Saunders on radio Kent

[loudmouthstone]

Afternoon all. Jay is going to be on BBC Radio Kent tonight from 9pm. Think it’s his first interview since leaving and so it should be interesting.

[Better things to do in life]

So what was it all about?

[Deleted]

Like I've said in the past, the pitch is too narrow at the Gallagher.

[Better things to do in life]

What was the JS interview on Radio Kent all about?

[rollingstone]

Jan 7, 2019 21:37:58 GMT Better things to do in life said:

What was the JS interview on Radio Kent all about?

Did you not listen to it then?

[toonarmy]

Good honest interview in my humble opinion, no digging out of the club, the owners or HW, a true gent who still loves the club

[sdg]

Jan 7, 2019 21:43:39 GMT toonarmy said:

Good honest interview in my humble opinion, no digging out of the club, the owners or HW, a true gent who still loves the club

Agreed, Jay always come across well. Interesting comment about the national league and how Jay believed he overachieved with the resources he had where as the board felt they were underachieving. Have we been a little spoilt in the past 6/7 years and expectation were too high? Jay seemed to believe the structure of the club is a few years away from most NL squads.

[dave41212]

Summery for anyone who missed it:

Regrets not taking the Macc job
Said relationship with owners changed after that
Wasn't surprised when he got the sack
Annoyed the club appointed Wheeler after talking about getting someone with football league experience
Annoyed with having to sell best players to football league teams (Pigott, Sweens)
Annoyed with not being given a proper contract rather than a rolling one
Felt the squad at the start of the season was missing 1 or 2 players, mainly a really good goalscorer
Doesn't think he'd ever come back as Maidstone manager (although didn't rule it out completely)
Hopes we stay up, but said it will be very difficult
Had been helping at Bromley (who he praised their professional off the field setup), but now wants to get back into management
Thought Wheeler sold players who were still loyal to Jay

Jay avoided calling Wheeler a clown (just

Anything I missed?

[steveh21]

Jan 7, 2019 22:03:05 GMT dave41212 said:

Summery for anyone who missed it:

Regrets not taking the Macc job
Said relationship with owners changed after that
Wasn't surprised when he got the sack
Annoyed the club appointed Wheeler after talking about getting someone with football league experience
Annoyed with having to sell best players to football league teams (Pigott, Sweens)
Annoyed with not being given a proper contract rather than a rolling one
Felt the squad at the start of the season was missing 1 or 2 players, mainly a really good goalscorer
Doesn't think he'd ever come back as Maidstone manager (although didn't rule it out completely)
Hopes we stay up, but said it will be very difficult
Had been helping at Bromley (who he praised their professional off the field setup), but now wants to get back into management
Thought Wheeler sold players who were still loyal to Jay

Jay avoided calling Wheeler a clown (just

Anything I missed?

nc



Did he really call Sweeney one of our best players? :-)

[daveu]

Jan 7, 2019 22:12:07 GMT steveh21 said:

Jan 7, 2019 22:03:05 GMT dave41212 said:

Summery for anyone who missed it:

Regrets not taking the Macc job
Said relationship with owners changed after that
Wasn't surprised when he got the sack
Annoyed the club appointed Wheeler after talking about getting someone with football league experience
Annoyed with having to sell best players to football league teams (Pigott, Sweens)
Annoyed with not being given a proper contract rather than a rolling one
Felt the squad at the start of the season was missing 1 or 2 players, mainly a really good goalscorer
Doesn't think he'd ever come back as Maidstone manager (although didn't rule it out completely)
Hopes we stay up, but said it will be very difficult
Had been helping at Bromley (who he praised their professional off the field setup), but now wants to get back into management
Thought Wheeler sold players who were still loyal to Jay

Jay avoided calling Wheeler a clown (just

Anything I missed?

nc



Did he really call Sweeney one of our best players? :-)

And why wouldn't he. Regular MOTM performances for Barnet. Too many fans weren't prepared to give him a chance but you could see he had it in him to be a very good player.

[patm]

It was a good interview and Nick asked the right questions on the phone-in.

It was good to hear Jay up-beat and job-hungry.
Now we know another side of the story, which helps join some of the dots.

As for coming back? Not in the short-term and he held back saying we will be relegated but didn't rule it out as he said it was heavily reliant on beating some well-funded clubs.

Sometimes, because of the success we enjoyed under jays stewardship, we get ideas beyond out capabilities, financially. That was very clear.

