Next Manager? Life after DB.

[EastBarnetBee]

I don’t usually write on the forum, but this one is close to my heart because it deals with the ‘quick fix, grass is always greener’ aspect of managerial recruitment.

Dean Brennan is unusual as a manager as he is very much his own man and knows his own mind. It is apparent that he is very much committed to Barnet and the project here. After developing things so well and at such a steady pace over the last three years, he is not going to get tempted by offers elsewhere in any great hurry. He is too clever for that. Seeing what happened to Rob Edwards moving from FGR to Watford and what subsequently happened at FGR has probably reinforced that. He won’t want to see all his hard work at Barnet flushed away in a short period of time with an inappropriate successor.

There are other factors that also influence this that I have had directly from other sources.

I took Dean up on his offer of a cup of tea and chat a while back. He is financially secure as he has family business interests, which tie him to this area. He gave up playing full time in his early twenties as he didn’t like the insecurity of one year contract renewals and the lack of stability that they brought. If you notice apart from Sheffield Wednesday and Bohemians, most of his football career has been in this neck of the woods, pointing to loyalty and stability; in particular his six year spell managing Hemel Hempstead.

I recently spoke to a Wealdstone supporter who was very ‘in the know’ and quite matter of fact about this. She told me that the parting of the ways was quite heated and pointed to the fact that he didn’t appear happy to want to leave. I won’t say any more, but there was nothing that she said that lead me to believe that she was factually inaccurate; particularly as I portrayed myself as a neutral (and not a Barnet supporter) who simply wanted to understand the history better.

Having said this, I agree fully with the original post in that ‘nothing lasts for ever’ and Dean will not always be here. At the time of him taking over, I wrote to TK pointing out that former high profile players such as Harry Kewell, along with many others, do not make the best managers. They can play but they can’t always manage. I also pointed out at this very early stage that, from what I had briefly seen, Dean Brennan had success written all over him. The reply was that he found it ‘interesting’. Look where we are three years later.

Managerial recruitment has, on many occasions, been a significant blind spot at Barnet. There have been too many rookies appointed with no relevant experience to the league that club was in at the time, hence the relatively poor results.

The club needs some form of small scale proactive recruitment department similar to that at Brighton and Brentford, which has served these clubs very well. Newport County adopted this approach in the noughties, sometimes taking several months to ‘get their man’ and look what they achieved since relative to where they were at the time. At some appropriate future point, I intend to write to the club again regarding this particular issue.

Thanks for the insight, please write in the forum more often

Indeed. Very interesting post.

[TorME]

If we're top and coasting I dont see DB leaving, he'll want another title to his name. He's essentially got a job for life here so it would need to be something special for him to take a risk.

If he did leave, it would need to be a manager who's values and playing style are similar. Simon Bassey for example was a very defensive minded coach, that wouldnt work well with this group. Gateshead appointed Rob Elliot from within, this would be our best option I believe if DB left in the middle of a season. Give CS the wheel and steer the ship to promotion.

in fairness to Simon Bassey he had a dire squad to work with and decided trying to be hard to beat was the way forward with those players - given his own squad or a squad of better players he may approach the game differently.

Yes, but often when the Manager leaves, he takes his setup with him. Let's hope we don't have to think about this!

[becbee]

When I read the opening post earlier, my heart sank. My intention was to give the thread a wide berth. I'm glad to say I didn't. If I had I'd have missed a really insightful, interesting post from barnet6newport1. Thank you.

[barnet6newport1]

To bfc_mo, EastBarnetBee and becbee.

Thank you for each of your replies. Greatly appreciated.

Barnet6Newport1 (my first ever Barnet match way back in November 1970)

[barnetboy1]

Not really a prospect I want to consider at the moment ,but as mentioned any club/business ,worth it's salt, has contingency plans for it's future.
Consider the end of the season, we are faced with 4 potential outcomes-
1) Champions
2) Promotion via play-offs
3) Lose in the play-offs
4) Fail to make play-offs
I can't envisage TK sacking DB 'and I can only see Dean wanting to "go again" ,for any of the above.
It's going to be an offer he can't refuse ,from a far bigger club, to tempt him away, and i don't think he'll come cheap.
I'd like to think he'll be with us long enough that the successor is not yet obvious.
COYBeees!!

P.S Failing that ,Edgar Davids.

[djhdjh]

Hopefully Brennan stays for several more years and eventually hands over to Connor Smith or Jerome Okimo (clearly very well respected in the squad, already involved in the coaching, plays in a very tactically astute way, from the Brennan school).

[Mikel Bee]

The feeling I get of DB is that the overall vibe of a club is very important to his job satisfaction, perhaps moreso than money or position. Getting on with the owner, positivity, togetherness and loyalty when results take a turn are all vital. None of these cost money, it's about the fabric of the club and I imagine it's these factors that are likely to determine the chances of him wanting to stay and progress here, when given the opportunity of a move elsewhere.

[DerekRocholl]

Linking 2 threads, in a few years time we will be discussing the merits of Southgate taking over the reigns at League 1 Barnet at Underhill after Brennan was poached to manage the perennial Premiership also rans in N17.

[AJwilla]

I think Dean will stay in the short-medium term. But I would have absolutely nothing against him if a Championship or even a League One side came knocking and he took the job.

[becbee]

He has said that he didn't like job insecurity. Insofar as any job in football is secure, he has that at Barnet. He also has a contract to June 2026.

[peterstebbings]

When we loaned both Francis and Wilkinson to Braintree recently, it made me think that DB must have thought they’d be in good hands so I looked up who the manager was

Twitter algorithms then pushed Braintree-related stuff to me and I ended up watching an interview with manager Angelo Harrop.

The way he spoke was just like DB and he was pretty impressive. I also thought they weren’t at all bad when they played us.

He got them promoted to the NL.

Don’t know much about him apart from that, but much rather him than ‘a name’.

[rudebwoyben]

He has been the only manager I’ve seen this season who has been as animated as DB is during a match!

[JWTBee]

He's a very good up & coming Manager in most people's opinions.