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Bristol City v Leeds United: Redfearn focused on the here and now
Neil Redfearn refused to rule himself in or out of the running for the Leeds United manager’s job after launching his reign as caretaker with a victory over Bristol City.
Redfearn reacted to a 3-0 win at Ashton Gate by insisting he would “not look past” his immediate role, with Leeds ready to begin the process of replacing sacked boss Simon Grayson.
United claimed to have been “inundated” with applications last week, and a long list of experienced and credible candidates have been linked with the job since Grayson’s dismissal on Wednesday.
Neil Warnock, Dave Jones and Steve Bruce are among the out-of-work managers believed to have expressed an interest, and links to the post at Elland Road have forced Huddersfield Town’s Lee Clark and MK Dons’ Karl Robinson to publicly commit themselves to their current positions.
Redfearn’s prospects of serious consideration are less clear, but United’s academy coach enhanced his chances of an extended spell as caretaker by steering Leeds to a valuable Championship victory over nine-man Bristol City.
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The result was a positive response to last week’s 4-1 defeat to Birmingham City which prompted Grayson’s sacking after three years in charge, but a relaxed Redfearn insisted he would “keep doing the job until someone tells me otherwise”.
Asked if he was ready to throw his hat into the ring, the 46-year-old said: “I don’t think there’s any reason to. I’m an employee of the club and I’m here to do a job.
“They’ve asked me to be caretaker manager and I’ve not looked past that. I’m enjoying this, but the bottom line is that if I’m teeing the job up for someone else then Leeds United can benefit. If what I do means it’s good for them going forward then great.
“I’m capable, I’m qualified and I’m an experienced guy. I’ve been in the game for 30 years and you don’t get too much more experienced than that. I’ll try to make it tough for them but really I’ve got no concept of what might happen. I just want to work from week to week and see how it goes.
“Whatever happens, it’s important we’re winning and it’s important the lads are playing well, whoever’s manager or whoever comes in. It’s important, as well, that we’re up near the top of the league because this is a good club and it craves success.”
Redfearn described the 48 hours leading up to the meeting with City as a “whirlwind”, and a shortage of available backroom staff saw him employ academy goalkeeping coach Andy Leaning and experienced centre-back Andy O’Brien as his assistants at Ashton Gate.
O’Brien was short of match fitness and unavailable for selection having missed two-and-a-half months of training after a fall-out with Grayson and a subsequent battle with depression.
Redfearn revealed he held talks with a number of the club’s senior professionals in the aftermath of Grayson’s departure, attempting in his words to “keep them close” and maintain a happy camp. He also turned down the opportunity to recruit an additional coach ahead of Saturday’s fixture.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Redfearn said, “and I’ve kept a lot of the senior pros close. I had a meeting with a two or three of them, including Paddy Kisnorbo.
“Your players are everything and I need to know what they’re thinking. They need to know what I’m thinking too. It’s an unsettling time and uncertain for everyone and you need a bit of dialogue. They need to know they’re still loved, and for some people the door’s opened again. I’m not going to push anyone out.
“The club asked me if I’d like to bring someone in to help me with the coaching but I didn’t really want to. I said I’d rather work with what we’ve got.
“O’Brien’s played at the top level for a long time, Kisnorbo’s an international and we’ve got Michael Brown, Andy Lonergan and so on.
“I know full well that they’ll go back into the dressing room and feel a bit of ownership. That’s key, because once they cross the white line it’s about them performing.”
Saturday’s victory was a hard-fought affair and a game which turned on three crucial moments.
Robert Snodgrass claimed the opening goal on 40 minutes and the hosts’ attempts to salvage a result were wrecked by red cards shown to defender James Wilson and winger Yannick Bolasie either side of half-time.
Redfearn said: “It was a tough game and for half-an-hour Bristol City were excellent, the better team without a shadow of a doubt.
“We were hanging on at full tilt and they looked the part, but that half-hour was perhaps what won us the game.
“It would have been very difficult if they’d scored but we were resilient and the players can take great credit from the performance.
“They’ve responded in the right way and they’re a good bunch. They’re also tremendously talented, there’s no two ways about that.”
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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Wind direction: East
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Comments
There are 20 comments to this article
Page 1 of 2
OzTyke
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 03:44 AMGreat work Neil Redfearn! Excellent man-management skills there. A foul day for pretty football at Bristol, and this weekend with prove a sterner test.
leedsandproud
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 12:39 AMffs okay an encouraging result on saturday but it was against 9 men. i was at the game and at best we were poor. im not totally against redfearn as manager but my choice would be him as a number 2 alongside somebody like warnock to learn the trade properly not thrown in the deep end. inmo we need a manager like warnock who knows this league inside out i dont personally like the bloke but he can identify the players we need to get promoted. he will attract decent players to the club which was clearly was one of graysons fault.
