Clinton Morrison: Steve Bruce was the best manager I played under
Despite his dismissal at Blackpool this week, Clinton Morrison has hailed Steve Bruce as the best manager he played under in his career.
Find out what Clinton had to say about Neil Warnock, Steve Coppell and Bruce, as well as who he thinks is favourite with sports betting sites to replace Bruce and also step in at Luton.
Clinton had a chat with Free Bets about roles at Luton and Blackpool, Ange Postecoglou's future and the EFL game of the weekend.
Wellens for Luton?
It's been a busy week for managers, with Luton and Blackpool both getting rid of theirs this week.
Richie Wellens and Jack Wilshere have been the favourites for the Luton job - how suitable do you think either of them would be?
It’s a tough one for Matt Bloomfield. He left Wycombe last season to go to Luton and they got relegated, and they just haven’t started this season very well.
They are the favourites to win League One this year with the squad they have, and the hierarchy know they need to get back to the Championship and should be doing better with the quality they have.
You would like to see someone like Jack Wilshere get a chance.
He was a fantastic player and it’s great to give young managers a chance in the football league and see what they’re made of.
Richie Wellens has done a brilliant job at Leyton Orient. He’s had a bit of money to spend but I think it would be a difficult one for him to turn down with the financial backing he would get at Luton.
It is a club that should be challenging and be up there at the end of the season.
They were one of my favourites - along with Cardiff - to get promoted, but it never works like that. But they would be the two obvious candidates looking at the football betting markets right now.
We don’t know with Jack whether he will be good enough until he’s been given an opportunity, and I’ve always liked Richie Wellens - I think he would be a very good appointment.
With the expectations around the club and the backing they have, would it be a risk to appoint an inexperienced manager?
Yes I think it might be a risk to go with inexperience, so they probably would want to look for a bit more experience.
That’s probably why Wellens has gone to the top of the betting, because he has managed a lot of games of football and done well with Leyton Orient.
Steve Bruce
Steve Bruce is the other manager to lose his job, a man you know well. Was that always on the cards given the start to the season Blackpool have had?
Ian Evatt is the favourite to take over at Blackpool…
It never really worked out for Ian Evatt at Bolton, but he was at Blackpool for such a long time before and knows the club inside out. The fans know him and have a good relationship with him, so you can see that happening.
It is disappointing for Steve Bruce, because I like him a lot and I think he is a very good manager but these things happen.
I know before he took the job he was sat at home and desperate to get back into work because it can be boring at home when all you’ve ever known is managing and being on the training pitch.
I wouldn’t say that’s the end for him, but if it is then he has had a fantastic managerial career and will go down as the best manager I worked under for sure.
He helped me a lot in my career, and will go down as a very, very good manager. I hope it’s not the end and he does get another job somewhere.
When jobs become available, he’s got the experience and I do like him as a guy. He is a brilliant human being first and foremost and also a very good coach, and I hope he gets back into it.
He knows what it’s about though, he’s been in the game long enough. He knows if you don’t win football matches, you lose your job.
Who else would you put up there with the best managers you worked under?
Steve Coppell was very good when I was breaking through. Managers didn’t really ‘get me’, but he understood my attitude and where I was coming from.
He was a legend of a footballer and a brilliant manager at Crystal Palace. You speak to the likes of Ian Wright and he always tells you how good he was.
He gave me my opportunity. I didn’t play loads of games under him, but he got who I was as an individual. A lot of people mistook my attitude for arrogance but he just knew it was how I got the best out of myself.
Mick McCarthy was good too on international duty, Karl Robinson was a good one when I went on loan to MK Dons but we only had a short space of time working together.
Other than that, you know what I’d probably say was Neil Warnock, as much as I hated him when he first came to Crystal Palace, because I just didn’t like his style of football.
The way he got me working even harder to score goals was ridiculous. And it worked, one season I got over 20 goals so I have to give him credit, he just knew how to get the best out of me and that’s what he did, with the extra pushing and just being a bit crazy, as you can see! But he was good at it.
So Bruce, Coppell and Warnock would probably be my top three.
On Bruce, do you expect to see him take some time out of the game but come back? Or might that be it?
I think he will be back, because I know what Bruce is like. He loves the game so will want to be involved where he can.
He’s at an age where he doesn’t have to work and can just sit there, but he will want to keep active and stay out there. He loves football, it’s all he has ever known - playing and being a manager.
It will be difficult for him, he might have a bit of a break but then if another job becomes available and it fancies it, he might dip his toes into it. But whatever happens, I have got a lot of respect for Steve Bruce.
He loves his cricket, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him have a little break and go and watch the Ashes in Australia!
