Phil Brown on 'unorthodox' way Swindon Town was run

Following the surprise exit of David Flitcroft halfway through his first season at Swindon, with the club battling for the playoffs, to Mansfield Town, Brown took over with around six weeks to go in the season.

The former Hull City manager could not manage to get Swindon over the line, and then he left in November of the following season, surprisingly straight after a win over York City in the FA Cup, to be replaced by Richie Wellens.

Across 32 games in charge, Brown had a 31 per cent win ratio, placing him between Dave Mackay and Andy King in Swindon’s all-time standings.

Asked by The Adver when he was speaking to OLBG, Brown revealed what made his time at Swindon very different from the other clubs he has worked at.

He said: “It was a massive challenge, to be fair. You walk into a club like Swindon Town and straight away - I always do what’s called a scratch-and-sniff exercise. You walk around the football club. You go to an interview process, but I don’t want to sit in the boardroom and be interviewed. I want to go in the manager’s office, I want to go on the pitch. I want to go in the boardroom, but I also want to sit where the supporters sit, I want to go in the lounges to see what it’s all about.

“Getting to know what the club was all about was a key factor - understanding the pressures of what Lee Power wanted from the football club and how he was setting out to get it. It wasn’t orthodox by any stretch of the imagination. He was a wheeler-dealer, and I really wished he had wheeled and dealt a little bit closer to home.

“What I mean by that is, the players I was wanting to bring into the football club were readily available, and he wasn’t readily available to bring them in. He had his own scouting network, he had his own opinion about players. That’s all well and good, but at the end of the day, why bring a manager in with a backroom staff and an infrastructure that was going to rebuild - and then not bring my players into the football club? We quite often reached an impasse where that was concerned - his understanding of the game, my understanding of the game.

Phil Brown speaks to the Swindon Town press (Image: Adver Archive)

“After nine months, he felt as if it wasn’t going to work, and that was it. I’d won two out of the previous three games, including an FA Cup game that got us to the next round, and when I got the phone call I was surprised, to say the least. But at the end of the day, that’s football. That’s the life we lead. If you don’t get on with the owner - they’re the boss. They’re the ones that pull the plug, they’re the ones that have the ultimate opinion, and that’s what you’ve got to deal with as a manager.”

Whilst his own time at Swindon did not go as he would have liked, Brown still has an affinity with the club, as he still lives fairly locally.

The former Hull City manager said that he would love to see Ian Holloway create success at the club and bring them back up the leagues.

He said: “When you go to Swindon, it’s a massive club, and one that shouldn’t be in the lower reaches of English football, but it is. Circumstances - you can call it mismanagement over the years, but that’s not mismanagement at a football level, that’s mismanagement at board level.

Phil Brown leads Swindon Town training (Image: Adver Archive)

“I think Clem [Morfuni], there’s no doubt in my mind, is talking the right language, talking the right words. He brings in a manager like Ian Holloway, who’s got a wealth of experience - a lot more than me, a lot more than most managers - and it doesn’t matter what level, he just wanted to come in and do a job and grab a hold of it. He’s now realising this year how big that football club is, how difficult the football club is, because the supporters do expect.

“When I took over, I realised very, very quickly how big the football club is. You see Glenn Hoddle on the wall - and he was player-manager, so he played for Swindon as well as managing them. They’ve had some great managers in the history of the club. And when I lost my position, I was really disappointed. I still live in the area, so if I haven’t got a game at the weekend, I’ll go down and watch them as a punter, as a supporter, because I want to see them do well. There are not many managers can say that.

“Swindon is a massive club, and I really do wish them well. I’d love to see Ollie win the title, because they’re a big enough club to win the title this year. But you never know - it’s really difficult when you’re under pressure straight away from the get-go.”