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  • Admittedly, some of the above were dismissed before they were able to take us down

  • Wherever he ranks, GA is still young and learning his trade. He will go on to be incredibly successful in his managerial, and if we can get a first taste of that success come the end of the season (and hopefully onwards as I'd love him to stay for as long as possible) then that would be the icing on the cake.

    Imo GA is certainly going places, and we should enjoy his manner, abilities, football and general high quality whilst it lasts.

  • Andrew Howard’s words when GA was given his 5 year contract still echo in my ears - “he’s the perfect fit”. I find it hard to believe that there is anyone out there who would come close to him in relation to what @our_frank describes in his excellent post as the current template.

    GA’s departure (hopefully not for at least a couple of seasons) will be a horrible shock to the system and, if his ambition is mainly financially motivated, I for one would want to reward him with a substantial pay rise if the anticipated promotion materialises.

  • Do you think giving the manager a big pay rise would go against the ethos created @micra ? I'm not sure how he could continue the low budget angle taking a higher salary from the club.
    The perfect fit point is a very valid one. Sometimes players and managers just find the sweet spot in a club and it works in a way that is probably shouldn't. Too many don't appreciate this and move on and fail. I think Ainsworth gets it but eventually his ambition will mean he has to make a decision.

  • Comparing MO’N and GA is a bit like comparing Apples and pears. MO’N arrived at the right time for him and club and lit the fuse that saw us rise to undreamed of heights, coinciding with the move to Adams Park. With a lesser manager we probably would have got into the league but it would have been slower and a lot less fun. He also went on to prove his ability at every level. Hard to believe but the crowd basically tripled in his few years here - not all due to the new ground.

    GA came in when we were probably in our worst position as a club on my lifetime after Hayes and Berks nearly pushed us over the edge into extinction. In his case more than anyone I can remember (maybe Brian Lee) he has moulded the. club into his image and when the time does come for him to move on it will be a wrench for all. This season has been great (so far) and he has built a really good squad but I think the play off season will be unsurpassed purely for how unexpected it all was.

    At the start of that season I would honestly have been happy just to avoid going down but to be looking at automatic promotion for most of it was a dream. If injuries (mainly Sido?) hadn’t have kicked in towards the end I’m sure we’d have gone up automatically. Which is why I’m probably not as optimistic as a lot on here. A couple of injuries - say Bayo, CMS and O9 and we could easily lose momentum.

  • @bookertease richie says momentum was crap at this level anyway.

  • @bookertease , you're very right to be cautious, but I would say the difference is that 3 years ago that squad felt like on a knife edge for a long time - injuries could have broken us at any point. We had a very small amount of players, and some definite bench filler we didn't really want playing much.

    This time round we have a much stronger pool as a whole. Lacking the Mawson quality at the back but more options if, as has happened, we had a few injuries.

    Bayo is the absolute player to keep in cotton wool though - he's the key to It all. We could (and have been) getting by with injuries elsewhere.

  • Let's not forget Gareth hasn't yet got us promoted. Nor should we forget how unhappy many of us were with the standard of negative football we were witnessing the last two seasons. It's fantastic he's turning it around this season, the football is great to watch and we may well end up getting promoted. But we're a long way from that yet. Let's not get carried away too early, that will just make the disappointment of just missing out on promotion again - should that eventually be the case - even harder to bear. I don't think we should be considering Gareth as in the same managerial league as Martin O'Neill for quite some time yet. Let's at least wait and see where we are in the summer first.

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  • @Right_in_the_Middle said:
    Do you think giving the manager a big pay rise would go against the ethos created micra ? I'm not sure how he could continue the low budget angle taking a higher salary from the club.

    No, I don’t. The pay of a club’s manager, his staff and each player has to be evaluated initially in the context of relevant previous experience and achievements. For good reasons, individual salaries are not disclosed but it seems reasonable to assume that (a) there are considerable differences between the salaries of CMS, Akinfenwa and Tyson and those of, for example, Gape and O’Nien and (b) that the style of play, the greatly increased level of entertainment this season (and the resultant increased support) should be recognised and rewarded - provided of course that we are promoted. A 20% increase (say) in GA’s salary would probably represent less than 1% of the overall budget for players and management. So, no, I don’t think it would go against the ethos of a low budget Football League club.

    At the end of the day, it comes down to what priorities GA has in terms of ensuring his own happiness and contentment and that of this family. He could no doubt at least double his income if he moved to a bigger club but a man who still enjoys turning out occasionally for Finchampstead may not see that as a risk worth taking.

  • edited February 2018

    I hope that Gareth's contract has a substantial bonus provision in it if he achieves promotion in accordance with the five year plan. He certainly deserves it.

  • Ultimately managers are judged on results and, for me, St Martin, followed by Brian Lee, are some way ahead of the rest when judging our best managers. True, Gareth has had a much tougher time financially, and it gets harder each year, but he needs promotions, trophies and cup runs to be remembered in decades to come.

    I really like Gareth, I love the culture he has brought to the club and I hope he is with us for some time, at a higher level. If we do get promoted this season, I fear that other clubs will come calling and one will be to his liking.

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