Big Ange Under Pressure?
Nottingham Forest haven't changed their manager yet, but they might not be far away. How much pressure is Ange Postecoglou under?
I don’t know if he could be on the way out, but he is under massive pressure at the moment.
He’ll finally have a bit of time to work with players on the pitch. He’s been in the job for about 26 or 27 days and had a lot of football, but he is in desperate need of a win.
The run of games they have coming up are tough, but I think he will be alright for now.
If he gets through to the next international break and they still haven’t got a win, I think his job will be under pressure which is disappointing, because I like having Ange in the Premier League.
He is feisty and a fighter. He’s not going to give up, but we’re in a business where you need results.
The Forest fans never really accepted him from the start because of the way Nuno left, and he was going to be hard to replace, whoever took the job.
But this is the world we live in, and the chairman is entitled to make the decisions he makes because it’s his club and he pays the money. He has taken them into Europe, so he can decide who he wants at the club.
It was always likely to be a strange fit, wasn’t it? To go from Nuno’s style of play to Ange’s, in the middle of the season with so many games on?
He obviously wants to implement his style of football, and that takes time.
You usually need a pre-season to be able to get the players doing the right things, and he hasn’t had that time and they’re trying to go to a different style of play.
I was at the Newcastle game, and they had five at the back so he was trying to do something different and be defensively solid.
I think he should stick to what he knows as a manager and stick to his own philosophy. It seems to be working for Ruben Amorim, and he's going to stay in his job for a while it looks like, so Ange might as well stick to his way of doing it too.
Are they in a relegation fight, or is that too soon to say?
With the quality they have, I don’t think they will be in a relegation fight, but they do need to start climbing the table because you keep saying that every week, and then if the results don’t come…it’s trouble.
With the quality they have though and the players they brought in in the summer, they shouldn’t be in a relegation scrap.
Any ideas who they might fancy to take over from Ange?
There are a lot of top managers out there.
The name I heard most recently is Marco Silva. They like him and his contract is running out at Fulham, he has been a top manager for many years in the Premier League.
There are a lot of other managers out there who would want the Forest job. It’s a huge football club with European football, and they get backed by the chairman - why would you not want that job?
EFL Game of the Week
There are some EFL games this weekend despite the international break. What’s your pick of the action?
There have been a few good games postponed, but Peterborough v Stevenage looks a good one.
Peterborough haven’t done well and Stevenage are flying, so that stands out. Stevenage are the big overachievers this year in League One, no one would have had them in the mix.
Darren Ferguson needs a result, there will be pressure on him before long and it’s top v bottom, so definitely the game of the weekend.
Both teams need the points but for different reasons.
Alex Revell has got a squad together at Stevenage that has just gelled. Jamie Reid has been scoring goals - I think he might have picked up a slight injury - and been in fantastic form.
You have to credit Revell, he has done a really good job because I don’t think many people would have even had them fighting for the play-offs. I know it’s still early in the season and a lot could change but it is good to talk about them because they are doing ever so well at the moment.
Republic of Ireland
It’s the international break, and Ireland have got Portugal on Saturday night in their World Cup Qualifiers. It looks a struggle to qualify from where they are…
I think they will struggle, which is disappointing because it has been a long time since they qualified for a major tournament and the fans deserve a lot more.
They’re falling short at the moment and lacking in quality, which is the big difference, and they just aren’t getting results in the big games.
You expect Portugal to win the group because they have world class players, and Ireland just have to go out there and put on a show for the country, and hopefully get a result.
It looks very difficult to get out of the group and qualify for the World Cup, which is very disappointing because it has been a long time since Ireland qualified for a major tournament.
What is going wrong? The players aren’t there, but is it deeper than that? Is the FAI doing something wrong behind the scenes?
I think the FAI are doing everything they can from the younger age groups with the scouting and recruitment. It is different to England with the array of talent they can pick from. The FAI do not have that amount of talent, so it is difficult.
You have to pick the players you want and slowly bring them through. There are some good players in the young setup.
When I was playing, we had a lot of players that were born in England but decided they wanted to play for Ireland, but we also had sensational players that were born in Ireland.
They need to keep working at it and keep improving.
I wouldn’t say there is a huge difference with the likes of Scotland and Wales, but they are qualifying, and we’re not. When I was playing, it was us that was up there and they struggled a bit more.
The only way we can get it right from here is to start from the lower ages and let them work their way up, but it’s frustrating when you see others qualify for major tournaments.
EFL Pre-Season Predictions
Gab Sutton is the in-house EFL tipster for Free Bets, and before the season started he had a look at how he thinks the EFL will pan out this year.
