Lee Grant
Where do you sit with the owner right now? And what’s he saying to you?
Think I mentioned before the game, me and the owner speak every week, so we’ve had the benefit this week that I’ve been able to do that in person. We are fortunate we’ve got an owner that wants to be here as often as he can be, and that’s good for me, because you get straight to the heart of where you need to be, particularly when you’re face to face. If not, we do it over a Zoom call or whatever. Anyway, it’s been good.
Look, me and the owner have spent some time together this week. As you said, we’ve done one or two [events] bits, but we’ve also done that privately, and we’ve done that along with our coaching staff. So normal procedure, but it’s important that we’re able to do that, and important for me as well, to really get a grasp of where the owner’s at and what we can do.
He’s very always searching for what we can do to improve, what can we do to help, and as I say, this week’s been no different than normal in that he’s he’s very much searching from me and for me: ‘how can I help you, Lee? What can we do to support you? How can we help these players? Have we considered this or that?’
So those conversations have been good for me, because I always come away from those conversations, whether it be the owner or Jake [Edwards], with another perspective. That’s important for me to make sure that I’m taking in as much information as I can to make good decisions for the football club.
So it’s not a case of you feel that you have to re-convince the owner that you’re still on the right path. Do you feel that you’re getting the confidence in the owner to continue on this path?
Yeah, very much so. I mean, look, the owner’s made some smart decisions in his career to this point, across various different businesses and ventures. Now, my belief is the owner’s made another good decision in terms of the direction that we’re moving this football club in.
What we’ve got to make sure we’re doing right now is trending in the right direction, and currently, our form tells us that we’re out of form, and three defeats is not the direction we want to be heading in, certainly not the direction that myself or the owner want the football club pointing in.
So it’s important we turn that around and again, as I said, for me and for the owner, we’re searching for everything we can do to make sure we’re giving the players the best opportunity. And of course, the owner, he’s always searching for those areas, where is he giving me the best opportunity?
Obviously, there’s no barriers for me and to my work. The owner has given me continued support and the guidance needed. So for me, yeah, look, the relationship’s been been a real big help to me, particularly over the last few weeks, I have to say.
You talked on Saturday about the senior players needing to step up and provide that leadership on the pitch. Have you spoken to your leadership group and asked them to step up to that mark?
Very much so. Very much so. And what’s nice for me as well is I have had one or two those come to me as well, individually, which has been good, which has been good.
You get a real sense when, when you’re on the phone to one of your players for half an hour, or when you sit face to face with one of them for 25 minutes, half an hour, 45 minutes — which I’ve done lots of this week — you get to take the temperature of the group. You get a real sense of the things that are concerning them, or where they want to be, or what they feel like maybe contributing, and that’s been a real help for me.
Look, I do a lot of that anyway, because I value that a lot. I like to be close to the players. I like to understand what’s going on with them. But it’s been important for me to hear some of those things this week, because they’re hurting as well. That’s pretty clear. That’s been pretty evident for me after speaking to three, four or five of them this week, that they’re hurting. They actually feel like they’re letting the football club down right now.
So look, great, because you’ve got a group that are disappointed and angry and want to be better for the football club, and feel the responsibility of that, and they’re also aware that we’ve got a spectrum within our group as well. We’ve not just got 25 senior leaders in there that are hardened and been there and seen it and done it. We’ve also got some guys that are in and around a club of this size with this level of expectation for the first time.
So it’s interesting for me as well to hear the thoughts and views from some of the senior boys on how do we help some of those guys, and how do we how do we pull them to where they need to be? And that’s been good.
I reiterate the important part of that is it’s nice that some of those lads are coming to me and really expressing their frustrations, and how they feel like they want to do better for the club, and they’re disappointed for the supporters. And yeah, they feel like they are responding…great, great, but come on, let’s go.
You talked on Saturday about the players needing to absorb information they in this part of their learning. How much have you seen this week to suggest that information has seeped into where it needs to seep in ahead of this game?
On Monday, you can see the group that’s hurting and you can see the group that is disappointed and frustrated, the same as I was, so important that we are and have been able to pick them up, first and foremost, but then really focus in on how do we take the learning?
Let’s not let’s not pay lip service to this. How do we take the learning? How do we apply the lessons we’ve learned, because we’ve learned some harsh lessons over the last five or six weeks in particular
Look, we’ve learned lessons from day one against Leyton Orient to the point where we are now.
But the real harsh lessons have to sink in, and that and the work that we produce during the week — which has been exceptional for the last three or four weeks, I really have to say, and I’ve had no no complaints with how the group are applying themselves — we really need to see the fruits of that, because we owe it to the supporters in the football club to make sure that we produce our best level more often.
