Archived News from February 2022
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FANS FORUM WITH NIGEL CLOUGH & DAVID SHARPE
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Wed 16 Feb 2022
Fans forum with Nigel Clough & David Sharpe Available in full on youtube: part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzqhGsygw1M&t=2s&ab_channel=mansfieldtownfc part 2: https://youtu.be/2e9C68R3ScA?t=4 selected comments, transcribed by Martin: Nigel Clough on reserve games: The reserve league (which we've not entered) is not very good. We prefer to arrange our own friendlies as and when we need them. We've got a lot of teams locally that we can call upon. David Sharpe on the Bishop Street stand: I don't like looking at the Bishop Street stand. You'll need planning permission which takes very long. The work can only happen out of season as there is such little space that you will need access via the pitch side. So it's not just a quick fix that will happen over 2 or 3 months. It's probably an 18 month to 2 year project. These things cost money and it's not my money, it's John and Carolyn's. Whether we did an all standing stand, or something like Harrogate which is still expensive but slightly cheaper... Nigel Clough on buying players: We haven't been seriously outbid by anyone and lost a player. David Sharpe on selling players: I think we've been quite prudent in the business we've done. Selling Danny Rose and CJ Hamilton ... they were in the last years of their contracts. It would have been wrong on a business point of view to let them move on on a free. When the player is refusing to sign a new contract, and we get a bid like we did, for the good of the football club, it's not good business sense to let someone go on a free. Danny wasn't going to get in the team, and the business we did on that was good. It can't always be: John will pay for it, John will pay for it. David Sharpe on ticketing: The current ticketing system has been in place for a long time. We're in contract with a company. It's nowhere near the standard I would expect. Things will change, and improve over the summer. The 4 tickets per season ticket holder will never happen again (as happened for Bradford away game). That will go to 1 per season ticket holder when the demand is as it is. Nigel Clough on contracts for next season: From a football point of view, it's difficult to do that when you're not sure what league you're going to be in. I don't think it will affect their commitment, the 3 or 4 lads that we're talking about (out of contract at the end of the season). Everybody that really we want is tied down for next season at least. David Sharpe adds: There are a couple of players with triggers in the contract for an extra year when they play a certain amount of games, that might hit that soon. Out of contract players tend to be quite hungry. Q: If you could sign anyone in League Two who would it be? Nigel Clough: (Kane) Wilson the right wing back from Forest Green. He's made more goals than anybody in League Two this season. Jamille Matt is an unbelievably good centre forward as well. Nigel Clough on Kellan Gordon: Kellan has been out for a couple of months now I think. He had an operation on his knee a while back. He should be available again before the end of the season but we don't want to put a time limit on it and put him under any pressure to come back by a certain date. His knee was causing him a lot of discomfort and there was something not quite right with it. He's back on the grass running this morning. David Sharpe n Friday night game: One of the reasons behind switching the Exeter game (to a Friday night), we both believe this place under lights is a special place to play football (unbelievable atmosphere). Exeter weren't going to bring many (supporters) on a Saturday anyway. But I personally felt, the less (supporters) they (Exeter) bring, the better for us. Any advantage we can get is great. Nigel Clough adds: it is different at night matches (the atmosphere), the floodlights and everything, I don't know what it is. Nigel Clough on formations: We change formations within a game quite a lot of the time, depends how the game is going. At home, when we play the three midfielders ... we don't class it as a diamond because we don't have a sitter as such, we want them all to be engaging. You get someone like Jamie Murphy behind two good strikers, that's probably the formation at the moment that suits best the players that we have (at home). The two strikers ... whether it's Jordan Bowery and Oatesey, or Lucas Akins. Two out of those three. And we want to play away like we do at home, let's go and impose ourselves away from home as much as we can, that's the next stage . David Sharpe on recruitment: Simon Clough would be working at a top top club if Nigel was out of work. He sticks by Nigel because of the relationship in the family. He's very well thought of in the game. I always look at data, something I've always done. We work with a company here called Stats Bomb. They have 4 other clubs in our league. They mainly deal with Man City's, Liverpool's. That looks at the data side of things which we always like to check. But you can't read too much into it. The main thing is the scouting and watching a player 4 or 5 times, home, away, on a night like tonight when it's horrible some players goes missing, some stand up and be counted. Simon and Gary do a top job and they've got the majority right so far. Nigel Clough adds: it is getting on the road and watching them, as well as all the stats on injuries and things like that. Simon and Gary were out last night, Simon was at Kidderminster and Gary was at Kettering, keeping an eye on George Cooper at Kettering. Nigel Clough on approaches as a manager (of which there have not been any from Sunderland or Bradford for example): I've always been brought up that if you can finish the season, you finish the season. If anything happens, it happens in the summer... not always possible in football, but that's the way we've been brought up. I don't really have an agent as such, so I don't have anybody ringing round these clubs saying if he goes which is unfortunately how a lot gets done in football these days. I don't think it's a nice way of doing business. David Sharpe adds: when Graham Coughlan was struggling, there was agent's calling me, just because that's what they do. Out of respect for the current manager, I would never entertain it. -------------------- How Mansfield Town landed Matty Longstaff via a bottle of champagne and chance double engagement chad.co.uk, By John Lomas Mansfield Town CEO David Sharpe has revealed how a bottle of champagne and a chance double engagement resulted in the Stags being able to sign Newcastle United starlet Matty Longstaff on loan. The deal right at the end of the January transfer deadline day was a shock to most people, including Mansfield boss Nigel Clough. “Some things work in football quite strangely, but it's who you know,” explained Sharpe at last night's fans' forum at the One Call Stadium. “I got engaged over Christmas. I was lucky enough to be in Barbados and Matty Longstaff's agent, Kenneth (Shepherd), was there. https://www.chad.co.uk/sport/football/bottle-of-champagne-helped-land-longstaff-deal-for-stags-3572862 “I get on quite well with him anyway. When I was at Wigan we signed Harry McGuire on loan from Hull through him, which was another good one. “Matty's agent got engaged the same evening as me and Ellie did and I sent over a nice bottle of champagne - four or five weeks later we ended up with Matty Longstaff!” He added: “Newcastle were very fair with us. I won't go into detail but very fair. They just wanted to get him playing. “We dealt with Shola Ameobi there, their ex-striker. “I think they've obviously come into so much cash and signed so many players recently that they just needed to get players out playing which worked in our favour. “Matty was possibly moving somewhere else. But that didn't quite happen. “Signing him was quite a statement. But we didn't want to give the impression that Mansfield were splashing the cash which is what's happened in the past here. “We definitely aren't splashing the cash on that deal.” “It was one that came completely out of the blue,” agreed manager Clough. “We hadn't really planned for it. “Jamie Murphy came up almost at the last minute and then Matty Longstaff came out of absolutely nowhere. It was just one of those we were very fortunate with. “I think it's fair to say that we got him and Jamie Murphy when Harry Charsley left and Richard Nartey went back to Burnley, though he's still available to us, and we made money on those two deals. We're paying less now than we were before. “That tells you, as David says, we're not splashing the cash.” Clough continued: “Credit to Matty Longstaff. Our biggest fear when someone comes from the Premier League is that he's a 'big time Charlie' coming to 'little Mansfield'. “But he is a brilliant lad. The fact he wanted to come straight away speaks volumes for him as well. “He was straight in with the players and has no sort of arrogance about him. He has fitted straight in and I think he is enjoying it.” Stags fans can watch Part One of the fans’ forum on iFollow and it is expected to be available later today (Thursday). ------------------------ |
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