I MUST ADMIT I was surprised to hear Roddy Collins had parted company with Derry City over the weekend.
That said, in football you’re never too shocked as just about anything can happen.
From the outside, it seemed that a number of developments over the past month or so have led to this decision being taken.
A big deal was made over the fact that striker Rory Patterson was left out of the team, which I suppose is understandable as he was the league’s top goalscorer last season.
If a manager wants to go down a certain route and feels that players aren’t pulling in the same direction then he has got the right to leave him out as long as he isn’t trying to alienate that player from the squad.
There was a similar situation with goalkeeper Ger Doherty and I don’t have an issue with players being dropped at all. A manager has to assert himself and stick to what he feels is best. He can’t be seen to be weak.
Patterson was brought back into the team eventually but it just seemed as if every week there was something else. I think Roddy felt that the media were starting to get on top of him and were becoming a distraction to the job.
What it does highlight is the amount of media attention that is out there at the moment in regards to the League of Ireland. That wouldn’t have been the case a couple of years ago or even at Athlone last season.
It is something that I have noticed myself since I retired from football and it’s unfortunate that when I felt the league was at its peak there wasn’t that much in the way of media coverage.
It’s a different animal now and managers tend to get asked everything and anything after matches these days. When you listen back to Roddy’s interview after the defeat to Shamrock Rovers on Friday, he alluded to the fact that everyone wants to have a go at running the football club.
However, his assistant Peter Hutton wasn’t at the game as he was watching St Patrick’s Athletic at Richmond Park and, if your right-hand man isn’t on the bench, it’s a very obvious question that you’re going to get asked about.
For all the negative talk, what he did do was make Derry more difficult to play against. You’re always looking at how a team is going to improve and progress going forward.
He felt he had to stop the rot of losses from last year by making them defensively stronger… and I think he did do that.
The problem was they may have gone too far in that direction and it has taken away from their offensive threat. They have just three league games so far and sit seventh in the table but have drawn too many matches (seven) and could only manage eight goals from 12 outings.
There were a few games that they should’ve won and it would have made it a hell of a lot better reading. You think back to the first game of the season and they really should have beaten Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght. If they had scored that penalty against UCD it would have been a different game.
It’s a results driven game and that is just the way it is. They weren’t creating a lot of chances in games and that would have been the worry.
And Roddy did look like there was something getting at him. It wouldn’t normally have been the case because he is fairly thick-skinned and has been around the block. He’s well able to dish it out and, equally, he’s well able to take it. So it was strange to see something like this get to him.
Maybe it was just the case that the club wanted the manager to manage a certain way but he wanted to do it differently.
If you’re as headstrong as Roddy is you’re going to stick to your guns but I can’t help feeling that he lost track somewhere along the way.
Peter Hutton has stepped into the role for now and he is certainly a big enough presence to take it on. Peter was a top player and a very capable coach, which is why Roddy would have made him his assistant.
You’ve got to give credit to Roddy for bringing him in and he knew he was someone with a good knowledge of the club who was hugely respected.
What’s next for Roddy? I would think we will see him back in football. It may not necessarily be in Ireland as he has the experience of managing abroad and I think he quite enjoyed it.
One final point I’ll make is that you’ve got to give credit to these guys who put their necks forward. It’s easy to talk about football on the television or the radio but it’s a different story to get in and put your reputation on the line.
