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- Mar 1, 2005
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John Welsh
Listened to this earlier.
Seemed to have genuine respect for Graham Westley. Not too surprising, given he brought him to the club which is likely to have meant subsequently earning a life changing amount of money, compared to his Tranmere days.
Seemed to have genuine respect for Graham Westley. Not too surprising, given he brought him to the club which is likely to have meant subsequently earning a life changing amount of money, compared to his Tranmere days.
Complete bullshit
After his departure Mr Westley complained that all 'his' transfers were in fact someone else's.
Pretty sure Mousinho and Beardsley were his...
They may have been signed when he was here but..
Westley was always deluded. There is no way Westley did not want laird, Beardsley, byrom and mousinho considering he managed them at Stevenage and he then went on to make Mousinho the club captain. If Westley states that he did not sign them after he left then that's just sour grapes for getting sacked and being the most useless manager in the football league.
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When did he make that claim? (genuine question as I don't recall it).
After he was sacked but not in public. But he has gone now - he and Paul Simpson, who was perfectly OK at a personal level, are the two managers we have had who I never believed in from Day 1.
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I assumed that was Westley suggesting he wasn't given credit for recruiting players who did go on to become successful at North End. Admittedly he didn't have many successes but there were some such as Welsh and Huntington, and Laird who was a key part of the promotion push. Even unsuccessful managers sometimes make good purchases, just as good managers make some bad acquisitions. Given that Westley had been at Deepdale for around six months when Welsh, Huntington and many others were brought in it seems hard to believe he didn't want them. At the most it may have been a case of scouts or others recommending certain players but given his managerial style I'd be surprised if the decisions were not his own.
i think Simpson gets bad press because of his year 2 - his 1st year was mainly very good - still the only manager of the modern era to get us 'top' of the Championship.....all after coming here and finding NO backroom staff; no youth staff and no Youl after that pre season friendly..... I know many credit his success down to Billy but Billy never got us top with his squad.
The youth that came through in the next 5 seasons are a result of the youth set up he brought in from Burnley etc - Ramsdale; Hoyland etc....Ben Davies being the last of that line!
Certainly done fairly well since he left - especially with England set up....
The best thing Westley did after leaving was spending 2 1/2 months at Barnet this season making sure they went down and not Morecambe !
And Now Tranmere are back in the EFL then I expect Welshy to finish his playing career with them under Micky Mellon... and do some youth coaching at Deepdale in his spare time.
Yes a decent individual and I do recall that brief heady moment when the Premiership seemed to beckon. But for whatever reason I just never thought it was going to work with him as manager.