Horses for Courses

[Ray 111]

As we all know there are horses for courses and perhaps one of the best examples of this, for those of us old enough to remember, was Red Rum, and for those of us who are not, he won the Grand National 3 times and came second twice in his 5 runs in the race, and this when the fences were a lot tougher than they are now. That’s what you call a horse for a course.

Now I think we have a couple of ‘horses for courses or Red Rums’ at NCFC, in David McNally and Alan Bowkett, insomuch they were/are the right people to stabilise the finances of the club, to tighten the reins so to speak, a job they appear to have done incredibly well, in fact it could be argued, too well. I do however believe their skills are not necessarily the right skills to run a successful club once its finances have been put in order.

During their tenure I think they got lucky, but then again luck is where preparedness and opportunity meet, with the appointment of Lambert. The parting of the ways with Lambert, the appointment of the new Manager and perhaps more telling, the handling and timing of his dismissal, the words spoken around it and the handling and timing of his replacement, expose the abilities of the aforementioned when it comes to operating outside of their expertise. In other words, instead of being entered into the Grand National they have been entered into a 5 furlong sprint and have been left standing.

That is not to criticise their performance, it’s not their fault they have been entered into the wrong race, but perhaps they should refuse to enter the stalls or elect a.n.other to run the race for them, an a.n.other with more expertise in running the ‘football side’ of a successful club, and I do not mean the Manager, I mean someone with the knowledge to devise and oversee strategic planning and appointments. It is interesting that in Debrett’s biography of Alan Bowkett, it lists his recreations as; shooting, salmon fishing, opera, everything Italian and growing vegetables. Nowhere is football mentioned, or any other game involving a ball.

IMO this a.n.other individual should be given the autonomy to fulfil his/her role to the best of his/her ability without the daily need to ‘report in’, of course there needs to be controls but there are controls and there are constraints. David McNally and Alan Bowkett stabilised the club by having total control over all operations within the club but perhaps now is the time to let the stallion run free for a while, to let go of the reins and if we/they have appointed the right ‘horse for the course’ he will romp home.

Finally and to add some levity to this post;

So, the bottom line is, we dig up Red Rum and give him the job of ‘Technical Director’, we could do worse!