Megson –
fifty percent better?
10/01/05 | by Alex Walker
During the American presidential elections last year it was remarked that it was a choice between a man who
had proved he couldn’t handle the job and one who had yet to prove he couldn’t handle the job. Rather sadly, the choice of Forest manager was somewhat similar. Joe Kinnear had proved that he wasn’t up to the task, but the list of potential replacements was uninspiring to say the least. However, in amongst all the John Kerrys we were offered, Gary Megson was, for want of a more positive phrase, the least uninspiring.
In fact, considering Forest’s position as a club, his record would suggest he is ideal for the job. He has vast experience working on tight budgets under difficult circumstances, not to mention leading unfashionable West Brom to promotion on two occasions. Apart from the impending relegation, in the long
run Forest desperately need to get out of the Championship – that is the only way the club can possibly hope to clear its crippling debts – and
bearing in mind Megson’s track record, there can be few more capable of doing it.
So why are some Forest fans reacting to his appointment with such animosity? Well, most likely it is the assumption that if Megson does eventually lead us to promotion, it will
be with the same
long-ball, backs-to-the-wall style that he employed at West Brom and this kind of thing has never gone down well at Forest. One suspects that if he can bring results to the City Ground the fans will put up with some ugly football, but his style of play does give him an early obstacle to overcome.
However, for the moment the question of whether he can guide us to promotion is somewhat academic considering the present predicament. His immediate task is to avoid relegation – at all costs. This for me is the main concern. I don’t care what kind of football we play as long as we avoid the drop. It’s not as if we’ve been playing blinding stuff recently anyway, and the disastrous costs of relegation are too great to risk for the sake of pretty passing.
So, what makes me think that Megson could succeed where Kinnear was failing? Well, it is obvious to most
observers that Forest’s players are good enough to avoid the drop. Not a lot else, mind, but they should certainly be performing above their current level. While they must take some responsibility for this upon themselves, the manager can play a big part in getting the best out of his players. Megson is clearly skilled at getting the best out of a team and hopefully he will be able to look at our current set of players and organise them in a way Kinnear couldn’t.
Joe Kinnear often explained his reason for turning down prospective transfers because the target player was “not 50 percent better than what we already have”. If Gary Megson is going to be successful, he will need to be more than 50 percent better than Kinnear – the challenge ahead of him is
that great. He will also need the support of the chairman and the fans. But if he gets this, I see no reason why he can’t be successful with Forest.
We have to be realistic about this. We were not going to attract Bobby Robson or Gordon
Strachan to the club. And Doughty was not going to hand the reigns over to somebody as inexperienced
as Stuart Pearce at the current time, no matter how popular it would have made him in the short term. Mick Harford should be thanked for his work over the last month, and I hope he does get offered some kind of role at the club, but perhaps it was just a case of us needing some fresh thinking and Kinnear’s assistant was not the man to deliver it.
There were arguments for the other candidates, such as Dave Jones and Micky Adams, but it’s fair to say that none of the interviewed people were going to be a universally popular among the fans. Judging by his record and credentials, and cross-referencing them with Forest’s short- and long-term needs, on balance Megson was probably the right
choice among the options available. Forest need grit to get out of the current relegation scrap and they need sound management to get out of the current division – Megson is
capable of delivering both and proving the doubters wrong.
What do you think about Gary Megson's appointment? E-mail us at forest_1979@hotmail.com with your comments...