Following Kenny Jackett into Millwall was always likely to be a tough ask, and former QPR midfielder Steve Lomas has done little so far to suggest he can make a long term success of the job.
In March 2003 a QPR team destined to lose as favourites in a playoff final against Cardiff won 3-1 away from home at Blackpool, thanks largely to a hat trick from midfielder Richard Langley. A group of Rangers fans had taken advantage of a hospitality package offered to visiting supporters that day and celebrated the goals from the balcony of Pool’s new horseshoe-shaped stand to the obvious annoyance of the locals, some of whom tried to scale the concrete wall to have a proper exchange of views face to face.
It was one of those random days you get sometimes following a poor football team to obscure places and afterwards the Bloomfield Road staff milled around the suite attempting to placate both their London visitors, who’d bought the tickets in good faith, and the locals who didn’t take kindly to having Langley genius rubbed in their faces. Growing weary of the whole scenario I stepped back out onto the balcony to watch the players warm down after the match and found the QPR assistant manager of the time, Kenny Jackett, doing likewise.
Jackett asked first how Wales had done — his international team on an international weekend. Then he asked how Watford had done. Watford had drawn 2-2 at Sheffield Wednesday, and Wales had beaten Azerbaijan 4-0; markedly different results for vastly different teams and totally separate scenarios. Jackett took in both results, stony faced, nodded, and moved on with his day. I wondered then, and it’s a thought that persists today, what it might take to get Jackett’s exterior to crack.
At QPR he was seen as the straight man to manager Ian Holloway’s joker routine — an odd shift in the usual dynamic of a number one and two at a football club. While Holloway injected enthusiasm and humour into a squad decimated by years of financial mismanagement and lack of care, Jackett provided the tactics and the brains. Holloway took them boxing and ballet dancing, Jackett taught them how to defend a 1-0 lead for the final 30 minutes of a game. However true it was, that was the perception.
Jackett has always come across as a pragmatic chap: very realistic, very straight, very honest. When he resigned as Millwall manager in the summer just gone it should have sent punters scurrying to the bookmakers with a large wedge on the Lions to drop a division. It’s so rare in the modern game, where the Championship’s longest serving boss is Tony Mowbray at little over three years in the Middlesbrough hot seat, for a manager to get a chance to resign before he’s sacked but after six years, one promotion and an FA Cup semi-final at The Den Jackett did just that at the end of the 2012/13 campaign.
Here was the pragmatism again surely? Jackett realised his stock was high, having reached Wembley with one of the country’s most unfashionable clubs — where a portion of the supporters once again totally disgraced themselves on the national stage — he knew it was unlikely to get any better. Millwall had survived in the Championship courtesy mainly of 11 goals in 18 appearances from West Brom loanee Chris Wood before Christmas and when January came round Leicester City simply swooped in and bought him from the Baggies leaving Wall to hunt for another loaned replacement. You don’t keeping picking up Chris Wood equivalents on loan - Jackett finished the season with Rob Hulse as his striker which is enough to drive a man to glue sniffing, never mind resignation.
And where’s the sense of achievement in that? Survive in a division and have the odd cup run whenever you manage to strike lucky with a loan. It was the very definition of "taken as far as he could” which is good news for Wolves, who Jackett will surely promote from League One this season, and bad news for Wall who have struggled early this season under new incumbent Steve Lomas.
QPR fans will remember Lomas as the mouthy ginger haired midfield player who anchored teams managed by Holloway, Gary Waddock and John Gregory at Loftus Road — always on the cusp of being sent off for dissent, but masking it beneath a Northern Irish accent just enough to get away with it.
As a manager he started low, at St Neots Town, and, at the risk of repeating a well-worn rant about the state of Scottish football, then made a sideways move to St Johnstone in the SPL. He did well with both, but Millwall was always going to be tough for a number of reasons. Kenny Jackett achieved a promotion and a Wembley semi-final — it’s highly unlikely that anybody could do the same again over the next six years, so there’s always the risk of being compared unfavourably to a manager who left on his own terms. Throw in Lomas’ inexperience of management at this level, and a hot-headedness that regularly troubled the disciplinary panel north of the border, both of which are in stark contrast to Jackett, and it could be seen as simply too much of a departure for Millwall to take. And he’s West Ham innit.
A difficult act to follow, at a notoriously difficult club to handle, early in a managerial career. It’s not a recipe for success and, but for a sudden burst of three wins in a week — which has since subsided into two away defeats in which Wall conceded nine goals — it would probably already have been written off as a bad job and a replacement been made by now. Intriguing couple of weeks in store daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghn at The Den.
We thank Millwall fans Mike May and Jack Sullivan for their time and input on their team this week, and wish them the best of luck for the rest of the season (not including Saturday).
First of all, what did you make of Kenny Jackett's departure? Taken them as far as he could? Knew this season would be a struggle? Got a better offer? What was the score there?
