396 Days: The Fall of the Medal-Winner

Inside Graham Westley’s Preston.

A thread:

“Their manager spent the afternoon talking about 'non-league, non-league', and was disrespectful to our players. He wants to have a look at his own team.”

The words of Stevenage manager Graham Westley after a 0-0 draw with PNE at Deepdale in December 2012.

A month later, Phil Brown’s players would become Westley’s...

Graham was hot property, and then-club chairman Peter Ridsdale described the club’s dispute of the 44-year-old as ‘like pulling teeth’.

The rise of Graham Westley is a unique one, from failed footballer, to successful businessman, to football manager.

The fall, is something quite extraordinary.

Day 1.

It’s the afternoon of PNE’s home fixture with Wycombe. Westley, having been unveiled that morning, will take a watching brief before taking full charge the following week.

The new manager called a meeting with his squad prior to the game in the Player’s Lounge.

With 30 players crammed in around him, Westley took a swig of coffee, looked at his new team and delivered his opening gambit:

“My kids don’t call me Dad, they call me medal-winner.”

A deft silence fell across the room, Westley’s stern gaze gave no hint of wavering.

PNE won the game 3-2, a BBC camera filming Westley’s reactions for The Football League Show picked him up puffing his cheeks out in despair. He was evidently far from impressed by his new team’s performance.

Day 7, 21st January 2012

It’s the night before Westley’s first game in charge, at home to Leyton Orient. His players are in their beds at home.

In the early hours of the following morning, at around 2am, their phones ping.

A text from an unrecognised number reads, “A Manager's first week at a club is difficult for everybody. There is loads of apprehension, uncertainty and change. I promised honesty and I will always do my best to give that.”

He continues; “My job is to get you all playing to your best level ever. This week, your work has been on Team, Tactics, Technical, Personality, Character, Mentality, Physicality.”

“My aim is my next medal. My aim is my next win. My commitment is every ounce of sweat,brain and blood.”

He goes on to name the team for the following day, amongst other Westleyisms.

The text was leaked to the press, and made it’s way to the back pages of a national newspaper. Another text was ‘leaked’ to The Sun a few weeks later, but this turned out to be false.

North End would go on to lose the game 2-0.

The following week he called another meeting with the players, this time in the gym at Springfields. He told a funny story about Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.

A source said “he did the accents and everything - nobody laughed.”

The story, would be one he would regular pull out when introducing himself to a new squad. At Stevenage it allowed his players to learn his ways and get a grip of his personality.

At every club thereafter however, it did little more than set the tone for an unhappy time ahead.

Westley won just one of his first nine games in charge, but this was just the beginning.

A loss at home to Brentford the following month left the supporters calling for his head, and his players revolting...

Day 77. Sheffield Wednesday (A)

Westley announced his team to the players an hour before kick-off. He named the first ten players, then pointed at Aaron Brown (a centre-back he’d signed following his release from Aldershot)

“And Aaron, you’ll play upfront”

Iain Hume recalls to UndrTheCosh: “All the players turned to look at me, no one could believe it”.

Hume, a renowned centre-forward and current top scorer, was dropped to the bench, in his place was a centre-half.

Wednesday won 2-0. Westley was doing his post-match press duties when Andy Rhodes, goalkeeping coach for Sheffield Wednesday (and dad of Jordan), said “we knew your team before the game.”

Westley’s eyes narrowed to black beads.

He went straight in front of the Sky cameras, and told the world the information he had just been fed.

He returned to the away dressing room, and fumed; “One of you have told them the team, I can’t trust any of you!”

End of Part One.

We’ll continue with this trip down memory lane, same time tomorrow.

Part Two. Day 79.

The following Monday morning Graham met with the press at Springfields. He sat pensively examining the press room, and found it to be three times as busy than usual. More journalists, more cameras, more everything - he was becoming a big story.

The first question came in regards to his comments the previous Saturday and the apparent player mutiny occurring in the Preston dressing room.

Westley was prickly and dismissed any problems, claiming the issue would be ‘left in the past’.

The team went unbeaten for the next five games, thanks in-part to the final kick of Graham Alexander’s professional career in a 2-2 draw with Charlton.

North End finished 15th in League One, and the manager wasted no time in planning for next season.

Twenty-four players departed that summer, while nineteen came in. Westley wielded the axe, and built an entirely new squad.

Day 212. Huddersfield (H)

The first game of the new season came in the league cup, at home to Huddersfield. He gave out 10 full debuts, with only goalkeeper Thorsten Stuckmann keeping his place from the previous campaign.

