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A Stockport View......


CheshireCat
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Hi Motherwell fans, Stockport fan here in peace to maybe give you a clue about our legendary ex-manager JG.

 

Firstly, we are gutted about what has happened recently and to make a man of this calibre redundant was beyond belief....but that is exactly what the administrators did. Gutting.

 

Jim Gannon first came to County in around 1990 and stayed for that decade playing in lots of different positions but mainly at centre-back or midfield. He regularly scored and was one of the greats for our club. When he applied for the manager's job we were 5 points adrift at the bottom of L2 staring the non-league in the face. He gave the place an immediate lift, installing belief, pride and committment. We stayed up on the last day. A miracle already. The next season we miss out on the Play-Offs on the last day, the following season (last year) we were up via Wembley. An unbelieveable turnaround in 2 years! Last season at Xmas we were 5th in L1 and the football was unreal. It was a pleasure to watch. Then disaster, sales of players started to pay bills and we were in serious trouble. The rest is still going on. As it stands we have no club and worse of all we lose our talisman.

 

What JG will do at Motherwell i expect it to be similar. He wants the game played in the right way. He promotes youth and looks for players who can progress and develop and handle what is thrown at them. He'll look for players who ideally can play more than one position, what he did with some of our players was incredible. Some could play 2 or even 3 different positions. Be patient with him, he'll try lots of different tactics and positions for players to see what they're capable of.

 

He'll most likely play a 4-5-1 formation which changes to a 4-3-3 when you have the ball. Many quotes from opposing managers and players over the last couple of seasons have said that we were a very difficult side to play against because the formation switches constantly. One manager said that there are only two other clubs that can play the system what we played as good as we played it and that was Manyoo and Chelsea. Very complimentary.

 

He is a full UEFA Pro-License holder and it shows. Things to look out for include - programme notes (very entertaining, a great read), his showdown with the officials (expect a dossier of Scotland's finest on the way to the SPL once he gets settled in), fall-outs with players (it WILL happen) and he will speak out against the wrong things in the game.

 

I've probably forgotton loads that i'd love to pass on. Im really envious of you all to have such a man in charge of your club. Im 100% confident it's in good hands.

 

I believe he wants a friendly arranging with us and i also hear his first target is our young goalkeeper Owain Fon Williams. The boy is class.

 

Enjoy having JG, enjoy your season, i'll be rooting for you. All the very, very best and all the luck in the world! He's a County fan and always will be, but he'll be Motherwell also. Look after him for us! Don't be shocked to see County shirts at yours soon.

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Thanks very much for the info bud!!!! I hope your club survives and gets back on its feet soon. As a fan of a club that has been in Administration i am sure every fan will tell you it is devestating. I hope we do play County in a friendly as i for one will be there and will look forward to it.

 

Thanks again and good luck for the future :thumbup:

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Thats an excellent summary. You obviously think very highly of him.

 

I, personally, am looking forward to him giving those who need it a boot up the rear end

 

They will get it, i can absolutely guaratee it. He will make unpopular decisions but he's usually justified in it. We ended uphaving that much faith in him most of what he did went unquestioned.

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Thanks for that. Will be interesting to see a few County shirts at Wells games. How about LLanelli for starters?

 

Interesting that you along with a few others have mentioned that he may need time to get things going his way. I hope my fellow Well fans give him that time if the season does not start particularly well. Don't think we are any worse than others football fans but we are not much better either.

 

I'm sure he is going to be great for us. It will be fantastic if we have a manager that we can really get behind. Our last manager, although he did well at Firpark never really had the best of relationship with the fans.

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Thanks for that. Will be interesting to see a few County shirts at Wells games. How about LLanelli for starters?

 

Interesting that you along with a few others have mentioned that he may need time to get things going his way. I hope my fellow Well fans give him that time if the season does not start particularly well. Don't think we are any worse than others football fans but we are not much better either.

 

I'm sure he is going to be great for us. It will be fantastic if we have a manager that we can really get behind. Our last manager, although he did well at Firpark never really had the best of relationship with the fans.

 

He will definately need time. You may have to be patient.

 

A lot of other players in our divisions like him. You'll notice at the end of EVERY game he will shake the hand of EVERY player that leaves the field including the opposition, then he will applaud you. Get behind him and what he tries to achieve with you. Like i say though, be patient.

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He will definately need time. You may have to be patient.

 

A lot of other players in our divisions like him. You'll notice at the end of EVERY game he will shake the hand of EVERY player that leaves the field including the opposition, then he will applaud you. Get behind him and what he tries to achieve with you. Like i say though, be patient.

I don't think a section of the Motherwell support will give him time. I beleive he should be given time but if he loses the first couple of games alot of the fans will get on his back. I hate it and have argued with a few of the fans in the east stand.

 

So to Motherwell fans, please listen to the man and give him time especially after the close season we have had , he will most definately need it.

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A glowing report, Cheshire Cat, for a manager and a man that you obviously have a lot of respect for.

