Adam Bate visits Shrewsbury Town to chat to director of sport Mickey Moore and assistant manager Richard O'Donnell and find out how the club are looking to learn from past mistakes and rejuvenate their image following relegation to League Two…
Pictured: Michael Appleton is the man appointed to help Shrewsbury Town return from relegation to League Two.
When Michael Appleton first took over as Shrewsbury Town manager in Birmingham in March, the situation was critical. The team, bottom of the table, had lost 4-1 that day as fans chanted for sporting director Mickey Moore to resign.
Relegation followed and it seemed impossible to bring Shrewsbury back. But the summer brought hope. The expected flurry of signings failed to materialise and Moore remained in his post. But the mood had changed.
Speaking to Moore in his office overlooking the pitch, he is reflective, if painfully hindsighted. “Criticism is never good. You are on a hamster wheel trying to stay in the league,” he told Sky Sports. “It caught up with us in the end.”
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Shrewsbury had the lowest budget in League One and it showed in their results. “To stay there for so long was a fantastic achievement,” says Moore. The problem for him is that the club’s downturn coincided with his arrival. Mistakes were made.
The club briefly dreamed of Championship football under the popular Steve Cotterill. But the situation was precarious: the club was losing £3m a year. Owner Roland Wycherley hired Moore to get costs under control.
“Budgets have changed a lot in the last four or five years. They had to be cut. The last thing you want is to lose the club. But it backfired. We got through it, but we're not in the league we wanted to be in.”
Pictured: Mickey Moore with long-serving Shrewsbury Town chairman Roland Wycherley
The question of how much responsibility Moore bears for this is a delicate one. He himself admits that the situation with fans “may be irreversible”, but now that his role has become clearer, he is more optimistic about the club’s future.
“The chairman didn't want a new manager to come in and not like the players and have to change the squad.” From the outside, it would appear that's what Shrewsbury did.
Moore speaks of “the beginning of the journey” with Matty Taylor but claims the club “went off script and made some emotional decisions” leading to the selection of Paul Hurst, the man who twice led Salop to Wembley during his previous spell at the club.
The chairman had a very close relationship with Paul, and it made sense given his achievements, so I completely understand that. Paul had done an incredible job previously, so the chairman wanted him back. Looking back, it was probably the wrong time for both Paul and us.
In an interview with Hurst last summer, he told Sky Sports: “I don’t see my role as any different to my previous one, it’s just a different title.” For him, the head coach was still the manager. For Moore, that had taken a back seat. “I wasn’t doing the role I was brought in to do.”
He adds: “The chairman deviated from the model a little bit. Paul had complete control.” But Hurst left in November, leaving Shrewsbury one place down. Gareth Ainsworth arrived and quickly revitalised the club and the town. “You needed a Gareth type,” says Moore.
“We needed someone who could cheer everyone up.
Sourse: skysports.com
