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Mystery men

Owners must realise continuity is the key

Last updated: 13th October 2009

Cambridge managed to sack their manager Gary Brabin at the end of last season after guiding us to second and a play-off final in his first season in management. It does make you wonder exactly what boards and chairman expect.

Max Rushden
Quotes of the week

I know failing to beat Torquay is disappointing, but I'm not sure if it's a sackable offence for a manager who's guided his team to fifth in the table.

I feel for Ian McParland, who's just got the boot at Notts County. I've said it before, but any manager needs time to prove himself, and throwing money at a team won't make them a success overnight.

If you bring in high profile (in relative terms) players, then the boss isn't just dealing with the actual football - he also has to contend with bigger egos, who aren't used to playing at that level, and get them to gel together.

We can't be sure what was happening behind the scenes, but now it looks very much like it was when and not if they'd get rid of him. They were fifth. Not fifth bottom. And we're only 12 games into the season.

Cambridge managed to sack their manager Gary Brabin at the end of last season after guiding us to second and a play-off final in his first season in management. It does make you wonder exactly what boards and chairman expect. Not every team can be successful every year. Owners have to realise that continuity is the key to success.

Interesting

The "mystery" owner's is potentially the most interesting part of everything that's going on at Meadow Lane. I'm trying to work out if I'd care if Cambridge were taken over by a mysterious anonymous man/woman/middle eastern kingdom, so long as they invested millions of pounds. Chances are, like most football fans, I'd be pretty cool with it.

Now there may be some very important reason why they want to remain mysterious. But maybe it's because they're just a little bit embarrassed.

Imagine they're neighbours with the guys who own Man City. And they can't bring themselves to bring up the fact they're dabbling in English football at dinner parties quite yet because Notts County are only in League 2.

To save face, if asked, just after the fish course, they can pretend to be eyeing up Spurs or something like that and keep quiet about their Midlands investment. Then they'll wait at least until County get into the Championship, but probably after they win the Carling Cup in 2013, and then come clean.

It's a bit like cars. Most TV presenters drive fancy cars with roofs that retract into the boot and super woofers or whatever they are in their stereos. As many of you know, I drive my housemate's Clio - with built in cassette player.

Cars don't do a lot for me. As long as they start I'm happy. But if I was the embarrassable (I know that's not a word) type, and I liked cars, then I'd have to leave it in the garage (or build a garage first and then leave it in there) and hire a soft top something that made loud noises - or park it round the corner and pretend I got the train to work.

Honest

But isn't life easier if you're just honest? Let's find out who they are, let them get on with trying to become the biggest team in the world and good luck to them. Unless of course they're staying mysterious like batman - and they're some sort of football league vigilante's who are actually saving our league from certain death in some way I can't really quite work out yet. Then they're allowed to remain a secret.

In other news, I took a penalty for my side on Saturday. My strike partner had been injured in the challenge. And I was closest. It was one of the worst penalties of all time. Rolled slowly along the ground right at the middle of the goal. Fortunately the 'keeper dived full length to his right and the ball just about reached the back of the net.

I'm better at kicking the ball than that. But when the pressure's on, you can't help but feel it. It just made me a little nervous about England taking penalties at the World Cup. Perhaps it's a silly comparison - but that was the thought that ran through my mind.

Have a good week

Max