I'm going to reverse this and ask you to put yourself in Davies' position, at the time that he moved on – very difficult to do, however, for this exercise it will help. Also bear in mind that to do this you will need to remove your bias and feeling towards the club, because Davies was a manager, paid to do a job, not a long suffereing supporter.
Think back to May 2006, when Davies was in charge at the football club. We had just lost to Leeds United in the play off 2nd leg and he gathered the players into a huddle, clearly showing they were together. Following that game, the club made their intentions known, that we had to sell to balance the books and not long after we lost Tyrone Mears, Claude Davis and eventually David Nugent (all players with fantastic pace and something that has never been replaced, even 5 years on). At that point, even I would understand walking away from the job, working with that criteria, so how do you suppose a manager would feel who had no previous history with Preston North End – he only joined the club because Craig Brown selected him as his assistant manager.
Davies always made it known that he is ambitious and at that time he was our realistic chance of getting into the premiership – he had us organised, moving in the right direction, intensely competitive and he was signing players within a small budget. How else was he supposed to react, when the club made it clear that they wouldn't back him and in fact he would have to dismantle the team he had brought together as a unit? How would you take to that? Derby recognised his ability and made it clear that they would back him in the transfer market (which they did) and I don't blame him for moving on – any ambitious manager would have done the same. It always strikes me that many football fans get upset when someone walks over us, however, they are the same type of people that can't wait to kick a man when he is struggling and what them out of the door! The biggest example of double standards is shown within football. The club also didn't show much respect to David Kelly, who was in contention for the managerial position and then we suddenly went down the route of appointing Paul Simpson and in my opinion that was the start of our downfall. So what if Davies walked away from the club, taking the whole of his backroom team with him – have we not done the same to other clubs, in the past?
Since Billy Davies has left the club, the club have backed every single manager and they have wasted the money given to them, on transfer fees and wages – how many players have we made a profit on since Davies left the club? If a fraction of that outlay had been given to Davies, we wouldn't be in this mess now. If ever a man should feel bitter it is Davies and if he does decide to come back then it shows the level of a man that he is and if he feels that he wants to enter into a task that would be far more difficult than when he was last here, then he gets my respect - 'without a doubt'.
This was the team that played in the 2nd leg of the play offs and how quickly that team was dismantled or players left of their own accord. A team that was full of pace, experience, strength and all were signed within a very small transfer budget:
Carlo Nash
Tyrone Mears
Claude Davis
Youl Mawene
Graham Alexander
Marcus Stewart
Brian O'Neil
Brett Ormerod
Paul McKenna
David Nugent
Daniele Dichio
Whether Davies joins or not or whether the club choose another option, I for one don't hold any bitterness towards Davies and the job that he did whilst he was here and if he does return, then the club would definitely start to move forward – his attention to detail is second to none and the players who are here would develop with his coaching skills. He is also a manager that sets his teams up to maintain posession of the ball, unlike the previous managers, in which we played like the away team at home and got battered away.
Fantastic post!
Very good post MG. The guy would have got us into the prem automatically if we had backed him when top 2 that Xmas , like Forest he did not get backed when he needed that extra push and the rest is History . look at the three clubs he has managed recently . All did the best that they have done in recent history under him . When he thought they had gone as far as he could get them he asked for more funding to get to the extra level and each time was refused . Soon after they parted and all three have struggled since . Billy Davies is the best manager out there and if we did get him it would show everyone that Trev means business and PNE are not a selling club anymore .
Billy that January in his 1st full season was on the verge of getting Gareth Bale from Spurs when their LB whose name I cannot spell off hand suffered an injury, 'Arry put him in (Bale) against his wishes and the rest is history.