No Compensation Required
NO COMPENSATION WILL BE REQUIRED
When Alex McLeish headed for Easter Rd. the list of usual suspects was trotted out by the Press (and fans alike); Sandy Clark, Stevie Kirk, Gordon Dalziel, Kevin Drinkell, Brian McClair, Luc Nijholt, Alex Smith, Alex Totten etc. The original word on the street was that Clark was the preferred candidate and was the only name in the frame from an early point. The club laid out a timetable for the appointment, with a board meeting to be held after the Cup tie with Rangers on the Sunday and the appointment to be announced during the following week. BUT with the game going to a replay the board meeting was supposed to be delayed to the Wednesday to allow Andy Watson to prepare the players for the Cup tie. The rumour mill already was telling us that the manager would not be Clark as Accies were looking for too much compensation!!
This raised the dreaded “No Compensation will be required” phrase for the first time, and raising the dreaded prospect of Billy Stark as the preferred candidate. This rumour was fuelled by the fact that he had no contract for Morton and could leave without any compensation. Never mind his lack of management experience, he was Motherwell’s type of candidate i.e. he would cost nothing.
All of a sudden the club broke the story of a top Scandinavian coach with a top club in Europe was being considered. The secrecy was absurd, but once again the news filtered through that he had a get out clause in his contract – therefore costing no money!! Then coming up to a big week with two home games in a week and a trip to Dunfermline we still had no coach/manager to guide us through it. Then in the Sunday papers we find out that the man in question is Harri Kampman, of former UEFA Cup opponents MYPA 47. The club had misled us on a number of points; He’s not Scandinavian, He’s not a big name and Lahti aren’t a BIG club.
The scary thing is he was quoted as being an “up and coming top coach in Finland” – sounds familiar. But once again the announcement is delayed another day as Harri tries to make up his mind whether to uproot his family or not.
This is the second appointment in a row that has been painfully drawn out, with the prime criteria for the club appearing to be that the person hired should cost “nothing”. I hope that Harri is the correct man this time and that he keeps us in the top league and wins as many trophies as he did at Mypa/Lahti
On the flip side the club was criticised for letting McLeish go so easily at a vital time, but all of this showed the lack of critical awareness considering the state of our side. The current board appeared to share the views of the fans that Big Alex wasn’t taking us anywhere. The timing wasn’t ideal but if you were offered reasonable compensation for someone who wasn’t performing in your business, what would you do???
Despite my initial cynicism the original statements from Kampman were very positive, he wanted to make sure that we stayed up and that we then pushed for a European place next season. These are probably the most ambitious language we have heard for years from anyone at Fir Park. Lets hope that he achieves these ambitions and we can take some form of Leap Forward if not a Great one!
Graham Barnstaple
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