I've gotten from this is that NKP and Songo'o had already pretty much made up their minds before SR came in, so he never got the chance to fully assess whether he wanted them or not. We'll probably never know!

O'Sullivan is a slightly odd one as we did offer him a contract, but that doesn't seem to be acknowledged in the interview. Maybe he didn't really see O'Sullivan as being massively key next season and had him more down as a squad player? Or maybe he just wants to move on and focus on new signings etc? Again, it's probably one that we'll never know.

Given the kind of winger we've been signing, I would have thought O'Sullivan may have featured more in central midfield in a 4-3-3. I thought he would have been a decent player for that given his energy, sound technical ability and creativity, but maybe not!

Anyway, loved the interview. DA's blunt interviews were quite funny, but I do like having a bit more 'meat' to chew on from SR's interviews so far.

[P/T Indie]

He is very open and seems very generous with his time in some ways like Jim and seems very committed even moving into the area.

Derek was always very analytical and he sounded more like a football reporter/summariser.

[redrobo]

Reminds me in some ways to Jim Harvey....especially saying he's moving into the area. Jim lived in a new house in Bolton le Sands and was always prepared to talk to fans.