John Deehan

Being linked with Argyle as a mentor to Fletcher.

Frank Bullitt wrote:

Being linked with Argyle as a mentor to Fletcher.

Incredible. Hasn't had a managerial position in 14 years other than a brief spell as caretaker at Aston Villa.

Brent goes cheap again. Last proper managerial job was 1995-1998 Wigan in Div 3 (L2) although he did get them promoted. Since then all assistant posts. His last football job was some obscure post at Grimsby in 2010 from which he was released after they dropped out of the FL. Only Argyle would offer someone like him a job for his 'experience'.

Bogsider wrote:

Frank Bullitt wrote:

Being linked with Argyle as a mentor to Fletcher.

Incredible. Hasn't had a managerial position in 14 years other than a brief spell as caretaker at Aston Villa.

Sounds like he fits the Argyle profile

The link to the Herald story

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Maybe Fletcher is smarter then we think. He might be asking Deehan for advice on how to avoid relegation and then do the exact opposite.

I think we should all grow beards!

I may have missed the point here but wasn't the idea to employ someone to work with Carl as a mentor and not someone who is keen on being the Number 1 in the relationship?

The first 9 games (pre-Carl) have effectively ensured that we are fighting a league season over 37 games and not 46. This season is all about surviving in the league. Our current form would suggest that we are on course to do this. The addition of an experienced mentor will surely not hinder our chances of survival.

We can then all take stock in May, with our league status assured hopefully and review matters then. At that stage we'll be 6 months down the line with the repayments to staff/creditors and able to have an uninterrupted pre-season.

I don't see the point in already criticising an appointment that hasn't even been made.

I suppose it comes down to confidence in Fletcher and the words of Brent.

As there seems to be little hope of bringing players in to do the job owing to the convenient wage cap, I think most will expect the money that would have been spent bringing in players to have been spent bringing in a recognised name to manage or to help manage the club, that doesn't appear to be happening though.

Just thinking aloud, if we' re helping Fletcher learn the trade and getting in a mentor to help out because we rate him really highly. I expect the first thing Brent did was to offer him a contract beyond next season....

An experienced manager (which I think we need) would not be happy to play number two to Fletcher. So if Fletcher is to stay he would want someone he feels comfortable with and not threatened by, Deehan fills the bill. The advantage of Fletcher from Brents point of view is that he does not have to pay him as a player and then find a managers salary on top (cheapo).

pepsipete wrote:

he would want someone he feels comfortable with and not threatened by, Deehan fills the bill.

This is what it appears like. it now looks as if the mentor thing is just a public cover for someone to help answer the mail and make a few phone calls.

The club is stuck with Jonah ... Brent is going with his admin team he has got used to. He hasn't the faintest idea how important a manager can be in football. As long as he doesn't sign any large contracts into next season, it doesn't matter much whether the team stays up or goes down.... he's building a 'community resource', not a football team.

pepsipete wrote:

An experienced manager (which I think we need) would not be happy to play number two to Fletcher. So if Fletcher is to stay he would want someone he feels comfortable with and not threatened by, Deehan fills the bill. The advantage of Fletcher from Brents point of view is that he does not have to pay him as a player and then find a managers salary on top (cheapo).

What Pete said.
I could also add it then looks like the club are doing something when they aren't doing much.

Fletcher has had a mentor for the last few months. He is called Sean O'Driscoll. And he appeared to be having a good effect on the team as results have improved. But because we didn't tie him down to a contract he has gone to Forest as a coach.

Warnock is sitting on our doorstep. If he wants to come here as a manager then to hell with Fletcher and get him in asap. If he is happy to be a mentor then he is the best choice we will ever have. If it doesn't work at least we will have tried.

Deehan and Fletcher may turn out to be the best partnership since Clough and Taylor. But it is hardly an appointment that gets the blood pumping is it?

penzancepirate wrote:

pepsipete wrote:

he would want someone he feels comfortable with and not threatened by, Deehan fills the bill.

