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Gary Dicker has his say


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Departing midfielder Gary Dicker has backed Tommy Wright to take Kilmarnock back to the Scottish Premiership.

The 34-year-old has also denied it was "player power" that led to the dismissal of former manager Angelo Alessio back in 2019.

Kilmarnock were sitting fifth at the time but ended this season 11th before losing a play-off and being relegated.

"Tommy knows the Scottish game, he knows the players," Dicker told BBC Scotland after leaving the club.

"I fully expect Kilmarnock to - if not come straight back up - at least be challenging to come straight back up."

Dicker, who joined the Ayrshire club from Carlisle United in 2015, was one of 14 players released by Wright following "the worst ending you can have as a footballer".

"He's going to have to sign a lot of players, which is always difficult," the Irishman said. "It's hard signing five players let alone 15 if you need 15. Hopefully, if he can get the right people in, he can get Killie up."

Dicker, back home on the south coast of England, admitted "it's been a tough last few days" while wanting to set the record straight about the turbulent period that led to former Juventus, Chelsea and Italy assistant Alessio being sacked.

"It was probably just the wrong time for the wrong person," he said. "I don't think he might have been as ready for it either, his first job as well. New language, obviously that was a problem as well at first.

"Most Kilmarnock fans think, 'Gary Dicker this, Gary Dicker that'. Listen, player power doesn't exist at the level we're at. It just didn't work, but it wasn't for the want of trying.

"There wasn't one player since I've been at Kilmarnock in the five years that hasn't gone out and wanted to do well and try hard." Just to put it straight - it wasn't the Gary Dicker agenda as most people probably think it was."

Dicker recalled the club's owners closely watching what was going on at training.

"If you have people that don't really understand a lot of football and they are watching what's going on and not really seeing a lot going on, I think you can obviously read a lot into that," he added.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57290753

Short video in link.

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Dicker recalled the club's owners closely watching what was going on at training.

"If you have people that don't really understand a lot of football and they are watching what's going on and not really seeing a lot going on, I think you can obviously read a lot into that," he added.

This probably sums things up over the last two years. Alessio was far from perfect but he had a plan and was trying to implement it. Because of who he was, where he came from and how he worked it perhaps wouldn’t look right to the unqualified ones. Dyer had the players “working hard” but we were s**te as he had no plan and no clue. If they were grafting in training it would look better to the untrained eye though

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“New language” for somebody who had spent two years at  Chelsea?

It wasn’t obvious that he had acquired much command of English, all the same.

What surprised me most about the Alessio appointment was how little  investigation the club seemed to do.

If they had done more, the whole issue of training methods might have been unearthed and addressed.

Maybe, not knowing a lot about football, they thought that all coaches employ the same methods. 

That still doesn’t explain how they thought language wouldn’t be a problem though.

Add the fact that BB left the interview early for a family commitment...

 

Edited by skygod
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For what it’s worth my impression with the Alessio situation was that some players hated training from day one and made zero attempt to engage with it. The two players who have more or less said this publicly are Broadfout when he pissed off first time and, perhaps surprisingly, Chits Burke.

To me there was then a spell when  Dicker and SOD decided to knuckle down and go along with it, and you could see a difference on the park during that spell which included the away win at St Johnstone etc. 
 
For whatever reason that did not last and more or less the lot of them had downed tools by time of the defeat at Livi and the 0-0 against St Johnstone. As the leader Dicker must have had some culpability for that, so I’m not buying it.

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1 minute ago, piffer said:

Dicker recalled the club's owners closely watching what was going on at training.

"If you have people that don't really understand a lot of football and they are watching what's going on and not really seeing a lot going on, I think you can obviously read a lot into that," he added.

This probably sums things up over the last two years. Alessio was far from perfect but he had a plan and was trying to implement it. Because of who he was, where he came from and how he worked it perhaps wouldn’t look right to the unqualified ones. Dyer had the players “working hard” but we were s**te as he had no plan and no clue. If they were grafting in training it would look better to the untrained eye though

It’s probably worth remembering this is Dicker’s version of events. I could be wrong but Billy and Phylis don’t look like the types to be sitting in the stands watching training sessions. They look more like people who make judgments based on evidence. TbH I think Dicker is far more worried about his reputation as a dressing room trouble maker and the impact it could have on getting a new club (as if his performances alone wouldn’t be enough cause for concern) rather than on setting the record straight for Killie fans. 
 

Maybe there is a slither of a good point in his interview though; I also believe we had too many people, at the wrong club, at the wrong point in their careers  though. Step forward our experienced players. 

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4 minutes ago, KenVaagen1984 said:

For what it’s worth my impression with the Alessio situation was that some players hated training from day one and made zero attempt to engage with it. The two players who have more or less said this publicly are Broadfout when he pissed off first time and, perhaps surprisingly, Chits Burke.

To me there was then a spell when  Dicker and SOD decided to knuckle down and go along with it, and you could see a difference on the park during that spell which included the away win at St Johnstone etc. 
 
For whatever reason that did not last and more or less the lot of them had downed tools by time of the defeat at Livi and the 0-0 against St Johnstone. As the leader Dicker must have had some culpability for that, so I’m not buying it.

