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Adkins off?


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For some, perhaps. I just don't see it that way. Football is a fickle business. Good to remind yourself of your own fallibility if only to appreciate how precious these moments are. Call it the pathos of the underdog or just being philosophical. But odd it isn't.

 

I've just achieved part of the five year plan two years early, as a manager I have reached the Premier League and I'm already talking about departing??? That's not pathos. He wasn't asked about his future. He just suddenly came out with it and then talked about it being 'done the right way'... You might not find that odd, but as CB says above, it's like talking about death at a Christening or wedding.

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I should add that I, for one, hope it was simply him being tongue-tied and nothing other than that!

 

Someone posted a thread about the bloke being the next Fergie and while he has to prove himself at the top level, why shouldn't he??

 

He's succeeded at every level of the game, served a 'proper' apprenticeship and in that respect is in the model of, oh... Alex, Arsene, Jose... not bad company let's be honest!

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Is there a transcript of this interview? And was this done when Adkins was infront of the directors box, just after he clapped the fans?

 

It's actually the Solent interview, in the tunnel after the game. A very, very emotional and stripped down interview. Not his usual cliches and a very open and thoughtful interview.

 

Interviewer: ''Personally, what does it mean for you to be able to pit yourself against the best?"

 

Nigel: ''I'm looking forward to it, it should be fantastic for this football club....(then he starts rolling off his CV...)I've been very successful as a manager. With the Sunday league team, with Bangor City where we won a couple of league titles. Then with S****horpe - getting them promoted and getting them abck again after relegation. Getting Southampton promoted at the first time from L1.

There will be a time down the line where there will be a parting of the ways, but I think as part of the Southampton journey I' throw everything into it. When that sad day comes I hope it'll be done in the right manner, but I'm very proud of what I've done here.

 

Interviewer: ''Well hopefully that'll be many moons away!''

 

Nigel: ''Very much so, i've got a long-term contract - but you know what football is like in this modern era. I'd like to think that my percentage manager of winning games of football is not bad and I want to be a winner."

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It's actually the Solent interview, in the tunnel after the game. A very, very emotional and stripped down interview. Not his usual cliches and a very open and thoughtful interview.

 

Interviewer: ''Personally, what does it mean for you to be able to pit yourself against the best?"

 

Nigel: ''I'm looking forward to it, it should be fantastic for this football club....(then he starts rolling off his CV...)I've been very successful as a manager. With the Sunday league team, with Bangor City where we won a couple of league titles. Then with S****horpe - getting them promoted and getting them abck again after relegation. Getting Southampton promoted at the first time from L1.

 

There will be a time down the line where there will be a parting of the ways, but I think as part of the Southampton journey I' throw everything into it. When that sad day comes I hope it'll be done in the right manner, but I'm very proud with what i've done here.

 

Interviewer: ''Well hopefully that'll be many moons away!''

 

Nigel: ''Very much so, i've got a long-term contract - but you know what football is like in this modern era. I'd like to think that my percentage manager of winning games of football is not bad and I want to be a winner."

 

Hmm not sure it's thoughtful in the way of him 'thinking about what he was saying' - when you watch it, he's clearly emotional. And rightly bloody so!

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Hmm not sure it's thoughtful in the way of him 'thinking about what he was saying' - when you watch it, he's clearly emotional. And rightly bloody so!

 

You can kind of see a quiver in his top lip as he talks about the parting of the ways being done in the right manner. It does make you wonder if Cortese has expressed some sort of frustration at our results towards the end of the season......you know what he can be like!

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This seems to have split fans down the middle more than anything else in the last few years, hope for his sake he's given the time he clearly deserves, from us too.

 

Things take time NC

 

He'll get all the time he needs from the fans. The fans won't hound Nigel out even if we do a Derby/Sunderland (McCarthy Era).

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Just listened to the interview a few times on the trot.

 

Hmm....I'd agree with those who say it was an odd thing for him to say....but he started going on one of his "look at what I've achieved" dialogues....he was talking about how he hadn't achieved what he wanted to as a goalkeeper through injuries and other circumstances and how he then threw himself into the physiotherapy job. He kept saying how he wants to be best in whatever he does...and he went back to his days as a Sunday league manager, taking Bangor to the Welsh Championship twice, his achievements at S****horpe etc.

 

I think by that point in the interview he realised he was telling his life story and his emotions took that to the next logical phase in his mind, and that was looking to the future. He let his guard down and projected himself almost too far into the future but I'm sure it was born out of a desire to complete the "life story" he was telling to the interviewer.

 

I did feel there was an element of insecurity in his telling of his "story" and that he knows how ruthless Cortese is. I've sort of been there myself in my job in the dim and distant past. You want to be the best at what you do but there is always this nagging doubt that your boss (the chap who you are slightly fearful of because he is such a strong minded character) wouldn't hesitate in replacing you if he felt it was the right thing to do. I've had bosses like that and you find yourself (a) over egging your achievements in appraisals and (b) pre-empting a worst case scenario in your mind as a sort of security blanket.

 

Anyway, no doubt we're all thinking way too hard about this and it was simply an innocent Nigel ramble that will all be forgotten about when we're top of the premier league next October.... ;-)

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My guess is we are probably reading a bit too much into it.

 

I think Nigel is a realist however and he knows Cortese could choose someone else (has the cash, ruthlessness, ambition etc) but he just really hopes he does not.

As you say perhaps one of the first glimpses of an unguarded NA, who having got so close to a team of players and achieved so much, has a fear it might end here.

NA knows his record was about L1 & the NPC, he now is just hoping he gets a chance in the Prem.

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I've just achieved part of the five year plan two years early, as a manager I have reached the Premier League and I'm already talking about departing??? That's not pathos. He wasn't asked about his future. He just suddenly came out with it and then talked about it being 'done the right way'... You might not find that odd, but as CB says above, it's like talking about death at a Christening or wedding.
Agreed. Definitely an odd thing to come out with, completely unpromted, regardless of the emotion. Can't see any reason at all for it, I really don't think he'll be going anywhere soon.
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Interviewer: what does it mean for you to be able to pit yourself against the best?" Nigel: ''I'm looking forward to it,

 

There will be a time down the line where there will be a parting of the ways, but I think as part of the Southampton journey I' throw everything into it. When that sad day comes I hope it'll be done in the right manner, but I'm very proud of what I've done here.

 

I hate to go all david in sweden with the bold and underlining, but here is the important information in black and white. Of course one day he will leave, he's not going to be here forever. The man is not an idiot. One day he will leave, and he will be very sad because he loves it here. But he's not leaving yet, as he goes on to say.

 

Absolutely nothing to see here. Three pages, christ.

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I hate to go all david in sweden with the bold and underlining, but here is the important information in black and white. Of course one day he will leave, he's not going to be here forever. The man is not an idiot. One day he will leave, and he will be very sad because he loves it here. But he's not leaving yet, as he goes on to say.

 

Absolutely nothing to see here. Three pages, christ.

 

 

I bet if someone on this forum had started a "when will Adkins leave" thread at three o'clock on Saturday there would have been bedlam. Because it's a pretty nuts thing to raise right now.

 

Of course "sometime in the future" he will leave but why even mention it. It would have been furthest thung from the interviewers and all fans' minds.

 

Sorry, it was and is, strange. Probably nothing but still strange.

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