One of the debutants was Jeffrey Monakana, a young player picked up from Arsenal. Prior to kick off, Westley forcefully put his arm around Monakana, digging his fingers into his shoulder blade, and gave him his final instructions.

Westley wanted regimentation, and now he had a squad of players that would listen, and buy into his ways.

North End were superb as they beat a side from a higher division 2-0. Westley clenched his fists and took in the applause from the Town End post-match.

After a shaky start to the league season, North End won 5 in 7 in September through to October, including 4-1 and 5-0 wins over Swindon and Hartlepool respectively. Things were beginning to come together.

Westley’s side continued a solid run of form through October and November.

Meanwhile, the texts continued, he played mind games with his players in an attempt to get the best out of them. He asked them to pick their own starting elevens, then revealed their replies to their teammates at the next meetings.

Nicky Wroe, one of Westley’s star performers that season, describes his behaviour at the training ground; “He'd come up sometimes and just grab hold of you, when you were waiting for a massage or sat on a piece of gym equipment. He wanted you to fight your way out.”

“He’d just have this way of looking at you, he'd just stand quite close and look you in the eyes; He was always looking for a response.”

As the odd behaviour intensified, results on the pitch began to suffer.

North End welcomed Brentford at home in mid-November - the fixture that began a situation where everything spiralled out of control the previous season.

Scott Laird put PNE 1-0 up on 60 minutes, but a last-minute Brentford equaliser saw the points shared. Westley called out a few of his players post-match, and they didn’t respond in the way he would have liked.

No wins in eight followed throughout December.

Christmas Day 2012. Day 346.

Westley had his players in for training ahead of a must-win local clash with Bury at Deepdale the following day.

He went with Chris Beardsley up top as the sole striker. It ended goalless.

New Years Day 2013. Day 353.

PNE travelled to Hartlepool in desperate need of three points. Westley’s skipper John Mousinho scored the only goal of the game in a 1-0 victory. A slight bit of pressure was lifted on the manager going into the new year.

Day 360.

With the team lacking goals, the club moved into the transfer market for a new striker.

The manager identified 24-year-old Joe Garner from Watford, and on 8th January 2013, he was signed.

Day 362. Coventry (A)

With the club’s promotion hopes all but ended by a dismal December, North End travelled to Coventry for the Northern semi-final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, in a bid to win some silverware. Some medals.

PNE led 2-1 going into the final few minutes when goalkeeper Steve Simonsen, one of Graham’s many signings, pulled up injured with the manager having already made three substitutions.

It would prove costly, Coventry benefited from Simonsen’s lack of of mobility, scoring twice in injury time to knock North End out.

North End then lost three of out of four games, and slipped deep into the bottom half and within touching distance of the relegation zone.

Next up, a trip to Yeovil.

Day 395. Yeovil Town (A)

The club travelled down south by train and arrived in Yeovil on the morning of 12th January 2013. As ever, then-chairman Peter Ridsdale travelled with the squad and had lunch with Westley and his staff that afternoon.

The travelling PNE fans were in full voice in the build up to kick off, but not in support for their under-pressure manager - quite the opposite. They made their feelings clear to the club’s hierarchy that they wanted him gone.

North End lead 1-0 at half-time through Chris Beardsley’s goal on the half-hour mark, a lead they would retain up until the final 20 minutes of the game.

But, the home side equalised on 73 minutes, then scored again on 80, and once more in injury time.

A 3-1 defeat left North End just five points above the League One relegation zone. The squad travelled back to their hotel, and as Westley returned to his room and slept in his bed that night, he did so still as the Preston North End manager.

Day 396. The End.

The following morning a meeting was called by Peter Ridsdale at a café at Waterloo Station, mere hours before the squad was set to travel back to Preston.

It was here where Westley’s 13-month reign came to an end.

Four Years Later.

Westley returned to Stevenage shortly after his Preston exit, and then Peterborough directly after that, where the same issues quickly arose. Despite more failings, Westley stuck to his philosophy.

The same methods, the same demands, the same texts, the same team-talks, the same mind games; the same everything.

He then took a brief hiatus, an opportunity to look back on his time and reflect, and to change.

He took on the managers role at Newport County further down the line. He met with the club’s supporters, shareholders and local press at his unveiling at an AGM in January 2017.

His appointment was controversial, the club’s followers were skeptical of Westley and whether he could make things work at Newport, and whether he really was a changed man.

Graham was introduced by the club’s chairman. He made his way to the front of the club’s press room, took a sip of water and looked out at his people.

He brought the microphone to his lips and said “My kids don’t call me dad...”

End of thread. By @benpne