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Re: Rejecting the reprieve

By Not A Mong17/5/2023 14:20Wed May 17 14:20:00 2023In response to Re: Rejecting the reprieve

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Is the Club statement about rejecting a reprieve?
Maybe the Club simply felt it needed to release a statement, in the face of speculation - and criticism & bitching - on social media.

Possible problem is the manager.
As I've said on the previous thread, keeping Borough at level #3 might be a good achievement. It might be recognised as a significant achievement by experienced football people in Isthmian and London circles. It's not as widely recognised by fans. It's very unlikely to be recognised by a sugar daddy who's just bought Commuter Belt FC and who isn't an experienced local football luminary. When looking for a new manager, the sugar daddy is far more likely to be impressed by one who's won a division on the biggest budget than by one who's kept the club with the smallest budget in the same division in a comfortable 16th place.

Jordan Berry may have felt confident that he had Egham players who'd accompany him to step #4 and make a good first of a promotion campaign. He may well have had ideas of what other step #5 or step #4 players he wanted to sign.

Now he's faced with a step #3 campaign. He's 29 years of age. He's a newish manager. He won't have the contacts of an Owsy or Dave Anderson at this level. He doesn't have a Tony Choules / Andy Leese / Gary McCann black book, much less a Gordon Bartlett sized one.
He might fear he'll make a galah of himself at step #3, especially on a step #4 budget. That won't do his CV much good.

As for players rising to the challenge and improving themselves when facing superior opponents, any number of studies, in any number of fields, by any number of sports psychologists, confirm that this is often the case - but only if the gap in ability is reasonably small. An average Isthmian League player would not improve if he played against Citeh every week. He may improve with regular games against National League South opposition.
A 24-handicap golfer won't improve by losing 10&8 to Rory McIlroy. A 40-average pub dart player won't improve by having a close-up view of Michael van Gerwen's back, as the Uncle Fester lookalike reels-off 12-dart & 11-dart legs in a best-of-three game.

Most of the old gits on here will have known a few players who remain at the same level because they don't like travelling. This was a huge selling point for Isthmian managers to dangle in front of players in the "M25 League" days, when the Southern Premier stretched from Margate to Merthyr Tydfil and might include Grantham, Weymouth and Stafford Rangers!
I can also think of a few players who've tried moving up a level but who realise they're not up to the higher standard and voluntarily drop down again.

If the manager is OK with step #3, then it would be extremely odd for the Club not to want to compete at step #3.
It's only mid May. Only clubs paying over the odds or recruiting mates of managers or current players will be signing players now, so Borough aren't missing out.
There's plenty of time to sort things out. Gretna's demise after Brooks Mileson got sick occurred much later than mid-May. Several teams in the Scottish League switched division at short notice when Gretna croaked, having initially accepted relegation from the top flight to whatever division 4 was called.

The Club has to get on with its life at step #3... and if that means another manager, so be it.

Edited by Not A Mong at 14:20:23 on 17th May 2023

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