Fighting the consensus
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 09:09 PMI've heard Dave Jones is fav', please God, don't let it be that miserable scouse tw@t, what he knows about football management ..........you couldn't fill all the space on a postage stamp sized piece of paper.
edgeleywhite
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 05:22 PMYou can have all the experience in the world and trophies too. But can you get a result on a cold Tuesday night away at places like Millwall? In my opinion Antic would be a complete disaster.
Bubionwhite
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 04:06 PMRaddy Antic as manager with Neil Redfern as 1st team coach until he has gained some experience. Antic would bring a mountain of knowledge, experience and contacts throughout Europe and NR could learn from this and be his eventual successor ... providing of course that they could gel.
white rainbow
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 03:35 PMI've been pushing for Warnock as our next manager, but failing that, why not give Raddy Antic a chance, at least to the end of the season. His C.V. is very impressive. he's very experienced, both with players AND chairmen, and he wants the job. We've probably got enough points already to stay up, so what is there to lose. He would certainly bring new ideas into the club, which are long overdue, and maybe he knows how to DEFEND.
isrodger
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 03:13 PMOn Saturday the Leeds United Supporters Trust is helping to facilitate the 'Campaign for change' march. The march will make it's way from Leeds City Square to Elland Road and begins at 12pm. You can see details of the route by clicking here. Again we encourage all members who support our recent vision statement to come along to the march and show support.  We would also encourage all current L.U.S.T members to help us spread the word about the meeting, march and new vision and to invite their fellow Leeds fans to become members of the Trust.
Leeds83
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 03:03 PMJust a thought. Nigel Adkins was the physio at Sc*nthorpe United before coming their caretaker, then manager, since then he was a major success at the club and has also had an excellent records with Southampton - could Redfearn do the same? Only 1 way to find outâ¦â¦.. By the sounds of it he has the players on his side. MOT!
Leeds83
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 03:01 PMPending Moderation
Liam123
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 02:47 PMAntic has signed as our new CF, not our new manager.
monkey1977
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 02:41 PMjust read an article on wikipedia saying antic just signed a contract for leeds united ! dont know how accurate it is though as in the same article it says he has an interview with bates at oulton hall
allanb78
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 02:10 PMWell done Neil Redfearn,delighted for you but,with due respect, I really believe we urgently need a proven "hands on" manager. Saturday's performance wasn't brilliant but I did seem to sense a better atmosphere of togetherness amongst the players Particularly impressed by N.R's introduction of senior players into the dugout.Strange thouhg that OB was acting as Neil's assistant;this in itself gave cause for thought.SG was adamant that OB would never again play for Leeds United and consigned him to the scrapheap.OB subsequently wecomed back into the fold and within days SG departs.Then OB invited into the dugout as the acting manager's trusted assistant.Makes you wonder at the cause of and SG's banishment of the player in the first instance and suggests that some bpersonal issues were involved.I'd love to know the truth.
monkey1977
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 12:33 PMand i love the idea of using the senior players as coaches ,especially Obrien would have gained a lot of confidence from that great man management
monkey1977
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 12:25 PMi like this guy , like his attitude ,and honestly think he is worth a shot (redfern that is) i know we all have doubts after all saturdays game finished against 9 men but his attitude , his persona and his work ethic seem spot on and i thought considering the circumstances saturday was a great result .Lets not forget he had little time with the players ,was working solo no defensive coaches no assistant no fitness coach all these went with s.g if im not mistaken!
leedsls27
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 12:24 PMI said last week I thought Redfearn should be given a shot and nothing that's happened since has changed my view. He's worked consistently with most of the current players, his record with the reserves, twice league winners, and the u18's, currently second in a league made up of all the big boys, suggests he knows how to make a team tick. He also comes across as very genuine and seems to already have a very honest relationship in place with the players that would be hard for a new body coming in to replicate from scratch. If we went down the road of Warnock with Redfean as his assistant that wouldn't be too far from the ideal situation but Warnock would undoubtedly want his own team in place and that's where I think there would be too much disruption involved, particularly if it then meant Redfearn was shown the door too. Antic is a complete non starter for me, his experience is unquestionable but I just can''t see how his c.v. and methods could possibly translate to a mid table Championship side without a pot to p in. At the other end of the scale Lee Clarke would be a complete non starter as far as I'm concerned too, he's had longer, and arguably spent far more, than Grayson and is still nowhere nearer delivering promotion than he was couple of years ago when we left udders behind and, apart from anything else, we'd probably need the assistance of a translator to decipher Clarke's observations more than we would for Antic...
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