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Bill Williams Interview
Just four days before the start of the season, K's Web spoke to Bill Williams
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| | How do you feel the pre-season preparation has gone? |
I think it?s gone reasonably well but I don?t think it?s gone as perfectly as I would have liked for a number of reasons. One I think that it?s been a bit hectic in that we?ve had to turn things round quite quickly and I needed to look at some of the present players and make my own judgements. Steve Sedgley and people were saying "that player can?t do this" but I had to make to make my own judgement.
I had the difficulty of getting players here quickly and although I?ve got four or five who I would say are my first choice, I?ve also got three or four that might be second or third choices - just through circumstances like money, availability and such like. So that side hasn?t worked out as I expected, and I think the suspension to three players is a problem, and I think the injuries, particularly to front men like Winston, Brown and Phil Wingfield, haven?t helped because I haven?t been able to get any real pairing. Then I?ve had to look at all of the trialists too, so we haven?t been able to say "here are the fifteen players and these are the ones to work with". In another six months time, although I?ll still be saying I need this or that, we?ll have been able to work with the players properly.
In the perfect pre-season we would have played eleven players in six games and they would have come through totally unscathed, we?d be playing perfect football, scoring loads of goals and be ready to get into the season. I don?t think we?re ready yet to play in a really competitive game for a number of these reasons. |
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| Forgetting the suspensions and injuries, do you have in your mind what your first choice eleven would be? |
| Oh yes. That?s how my mind always works. I will change, but at the moment I can say that these are the eleven players who I?d like to start on Saturday with. Some of them won?t be available to me so I?ll have to fill in some holes. And I always put it to the team as well - I say this is what I feel is the starting eleven, you other six have got to break into it. It makes it easier for the players to understand. |
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| So are Sammy Winston and Steve Brown fit since they played on Saturday (at Eastbourne)? |
| The answer to that is that they?ve come through injury free. As regards their fitness, I think they?re short of match play. I?m going to have to make a decision on somebody, because Steve Brown has played 115 minutes of football and Winston?s played 123, which is not enough. You would be looking to have between 6-800 minutes of playing time to be up to where we expect. But they?ve all been gauged and looked at, but that?s going to be a problem. |
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| How do you see the season going? Where would you expect, or hope, to finish? |
I would really really like to finish top of the league, to be totally honest with you. Realistically I?m not sure, because I think we?ve got quite a bit of talent in this side at the moment. But I don?t expect us to get off to a really crackerjack start, and if we get ourselves a little bit behind and are playing catch-up, it might be this year that top four can be all that we can achieve.
But I?ll be looking to win every game we play. I never look too far ahead anyway. We?re looking at Gravesend on Saturday and everybody will focus on that. We have to win that no matter what, and you will quite often see me do things which people will think are quite strange. If we get behind I?ll sort of throw caution to the wind and have four up there and go all out to win the game. You know, you have to win games and it?s far better to win games than to draw them. Suddenly you draw three, everybody says isn?t it wonderful but then you?re well off the pace with just three points on the board. You need to get a sequence of two wins and a half-a-loss kind of thing. |
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| So if you?re looking at the top four, who do you see the other main challengers being? |
| Well I think everyone?s favourites are Canvey. I think Aldershot will be there too. So those two, but then I?m not really sure because I don?t know the rest that well. I?ve seen Basingstoke, I?ve seen Chesham last year, I saw Enfield, Hitchin, Heybridge Swifts, Purfleet, so I?ve seen most of the teams once, because I?m always out looking. There?s nothing that I looked at and thought "this is a good team". But everybody tells me that Basingstoke and Gravesend are going to be thereabouts and are going to be good sides in the league. So I think our first two games are going to give us a yardstick to see where we are. |
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| Are you happy with the size and strength of the squad? |
I think it?s a little bit too large in terms of numbers. I think we?ve got a few who aren?t going to play, which is not what I?m really after. I?d like to see another left-sided player in the squad - a utility player.
I?d like to see another dominant midfield player in the squad. And I?d still like to see another very very large forward, but these I can look for in the next twelve months. It takes twelve months to track down your decent players you know? It?s only because we?re around the free transfer time that we?ve been able to sign so many players now. But we?re up and running, and I think potentially we?ve got the nucleus of a good side. |
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| How has the relationship with Steve Sedgley been going? |
Can?t stand him. He?ll be gone by Saturday. No, Steve is fine. I find him a very nice man. He?s very nervous around me - I must say that. I think it?s because I?m so different from Geoff. But the nucleus of our relationship is going to be centred around football. He?s got some very good ideas.
