One theme running through yesterday’s game, and indeed the whole week, is the future of our management team. Rumours have been rife that Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday have been looking at our manager, but Danny has quelled that specualtion. Nonetheless, Sam explained how the players just have to keep working hard and ignore the press talk.
“It’s your job, players and managers are linked with clubs. It’s part and parcel of the business. The players just have to concentrate their job and on keeping themselves fit because if a manger does move on, you have to be in the best possible place for the new manager who comes in.
“It’s football, it’s inevitable, people come and go, it’s just part of the game. As a player, you just have to concentrate on doing your best in training and in a game when called upon.”
Moving on, as I’m sure we all want to, the 36-year-old told why Danny would be the sort of manager he liked to play under.
“Of course I would,” he responded when asked if he would have liked to play under Danny.
“They win football matches and you always want to play for managers who win football matches. There’s nothing worse than playing for a manager when you don’t really know what is plan is or where he’s going.
“I’m sure the Lincoln players are under no illusions of what they’re meant to be doing and if they don’t do it, they don’t play which is absolutely fine as a player, at least you know where you stand.”
Finally, yesterday saw us lock horns once more with a Lincoln legend; Gareth Ainsworth. Sam played under the Chairboys boss for a couple of seasons and confirmed that he’s not changed one bit since he prowled the wing for us back in the days of Britpop, using phone-boxes and long-ball Lincoln.
“I think Gareth is just a genuinely nice guy. He works his socks off and he’s no frills, what you see is what you get with Gareth. He manages how he played, up and at you, in your faces and 100% effort. Sometimes it doesn’t come off but you always get up and go again, keep that energy in the squad.
“He was good, at the end when I wasn’t playing, he still treated me like a man and we went our separate ways. It speaks volumes that I wasn’t playing during my final days at Wycombe but I still only have good things to say about him.”
Indeed it does. Both Gareth and Danny are well-respected managers at this level and we’v ebene lucky to have them both at our club at different stages of their careers.
Sam Saunders is a pundit on the official EFL highlights show EFL on Quest every Saturday at 9pm. Quest is the home of EFL highlights broadcasting every round of fixtures throughout the season. Also available on desktop and app via QuestOD
Our thanks to Quest and to Sam for the opportunity to speak to him, as well as to Ian Holloway whose interview will follow tomorrow / Tuesday.
Also, thanks to Jake for conducting the interview for me to write up.