I think some players had made up their minds before he’d even took his first training session. They wanted someone to come in and kiss their arses for what they’d achieved the year before. When you’ve coached at the level AA had though, 3rd place in the Scottish Premier isn’t seen as that much of an achievement. 

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4 minutes ago, KenVaagen1984 said:

For what it’s worth my impression with the Alessio situation was that some players hated training from day one and made zero attempt to engage with it. The two players who have more or less said this publicly are Broadfout when he pissed off first time and, perhaps surprisingly, Chits Burke.

To me there was then a spell when  Dicker and SOD decided to knuckle down and go along with it, and you could see a difference on the park during that spell which included the away win at St Johnstone etc. 
 
For whatever reason that did not last and more or less the lot of them had downed tools by time of the defeat at Livi and the 0-0 against St Johnstone. As the leader Dicker must have had some culpability for that, so I’m not buying it.

The Livi game, where the players walked directly on to the bus? That Livi game? 

This interview is the sort of thing you can get away with at a 'bigger' city club. You don't really get away with Dicker's pish at places where everyone knows someone that will spill the beans on you.

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17 minutes ago, skygod said:

“New language” for somebody who had spent two years at  Chelsea.

It wasn’t obvious that he had acquired much command of English, all the same. 
 

SoD gave a more measured interview about the language barrier if I remember right - basically saying with the lack of translation it was often awkward and made it difficult to connect with the manager. 

He gave the example of needing to leave training early one day for a family reason and saying it was really  difficult to do a simple thing like that and be sure the manager knew it was justified etc. 

I wonder if the club factored that side in to the day to day running of things? Am I right in thinking Donati was the only translator? 

11 minutes ago, KenVaagen1984 said:

For what it’s worth my impression with the Alessio situation was that some players hated training from day one and made zero attempt to engage with it. The two players who have more or less said this publicly are Broadfout when he pissed off first time and, perhaps surprisingly, Chits Burke.

To me there was then a spell when  Dicker and SOD decided to knuckle down and go along with it, and you could see a difference on the park during that spell which included the away win at St Johnstone etc. 
 
For whatever reason that did not last and more or less the lot of them had downed tools by time of the defeat at Livi and the 0-0 against St Johnstone. As the leader Dicker must have had some culpability for that, so I’m not buying it.

From stories from various places and the interviews with players, the impression I get is that some players didn't fancy it from day one but also that Alessio was bad at delivering the training - ie he knew the theory but wasn't putting into practice well, was used to having the support of more people in a big club environment and the setup we had wasn't at all right for his first job. 

Don't think it's black and white in terms of heroes and villains. 

Edited by mitch14
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5 minutes ago, Zorro said:

It’s probably worth remembering this is Dicker’s version of events. I could be wrong but Billy and Phylis don’t look like the types to be sitting in the stands watching training sessions. They look more like people who make judgments based on evidence. TbH I think Dicker is far more worried about his reputation as a dressing room trouble maker and the impact it could have on getting a new club (as if his performances alone wouldn’t be enough cause for concern) rather than on setting the record straight for Killie fans. 
 

Maybe there is a slither of a good point in his interview though; I also believe we had too many people, at the wrong club, at the wrong point in their careers  though. Step forward our experienced players. 

Nail. On. Head. Deflectors on full, Cap'n. 

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5 minutes ago, Zorro said:

I think some players had made up their minds before he’d even took his first training session. They wanted someone to come in and kiss their arses for what they’d achieved the year before. When you’ve coached at the level AA had though, 3rd place in the Scottish Premier isn’t seen as that much of an achievement. 

Agree and Boydie seem to indicate that a foreign Coach wouldn’t work. 

Edited by tanerba'Tam
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22 minutes ago, Zorro said:

It’s probably worth remembering this is Dicker’s version of events. I could be wrong but Billy and Phylis don’t look like the types to be sitting in the stands watching training sessions. They look more like people who make judgments based on evidence. TbH I think Dicker is far more worried about his reputation as a dressing room trouble maker and the impact it could have on getting a new club (as if his performances alone wouldn’t be enough cause for concern) rather than on setting the record straight for Killie fans. 
 

Maybe there is a slither of a good point in his interview though; I also believe we had too many people, at the wrong club, at the wrong point in their careers  though. Step forward our experienced players. 

My concern is they looked at things for most of the last two seasons with the idea in their head how did Steve Clarke do it. If it differed to that then they may have seen it as wrong

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2 minutes ago, piffer said:

My concern is they looked at things for most of the last two seasons with the idea in their head how did Steve Clarke do it. If it differed to that then they may have seen it as wrong

My observation would be - After AA, if they knew how SC did things and they had his trusted right hand man as their manager, why did performances fall off a cliff? Was it the language barrier again?

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1 minute ago, historyman said:

So it’s hard to sign 5 players never mind 15? So what kind of club has a strategy where they have just 4 first team players left under contract at the end of the season. 

How does Gary know it’s hard, has he ever had to do it? I think it’s too early (before he’s even become a manager) for Gary to be making statements like that. 

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11 minutes ago, funky monkey said:

Dicker trying to clean up his reputation as he looks for a new club. That's about it. Will the truth out? 

Not bloody likely. The coffee club will be out in force, making excuses, and bumming him up.

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