Grant, a god and favoured son of Impdom, was one of Celtic legend Chris Sutton’s favoured few. The ex boss had really taken him under his wing, valued his straight talking no nonsense approach and desire to embrace and learn new techniques. Grant replaced the injured Pearce as his second in command and then Tom Spall as Head of the Imps Youth set Up.
Grant, 462 appearance and 18 goals in all competitions for the Imps, is certainly a well paid coach behind the scenes. He heads a fountain of Youth where the talent tap turned off as soon as we started throwing money at the coaches and tracksuits and teams. Were they pampered in what should be a hard but healthy competitive environment? Perhaps we should ask Scunthorpe and Grimsby who continue to benefit from theirs through first team graduates and 7 figure sales. An ex manager was certainly critical of youth players making one or two first team appearances then assuming they had made it.
Who are our successes? Lee Frecklington was part of the old regime and Graham Hutchinson, Hobbs and Loach were only really here five minutes. We get lucky occasionally but Chris Sutton’s albeit abrasive synopsis of the setup and yet another board, appears pretty accurate. Chris Sutton keeps getting the blame yet those with their hands on the chequebook, running all these boards and committees, are in reality the faceless who have failed the faithful.
Again questions over management and the use of our dwindling resources during a period that saw no realignment from the top. With outsiders and thinking observers aware that the club was doing nothing, Directors either failed to act or lacked the strength of their convictions to change things. The easy ride and need for a cosy team was one of the Impy-leaks used via the tried and tested fans message pacification routes to keep Mr Foley out as well as others before him.
After David Beck broke silence, albeit just on the relegation apology’, thanks to our FAO article, would he care to comment the further areas that clearly need addressing? Who is to blame? Could our supporter director have asked more taxing questions on our behalf? Should he make better use of his blog? Is such an easy going friendly chap actually up to the job after all these years?