Lee Grant
Any new injury concerns from the weekend?
No, I think we’ve come through unscathed, so we’ll have a fit and available squad to choose from, which is obviously helpful. We want to make sure we get the balance right of selecting the team that we think can really go and help us progress.
Anyone close to being back in contention?
No, I think we’re as we were.
Jack Whatmough is progressing nicely. Obviously Antony [Evans] and Mickel [Miller], we know the news on those pair. Marcus McGuane is still working his way back through. Herbie [Kane] is doing OK — it’s nice to see Herbie running as well this week.
Does it being a knockout game affect your approach in terms of rotation?
For most part, [the Vertu Trophy] it’s been really good in terms of being able to give some air time to some of the group that perhaps haven’t had as much as they would have liked in the weeks leading up to those cup games.
That’s been important for us, and we’ve also got to be mindful of the group that worked incredibly hard to get us to this point in this competition as well.
We have to balance all areas, really — and of course, the most important area that we’re trying to balance is our desire to progress in the competition.
So like I say, we will be fortunate that we’ll have some decisions to make, which is good. But as I said, we’ve really with an eye on going to Lincoln and really giving them a tough evening and progressing into the next part of the competition.
Chris Markham has arrived as sporting director. Just want to get your thoughts on how you see working with each other?
Firstly, really excited, and secondly, relieved, I’ve got to say, because I’ve got a big neon sign outside my office now with an arrow pointing towards Chris’s door rather than mine, so there’s a lot of stuff heading in his direction that thankfully is no longer landing at my doorstep!
But, no in general, I’ve known Chris for a little while, we have some mutual friends within the game. His record at the FA I really liked, his work and his attitude and his outlook from his time at Bolton, I was a fan of.
I worked really closely with one of the analysts that worked under him at Bolton, who then came to Ipswich, and was my right-hand man to some extent at Ipswich, and he’s one of the finest analysts I’ve worked with.
So I think he’s really capable and he’s got the sort of experience that we need in terms of being able to hit the ground running and understanding of the division and an understanding of the landscape that we’re in — that’s incredibly helpful, for me.
I think the biggest part of it is a real a real alignment around ideas and how we see the game. He’s young. He thinks how I think. He wants to work hard and be dynamic, and he’s seen the same process and understands the process that I like to work with and around and in, and is really keen to drive that as well for me.
So it’s just a really good fit, if I’m being honest. In all honesty, I have a limited knowledge of the technical director/sporting director world, but that doesn’t mean I had no knowledge. The knowledge that I had was centred around people that I worked with in the past and contacts that I have in the game, and if I’d have had to have picked the attributes I would have liked for someone to come and work alongside me, it’s all the bits that Chris is offering and can offer me.
So I’m really pleased that we’ve got that one over the line. And as I say, he’s in and he’s working, and he’s got his head down already, which is great.
I think with a sporting director or a director of football, transfers is obviously the thing that everyone always talks about. But there’s more to it behind the scenes, isn’t there? I appreciate it’s very early days, maybe a little bit of finding where you’re at with each other, but what are the things that potentially Chris can can take off your plate?
Operationally, definitely. This is a big football club, and I’m really proud to be the manager of it.
My role as manager encompasses everything, and means that I have to be across everything: players coming in, players going out, the full spectrum — staff, staffing, medical, sports science, recruitment, the whole nine yards — trying to laser in on the bits that really where I can get the biggest bang for my buck and devote as much time as possible to the bits that I really love and really care about.
That’s actually one of Chris’s jobs, being able to help me do that better, and I think he’s got really good experience of that. So being able to put the blinkers on to me when perhaps he needs to, to keep my energy and attention focus where it needs to be — tat’s something that I know that he’s already working away on doing.
At a club of this size there’s lots that’s going on that I know that Chris has got really good experience of — so yeah, it’s a big, big help.
And presumably, with his background in analytics, he’s another voice that you can go to potentially, isn’t he, if you need him?
Yeah, 100%.
So look for me, as I said, I work extensively around data and analysis — my analysis department is an extension of my coaching department, and Chris is obviously came through in that world.
So we see things very, very similar around that, and that’s a real big help to me in terms of how we continue to shape and grow those departments, and the connection between recruitment and analysis and and technical and medical and sports science. As I say, that’s really invaluable to me.
