Gloverscast – Danny Webb

Danny Webb has been officially confirmed as the new manager at Yeovil Town, and Ian’s been to meet him at Huish Park for a Glovercast exclusive.

Ian Perkins:  Danny, welcome back to Yeovil. How does it feel to be named Yeovil Town manager?

Danny Webb:  A fantastic feeling. Something that’s been sort of in the offing now for the last week or so. I must say that both clubs, Chesterfield and Yeovil, really showed how to get deals done and how to get things negotiated and how to communicate properly. And that’s such a big thing about how I like to work. It’s communication – communicating with stakeholders, players, but most importantly supporters.

Obviously I think there’s been a bit of a disconnect, like I said earlier, with the club and supporters, and I think there’s nothing more that the ownership wants now than to get that connection going, because we’ve both seen this place when it’s rocking, when it’s going somewhere, and I think that’s what Yeovil supporters want to see.

Of course you want to see wins every week and success and attractive football, but you want to see a group of players and staff having a right go for your football club. And if you keep doing that, if you keep doing the right things and have the right processes – which is the buzzword at the minute, everyone says that fancy word ‘processes’ – but it is a process that you work by and it is a team effort, to try and get those supporters onside, to see their club’s going somewhere, because they’ve had some good times. You know, a lot of the supporters have been there for Championship games. And I know that was a long time ago, but it has to be the ambition at some point in the future just to dream and to aim high, because there’s no point being in football if you’re not going to have ambition. It’s about creating memories, so hopefully we can all do that together.

IP:  When did you decide that Yeovil was the job for you and why did you go for it?

DW:  I think to leave Chesterfield after five or so seasons where we had lots of success and it was happy up there and I had a  really good relationship with the supporters, it had to be a club that I feel could get to where Chesterfield are. And I mean that not in terms of 9,000 every week in League Two, I mean a club where gradually attendances increase, gradually you see more and more young kids with the with the shirts on – not Man United or Liverpool, but in this case Yeovil Town shirts. A chance for supporters to interact and bump into players in the shopping centres and things like that. Things that sound so small and obsolete, for me they’re huge. Only because I’ve seen what that does to a community.

Chesterfield had its ownership issues before I went there. I know there’s been certain issues and discontent here as I say, but that’s not my place to say on that and whose fault that was, but when you get it right, it’s a great feeling. It’s a great feeling when you get things right at a football club. And it doesn’t mean necessarily going to win the Champions League, which would be nice, wouldn’t it, for Yeovil?! But it does mean that as a supporter, you’ve got a bit of pride. You’re all together, you’re looking at your dugout, you’re looking at your boardroom, and going, yeah we’re all on the same page. And as I say, those things do take time. They do take time. A lot of people say it, but it does take time. It’s not a quick turnaround on the pitch or off the pitch, but when you get there, it’s such a great feeling to look back and see where you’ve come from.

IP:  And this is the first big decision that this new ownership have had to make. What’s your perception of them and what was the process like in terms of recruitment?

DW:  Yeovil did it by the book, brilliantly. They requested permission to speak to me, and Paul Cook and Ashley Kirk at Chesterfield were just fantastic and basically said straight away, if you’d like to speak to them, speak to them. If you don’t think it’s for you, then your job’s here for as long as you want it. So that’s a great position to be in, so I’m thankful for them. But also the process by the family and by Nicholas (Brayne) and Stuart (Robins) and all the stakeholders has been so professional, and I could just sense that we were aligned in the way that you want the club to go. There was a kindness, there was a warmth about the people of Yeovil. It’s not a ‘here and now’ attitude. Yes, you want to go out and win tomorrow. Of course we do, blimmin’ hell. But at the same time, if you feel that there’s a plan in place – without pulling out too many cliches – as a supporter, I think you can buy into it. If you see the effort on a Saturday afternoon by everyone concerned.

So yeah, there was a real alignment. I said to you off air that I think that there’s a lot of similarities with where I’ve come from. Really, it’s the only club in the town – which sounds so simple, but there’s a lot of towns with two or three clubs – same with Chesterfield. It’s a probably slightly smaller but a similar sort of set up with the ground. The people have had success, then they’ve had disappointment. So they’ve been there, they’ve seen what it’s like, this town, when things are going well. They haven’t just always been a National or National South team. They were, then they’ve gone all the way up and they’ve gone all the way down again. So we’ve got to try and get Yeovil back to being a club that’s going somewhere, has ambitions, but is also ok with having a process which might take a little bit longer than some people would want.

IP:  Many would have watched Yeovil when your dad was manager of the football club. What does it mean to you and to him personally to be doing this?

DW:  Very good. He’s very emotional about it to be honest with you. I remember, I’m doing my maths here, I’m gonna say that’s 26 years ago I’m going to say. Big Warren Patmore up front, back in the day. But, his first call was to make it a full-time outfit, which had a lot of kickback at the time for certain reasons. And he stuck with it and look what they went on to do. Obviously Gary (Johnson) took that team on and went to another level. And obviously I was here with Russell Slade, so they’ve had a lot of good managers that have done a lot of good things for the football club.

