NOTTS LANDING
Neal Ardley on his new challenge at struggling Notts County
NEAL Ardley sat in Dubai Airport watching Notts County draw at home with Carli isle on Tuesday night.
Then he got on a plane and flew home to become County’s third manager in a season that stands on the edge of disaster.
Meanwhile Notts owner Alan Hardy was in bed at home.
He was so upset by Carlisle’s equaliser six minutes from time that kept his club in League Two’s bottom two that he had tears in his eyes as he drove home.
It was the 11th time Notts had conceded a goal in the last ten minutes of a game.
They did it the game before at Morecambe – two minutes from the end this time – and if Notts County continue to be as lax as this then the next step is going to be relegation out of the Football League.
What Notts County trade on being the world’s oldest Football League club, will be a logo that will be scrap.
“What I don’t want is to be the owner, the chairman, who takes Notts County out the Football League. Absolutely. That would be a disaster,” says Hardy, below.
Hardy looked as he described himself, drained, this weeek when he introduced Ardley to the Notts public.
Kevin Nolan, who took County to the play-offs last season, went in August and Harry Kewell lasted only ten weeks.
Hardy says of Nolan, who he was close to: “On reflection he could have had an extra couple of games.” Hardy says of Kewell, who he wasn’t close to: “I got that appointment wrong. I knew in two weeks that it wasn’t going to work.”
Now it’s Ardley. What it says on his tin is exactly what Notts need. He was manager of Wimbledon for six years. Longevity and
If we can get through this first bit, then we can have some really good times
stability – tick. He kept Wimbledon in the Football League in his first season – tick.
He took Wimbledon from League Two to League one – tick.
He makes a point of getting on with and talking to everyone at his club, unlike Kewell who Hardy says had his cliques – tick.
Interviews
Ardley, 46, was picked out of 200 CVs. When the bones were picked out of that lot, Hardy interviewed eight face-to-face, two over the phone. Three were second interviewed.
What Ardley flip-chart presented at his second interview, the depth of research he’d done on Notts County’s performances this season, his detail and his knowledge, simply the work he had put in, got him the job.
Michael Appleton was first choice but declined because he is looking for a job at Championship level.
It’s Ardley who now has the hottest seat in football.
Hot? Ardley was in Dubai, where it’s been 31 degrees this week and they are saying there might be a day’s rain this month, when he was swotting up on Notts County.
“When you talk about they’ve got through managers here, you have to believe in yourself,” says Ardley.
“You have to say ‘I can do this’ and not give him reasons to want to get rid of me. So that doesn’t bother me.
“People who I know at Notts County have said to me what a great guy the chairman is. As successful as he’s been in all his businesses, football is one of those that you can’t quite put a finger on how to be successful.
“He’s put a lot of time and effort into this club to make it great again and it’s gone wrong so far. There is something about that, that challenge, for me.
“But I have to look beyond, that I can sort this out now and then you go ‘Wow’, if we can get through this first bit then we can have some really good times.
“That’s what made me, as they say, jump out of the frying pan and into the fire so quickly.”
He was supposed to be on his holidays.
“I kept out of the sun a bit in Dubai, I didn’t want to be coming back and starting a job at Notts County with a big sun tan.
“I’d booked my holiday but I was still at home when I got the first call from them. It was quite an emotional end to Wimbledon, it was done the right way. Six years had been a great journey and we didn’t want to end it on a sour note.
“It was weird for me, though, because for the first day since I was 16 I wasn’t working. I was thinking, ‘holiday, Christmas off ’.
Homework
“But the call came from Alan. I did my homework before the first chat and did even more detail for the second meeting. When I was supposed to be switching off for a break I was watching Notts County, going through all the goals, every facet and put together a presentation that made even Alan think, whose here every week. I didn’t realise that.”
It was supposed to be a ten-day break in Dubai with his wife Sarah and two daughters. It quickly became five-and-a-half days.
Ardley watched Morecambe v Notts in Dubai.
“I was ok for the first half, I watched it on the balcony with the internet. The wife and girls were there, though, waiting to go out for a meal, so I thought I can’t push it, can I? I’ll watch the second half at the meal.
“But the internet went wrong. People were saying switch it off, you can watch it on the re-run.
“Then I watched the Carlisle game at the airport. I sat and watched the whole game. Even my wife, who is not a massive football fan, every time Carlisle went close to the Notts County goal, she was going ‘Oooooh!’
“I was ‘blimey, I haven’t even started the job yet’. People at the airport were looking round wondering what was going on!”
Ardley flew back through the night, landing at 6.40am on Wednesday morning to begin his rescue mission.
He has a look at Notts in the flesh in the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday at Sunderland and his first league game is at Mansfield on Saturday, a fixture that can be pretty high octane.
“There are so many good players at Notts who are injured and not available,” is Ardley’s immediate assessment of what he’s inherited from Nolan and Kewell.
“When you haven’t won for so long, you try and protect what you’ve got and you come under pressure and concede late goals, like they have been doing. I’ve had that with my own teams.
“I’ve got to sit down with the current coaching staff, see training and then assess what we’ve got and go from there.
“I’m a manager who does the training. I’ve had managers who you don’t see until Friday and you think ‘how can you pick a team on that?’
“The hardest part of being a manager is when there’s an atmosphere, an emotion, the crowd is ‘Come on’, they want something to happen now.
“But it’s not as simple as that. You have to block that out and think what do the players need, what’s the problem, why are we struggling to find a foothold? You need the answer to help the players because they are not sure why it’s going wrong.”
Who helps the manager, though?
“On a Sunday, if we’ve had a bad game – and I can never let it go – I’ve got a Labrador, Lola, and Sarah, me and Lola will go for a walk for an hour. We’ll talk, Lola will gambol around, and it will be better.
“After an hour I’ll realise. I’ve been counselled.”