In pre-season we?ve had a good training site, we?ve got an excellent fitness man, a good physio, a good club doctor - not that we didn?t have good ones before, but I know these people. So the pre-season has been all about fitness, and driving, and fitness, and driving, and he (Sedgley) can now maybe relax a little bit more and concentrate on the concept of team play.
We should have done twenty sessions on it, but we?ve only done two. We haven?t spent much time on throw-ins, corners or free-kicks yet. There?s just not been time. They get there, you work them for an hour and a half and you just spend all your time getting them fit. So there?s a lot of work that Steve and myself need to do. But I?m looking forward to it, because he wants to be a top-liner. He reminds me a bit of myself, how I was when I was about his age - looking to go into the big time stuff. I hope he will. |
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| During the friendlies he seems to have been much more involved during the game - is that the way things will continue? |
Well there were two ways to approach it. Don?t get me wrong, but sometimes I can?t help myself. Like on Saturday at Eastbourne, I suddenly flew out of the stand because I?d noticed something and raved at somebody. I just can?t help it. But I think that if I?m going to manage, I?ll have my input as the manager, I?ll select the side, I?ll bring the players here and I?ll be saying how we really want to work.
But he?s going to be coaching. So if he?s going to learn, you sometimes have to throw him into that deep end. So the easiest way to do that is where we are now - the pre-season. He can make mistakes there, and I can ask him why he did something, and say well don?t you think this would have been better? And up until now he hasn?t made many mistakes at all. But his big test will come on Saturday - it?s his first professional game as coach. Will he be able to see something happening, or will he freeze? Or will he ask me? Well I guess we?ll cross that bridge when we come to it. |
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| So will you be sitting in the stand or on the bench? |
I?ll sit in the stand for the first half - unless something alarming happens - and I?ll be on the bench in the second. I just feel that, particularly here, you can just get a slightly better view of what?s going on than down there. It?s an awful level for watching. It?s bad enough here, but they tell me that some of the Ryman grounds have benches right in the corners.
Don?t get me wrong, there?s nothing weird and wonderful and you can?t always wave that magic wand and make it all better, but you do have an opportunity as a coach/manager to have some input before the game, at half-time and through the dying stages. |
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| Which of the new signings do you see as the most important or influential? |
Well all of them really. I needed to bridge gaps. It?s like the goalkeeper - the two I went after both signed for league clubs, which was a bit disappointing as they were both younger keepers. But that?s the nature of the game. But in the end I went for Lance, and he hasn?t done well in the pre-season - not for me, because I know what he?s capable of. So he was an important signing, because we didn?t have a goalkeeper. Well we had Adrian Blake, but I didn?t know him. He was recommended to me, but I?d seen him play once.
I think we were lacking a lot of commitment in the side. I think we had a lot of people who threw the towel in when the going got tough. So we needed to put a couple in there like Munday and Clarke who I knew, both very good Conference players who have that nastiness. Absolute viciousness in one case. Which is important, because fear plays an important part in football.
I thought we needed a little bit more delivery and I believe that Pinnock and Bolt are important. But my biggest problem of all was goalscorers. The two I went after - league players - I couldn?t get, and I?ve got Ronnie Green who I think potentially could be a good player. I?m not sure about him playing ninety minutes at the moment though - in the first twenty-five or thirty minutes you don?t see him in the game when all of the muck and bullets are flying around.
Steve Brown I knew and he leads the line well, I knew Sammy (Winston) too, but I?ve always had a problem with his weight, whether or not he can play the 46 games you need a year. So we had a little bit of a problem around the front men, and then of course Sadler became available, at a price, and I?d seen him a couple of times. He?d been recommended by Premier Management to me six months ago, so my biggest problem at the moment is to pick two of those four players.
So there were a number of things: a lack of commitment, I was slightly worried about height as well, but Barnsby helped that a little bit in the back row, but I still think I?m one player short in the height department for set plays.
