John Askey York

[Emile]

7 minutes ago, TJHValiant said:

Rob Page leading Wales National Team is an obvious one. 
 

I think the jury is still out on Rob Page - shouldda/couldda become an excellent manager but ended up going back into coaching after a poor stint as a manager. Lucky to have the wales job due to Giggsy being a <ovf censored>.

[Shropshire_Valiant]

Pleased for Askey, I was a critic last season when the team lost the plot after a half decent start and unfortunately the run we went on he simply had to go, ultimately the manager carries the can(we could debate all night whether that's right or wrong but that's professional football). 

However he did a decent job after coming in(although I'm not sure I buy he kept us up, I don't think we'd have gone down under Aspin either but it wouldn't have been pretty). That's not to say he didn't improve us initially, he did and as we know the pandemic certainly conspired against him as we'll never know what might have happened the season that was curtailed. 

I speak to a lot of Shrewsbury fans living where I do and although most weren't fans of his a number admit he was dealt a <ovf censored> hand there, taking over from Hurst who had arguably overachieved in getting them to the League One playoff final the season before.  That coupled with the pandemic during his time at Vale you could certainly say he's not had his fair share of luck in his two league level jobs.  

On the otherside he made some pretty poor signings during his last summer and the reliance on the "Macc Town contact book", Mills, Fitzpatrick and Whitehead amongst others (who are all national league standard players) was disappointing.

Still I wish him all the best York's one of my favourite cities in the UK as well so nice to see them back in at least the national league, will be interesting to see how they do next season.

 

[Playa Amodores]

On 17/05/2022 at 14:20, Emile said:

John's done a great job getting York into the playoffs. 90 mins from a return to the national League. 

Still have my doubts as to what went wrong in his last season with us. Something behind the scenes I really do believe. 

Best of luck to JA!

I have no inside knowledge but from what I’ve heard, his dislike of TP was personal and I’m not saying it was a one way street. Also he had no plan B which was shown in the fact he’d start certain players and replace them with the same player around the same time every week. IMO this made him risk adverse, but thanks for keeping us up and giving us that remarkable season. Good luck with York👍

[Shropshire_Valiant]

On 22/05/2022 at 17:42, Emile said:

How many managers have had success after leaving vale? 

Didn't Foyle achieve some success at York too? Sure he got them to Wembley in either the national league playoffs or FA Trophy although they may have lost?

[smithie]

1 hour ago, Emile said:

I think the jury is still out on Rob Page - shouldda/couldda become an excellent manager but ended up going back into coaching after a poor stint as a manager. Lucky to have the wales job due to Giggsy being a <ovf censored>.

I certainly don't think he was "poor" by any stretch for us. He gave us some notable results including the wins at Coventry and Posh, and he had to deal with an absolutely barking  chairman - a chairman who, don't forget, wanted to use sacking Rob Page as entertainment on live TV.

I'll always believe that we were only an addition or two away from being play-off contenders had Rob Page stayed. And for what it's worth he seemed to be a top fella. 

   

[points-with-bone]

Mention the name 'Denis Smith' to anyone in York of a certain age and they go all dreamy-eyed; he had them in the Championship [Division Two as it was then]

They've certainly fallen a long way and had years of enduring were they/were they not going to move from Bootham Crescent

Interestingly, York Rugby league Club, having been in the wilderness of the lower leagues for years, are 3rd in the Championships and their women's team have just beaten St. Helen's, first team to do so since 2019, so maybe there's a sporting revolution going on in York

Points-with-Bone

[wotsyobeef]

Think back to last summer would he have done what DC did and got rid of them all? I suspect probably not.

He probably wouldn't have but he also didn't have the behind the scenes infrastructure to do so. It felt like him and Dave Kevan had to do everything whereas we now have lots of people with specialised roles.


I think I was pretty much alone but at the time he went he went I would have given him a little longer. When you think of some of injuries he had to key players, the Pope ban (and his decision not to look after himself and put about 2 stone on). His recruitment that summer was poor but it was a weird summer with lots of uncertainty due to Covid. Games were set to come thick and fast so the idea to stregthen the squad depth in the summer seemed like a good idea at the time (but ultimately the squad wasn't good enough). We also had the situation where most other teams seemed to get at least one game off to recover in the autumn due to covid and we seemed to carry on despite infections (perhaps due to following the training in small group guidelines more meticulously than others). We kept getting turned over late in games killing confidence without getting any the other way, some say that was due to his training methods forgetting that the season before we had turned many games in our favour late on. When we did eventually score a goal late on in a game to draw level (I think it was McKirdy at Scunthorpe) it was disallowed for no reason. Little things like that can completely change the momentum of a season. By the end of his reign we were a side with no luck completely bereft of any confidence.


It is also worth noting that in that summer of uncertainty due to Covid, Carol and Kevin were still very new to their role and could only estimate the amount of investment that would be required.


In the end I am glad he went, if he hadn't we wouldn't have interviewed Flitcroft, decided to improve the infrastructure at the club, hired Clarke and built the squad we have today which is resilient enough to have still been successful despite the injuries we sustained.