Martin ‘Mad Dog’ Allen returns with his latest column for Sportsmail. The Barnet manager talks about player recruitment at the club, Brentford’s mistake in letting Mark Warburton go and his analysis on promoted managers staying loyal to their players.
MY PLAYER FINDER
Most managers would’ve left their list of transfer targets with either a director of football or chief executive to negotiate the finer details of deals and contracts over the coming months and headed off for a well-earned break.
At Barnet, we don’t have scouts, no recruitment officers and no director of football. Instead, my battered old van, which I call the Player Finder, is chugging around the motorways — at a top speed of only 60mph — to meet, greet and persuade players, their partners and agents that Barnet are the new north London giants.
Martin Allen uses an old van to drive around the country to recruit new players for his Barnet side
Experienced striker Kevin Lisbie joined the Bees earlier this week as Mad Dog strengthens
There is no doubt that next season in League Two we will be Mad Dog’s underdogs, but with the help from my chairman, if we get a few players in, rather than loads, and work with a small, tight-knit squad, I reckon — no, I know — we will have some fun taking on the bigger clubs.
These next couple of months are vital for the next 10 months.
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BRENTFORD DROPPED A BALL WITH WARBURTON
The days are now well and truly gone where you get a managerial job if you’ve played at a high level or been an international. Having one of those things on your CV used to virtually guarantee you an opportunity to work in football.
At my old club Brentford, they employed a trader from the city called Mark Warburton to be their director of football a few years ago, after he’d worked his way through the schoolboy system at Watford, then gave him the job as manager.
Despite an excellent season, Mark Warburton and Brentford parted ways
He is an innovative coach, who has very good man-management and people skills and is a good organiser and delegator. People questioned his appointment at Brentford but he is articulate, clever and has taken on board courses and education in sports science, analysis and player recruitment.
I honestly feel if Brentford would have held back with the announcement he was leaving until the end of the season then they would now be playing in the Premier League. There is no doubt Warburton will join the likes of Brendan Rodgers, Karl Robinson, and the legendary Italian coach Arrigo Sacchi on the list of top managers who never played the game at a high level.
Brentford lost in the play-offs but Allen thinks they would have gone up if the announcement was delayed
BLOOMIN’ MARVELLOUS
When I first started at Brentford, 11 years ago, I told all of the supporters about my love of gardening and compared it to managing a football club.
I explained that it was necessary to cut everything right back, dig some plants out which are past their best and to bring in some sunshine and fresh growth, to re-energise the garden and bring some colour to the team.
Some young players stepped up, some new players were brought in and we trained hard. We trimmed and tidied, fed and watered and the sunshine came; with a fourth-place finish and making it to the sixth-round of the FA Cup with a team who had escaped relegation by one point.
My garden is my escape and I can be creative like I can with my team. I was a very proud man a week ago on Sunday when I visited the church for the Sunday service — the church I had got married in on the Friday — to hear the vicar announce that the flowers and floral displays were colourful, wild and good on the eye and had been donated to us and made by Martin Allen.
The former Brentford boss compares management to gardening when it comes to re-energising the squad
ALLEN’S ANALYSIS
One person I keep hearing about… Alex Neil. I was interested to read that Norwich manager Neil plans to be loyal to all his players going into the Premier League. It’s a tough one as a manager when you build up good relationships, and even friendships, then a few weeks after the final game you have to sit across the desk and let certain players go who’ve done so well.
Alex has done tremendously to get Norwich promoted via the play-offs and I hear he has a firm, but fair, attitude with his players, which has worked.
Now he faces one of the toughest parts of the job. He will no doubt be bombarded with agents calls, offering him players from all over the world, promising him they have got the new Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi and the next Harry Kane. It will be a stern test.
Alex Neil has said he’ll stay loyal to his players but he may find it hard when agents bombard his phone
One thing I’d change about… Managers taking all the blame.
The latest statistics from the League Managers Association show there have been a record number of sackings for the season.
There surely must come a time when you take a manager for the season and he is yours for the season, whatever the outcome. Surely that must come soon? Even at my level and with my teams top of the league, it seems not a day goes by without speculation over a manager’s job. For some reason there are never any questions of the people who make the appointments in the first place.
Alan Pardew has had a terrific start to his managerial stint at Crystal Palace after leaving Newcastle
All those supporters at Newcastle who had the banners out and were chanting for Alan Pardew to go must surely, surely be scratching their heads having driven out a top-quality manager. Aston Villa fans did it with Martin O’Neil. Arsene Wenger, one of the most successful managers in the Premier League’s history, has had it from Arsenal supporters.
They should be wary, take a little step back and think before they start hammering their manager.
The 53-year-old was an unpopular figure at his former club as fans pressured the board to sack him
The big issue…
It is worth noting that Jose Mourinho did not win the Manager of the Month award all season but won the league. I also did not win manager of the month, for the Conference, all season, but my Barnet side won the league.
Somebody the other day called me Mr T, with my two championship medals, won in the past three years, hanging from my neck.
Manager of the month? Not bothered one little bit, not interested. Player of the month? Not interested. Man of the match? Not interested. It’s all about the team.
Allen says winning the league and matches is more important than being awarded Manager of the Month
My friends are season ticket holders at Chelsea and for those last few months they ground out wins very similarly to my Barnet side. Tactically all Mourinho cared about was winning.
I threw extra centre backs on to protect our lead and being top of the table for the whole season, the closer and closer we got to the finishing line, teams changed formations to play five across midfield, often added an extra centre half and played 20 yards deeper. The same thing happened with Chelsea.
It’s the winning that counts, not the individual accolades.