BURY may be hovering just above the Football League trap door but I believe anybody with an ounce of managerial ambition would be interested in the vacancy.
In my opinion, the job represents a fantastic opportunity and I’m not surprised at the calibre of people being linked to the position.
There is no doubting the quality of players are there, it just needs someone to go in, shake things up a bit and get them enjoying their football again.
From the people I have spoken with inside the club, I don’t think the players were enjoying themselves.
You could see it in their play that they had no confidence, and I think that is where Kevin Blackwell failed.
He has put the foundations in place, but has not been able to get his own players to buy into his philosophy, never mind the fans.
I don’t buy into the argument that Kevin should have been given more time.
I don’t think the chairman had a choice – his position had become untenable.
The results were bad and so was the atmosphere about the place.
It is fair to say the fans never warmed to Kevin from the start.
Sometimes that happens, as it did when Neil Warnock was at Bury.
And when the fans are not on board, any club will find it hard to go forward.
But all that was forgotten at the start of the season when the new owners came in.
A couple of good results against Accrington and Cheltenham helped, as did the performance at Norwich.
Attendances have stayed above 3,000 for home games, which shows there is a good core of supporters who are willing to buy into the revolution.
But the relationship between the fans and manager was putting that at risk and I think Mr Day had to act.
I heard someone say the other day that Kevin had done well last season in difficult circumstances and should have been given longer, but he got them relegated.
Over the summer the financial problems became the story and the relegation was forgotten.
Kevin was given carte blanche to build a completely new team in his image, but I think he went over the top bringing in 26 new players.
A club the size of Bury, with no reserve team to speak of, cannot afford to carry such a large squad and have 10 or 12 players sitting on the sidelines each weekend.
And to bring in so many players but not get an experienced striker as a focal point for the team was a big mistake.
When he went back to the chairman to ask for more money to get one in, it was probably already too late. So that will be the first job for the new man in charge, but, as I said, I don’t think it will take too much to turn things around.
Ronnie Jepson is the man in the hotseat now, and I for one would like to wish him well for this weekend.
Bury are a fantastic club and I would like to think that, whoever is appointed, it won’t be too long before they are back challenging at the right end of the table.
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