There’s obviously been a lot of dark times. As a supporter, you know more than me, the dates and when they were, but you can’t really appreciate the highs if you don’t have a lot of lows. I’ve had a lot of highs in the last two clubs I’ve been at as a coach and manager, especially in the National League. I can see what it takes to build something. Justin (Edinburgh) built something, Paul Cook built something. And when you achieve it, it’s great because those clubs and teams are almost running blind because everyone knows what lane they’re in. Everyone sticks to their lane. But everyone does their job to the best of their ability.

IP:  You had a couple of tricky situations with Leyton Orient and with Chesterfield. What did you take from those experiences?

DW:  Yeah, I think any experience is good. I think, with the Italian ownership at Leyton Orient, it probably opened my eyes up to what that could do to a fanbase and a club. I was really glad I experienced that time where players weren’t getting paid and kids were playing and the supporters were fantastic. It’s funny – it actually brought the supporters close to the team. Because I think they saw seven or eight youth team players players playing every week, and it was tough to see you lose most games, but when you’ve got five or six of those lads that I threw in went on to make the club six or seven million. In the grand scheme of things, it was a good decision to make and I’ll take that experience. There’s things I’d do differently because that was nine or ten years ago.

At Chesterfield, there were loads of things I won’t go into that I had to deal with before Paul Cook came in. And I learnt so much from that interim situation as well. Big game at Stockport, first v second in front of 14,000 people. And those are the things that I’ll never forget. I’ll never forget lifting the trophy on the open bus tour at Orient and at Chesterfield. Losing at Wembley, the Play-Off Final, on penalties to Notts County. They’re all experiences and we’ve all got our own experiences. Not just in football – everyone’s got life experience that you have to use and bottle and try, if you can, to always use to your advantage.

IP:  Here at Yeovil, you’re not yet in the dugout or taking the training, but what do you think your immediate priorities are for the team and these players?

DW:  Well, I’ve obviously watched a few games from afar, on laptops, etc when I thought there might be a chance of something happening. I know a few of the backroom staff quite well, so we all get on. Richard (Dryden) and Chris (Todd) are taking the team tomorrow and setting up as they see fit and they rung me with any advice etc and what I’ve said is just to relay to the players that the sole thing I’m looking at tomorrow is body language and work rate. That’s the first thing, because obviously other things will start Monday. It’s great, we’ve got a free week going into Tamworth. I went to go watch Tamworth play at York the other night. Could have been 1-0 up before York went up the gears and showed their quality, which I know they did here the other week. So that’s going to be a tough game but for the here and now, I urge all the staff to get behind the team tomorrow because it could be a massive three points in our season.

IP:  And you touched on knowing some of the backroom staff already. Alex Whittle, one of your players when you were at Chesterfield – does it help having someone like him in the dressing room who can sort of ease the boys, encourage the boys and tell them what to expect?

DW:  I think so. I think as I said to you, sometimes you meet characters that other people have said are different and then you meet them for yourself and you go, I don’t see you like that. So you always have to take people how you find them. Obviously I’ve had views and opinions on players and personalities, etc. But to know a couple of people, whether it’s on the pitch or off the pitch is always great, but it’s that famous line – it’s a clean slate. A lot of managers say it and then two weeks later the same things are happening. It will be a clean slate with me.

We’ll have a look. I know there’s not an abundance of players, but you’ve got some good players. We have got some good players. And, especially the last game, the last couple of games, it isn’t really a lack of effort. But what I want to see tomorrow is that effort level go to another notch. And regardless of me coming through the door on Monday or not, let’s get three points and get that stand behind the goal rocking once more.

IP:  You touched on a shortage of players. Is that one of your areas you’re looking at? Have you got the support to go and bring some people in?

DW:  Yeah, I think so. I think it’s wrong to judge the areas you need until I see them. Obviously there’s things in my head that I’ll keep to myself about certain areas you might need to strengthen, but it’s only fair I look at the players Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and, as I said to you, it doesn’t get fixed at Tamworth or Aldershot or Altrincham. It takes a lot of time. Ideally it happens straight away, of course it does. We all want that. But there’s there’s a way I want to work, there’s a way I want to play. Using a lot of my experience at my last two clubs, especially at Chesterfield, of how you stick to things and – there’s that word again – processes. You tend to see the benefit of them, it tends to go your way.

You need good people off the pitch and on the pitch. Good people. I’ve seen the importance of that. A good dressing room. People that want to interact with the fans. People that want to give their all. People that want to tackle. People that, if you’re 3-0 down, don’t throw the towel in. That’s what I want to see. And it starts tomorrow.

IP:  Well, welcome back to Yeovil and good luck. Thank you very much.

DW:  Thank you.