Gillingham play bottom-placed Forest Green Rovers this Saturday and a head coach who has come under fire for berating his own players.
Forest Green appointed former Watford striker Troy Deeney as their permanent head coach last month, having already been at the club as a player, but he’s yet to win a game. He blasted his own players after their 2-0 loss against Harrogate last Saturday.
Deeney singled out a few players for public criticism and said there were “too many babies” in his team. He has since apologised for his criticism having said that “every now and again my emotions get the better of me.”
Deeney’s first game as head coach was against the Gills just before Christmas, in a game that ended goalless. Since then his team have picked up just two points from their last five fixtures. Last night’s game against Mansfield Town was postponed because of a frozen pitch.
The Harrogate result left him reeling, saying: “The first half was boring and I would have preferred to watch Antiques Roadshow – no offence to anyone who likes Antiques Roadshow.
“The amount of nonsense you have to deal with at this place from players is embarrassing.
“What is going to have to happen is the sledgehammers are going to have to come out. There are going to be a lot of people that won’t like it but I do not care.
“My job is to try and save this football club in the short term, but also to put it in a better place moving forward and at the moment there are too many babies and that is not just young players, there are too many babies from top to bottom.”
Deeney also singled out criticism for midfielder Reece Brown, who was left out of the squad for not turning up on time, saying: “If you were an employer and you had someone turn up late twice in two days, would you put them in your squad? Would you trust him to get you through a game?”
Defender Fankaty Dabo, meanwhile, was scolded too, with Deeney saying: “Six months ago that kid had a kick to go to the Premier League, now he would not get a game in the National League, so is that me or him?
“He’s faster than everybody, but he gets run every game, he never makes a tackle and every time the ball comes to him, he looks like he kicks it with his shin pads.”
Dabo had been told that he wasn’t going to be selected to play against Mansfield.
Deeney is keen for new signings to help with their fight against relegation but said he had a “group of people doing their own thing, hiding, scared….an environment full of sulkers, people that blame other people.”
Deeney hasn’t played since taking charge of the team. He’s been in training and hinted that he could name himself ahead of their trip to Priestfield.
He’s had former England players Jermain Defoe – now a Tottenham under-18 coach – and John Terry – an academy coach at Chelsea – helping him recently in a bid to turn Forest Green’s form around. He had cited a lack of coaching staff as the reason for not playing himself.
Forest Green are currently seven points from safety.
