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The Steve Massey Page...
Massey’s Mutterings
March 3rd 2010
“To hear once more Team Manager Steve Massey is music to my ears”
I’m back in Management and it feels absolutely magnificent, to say I’m excited is an understatement!!
I have been getting itchy feet for a few months now, way back in September last year I started to feel that perhaps the time for coming back was getting closer!
At that time of course I was watching a lot of Truro City games and the pull for me to be involved was a strong one. So when Kevin Heaney asked me for first round of talks just before McCarthy went, I thought maybe this is where my future lies?
Chief Executive?
I was asked to become Chief Executive at the club and this really appealed to me. To have control of the football side and being able to influence the direction of the club away from the brick wall it was running into was very exciting for me.
But needless to say the dream wouldn’t last and when Mr Heaney, who owns the ball and will only let you play with it when he wants, the role in all reality would be so frustrating and undermining, I decided very reluctantly to turn it down.
That was early December and the urge to come back had been dampened somewhat by the events in me turning the CEO position down.
It was a last minute decision to go out for New year to watch the England Cricket team in South Africa, and the thought of being involved in football again never mind managing a team once more was a million miles away at that time. In fact if anyone had said to me while sat in sunshine watching cricket in Cape Town, “you will be back in management by end of Feb” and not only that but, “they could be the champions as well” I would have phoned the local asylum and said one of your patients as escaped!
I had many offers of work over the last two years, but nothing either really excited me or was ambitious enough for me to take up a challenge.
Interested in taking over?
Then last month out of the blue, after being invited out to lunch by the management team at Buckland, Phil Bayliss and Jamie Carwardine, they asked me if I would be interested in taking over when Phil was going to step down.
I had already an excellent relationship with them over the last 18 months or so; we lunched on 3 or 4 occasions and I really got to know them both.
I had liked what they were about and how they went about running the club and the preparation they put into games. I had done a little bit of scouting for them and was always impressed with their knowledge about the game and in particular how it should be played.
What I wasn’t ready for was the “lid” it blew off on my own ambitions and desires to come back and succeed again in the game! I was bubbling once more, I knew I would be back some time and in some capacity but this was unbelievable. From
nowhere my enthusiasm and excitement was ignited again and it just felt so right, and only 25 minutes from my house!!
Make no bones about it this is one privileged job!
It is an honour to have been asked to take this relatively young but very ambitious football club forward to the next levels.
It is a totally unique situation to be in as well. The position of appointing a new manager at any football club is because 99.9% of the time the club/team were or are failing. But this is very different; I could be taking over the Champions! And doesn’t it feel good!
Phil is stepping down at the end of the season and what better way for him to go then to be crowned SWPL Champions?
Phil with Jamie has transformed Buckland Athletic from junior football into one of the major players in non-
Besides a fabulous playing squad with local talented guys, the club have won the best Ground award for the last two years, and those who have visited would know the reason why!
An army of volunteers
The dressing rooms and facilities are second to none, the set up is very well organised and they have an army of volunteers that are the envy of many clubs up and down the country. The programme is another award winning feature of the club and the potential is sky high.
I’m thrilled to say that Jamie will be staying on as my assistant and from now to the end of the season I will be helping the management as much as they would like me to, but otherwise see my role sitting in stands watching and learning!
Massey’s Mutterings have been a great success and I’ve really enjoyed the writing, but there is nothing like writing from the inside, being involved once again in the dressing rooms, smelling and sensing the anticipation and expectations of the players, feeling the fear in the oppositions dressing room!
Standing on the touchline knowing success is just a few minutes away! The banter and comradeship of the team you have put together, its US v. rest of the world.
Yes I have enjoyed my time out and I feel I have become an even better manager for it, but to hear once more Team Manager Steve Massey is music to my ears, bring it on!
Best Wishes
Mass
Coming next ............with Peter Crouch surely booking a place in the England World Cup squad for South Africa this summer after his two goals against Egypt, Steve gives his thoughts about “THE BIG, BAD, “UGLY” CENTRE FORWARDS and WHERE ARE THEY?