Steve Holland's First Day

Steve Holland begins his role as 'First Team Coach' as of today, with Dario Gradi becoming 'Technical Director'.

There has been much confusion on how things will work as of today, with many parts of the national media believing at first that Dario has cut all ties with the club. We'll try to clear things up with VitalCrewe's interpretation of events.

Steve Holland, the Academy Director and long term 'heir to the throne', will take up a role as 'First Team Coach' whilst keeping his Academy Director's job. His role as First Team Coach will include picking the match day squad, working on match tactics and taking a good portion of the training sessions. Holland will also have a say on which players the club should be looking at bringing in, a 'power' he's already used this summer with the signings of McCready and Schumacher.

Dario's job meanwhile will be to overlook the whole footballing side of the business. Holland answers to Dario, as Dario answers to the Board of Directors. Dario will also oversee the Youth Academy a lot more, taking more training sessions with the younger players. As well as this Dario will be the one to conduct transfer dealings with John Bowler, Bowler being the business mind and Dario being the football mind.

Dario & Holland, whilst having their own roles, will still work closely together. Most decisions will undoubtedly be discussed between themselves, including assistant manager Neil Baker and Dario will probably have an influence on Holland's final decision, who wouldn't listen to the football genius?

For much of next season we'll probably see as much of Dario as we will of Holland but in the long term we can expect Dario to slowly fade into the background running of the club. In fact, the day Steve Holland is named 'manager' will probably go un-noticed in a year's, 2 years, 5 years time. This 'First Team Coach' & 'Technical Director' approach is probably no more than a cushion to fall back on should Holland's effect not be positive. What better way to sack him than to say he was never manager anyway?

But July 1st 2007 marks a significant day in the history of the club. Whilst Dario will still be, on official papers or what not, 'manager', we'll start to see the first change at the top for 24 years.

Whilst today won't hold much in store for Holland, it being a day of rest and all, tomorrow will be the first full day back for the squad as they prepare for the new season.

Holland's credentials and influence so far have proven good and I believe we'll see some good times with him guiding the team. He's a very talented man, and with football changing so much since Dario's first few years, what are the odds of him being pinched from us like so many of our players?

I say we'll have to enjoy him whilst we've got him.