The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
An illogical and amazing decision
Football never ceases to amaze me. There should be much headscratching as to how a manager can be sacked from a team sitting in sixth place having allowed him to completely re-build a squad by signing an astonishing 22 players in the last nine months.
Especially as that team have not finished in the top six since 2014.
Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony is backing a hunch, or maybe acting on a whim, by replacing Steve Evans with Darren Ferguson. Or there are other reasons for the switch. It would be good to be told. Not even Evans has been granted that favour.
It must be results-based and three wins in Evans’ last 13 League One matches is at least a plausible explanation. Otherwise it’s a completely illlogical move from a chairman with a terrible record of appointing managers, apart from Ferguson of course.
Evans divided the Posh fanbase from the start, so much so that some started re-writing his impressive managerial record, but MacAnthony is not one to take much notice of social media noise from anonymous posters.
The style of football, although in the early part of the season at least it was far more attractive than his many critics admitted, couldn’t have come as a surprise, nor could the scattergun signing policy which, bizarrely to me, centred on players from the Scottish League and League Two rather than players with experience of League One.
These are Evans’ traits as are hystrionic behaviour in the technical area and the rubbishing of officials. If anything they were reasons not to appoint him rather than reasons to sack him when promotion remains a real possibility.
The regular barracking of a previous manager and public criticism of players were unedifying, but recently they had stopped, which suggested someone had been offering behavioural advice. Hell, only last week Evans promised he would now give referees an easier ride.
The effort of the Posh players in what turned out to be Evans’ final game in charge last weekend suggested the bulk of the dressing room was still with him.
Ah well, the deed is done and MacAnthony has at least replaced one multi-promotion winner with another. Ferguson is worthy of a hero’s reception before the first home game of his third spell in charge on Saturday. Three Posh promotions deserves a legend rating and it will be fascinating to see if he can secure a fourth.
I doubt he will, not this season at least, but some players should flourish under his tutelage. Players comfortable on the ball like Louis Reed and Callum Cooke could enjoy strong second-halves of the season, while Lee Tomlin and Marcus Maddison are certain to be inspired by a manager who brought the best out of them before.
Good luck to Fergie and to Darragh. I hope it all works out as intended, but Evans has been harshly treated.