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Thread | Ipswich are playing Ruskball – and it won’t succeed
at 11:44 5 Feb 2023
Just over three years ago Stockport County was bought by a very wealthy local businessman. After ten years of languishing in non-league (much of it at tier 6) he announced after taking over that the club was capable of playing at a much higher level; that challenging to reach the championship was the aim and that he was in a hurry.
Substantial investment in the stadium, which had been decaying for two decades followed immediately. The entire off-field set up was professionalised with a proper management structure staffed with people of quality. Quality was the watchword on the field too with players of pedigree from higher divisions being signed.
The most radical move they made was to sack the long serving manager. Modern thinking off the field had to be matched with modern thinking on it, it seemed. None of the fans had heard of the new man, Simon Rusk.
He had been plucked from Brighton’s player development set-up where he had an outstanding reputation for bringing young players through. For years this had been a gripe of the supporters — “we don’t see enough of our young lads make it”.
Does any of the what I’ve just written seem familiar to Ipswich fans?
So — premier league style thinking and the promise of youth players coming through. It all seemed wonderful.
Except it wasn’t. A new possession-based style was introduced. We dominated matches, but there were too many draws and by the end of the season Rusk hadn’t improved the club’s league position from when he had taken over and County ended in the play-offs.
They lost timidly to Hartlepool, the team who finished below them. Pools had much lesser resources but were managed by Dave Challinor, a man in his mid-forties who had been successful at this level with Fylde and blended modern style with old school nous about what it takes to get out from this level. Hartlepool went up to league 2.
The next season, things got much worse. Other sides had worked County out. They sat back. More draws but defeats too. County had developed a bad habit of dominating but then lapsing momentarily and giving bad goals away, from stupid back passes and he like. The fans had a name now for the endless backwards and sideways passing with no penetration — “Ruskball”
The owner didn’t mess around. Rusk was removed and replaced with…… Dave Challinor!! The transformation was staggering. Just a few weeks after being incapable of beating struggling Barnet, County smashed league 1 Bolton 5-3 in a cup replay (watch the video on BBC if you can find it — an FA Cup classic).
Challinor proved what the fans knew all along — we had very good players; but they hadn’t been allowed to play how they could. County were a country mile behind Wrexham and Chesterfield at the top when Challinor took over, but they were reeled in and Stockport were promoted with six points to spare.
This season the progress has continued after a period of early adaptation to the new level. County hit the play off places yesterday and a second promotion in two seasons is not unimaginable. Stockport, with new wealthy owners in a hurry have succeeded:
Not just because of the off field professionalisation
Not just because of heavy investment in good players
But because the owners were savvy enough to realise that at lower league level you need a manager who wants to play cultured stuff (County are a joy when they can get it down on the grass), but who knows how to mix it up and hand it out to the sides who don’t want to play.
And because the owners acted quickly enough to make the change before the opportunity to progress was lost.
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