Dickov looks on the bright side

ATHLETIC captain Dean Furman will be pulling the strings in midfield again this season.

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“I SPOKE to the chairman the other night and he told me I am the first manager under him to start three seasons,” said a smiling Paul Dickov in the league’s first pre-match press conference.

“I reminded him the season hasn’t started yet.”

Iain Dowie, Brian Talbot, Ronnie Moore, John Sheridan and Dave Penney have come and gne in the past decade, all with big ideas, all gone as disappointed as the fans who dared to dream they might make a difference.

Meanwhile, the strangling influence of declining revenues makes life incrementally tougher for Athletic as the years pass and Boundary Park gently decays.

An optimist can point to the achievements of clubs in similar financial straits — play-off makers Stevenage last season, for example as evidence that if the stars are aligned correctly, the effects of prudent management can be reflected in a league position at the top end of reasonable expectation.

Dickov points, to factors outside his control that have derailed his plans over the past two seasons.

“In the first season things were going really well... and we lost five players to mumps,” said Dickov.

“Last year, there were six, seven or eight players out at a time who would have started for us.”

“The biggest positive so far in this pre-season is that there have been no injuries.”

Dickov knows luck will again play a part in determining how well or otherwise Athletic perform. His budget is far smaller and that is reflected in a wafer-thin squad. If the team’s mainstays don’t stay fit, results will undoubtedly suffer.

“The quality is there, but it’s no secret we are light on numbers,” Dickov said.

With Athletic in a division so difficult to predict, a premium is placed on tinkering at the margins to try to win an anticipated high number of tight encounters.

“We are trying things all the time and you learn by your mistakes,” Dickov added.








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