I remember going on stones-live chat (or town-end talk as it was called) and asked a question about the 'Going full time' statement- I did the simple maths and worked out that we couldn't afford it and it wasn't sustainable-then, as season later at one of the 'meet the managers' sessions, it was admitted that we 'weren't full-time' Doh!!

[jdl]

Jan 7, 2019 22:03:05 GMT dave41212 said:

Summery for anyone who missed it:

Regrets not taking the Macc job
Said relationship with owners changed after that
Wasn't surprised when he got the sack
Annoyed the club appointed Wheeler after talking about getting someone with football league experience
Annoyed with having to sell best players to football league teams (Pigott, Sweens)
Annoyed with not being given a proper contract rather than a rolling one
Felt the squad at the start of the season was missing 1 or 2 players, mainly a really good goalscorer
Doesn't think he'd ever come back as Maidstone manager (although didn't rule it out completely)
Hopes we stay up, but said it will be very difficult
Had been helping at Bromley (who he praised their professional off the field setup), but now wants to get back into management
Thought Wheeler sold players who were still loyal to Jay

Jay avoided calling Wheeler a clown (just

Anything I missed?

I think this explains the speed with which he was sacked. And possibly also the problems he had with summer signings?

Reading between the lines, it sounds like he was effectively on notice, and (maybe) expected to fail. And (again maybe) wasn't given much help (or perhaps even hindered?) during the summer team rebuilding.

Pure speculation, obviously.

[gromley]

Yeah that was my revelation from the interview too.

If it's true that the relationship soured once he agreed to take the Macc job but then changed his mind (It would perhaps explain the timing of his departure, which otherwise I thought made no sense at all), then it doesn't really imho look like the boards finest hour, but we all have mistakes to learn from.

No sense of animosity from Jay though (just disappointment). Perhaps in a few sackings time, he'll realise that it was just "one of them!"

All credit to him for a quality, honest interview. I hope he finds his next position soon and goes on to prosper.

LEGEND.

[Better things to do in life]

Thanks for the précis for those who missed it. As usual an honest and thankfully frank interview that hopefully didn’t upset any fans and didn’t malign anyone, but was still revealing. Probably too revealing about our owners thinking and decisions for him to come back to the Stones but wish him really well in getting a really good Management role soon. This is the openness we need from the owners about our current situation. Personally looking at Simon Walton’s playing CV, seeing he’s ready to stop playing and that he’s also 31, is he our new Jay, but with the League experience (albeit as a player not a manager) With Tristan as his No2? Also the interview emphasises the gravity and madness of the mistake in hiring HW when also Jay was told we were hiring a Leaguebexperienced manager - and then got the Dealer in! Shame Jay didn’t take the Macc job - it could have been a different story! Yes, Jay is still a legend. All the best Mr Saunders.

[jdl]

Jan 8, 2019 8:24:08 GMT Better things to do in life said:

Thanks for the précis for those who missed it. As usual an honest and thankfully frank interview that hopefully didn’t upset any fans and didn’t malign anyone, but was still revealing. Probably too revealing about our owners thinking and decisions for him to come back to the Stones but wish him really well in getting a really good Management role soon. This is the openness we need from the owners about our current situation. Personally looking at Simon Walton’s playing CV, seeing he’s ready to stop playing and that he’s also 31, is he our new Jay, but with the League experience (albeit as a player not a manager) With Tristan as his No2? Also the interview emphasises the gravity and madness of the mistake in hiring HW when also Jay was told we were hiring a Leaguebexperienced manager - and then got the Dealer in! Shame Jay didn’t take the Macc job - it could have been a different story! Yes, Jay is still a legend. All the best Mr Saunders.

It wouldn't surprise me if he goes on to be a successful manager elsewhere. Yet another of those 'Stones rejects', we wonder why we ever let go!

And if my speculation about the real story behind his sacking is accurate, he wasn't so much sacked for his summer signings and a poor start to this season, but for his record over the two previous seasons. And if that is the case, then he was grossly unfairly sacked. Despite getting into the NL too early and being pretty much unprepared for it, he managed to keep us up for two seasons. He also managed to twice rebuild the squad when things (largely out of his control) went wrong.

He got us as high as 11th in our first season, with a mid-table finish at 14th (only goal difference away from 11th), and in our second season, we got as high as 5th, before finishing at 19th - but only two points off the same place as the first season. A pretty good record under the circumstances. And, at no time were we ever in the situation we're in now - in fact under Jay, we were never in the relegation zone, even after our 17 game winless run after Piggott left.

The situation we are in now is not Jay's doing, it is down to the unrealistic expectations of the owners (and, yes, the fans - including me).