Sentiment aside I reckon there’s a few SL clubs that should be out of reach as an initial appointment for first team coach. We’re one of them. It’s simply too risky as a first appointment when you consider the range of demands placed on an individual with no previous experience at the top in what can be a very lonely place. Coaching, tactics, research, media, fans relationships, community, squad balance, signings, dismissals, time mgt, stress mgt, leadership, counselling.....................a lot to consider at any club let alone a top club.
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Same here, I get the feeling the timing was off when he asked about the saints coach position, I reckon he would take a drop in salary with union to be a Head Coach of the Saints. Tactically he comes across as a "Millward Style' of his way of doing things with maybe Wellens a steadying influence.
Last edited by STIDDY; 20th April 2020 at 13:28.
Holbrook could go and sell pies in Wigan Market and get it right. Some people just have it and he is one of those. I bet Justin like us all wishes for one minute he could be Cunningham at Wembley in 1996.
Yes it's unbelievable the players of quality he played with and the success the "Saints way" achieved with him in the team yet a lot of his signings were second rate at best and his style of play was alien to everyone except him. From Hero to Zero in a few easy steps. But I think Wello would be as dismayed as everyone about his dismal reign.
On the Back foot looking for the front one.
You will remember Greengrass Bobby Charlton as a manager. Great player who thought as a manager he could make mundane great.
I feel Cunningham became the RL version of him he thought he could make his followers great such as Owens and Dawson as starters for ten but he introduced many more.
If anything of all the coaches he played under he was close in style to Hanley, his way or the highway and Holdroyd better than Martyn and it nearly happened. Wello I feel is more people orientated than Kez so is not process obsessed.
There's a long list of great players of both football and RL who have struggled as coaches. There's a school of thought that for many great players, excelling at the game came naturally to them and when they move into management they expect their players to have a similar natural ability. But most players reach their peak level through hard work, training and dedication - and also being guided/tutored by great coaches.
There are obvious exceptions, but the vast majority of the best coaches in both football and RL seem to have been good (even very good in some cases) players but who were generally unspectacular and hardworking.
Cunningham was a physical 'freak' (in the nicest possible sense); he had raw power, was strong as an ox, and coupled that with superb game awareness. He established himself as a 1st team regular in his teens, after bursting onto the scene with some superb displays. Wellens had to work a lot harder, even having to change position; he improved over time as he trained more and learned more.
He's also been big in Jamaica by all accounts
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aKR8RW50swA
Holbrook had the right idea to buy into St Helens and the people straight away, he was one of are own. Very much a people person who showed his passion for both the town and the club. Each time the camera showed him watching a game he was playing the game with his passion and passing his messages through his assistants. I watched the Castleford game Woolf was sat watching the game, had in my opinion no idea how to make changes to the game. He has already lost me along with a good few more fans. For me he would have been back in Australia only for the current situation. He may now benefit from the situation as Saints won’t have the money to sack him.
Q&A with Wello.
https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/...gue-st-helens/