Johnston Kilmarnock Break-Up Leaves Bad Taste In The Mouth
Kilmarnock have decided to cut ties with manager Allan Johnston. The decision hasn’t come as a huge surprise after the Killie gaffer had announced yesterday, in his weekly press conference, that he had decided he was leaving the club in the summer.
You can understand the clubs decision in deciding to speed up the process and relieve the forty-one year old of his managerial duties early.
We have seen plenty of times in the past that managers who prematurely announce their departure fail to have the same power of their players as they previously had. Plus in Gary Locke, Killie already have an experienced replacement at the club ready to fill in for the rest of the season.
So as I have previously said, I get why the club made their decision to get rid of Johnston now and not have a long, drawn out goodbye.
But Allan’s reason for leaving Rugby Park has to be addressed.
The manager has done a decent job with the Ayrshire club. Currently they lie in eighth spot and last term they finished in ninth place, safely away from relegation.
Now when you discuss Kilmarnock FC you have to mention that the club work on a shoestring budget and will hope to develop players and then sell them on.
It’s been the case for a long time now and Allan Johnston would have known that before accepting the Killie job.
But there is still a good way in which you do your business.
In football, that way is usually to have good communication with you manager and your fans.
According to Johnston, he only found out that the club had sold hot prospect Robbie Muirhead to Dundee Utd ten minutes after the transfer window had shut on Monday night. On that situation Johnston stated…
“There is a number of things but that certainly doesn’t make your job any easier.”
Now surely someone on the Kilmarnock board could have picked up the phone and told their boss what was happening and why. Actually I think clubs should go into deadline day with plans set out regarding buying and selling and the manager being in the loop from the get go.
For a good example just look at Dundee United. They sold two key first-team players, but managed to bring in a few decent signings (including Killie’s Muirhead) and done everything with manager Jackie McNamara’s blessing. They then came out quickly with a statement to the fans, explaining their decisions. Now some supporters will be disgruntled at selling talented prospects to Celtic but they at least have a board that are transparent and have brought in good players too.
The Scottish press and social media have been up in arms about the Rangers/Mike Ashley situation. Rangers fans have rightly been angered by the silence from the Rangers board regarding everything of importance and the press have rightly covered the story with plenty of columns and gusto.
But we seem to turn a blind eye when smaller clubs like Kilmarnock seem to treat fans with the same contempt and decide to not include the manager’s opinion when making big footballing decisions.
Hopefully when the Kilmarnock’s new chairman Jim Mann arrives in March he can get the fans onboard and run the club in a more transparent manner.
Posted on February 6th, 2015 by scott
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