"Did not look like he wanted to be there" - Simon Rusk's stint as Stockport County manager slammed | OneFootball

A new dawn at Edgeley Park saw the decision-makers install a left-field pick in the dugout

Stockport County have had their fair share of questionable managers, predominately coming during their drop to the sixth tier.

But the Hatters’ rise back up to League One has not been without its own hiccups.

That includes the appointment of Simon Rusk as their head coach, with his short stint as boss in 2021 going down as an abject failure.

Stockport fan explains where Simon Rusk’s tenure went wrong

We asked our Stockport Fan Pundit, James Crop, for his view on the worst manager to ever take charge at Edgeley Park.

His pick comes from County’s rise up through the divisions, when the club’s new owners were attempting to put their stamp on the club, which saw Rusk arrive as a very modern, highly thought-of coach - it didn't last long or end well however.

Speaking to Football League World, James said: “I’m definitely going to go with a recent pick again in Simon Rusk, who managed us for a bit in the National League.

“And, I think, the reason it went wrong was because he’d obviously taken over from the legend Jim Gannon, who’d just got us promoted from the National League North.

“So, he really had to have something special about him, and he just didn't really conduct himself in the way that you'd expect from a manager.

“We took him out of the Brighton Under-23s management, and he’d had no prior managerial experience.

“At first, it looked like he was going to do quite well. He joined in January 2021, and even went on an 18-match unbeaten run in the National League, but the start of the next season really showed the kind of manager that he was.

“It was just, we were performing absolutely dreadfully, and he really didn't conduct himself in the way you’d expect.

“His interviews were not great, and, it's quite difficult to explain, because he's probably a better manager tactically than some of the managers we've previously had, but he's just really not a very good man-manager, and it showed because the players didn't look like they wanted to be there and he didn't look like he wanted to be there towards the end."

Simon Rusk had a difficult job on his hands with Stockport County

As James states, the County job was Rusk’s first managerial experience at the senior level, which meant more responsibilities dealing with the press and fans than he’d been used to in his academy-level previous gigs.

He also had the thankless task of taking over a club legend in Jim Gannon, who is still widely regarded at the club and whose sacking many fans disagreed with at the time.

Gannon was the manager inherited when Mark Stott took over the club and installed director of football Simon Wilson - with a boss in Gannon who was used to having a strong steer over talent identification and signings.

It was clear Stott wanted his own man in charge, and Rusk was who he opted for.

But County at that time were a difficult club, one adjusting to having funds, expectations increasing and coping with a fanbase that, rightly, felt they were well below the level a club like County should be at.

It was a gig that needed an experienced operator to move the club forward and, following Rusk’s reign, they finally found that man in Dave Challinor.

Rusk has since gone on to coaching roles at Premier League clubs and has been involved in the England youth setup, so is clearly no slouch in the coaching world — but it seems it was simply a case of the wrong job, for the wrong man, at the wrong time.