Is this what the future holds for Phil Brown at Southend United?

Add as preferred source on Google

As ex-Hull manager Phil Brown nears his third anniversary of taking charge of Southend United, there have never been more rumours of an exit being on the cards. They have come to be expected, but this time around things are different – he could actually be leaving. Brown is not only great friends with one of Bolton’s new owners; Dean Holdsworth, but also a hero at the Reebok from his time in Greater Manchester as a player, coach and caretaker manager in the past. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that he has been linked with the Wanderers for months and immediately became the bookies favourite when Neil Lennon was sacked.

Embed from Getty Images

Question marks have been raised over whether or not the move would be a good career move for Brown. Sure, Bolton is a far bigger club with a much richer history, there is little competition on that front, but unfortunately that counts for little in the modern game. Under Brown’s guidance, Southend are challenging for promotion to the Championship via the play-offs, and although it looks unlikely this season, it would be more than possible with the right additions next year. Behind the scenes, a new stadium is supposedly finally on the way (although it’s a line that Shrimpers fans have grown sick of hearing) and finances are in a much better state than they were a few years ago. Brown even owns shares in the club as a result of his latest contract deal. Meanwhile, Bolton sit rock bottom of the Championship with only four wins from 37 games and massive financial concerns off the field.

Jimmy Phillips; head of youth development at the club, has been given the Bolton job until at least the end of the season, but that far from rules out the possibility of a return for Brown in the summer. He continues to speak of his ambition to return to the Premier League and clearly has ambitions of leaving Southend for a bigger and better club, for one more crack at the big time.

So what can Bolton, or a different club, expect from ‘the tango man’ if they do bring him in? Well, while he is still an entertaining manager who likes to please the media, he has matured from his days of half time team talk, wearing a headset and doing karaoke on the pitch, which may be most fans’ abiding memory of him as manager of Hull.

Arriving at Roots Hall via a short and rather disastrous spell at Preston, Brown has so far enjoyed some of the best results in his career in south Essex, with a win ratio of over 40% and a promotion to his name. This; alongside generous allowances to help him to continue his media career, have ensured that Brown’s name is now being linked to bigger clubs again, as interest from Bolton and Big Sam’s offer to be his assistant at Sunderland have proved.

Those offers have come with good reason too. One of Brown’s greatest achievements has been his defensive record since coming in to Southend. In his first pre-season at the club Brown was forced to sign a right-back, left-back and indeed several centre backs throughout the campaign, both permanently and on loan, and also made the decision to give young Daniel Bentley the starting position as goalkeeper. Three years later, captain John White continues to be as solid as a rock, free transfer Ben Coker, alongside Bentley, is being linked with Championship sides, and many of those loan signings have gone on to be valuable players elsewhere, such as Rob Kiernan at Rangers and John Egan at Gillingham.

Embed from Getty Images

This development of players has been key in his time at the club. A look at the average starting line-up of Southend shows as much. In goal, Daniel Bentley was inexperienced and still looked young when Brown came in; he is now one of the most in demand young goalkeepers in the country. Left-back Ben Coker was signed for free from non-league, and is now being linked with the likes of Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town. Another youngster to come through the ranks is Jack Payne, who made his debut in Brown’s first League Cup game as Southend manager, and has now risen to become a star player and one of the side’s top scorer from an advanced midfield position. Ryan Leonard is another player who has developed into a vital player, and his recent absence has deeply damaged Southend’s play-off hopes. Brown can clearly bring young players through and develop them into real stars, with Jack Bridge showing signs of potentially being the next player to break into the Southend first team.

The Sunderland born manager is; on the whole, a popular figure with Shrimpers fans. His passion on the touch-line and much of what he says in the press strikes the right chords with fans, something that few recent managers at the club have displayed. He has also been successful. Whilst some questioned whether or not he would survive had the Blues not been promoted last season after two seasons under his management in League 2, the last gasp play-off victory over Wycombe was trademark Phil Brown.

Brown prides his sides on being hard to beat, and when it comes to his style it certainly isn’t the prettiest. It’s rare to hear abuse for a team that gets promoted that season, but Brown’s reluctance to attack led to several uninspiring results, never more so than three consecutive 0-0 draws over the Christmas period last season. Brown also developed a slight reliance on using target man Barry Corr as a lone striker, with a game plan almost entirely reliant on not conceding, and playing long balls to Corr. Understandably, Corr didn’t enjoy it and went on to leave at the end of the season as top scorer. Southend’s next best goal-getter last season, loanee Joe Pigott, was also used in a similar system, and he too complained of not being a fan of the style of play. They were joined in their opinion by several thousand Shrimpers in the stands at many home games.

His eye for a striker has never been the best, with several dud signings in his time at Southend. Don Cowan, released after his one month contract expired and Craig Reid, released after only a handful of appearances, come to mind, but they are not alone. In his time at Southend, Brown has not been afraid to push the limits of spending and squad size, with the current squad the largest that chairman Ron Martin has financed since our (very limited) days in the Championship. That may concern some at Wanderers, where such funds are not going to be available to him.

Embed from Getty Images

Despite having a relatively large squad of players that he has put together, his biggest criticism has undoubtedly been that Brown does not know his best side. It is never clearer than when the side is in bad form, as Blues fans have experienced in recent weeks, with several formations and over 20 players used across three different games. Even in March, Brown is yet to really settle on a first choice eleven this season, and it’s not something that really happened last season either. Whilst experimenting is to be expected, it has become concerning to some fans that poor runs of form and inconsistency have become common place. In Brown’s first full season, the side went 15 games without a win between January and March, this season the number is yet to rise that high but the three consecutive thrashings over New Year were just as damaging to confidence.

One thing is for sure, and that’s that Southend would be worse off without Brown. He has built a good squad and made them capable of competing at this level, but his style of being hard to beat has undoubtedly been vital in the superb results seen over the last few seasons. Potential replacements are already being suggested, with current assistant Graham Coughlan, ex-Shrimper Chris Powell and Cheltenham manager Gary Johnson all linked, but most Southend fans would rather a dedicated and committed Phil Brown were to remain in charge. It may only be delaying the inevitable, but Brown will surely find better offers than Bolton should he continue to transform Southend United into a force in League 1.

Featured Image: All rights reserved by Josh Vosper