PARKY HAS A CHRIS OF LIFE
PHIL Parkinson insists Altrincham will be a stronger side – even with the loss of talismanic top-scorer Chris ConnClarke.
The skilful Northern Irishman scored 22 goals from an attacking midfield role as Alty finished fourth before losing to Bromley in the play-offs.
Subsequently named National League Player of the Year, Conn-Clarke was then signed by Peterborough for a club record fee of £350,000.
His departure left Parkinson with an almighty hole to fill, but the former Nantwich boss says the signings of Hartlepool midfielder Tom Crawford, Colne winger Lucas Weaver and Oldham forward Joe Nuttall will make Alty a better all-round outfit.
“We’ve always had players like Chris at Altrincham,” says Parkinson, below, who has overseen two promotions since taking charge at Moss Lane in 2017.
“Before him we had Ryan Colclough. Before that we had Jordan Hulme. All of them had that X-factor, that bit of brilliance.
Risks
“Truth be told, we weren’t banking on Chris doing that for us. He was still developing, and it could have gone either way, but he showed enough for me to be able to build a team around him.
“The reason he did so well is obviously his undeniable quality, but also because he had team-mates who made up for a lot of his deficiencies.
“That’s where I feel we’ve bridged a bit of a gap this summer.
“You never want to lose a player like Chris and we’re obviously going to miss his goal contributions.
“But the way that I’d set the team up was all geared towards him scoring and creating. We evolved into a transitional team, a counter-attacking team who took more risks. I still want to keep an element of that but everything we’ve ever done has been built on being strong in possession and we want to get back to being more consistent and controlled.
“We’ll have a different way of doing things now and I do truly feel we’ll be a better all-round team for the players we’ve signed, the experience we’ve gained and the tweaks that we’ve made.”
Continuity
Altrincham defied a modest budget to finish fourth last term, their highest finish in almost 30 years. It may prove a tough act to follow, but Parkinson isn’t worrying about unrealistic expectations. “You’ve got to embrace it, haven’t you?” he says. “If you don’t then you worry about it and that can consume you. “It obviously has the potential to be a bit of a negative. If things don’t go right, it will be ‘Well, you’re not as good as last year, you’re missing Chris ConnClarke, etc’.
“But the fact is, Altrincham overachieved last year and we’re probably at a level now where some people expect us to be in and around the play-offs.
“Is that a realistic expectation for Altrincham every season? Probably not in terms of the size of the club and the finances. But we’re moving in that direction, so it’s not something I’d push away from and I’d never say that we don’t have ambitions of getting promoted.
“For that to happen we’ve got to get everything right and we’ve got to have a bit of luck. We haven’t got a big squad like some teams in this division but if we can get that little bit of continuity and stay injury free then we’ve got a chance.”