Brad Galinson’s introduction to Football Club ownership had a dream start but over the last couple of months, Gillingham’s American owner has seen the other side of the game as well as he had to “fire and hire” for the first time. 

We have been talking to the Gills Chairman about the last six weeks or so as the Club first lost a manager, searched for a new one and appointed the man that everyone at Priestfield hopes will push the Club forward with Saturday’s 3-1 win over Salford City the dream start in the new Head Coach’s first home League game… 

“It was a tough time,” the Chairman admitted. “When we started in December of last year, we just kept winning and it was all good news!” 

“But it’s football, and the part of football that everybody warned me about, but I did not believe it – until now! There’s a saying in America that you don’t know your true character until you reach some sort of abyss of failure, and now we’ve had to dig deep and we have Stephen and Robbie here and hopefully we’ll be able to pull out thanks to the talent that we have – we all have to move on and work together as it is still reasonably early in the season.”

“We have a lot of talent on the pitch and so if the guys can harness that and work together… right now I think that they’re individually doing things on the pitch, but there’s not yet a team expectation on what they’re supposed to do and where they’re supposed to go, but it will come, I’m sure!” 

We then spoke about Neil Harris’ sudden departure – “It was really tough!” Mr Galinson admitted. “Neil and I still talk regularly – I think there is no hard feelings – I think it was a surprise to him and yes it was very difficult!”

“Normally when you get rid of a manager there’s either a reason or an event or ill-feelings, but in this case, it was quite the opposite.”

“As I said, I am still quite fond of him and we speak quite often – it was one of those things where the team was and where the team wanted to go, it just needed a change.” 

“In hindsight, I would still do it the same way as there was two ways, we could have done things. One way was behind Neil’s back before we told him and before we had an honest gentleman’s conversation, we spent a few weeks behind the scenes trying to work out who would take his place and then spring it on him, although he probably would have found out anyway!”

“The other way to do was to be a gentleman about it and be honest about it, to tell him first why and then proceed with finding his replacement.” 

“I don’t know if there was a good way or not, but we certainly lost a few weeks, but Keith (Millen) was fantastic to stabilise things – I didn’t want to do it the other way as I wanted to respect Neil as a man and everything he did for the Club, so I felt that the “cost” of a few weeks was worth the reputation and the honesty with him.” 

“Stephen has been raring to go in a managers chair for a while – his pedigree as a player under Steve Bruce and the level he’s managed and been under was quite impressive.”

“We looked at a few people which is good, and we owed it to the Club, but the people interviewing – Kenny (Jackett), Hess (Andy Hessenthaler) and myself – got to learn a lot as you hear from different people as to how they view the Club and how they view coaching.”

“Stephen had a couple of characteristics that are unique to him that I felt fit our Club and was someone that I wanted to manage our Club – he had some terrific ideas on how to play the game, but it was not tied to a single formation as the only way to play.”

“He’s the hardest working guy I have seen – he’s the first to arrive and last to leave and he’s players first and not manager first. Culturally, everything fitted and he was the right guy for us.” 

“There’s a couple of differences that I have noticed already – within the Club there’s more of an open door “I’m always there” with players going in and coming out regularly, as Robbie and Steve sit together in the same office which was the first thing he did.”

“And I think that the players are very excited to be unleashed – we have a good squad and I think that the young ones and the more experienced ones are excited to figure it out together to do what they love to do which is to play football.” 

“I can confirm that Keith (Millen) is still here – he’s gone back to being our coach of coaches, specifically taking control of the “B” team which he did before.”

“He very much came in stabilised and is now happily back doing what he was doing. He said from the beginning he would do whatever we needed for as long as we needed, but please do not consider me for anything permanently. He really is happy doing what he was hired to do!”