Jack: Jackett done a great job with the limited resources at Millwall, taking us from relegation candidates in his first year to promotion by his third season was superb. The football, however was always a bit boring. We'd set up 'not to lose' rather than grab a game by the bollocks and go for it. I think this was one reason behind the departure: games started to become boring and players turned a bit stale. I think if it wasn't for the FA Cup run last year he may have lost his job before the end of the season.
Mike: It was a shock when Jackett resigned. He said he needed a break and the club probably needed someone new. It coincided with the Wolves vacancy and there were rumours so it wasn't a great surprise when he took the job. He gave us a lot of good years on not a lot of money, I don't think anyone should begrudge him anything.
What did you think of the idea of Steve Lomas replacing him initially?
Mike: Once Lomas started signing what looked like good attacking players and Morison signed for the year it was looking good. On paper it looked a strong squad. Last year When Wood went to Leicester and then Henderson went you couldn't see where goals would come from. The defence kept us up at the end of last year.
Jack: Tough one, he came in with his West Ham connections, and all the while we're struggling he'll cop grief over it. I personally don't like the appointment he's too inexperienced and it shows. Majorly out of his depth at this level and proves the difference in standard between Scottish and English football.
What is your opinion of Lomas now, and the job he's done so far?
Jack: My opinion is for all his enthusiasm and passion he shows - irrespective of his West Ham links - he is completely out of his depth at this level so early in his managing career. He assembled, on paper, a blinding team over the summer and has had more to spend than previous managers. Players like Steve Morison, Nicky Bailey and Scott McDonald would all be on serious wages and are all experienced Championship players. Put them on the pitch together and it's like they've forgotten how to pass the ball to a blue shirt. No pattern of play or tactics as such, lots of long ball and nothing to really get the crowd going. Pretty dire.
Mike: Still early days. At first they looked hopeless but they seemed to turn the corner against Blackpool and looked good on the ball in the three games we won on the spin. Some are saying they should sack him but who would you get instead? If things were going badly for Jackett he always seemed to have a plan B. When things have gone badly this year it's seems to have been change the player but not the plan.
Where is the team strong and where is it weak? Who should we be looking out for and targeting?
Mike: We've been crap defensively compared to last year - especially in the middle. That improved when Paul Robinson came back but Shittu has been bad this year compared to his performances last year. Morison will cause you problems if he's fit. Bailey's been better since Abdou came back and Trotter has been improving after a lot of injury problems.
Jack: Down our left side we can be a threat. Scott Malone has worked his way back in at left back and can be more than useful going forward. Martyn Waghorn is played out wide in front of Malone and he's got great vision and ability. If we're to create chances it'll more than likely be through these two. Trotter in the middle on his day can tear teams apart but so far this season that's been few and far between. Over the past couple of seasons we've been solid at the back but this year can't seem to keep a clean sheet, silly mistakes and errors really costing us. We’re vulnerable at set pieces and Charlie Austin is decent in the air so can see you getting a bit of joy here.
How has Shaun Derry gone for you so far during his loan spell?
Jack: He's only played four or five games for us. No frills player who leaves everything out on the pitch, however, there's nothing about him that suggests he can improve on what we already have in the middle. He seems more than happy to pick out his defenders with a pass rather than going forward. Crab footballer.
Mike: When Derry played with Bailey they looked ok with the ball, but didn't have a clue how to get it back. Abdou goes and hunts the ball and gives Bailey chances to pick up the pieces. Although Derry moves the ball well I reckon it has to be Abdou and one of Bailey, Richard Chaplow or Derry in that order.
What is the current boardroom situation at the club? Who's in charge, what's the general opinion of them among supporters?
Jack: Nothing really happens at boardroom level at Millwall: John Berylson has been chairman for a while now and credit where it's due he's put a lot of money into us in that time. I still feel he missed a trick last season by not backing Jackett with money in January while we were flirting with the play offs. CEO Andy Ambler seems more content in keeping fans away and putting in place banning orders rather than backing the club and the general feeling with fans is that the club would progress and be better off without him pulling the strings.
Mike: There will always be someone saying the chairman should stick his hand in his pocket but Berylson's been good. It must be hard to stick a load of money and time into our club with all the crap we get generally then you get what happened at the cup semi on top of it all.
Hopes, fears and ambitions for the short, medium and long term…
Jack: Pre-season I thought with the team we'd assembled we could be in with a shout of a play-off place come May. I still feel we have enough quality to push on towards the top half but whilst we have a manager content with lumping a ball forward, devoid of any ideas, we will be towards the bottom of the table. We won't go down this season - I think teams like Yeovil, Sheff Wed and Barnsley will be struggling much more than us this year. Long term, financially we're sound and I think without troubling either end of the table we'll be about in the Championship for a good few years, with the hope we might break into those play offs in the near future.
Mike: I hope Lomas gets it right defensively. If he does the we'll be ok. Fear relegation if he doesn't . Long term - keep the chairman.
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