TROY DEENEY’S sacking from Forest Green after six games highlights a namby-pamby culture that is creeping into football.
His crime was to tell home truths to some under-performing players and losing his rag with officials.
On the latter, which manager worth their salt hasn’t?
And when you see some of the shocking officiating in the EFL, you’ll understand why.
But there was such outrage in particular that Deeney dug out Fankaty Dabo on a local radio station after Forest Green’s 4-0 home defeat against Harrogate.
Deeney: I LOVE Arteta's antics - Arsenal stars know he's in trenches with them
He said that the right-back was “awful” and questioned why a player who only in May was playing for Coventry in a play-off final with a chance to win promotion to the Premier League would now struggle to get a game for a National League side.
That is harsh – but on current form fair.
Deeney was stating facts and probably trying to rile his under-performing star into action as he tried to lift the club from the bottom of League Two.
I coasted at school in my early teens and a maths teacher rightly told me a few home truths, both publicly and privately.
My response was to prove him wrong and worked so hard I ended up finishing two GCSEs in Maths and Statistics with top grades aged 14 – although don’t ask me how calculus and logarithms prove handy in my career as a football writer.
Sometimes in life you must be called out.
The best response from Dabo would be to work even harder and reach the levels that saw him win a professional contract at Chelsea as well as play regularly for Coventry in the Championship."
Yes, there are ways and means of doing that and Deeney opted to go down the no-nonsense, straight-talking approach.
And the best response from Dabo would be to work even harder and reach the levels that saw him win a professional contract at Chelsea as well as play regularly for Coventry in the Championship.
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I played with 250 players at Watford - it must be lunacy to be a Chelsea star
Deeney has since apologised for the public berating of some of his players because he should have controlled his anger and kept the home truths to inside the dressing room – although I struggle to find anything wrong with him saying he’d prefer to watch Antiques Roadshow than Forest Green Rovers right now.
We’re talking about a highly-passionate 35-year-old winner who demands nothing short of 100 percent and a man who has not only played in the Premier League but got the best out of himself at that level too.
So players who are at a club that is in serious danger of suffering a second successive relegation – one that would see them crash out of the EFL – should stand up and take notice.
Forest Green was his first managerial job and only a month ago Deeney was still playing.
He is going to make mistakes … but should he be sacked so soon?
His chairman, Forest Green owner Dale Vince, seemed so appalled by his recent behaviour that he was quick to cut ties with Deeney and dig out his former manager, ironically, on national radio station Talksport.
Yet he appears to have a different set of values outside of football.
He wasn’t so quick to dig out and cut ties with his Just Stop Oil pals when they were causing havoc and blocking roads which stopped some people from getting to crucial hospital appointments.
Vince has since come to his senses and withdrawn funding to the group – but it’s taken a hell of a lot longer than the month he afforded Deeney.
The Forest Green owner has been innovative and a leader when it comes to sustainability in football.
However, he has also made mistakes. The fact he has gone through NINE managers in three years doesn’t make particularly good reading.
It was not his fault he lost Luton boss Rob Edwards, who got headhunted by Watford a year-and-a-half ago, but the constant chopping-and-changing to management gives a club the worst chance of succeeding.
Deeney will have to learn from his 29 days in management – but surely footballers and club owners should also learn to grow a thicker skin in what is a ruthless and highly-competitive business.
Swans bring back some Welsh identity
SWANSEA fans were delighted to be able to once again belt out Welsh classic Hymns and Arias ahead of their home Championship clash with Southampton.
Supporters had complained in a club survey that there was not enough elements of Welsh identity on matchdays.
So the powerful 1971 song by Welsh comedian and singer Max Boyce was brought back on Saturday and it certainly created a superb atmosphere shortly before kick-off.
Now they just need to bring back something else that used to be popular down these parts of South Wales - winning football matches.
