Gaffers! You must speak up more...
It was Saturday, March 29, 2003. I was standing on the pitch at Cherrywood Road, waiting to sweep up my post-match interviews after Chester City had claimed a dramatic 2-1 win with a late penalty to see off struggling Farnborough Town. Ian McDonald – a man who had assumed almost-mythical legendary status as a player at near-neighbours Aldershot – had recently taken the reins at Boro after the controversial departure of Graham Westley. He had the weight of the football world on his shoulders. No budget and no players, Macca was working tirelessly to save his side from the drop, but he came out with a smile on his face, dealt with my questions in good grace and shook my hand with the parting words: “If there’s anything you need, just let me now.”
Then I waited… and waited, before eventually Mark Wright, the Chester boss, emerged from the tunnel. An imposing bloke with a cutting stare, Wright always liked to have the line drawn where you, as the interviewer, knew your place, and on this day there was extra menace in his eyes as he headed straight towards me.
“Do you write for the Non-League Paper,” he asked, looking me up and down like I was some cheeky scally in a Dickens tale. “Yes,” I replied. “Well in that case, you can p**s off!” he barked before storming away.
I won’t bore you with the whole conversation verbatim, but it turns out The NLP hadn’t been writing nice things about Wright. Truth be told, not many publications did. That’s because Mark Wright wasn’t known for doing particularly nice things. Suspended as Oxford manager for alleged racist remarks directed at referee Joe Ross in 2001, he was involved in a catalogue of touchline dust-ups and a year or so after my brief encounter with him, stories were floating around that he had been having an affair with the partner of one of his Chester players, Wayne Hatswell.
To be fair, Wright’s circumstances are slightly darker than those of most managers who refuse to partake in their post-match media interviews. But if you ask me, there is too much of it. Bad game or not, managers have a duty to address the waiting media. They’re quick to utilise the column inches when it suits them, but when the boot is on the other foot they seem happy to ignore the waiting scribes.
This season it’s been a common theme; editing match reports only to find a note from the reporter to say ‘such and such’ chose not to speak to the press. Once or twice, you can understand it, but the usual suspects fail to deliver week after week and the most frustrating thing is that it’s mostly managers who are plying their trade higher up the pyramid – many of whom are working at full-time clubs.
We all feel the emotions of football. But stop making excuses. With social media feeds giving instant but a not-always accurate reflection of a match, the narrative from the football manager is a key factor in keeping written match reports relevant. Your fans want to hear from you. Ignore us and you are doing them a disservice.
Rant over...