But if I had to pick one then Dave Clarke will probably end up being the most influential of them all. It?s just the way he sets his stall out and gets others at it. He sets a good, high tempo, work-rate, but we?ll see. But the whole lot that we?ve signed, in talent terms, they?re adequate. |
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| Would it be right to say that Simon Stewart is club captain? |
| No, that?s not right, because we haven?t decided yet. But he most probably will be. He?ll most probably be club captain, but we?ll probably give the field stuff to Clarke I think. But that?s not my decision, that?s Steve Sedgley?s. On the park I wouldn?t give it to one of my ex-players, for obvious reasons. But he feels that he?s the one that the players have the most respect for at the moment. |
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| Some of the new signings have a bit of a reputation for picking up cautions and red cards - do you think that we?ll have a problem with that? |
Well we might do. I?ve put in a nasty fine system, starting at about a hundred quid, which hopefully will prevent it. See I think you?ve got to be disciplined, but the difference for players like Munday and Clarke - who are the ones we?re most probably talking about here - because they are so quick across the ground, and the difference between a bad tackle and winning the ball is fractional.
But in fairness to them, in the Conference I found that the referees were pedantic. They were looking for the next step up the ladder to the football league, so they just blew up and made sure big brother picked it up. I mean Dave Clarke got sent off at Hednesford when a chap pulled his shirt back! He was running away, the chap pulled him back and the chap said he tried to throw an elbow. Well he may have done, but I looked at that video time and time again and couldn?t see him throw an elbow. And what can you do? You can?t argue against it - it?s just an opinion.
So no - hopefully not. |
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| What about players such as Eddie Saunders, David Bass and Phil Wingfield? Are they still in your plans? |
Maybe one of them. I didn?t come here with any pre-conceived ideas, I came with quite an open mind and there are players here who people had opinions of before I came, but I like to make my own mind up, and I think I?m just about ready to make my announcement of who I?m going to keep, those who I?m going to let go and those who I?m going to try and farm out.
There are some who personally I just can?t see getting a game - not that I don?t want to consider them, but I just can?t see them having the talent to play. So those players, I don?t want to waste their time and I don?t want them wasting mine. But I?ll tell them that this is what I think, and hopefully I haven?t got it wrong. I know you have to have a squad, but you just don?t need people around who are just not going to play. |
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| It looks as though Eddie Akuamoah could be playing against K?s for Sutton - do you regret saying that he?d "lost his bottle"? |
Well I don?t know if I said he?d "lost his bottle" - I never use that word, so that wouldn?t have been correct. But what I did say about Eddie was that he?s most probably been at the club too long. You know, after you?ve been somewhere nine years you lose your way a little bit. But not bottle.
And anyway, it was a decision that was made before I came here. Eddie Akuamoah had gone. The only input that I had was that, whenever we?d played against him in recent times, he wasn?t the problem that he was five years ago. |
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| And what about Steve Farrelly? |
| I believe that he?s a good goalkeeper, but he was just earning more than we were prepared to pay. Those days have gone - we?re in the Ryman League, not the Conference any more. |
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| In general, how have you settled in? |
Fine, fine. Well, I was going to say that one club?s the same as the other, but that?s not true - they?re all different, but the actual concept of it all is exactly the same. And I?ve done it so many times - and not just in football - I?ve been in business since I was eighteen. I?ve had 600 blokes working with me in the factories, making wheelchairs for the South African government. I?ve worked for CNN, with a thousand people in the offices. So I?ve done many many things apart from running football - but it?s always been my love in life, if there is such a thing.
I don?t know, I just need to win something. The only side that I haven?t won a championship at was Dover. And that was a big regret for me. I just hope I haven?t lost it. It?s different - championship managers are a different breed. They?re not your norm. They?ve normally got something a bit different about them, and those who?ve done it continuously - like I?ve done since I was 30 - you?ve got to be careful that you don?t lose your desire.
Maybe it?s like Eddie - been here too long. Maybe that?s what happened at Dover - I?d got so far and then ran out of money. I think I was even there thinking, well how am I going to win this championship? But here, I don?t think I can throw that excuse up at myself. Because you do. I mean who motivates the manager? It?s yourself. You?re always on your own.
I?ve never done what I wanted to do, which was to be a top Football League manager. I?ve passed every exam in the football world, I?ve won seven championships, I?ve been all around the world to get into it, but I?ve never ever done it. So I have got a real burning desire to end it here by taking it back - not just the one level but the two levels, into the Football League. Everyone?s talking about the Conference, but I?m talking about the Football League. I don?t want to harp on about that, but that?s what I?d like to do, and I?d like to do it quickly. Because I haven?t got a lot of years left - maybe three. |
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The interview was conducted on Tuesday 14th August 2001 by Gary Ekins
Many thanks to Bill Williams for giving up his time
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