Our average wage is £650..money does not buy motivation
ACCRINGTON BOSS JOHN COLEMAN
SOMETHING is afoot along the M65 corridor in deepest Lancashire, and it’s not trouble at mills.
Blackburn Rovers are on course for promotion and the ‘Dingles’ up the road are knocking on the doors of Europe.
But easily the biggest hitters, among clubs punching above their weight in all four divisions, are Accrington Stanley.
Punching above their weight? John Coleman’s side are like Charlie Magri decking Joe Bugner – top of League Two on the smallest budget.
Coleman led Stanley into the league 12 years ago and, after two spells spanning 17 years, he is now on course for one of the most underrated feats among all 92 professional clubs.
“Our top earner is on £1,300 a week and the first team average is about £650 a week, which only proves money can’t buy you motivation,” he said.
“I see a lot of managers taking the plaudits for success on the pitch and we can bask in the glory when it’s going well.
“But the most important people in football are the players. Always have been, always will be. I can’t praise our players highly enough.
“We haven’t got our own training ground, so we train on a plastic pitch owned by the council, even though we don’t play on plastic, and we get kicked off at 12 noon every day.
“The owner, Andy Holt, has done a brilliant job to get the club back on its feet, and he’s bought a piece of land for us to develop our own facility. But when you are trying to attract players to the club, that’s the reality you’re faced with.
“However, if being top on the smallest budget, maybe with the exception of Morecambe, is our reality right now, I’ll settle for that.”
Coleman, 55, has managed Stanley for 781 games and most of them have brought joy to the club’s biggest fan, chortling Sky Sports cricket commentator David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd.
But he is not always impressed by the Premier League conveyor belt churning out young talent with £250 designer label washbags and Range Rovers, ill-equipped to cope with the “blood and thunder” of the lower divisions.
He said: “Young players who have been released from Premier League academies have been brought up in an environment a million miles away from the game we play in League Two.
“There’s no getting away from it – the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool are playing a different sport.
“If we take kids from a big club, they have to relearn their trade. It’s like signing a plumber and teaching them to be a sparky. Some will take to it like ducks to water and others will sink, but it’s a different game.”
Coleman and his loyal sidekick Jimmy Bell, a former electrician, have presided over an astonishing 31 points from a possible 36 since the turn of the year.
And although their run-in looks tough, Coleman’s message to the chasing pack is defiant: Bring it on.
He said: “Myself and Jimmy come from nonleague backgrounds. We didn’t come into professional football until we were in our 40s, so the novelty will never wear off.
“We had to do what you might call proper jobs. I trained to be a teacher and don’t regret it – because it gave me a sense of how to treat players and help them learn. “One or two people have pointed out we could be competing in the same division, on merit, against Sunderland next season, but I hope it doesn’t happen.
“Of course, I want us to go up, but I don’t want Sunderland to go down.
“I like to see big clubs prosper. If I’d told you a few years ago that we would beat Coventry home and away in the league, you’d have taken me away to see the men in white coats.”
Today, Coleman’s front runners are at home to Forest Green Rovers, sitting pretty with an eight-point cushion in the automatic promotion places and just 10 games to go.
Well, Stanley, here’s another fine mess you’ve got yourselves into...
We train on a council pitch and get kicked off at 12 noon every day