Gannon has a principal role

Published on Saturday 4 July 2009 19:29

MOTHERWELL'S new boss wants success whilst his team adheres to his fundamentals, discovers Moira Gordon

'IT'S A question of what your principles are," said Jim Gannon. Any discourse with the new Motherwell manager leaves few imponderables as to what his standards and philosophies are. Especially when he spells them out so clearly and has demonstrated them so ably in the past.

As Stockport County manager, he transformed the club from Division Two relegation fodder in 2006 into a side which had been occupying one of the play-off places in the Championship at the start of 2009 before off-field woes led to a slide. The fact he did so with a relatively inexperienced players and the kind of footballing doctrines many would class as naive in the modern era earns him only kudos. He doesn't necessarily seek plaudits. He would prefer it if people adopted the blueprint.

"You won't see my teams kick the ball in the corner and time waste or time-wasting substitutions," he said as he spoke about the job that now faces him at Fir Park. "I know it's in the rules but I just don't think it's in the spirit of the game. People say I'm naive but I want to show that we can play in the right spirit and the right manner and I think we can still have success. People said to me when I took over a team at the bottom of the Second Division and said that we would build a young team and try to play football, they said it was a risk to do one of them but to do both was almost suicide. They said all that will happen is that someone will inherit your young team after you've lost your job because you can't play football and play young kids in the Second Division but we broke that mould and played our way out the division with kids and they have gone on now, some of them, to become internationals or good Championship players."

The approach is one he hopes to run with in the SPL. A lot, he says, comes down to mindset. Not only his or his players', but also the thinking of the officials who handle matches as well as the opposition's manager and team. A fan of Fair Play awards, he says he is proud that the team he has taken control of qualified for European competition via that route. Even if the opening tie did not go to plan on Thursday, losing 1-0 to Llanelli.

"I don't think clubs make enough of that, they don't shout enough about the good aspects of the game," said the 40-year-old. "We got the Fair Play award (at Stockport] and it was the smallest announcement you will have seen but it was great for a team from the lower leagues to win a Fair Play award. We are not a team of softies by any stretch of the imagination but what I want is for my teams to play the game in a controlled manner, control themselves, control the ball and control the way they play football. That's the most important thing. You know that the Scottish, English, Irish game has always been noted for its passion and its aggression and I don't want to see that diminish but what I want to see is that with a touch of control and composure, then we will have a real potent mix."

A vocal adversary of those who stretch the bounds of acceptable combative behaviour, Motherwell's Steelmen moniker is likely to pertain to their mental rather than physical approach during his tutelage. In the past he has threatened opposition players with legal action after challenges jeopardised his players' careers, while he has also lobbied fellow managers to embrace his outlook.

"I was a centre half so I know that there is contact in a game so there are instances which lead to injury, but what I want to cut out is the culture of intimidation and violence that's there almost as a tactic of some teams. As a father or a manager or any other person in society we should always speak out against violence. We had a young player, who was an international, whose career was abruptly ended by a horrendous challenge. Players' careers are being ended before they start and I think in terms of the culture in which we want to play the game and the culture in which we want our children to grow up, we should try to end violence."

While he is optimistic about his stint in the SPL, aware that there are managers who share his philosophies, he has met some resistance in the past. "We have had a number of managers who felt that the only way to stop our young side playing was to use strong arm tactics so what you rely on is a strong referee and if you have a hard hitting team and a soft referee then you know your players are going to get injured and that's when you speak up against it. I have always suggested that the lower leagues should be a little bit more about developing players and blooding young players and letting managers and young players experience a positive game. Then they will grow into the players that we need at the top level and I think we did that at Stockport. We produced internationals for Wales and Ireland but there are too many young players who are not being allowed to enjoy the game and develop.

"We discussed it at managers' meetings but the biggest problems we have is that the gurus who espouse the main principles on the pro licence course in England are all about game management and how we can control the game with tactical substitutions. I know there are sharp practices in every walk of life and I want to win but not at all costs. I think there is a certain amount of dignity and professionalism that I will always adhere no matter what everyone else does."

A steely resolve will be needed to ensure everyone here buys into those philosophies but this Steelman has already proven himself unquestionably unyielding on such matters.