You don’t know what you’re doing?

“Oh my God,” cries Gashead Wayne Scrote, tears dripping onto his computer keyboard. “Will Puddy, Bob Harris, Danny Greenslade, Cristian Montano, Dominic Thomas, Jermaine Easter, Jamie Lucas and Jake Gosling” have all been axed by Bristol Rovers supremo Darrell Clarke. And you know what’s worse? He’s only gone and offered new contracts to Ellis Harrison, Rory Gaffney, James Clarke, Ryan Broom and Alfie Kilgour. You don’t know what you’re doing!”

I don’t know if anyone is saying anything remotely like this but if recent history is anything to go by, Darrell Clarke’s judgement will be questioned by experts who have never so much kicked a ball in a Sunday game, let alone managed a League One football team. “I really like Montano. But I don’t like Ellis Harrison. If I’d been manager…” Yes – and then what? If you’d been manager, then what? If you, dear Gashead, having stumbled out of the Forresters Arms ten minutes before kick off were manager, we certainly wouldn’t be in the Conference now. We’d be on our way to the Toolstation League.

We can have opinions, of course, and yes, it is entirely possible that Clarke may have made mistakes with his retained list. He may make mistakes signing players this summer because, believe it or not, managing a football team is not an exact science. Even the greatest managers have made blunders.

Eric Djemba-Djemba, so bad they named him twice, Juan Sebastian Veron, Ralph Milne, Massimo Taibi, Quinton Fortune, William Prunier, Kleberson were all signed by the guvnor himself, Sir Alex Ferguson. It did not stop the old boy winning a shed load of trophies but it proves that even the best gaffers can make blunders. If Sir Alex can cock up, let’s cut Darrell Clarke a little slack given his fine record to date.

I would imagine the reason so many players have been released is because Clarke wants to strengthen the team. This season was always going to be one of consolidation, even if we did get dangerously close to making the play offs at one point. Many of the current team were at the club in the Conference and League One and in certain instances desire and hunger has overcome individual shortcomings. Seen in isolation, a player might not appear that good, but place him in a team context and it’s a different ball game altogether. Clarke has a large number of players who would run through brick walls for him, players without egos and issues. The next step, if it’s upwards, will mean signing players who probably do have egos and will be harder to manage. There’s only so much running through brick walls fans will put up with in the long term, unless we want to stand still.

I will be sorry to lose the likes of Easter and Montano because they have been decent servants to the club. But one is well into the long decline and the other is a hard-working journeyman. This is not an insult. But to move to another level, Clarke knows he will need a bit more of the X factor.

That Ellis Harrison remains will have surprised some, but it makes total sense to me. Sometimes he looks like a world beater, other times he looks like he couldn’t beat an egg. Oddly, that’s what I like about him. If he doesn’t know what’s going to happen next, how do you think we are supposed to feel? He’s got that something about him and maybe Clarke thinks the finished article is yet to be seen. And Rory Gaffney – yes, he is a limited player, but we are not in the changing room, or on the pitch with him. The manager and his players will know exactly what Gaffney brings to the team. It may seem odd to folk who have never played the game, but the best team doesn’t always include the best players. Sometimes a team is built by design, other times by accident.

Darrell Clarke does know what he’s doing but that doesn’t mean he will get everything right in his team rebuilding. What he does deserve is that one commodity usually denied football managers and that’s time. We’d do well to stick with him because we know what happens when we press the panic button and it isn’t good.