This is what it appears like. it now looks as if the mentor thing is just a public cover for someone to help answer the mail and make a few phone calls.

The club is stuck with Jonah ... Brent is going with his admin team he has got used to. He hasn't the faintest idea how important a manager can be in football. As long as he doesn't sign any large contracts into next season, it doesn't matter much whether the team stays up or goes down.... he's building a 'community resource', not a football team.

This assessment would appear to be near to the truth. Although a guy like Warnock won't be answering the mail. He's a leader.

The community resource angle is borne out by Where's Webby's continued bleatings that, 'WE have a chance to get involved in building OUR club'.

We all know who he means by WE !

None of this is about PAFC, it's about the cheapest options to pacify the fans. It seems the only difference between Heaney and Brent was that Brent had the cash and made friends with the owner of the fans largest Internet forum, Heaney didn't.

Call out the dogs I say!

I reckon it's a job well done...it must have been difficult sifting out all the candidates with something worthwhile on their CV to offer in favour of the one person on the planet who could make Carl Fletcher look an inspirational leader.

Shouldn't we be discussing a forkoff great flag instead of this manager crap?

To be appointed today according to Sparksy

Haven't got a problem with this in the circumstances.Lennie Lawrence carries out a similar role for Friedman at Palace,if Brent has decided to stick with Fletcher [which appears to be the case at the moment] then it could be beneficial.Could be interesting if Argyle lose a couple of matches though-would Deehan be the man most suitable to step in? He has achieved things as a manager in the past at Wigan and Norwich,whether he would be up to the pressures of Argyle's situation,or indeed if he would actually want those pressures now,is a debatable point.Lets hope it all works out.

Does he bleed green ?

Greenskin wrote:

Haven't got a problem with this in the circumstances.Lennie Lawrence carries out a similar role for Friedman at Palace,if Brent has decided to stick with Fletcher [which appears to be the case at the moment] then it could be beneficial.Could be interesting if Argyle lose a couple of matches though-would Deehan be the man most suitable to step in? He has achieved things as a manager in the past at Wigan and Norwich,whether he would be up to the pressures of Argyle's situation,or indeed if he would actually want those pressures now,is a debatable point.Lets hope it all works out.

The key difference here is that Lennie Lawrence has 30 years of experience. The only standout quality of Deehan that I can see is that he is available and probably not very expensive.

Frank Bullitt wrote:

To be appointed today according to Sparksy

Yer 'tiz: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

A Fletcher/Deehan partnership might work. Who knows what the dynamic will be like.

But.....

.....we should have tied down O'Driscoll when we had the chance. That DID work.

Bogsider wrote:

Greenskin wrote:

Haven't got a problem with this in the circumstances.Lennie Lawrence carries out a similar role for Friedman at Palace,if Brent has decided to stick with Fletcher [which appears to be the case at the moment] then it could be beneficial.Could be interesting if Argyle lose a couple of matches though-would Deehan be the man most suitable to step in? He has achieved things as a manager in the past at Wigan and Norwich,whether he would be up to the pressures of Argyle's situation,or indeed if he would actually want those pressures now,is a debatable point.Lets hope it all works out.

The key difference here is that Lennie Lawrence has 30 years of experience. The only standout quality of Deehan that I can see is that he is available and probably not very expensive.

To be fair,that isn't quite true.

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Maybe not as much experience as Lawrence [who i remember as a rookie understudy to Malcolm Allison at HP after a short spell as caretaker manager] but he's certainly held a wide variety of posts,including a couple of reasonably successful management stints.He was a very good player,Andy Gray's partner at Villa in a very successful Ron Saunders built team.Now there's a thought-what's uncle Ron doing these days?

Good luck to him but it's yet another "breaking" story that leaves me personally underwhelmed. If SOD had been brought in as THE manager I would have been quite moist, but hey ho.