BIG INTERVIEW
Yeovil Town boss Darren Sarll remembers Glenn Roeder
THE Yeovil Town dressing room roared on Tuesday evening when manager Darren Sarll told his players they could have Wednesday and Thursday off. The Glovers had just beaten Barnet 4-1 for their ninth victory in 13 games to move three points off the play-offs – this after it had taken them 11 matches to chalk up their first win. Sarll delivered the good news through gritted teeth, he’s never been a fan of staying off the training ground, even when the late Glenn Roeder would tell him to. “The amount of times on a Saturday after a game he would say, ‘Don’t come in Monday, Nicky Shorey and I will sort the group out, rest and be at your best for the next game’,” Sarll said. “The amount of times I wouldn’t listen and still turn up on the Monday and be at the forefront of it all was ridiculous. “The biggest part of our job is the match, everyone thinks it’s the process but it’s the match. Glenn was telling me this having experienced so many things. Really I should have listened.” Sarll was manager of Stevenage for three years alongside Roeder – the former defender for the likes of Leyton Orient, Queens Park Rangers, Newcastle United and Watford – who worked at Boro in the role of managerial advisor. “I remember the first day I met him,” Sarll said. “It was a Wednesday, we were playing Oxford United away on Good Friday, he walked into my office, I was working with a player who had come back from injury, and he said, ‘First of all, let’s get this out the way. I’ve managed West Ham, Newcastle and Norwich, I do not want to be the manager of Stevenage, I’m here to help, all I want to do is help you. “‘I don’t care about anything else. You’re the manager, I will advise you as best I can. I promise you now Darren, I do not want to be manager of Stevenage, trust me.’ It was brilliant!” Roeder passed last Sunday aged 65 after a long illness with a brain tumour and immediately glowing tributes were paid across football – with Sarll leading them. “I am still devasted because I can count my real key influences on my football career on one hand, two of them being my parents and Glenn is one of the other three,” he said. “I sat on the shoulder of a giant for three years with Glenn. He could pick the phone up to anyone. The amount of people I met in the football world because of the level he lived in and the experiences I got from being in his company. “All the stories...He and his wife basically brought Gazza (Paul Gascoigne) up. He managed the likes of Paolo Di Canio, Alan Shearer, Michael Owen. Worked with England as a coach. Everything I thought I knew about being a manager he basically rewrote.” Roeder was still giving Sarll advice when they weren’t working together. When Yeovil played at Boreham Wood last season, he called Sarll over to the stands midway through the second half to suggest bringing striker Marc Richards on. Key influences “He was very strong minded and he had a very clear way in how he liked the game to be played,” said Sarll. “My philosophy amalgamated closer to his preferences because, when I looked at it, it was a more enjoyable way of playing. “Whenever I spoke to Glenn, at times when going through a bad run, the same answer would come out. It would me moaning about this and that but he’d always come back with the same thing, ‘Darren, how do you want to play? Go and show them how you want to play. “‘Forget all the nonsense, just go and show them how you want to play’. I’d like to think if the big fella was watching on Tuesday, probably telling everyone up there how football should be done and where we’re going wrong, I think he would have enjoyed it.” Sarll has had to use all of his experience to navigate Yeovil through a difficult start to the season – but his and Yeovil’s attractive style still remains. After their play-off finish last year, expectations had heightened but inFaith juries hampered team selection and, after 18 games, 19 different defensive combinations had been used. It looked a desperate situation with fans calling for a change, but Sarll had the backing of the board. “We all know the effect of social media now,” he said. “I’m not on it but my family are so you get a reverberation from people close to you. “Social media has become a very, very aggressive, cynical, sinister place and because people aren’t in the grounds and they can’t feel effort and determination, it elevates that negative even more and the bombardment is ridiculous. The big thing for me was the support of Scott (Priestnall, chairman) and his partners that I have a good working and personal relationship with, they were very strong, very supportive. “I think they took the bombardment of ‘Sack Darren’, ‘Get Darren out’ quite personally as well and we just linked arms and stood strong.” A 6-1 drubbing from south-west rivals Torquay United on Boxing Day was followed up by a thumping win over Aldershot Town and then revenge on the league leaders – a pivotal week which their newly found promotion hopes have been built on. “I always had a real belief we would still accomplish what we are expected to accomplish,” added Sarll. “When you’re really debating your selection, your training practices, your process and preparation, I always had that belief we would challenge. “All we’ve done so far is put ourselves in a ‘challenging’ position. That’s the minimum of the expectation of a Yeovil team.”