 

I for one am prepared to have patience with Gannon and I just hope the vast majority of my fellow 'Well fans do likewise.

 

Looking forward to what should be a very interesting season

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from the sounds of it, sitting behind the dug out in the main stand is going to be an experience next season :D

 

Here's hoping! :D

 

A fantastic report, hope he can live up to it (or rather the fans give him enough time to live up to it. By all accounts if we have patience with him and give him enough time build his own team it will pay dividends).

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I am looking forward to seeing someone who is willing to stamp their mark on the club.

 

As for time, well, there is a section of the crowd who'd have booed creation in seven days telling the man upstairs to "make some ****ing changes, for **** sake."

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Hi Motherwell fans, Stockport fan here in peace to maybe give you a clue about our legendary ex-manager JG.

 

Firstly, we are gutted about what has happened recently and to make a man of this calibre redundant was beyond belief....but that is exactly what the administrators did. Gutting.

 

Jim Gannon first came to County in around 1990 and stayed for that decade playing in lots of different positions but mainly at centre-back or midfield. He regularly scored and was one of the greats for our club. When he applied for the manager's job we were 5 points adrift at the bottom of L2 staring the non-league in the face. He gave the place an immediate lift, installing belief, pride and committment. We stayed up on the last day. A miracle already. The next season we miss out on the Play-Offs on the last day, the following season (last year) we were up via Wembley. An unbelieveable turnaround in 2 years! Last season at Xmas we were 5th in L1 and the football was unreal. It was a pleasure to watch. Then disaster, sales of players started to pay bills and we were in serious trouble. The rest is still going on. As it stands we have no club and worse of all we lose our talisman.

 

What JG will do at Motherwell i expect it to be similar. He wants the game played in the right way. He promotes youth and looks for players who can progress and develop and handle what is thrown at them. He'll look for players who ideally can play more than one position, what he did with some of our players was incredible. Some could play 2 or even 3 different positions. Be patient with him, he'll try lots of different tactics and positions for players to see what they're capable of.

 

He'll most likely play a 4-5-1 formation which changes to a 4-3-3 when you have the ball. Many quotes from opposing managers and players over the last couple of seasons have said that we were a very difficult side to play against because the formation switches constantly. One manager said that there are only two other clubs that can play the system what we played as good as we played it and that was Manyoo and Chelsea. Very complimentary.

 

He is a full UEFA Pro-License holder and it shows. Things to look out for include - programme notes (very entertaining, a great read), his showdown with the officials (expect a dossier of Scotland's finest on the way to the SPL once he gets settled in), fall-outs with players (it WILL happen) and he will speak out against the wrong things in the game.

 

I've probably forgotton loads that i'd love to pass on. Im really envious of you all to have such a man in charge of your club. Im 100% confident it's in good hands.

 

I believe he wants a friendly arranging with us and i also hear his first target is our young goalkeeper Owain Fon Williams. The boy is class.

 

Enjoy having JG, enjoy your season, i'll be rooting for you. All the very, very best and all the luck in the world! He's a County fan and always will be, but he'll be Motherwell also. Look after him for us! Don't be shocked to see County shirts at yours soon.

 

Thanks. That's cheered me up a bit. Not been too happy for the last few days although it didn't have much to do with the manager position!

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It seems to be a recurring trend from the Stockport fans :lol:

 

I'd like to hear what fans from other teams in the same league think about Gannon.

Spoke to a Rochdale fan tonight. Stockport beat them in the play off final last year. Phrases I kept hearing were "He'll get the ball on the deck" and "he'll sign young players who all will be able to at least pass a football".

 

Regarding the falling out with his own players, my mate told that there is a story that Gannon fell out with a player after an away game in the south of England. Said player was left to make his own way home.

 

Basically he's seen as an argumentative, moaning get who knows his stuff. A budget Alex Ferguson...?

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When I first moved down to Manchester it was to work in a place in Stockport called Heaton Mersey and a few of the guys who worked there were Stockport fans and at the time they had a cracking side. Anyway I was staying in a hotel during the week and travelling back to Cleland at weekends. As I wasn't around on a Saturday they took me to a midweek match against Plymouth, I remember it because Bruce Grobelaar was in goals for Plymouth and he was taking a bit of stick about the match fixing allegations at the time.

However Stockport took an early lead and eventually won 3-1, they had a cracking side then a wee bald midfield man called Chris Marsden who could run all day, Brett Angell and Alun Armstrong in attack, guys like Tony Dinning, Mike Flynn, and Jim Gannon, and they had a terrific 'keeper in Paul Jones. Gannon scored twice that night and Armstrong got the third and Stockport went on to have a bloody great season.

They had a great run in the League Cup all the way to the semi-final where they lost 2-0 at home to Middlesboro and beat them 1-0 away, putting out Sheffield Utd, Blackburn, West Ham, and Southampton on the way. I remember it vividly because the whole office was going mental at the time and I had never seen that kind of thing before.

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