Ash

I hung out with Ashley Bosah once, away from the football. He came to the Ramble with coaches Dan and Dwight, and his fiancé and hung out with a few of the support and I. I’m not really sure who organised it, or even why. We didn’t really talk too much about the team or anything. There was a bit of chat about SLiBaW and then we all just shot the breeze for an hour. I spoke to Mrs Bosah for a while too. It was a nice evening in the pub.

A big difference between being manager of Tooting and Mitcham United and being manager of Liverpool Football Club, for example, is me. Or maybe you. It’s a pint or two at the Ramble Inn. It’s that if you’re manager of Tooting and Mitcham United, you’re likely at some point, whether on purpose or by accident, to break bread with the support. You aren’t if you’re the manager of Liverpool.

Now I’m not claiming that I personally know Ashley Bosah particularly well off the back of this pint, this broken bread, but what I know of him I like a great deal. And it’s in that context that I greet the news of his decision to step down as first team manager at Tooting. I think it’s gutting.

Of course it is. It’s gutting that Ash has decided to step down. I’m not saying that it isn’t the right decision, because I’m sure that it is. It’s gutting because it means that things haven’t figured out like everyone wanted them to.

I wanted Ashley Bosah to lead Tooting to promotion out of Step 4. I wanted us to return to the kind of football and form that Ash- alongside Cornelius- introduced in the halcyon days before Covid. I wanted that promise to come to fruition. The last game before the abandonment of the league in 2020. Dorking, Margate. The Senior Cup win. All that potential that inexplicably (or explicably, dependent on your view) collapsed over the summer of 2021 and led to two seasons which have reached their now seemingly inevitable conclusion- a relegation to Step 5 and Ash stepping aside from his first team role and focussing on the academy and younger sides.

As with Cornelius when he left the club, Ashley’s contribution doesn’t require examination by me. The first team were going brilliantly pre-covid. We won the London Senior Cup. Ashley has been responsible for the development of individuals who now have full-time careers in the game. Isaiah, Sam Folarin, Saidou, Hady Ghandour, Ibby Odoh. We’ll see DMG in the full time game soon I’ll wager. No-one will forget Raees Bangura-Williams’ breakthrough performances in trying circumstances and when he’s playing league football in the next couple of years, we’ll know who gave him his start in men’s football.

I have a two year old daughter whose contrary ways include (but are not limited to) only napping when in motion. Hence you’ll find me most lunchtimes walking laps of Figges Marsh with a buggy or, in emergencies, driving around with her in the back of the car. I was on such a trip pretty recently and had been to that drive through Costa coffee at Croydon and was looking for somewhere to park up and sup my purchase.

I arrived at Imperial Fields. I have done that a fair bit, because sometimes you arrive in the afternoon and the Shak’s open and, well, you know the rest. Alas the Shak was shut, but as Rowan napped I was able to sup my brew and watch the academy lads train on the front pitch. As their session ended, the hooded figure of Ashley Bosah left the pitch and sat down with a young fella who’d been watching the session longer than I had. They sat together for 10 or 15 minutes, clearly deep in conversation. I have no idea what they were talking about, but it would be reasonable to assume they were chatting about football. As far as I could ascertain, this young man had come along to a training session for a team he wasn’t involved in just to spend some time in the company and wisdom of our newly-former manager.

Ash means a lot to those young men. As news filters across various social media channels that he’s stepped down, lads we recognise are showing their appreciation of him and for the work he did with them. In much the same way as Cornelius’ departure was felt by the young charges who came through the club’s system, Ash is getting the love he obviously deserves. It’s great to see.

Maybe giving young men their starts will be Ashley’s first team legacy. For enhancing the club’s reputation as a production line of talented lads who try to play football in a way that Ashford, for example, don’t.

None of this will be a balm to the pain of relegation to Step 5, of course. And, it would be churlish to suggest that all the support will be disappointed to see Ashley step down. It’s a results business™️ etc etc. Ashley himself doesn’t mention the relegation as his motivation to step aside from his first team role, citing family commitments as the more pressing matter in his decision. And one must also note that it appears to be his decision, with nothing from the decision-makers at the club on his stepping down.

There’s no sense in speculating about the whys and whos. We know what we know- that Ashley is no longer first team manager. That we all had hoped for better- for the first team’s sake and his own.

We look forward now to what we hope might be the ideal outcome for all parties- that Ash continues to provide special talent from the younger sides for the first team, whilst supporting the next manager of the first team, as Technical Director, as we bid to get out of Step 5.

I’m delighted to see him continue at the club. I’m very aware of the club’s first team being the priority for the majority of supporters, which is a position I absolutely understand. If Tooting were pushing for promotion into the National League South next season, instead of pushing for promotion back to Step 4, it’s fair to say the progress made by that years academy scholars wouldn’t feel particularly interesting. The focus would be on the success of the first team. But equally, I’m not going to ignore the broader aims of the football club- educating young men, giving them access to role models, getting them on in football and, crucially, their lives. Ashley Bosah will remain integral to that and I think it should be something the club and we, the supporters, should allow ourselves a bit of pride in.

I wish Ash all the best in both his future at the club and in his personal life and hope that the free time he finds on a Saturday afternoon will be enriching in regards to the latter. By extension, to any of the coaches that may move on under the stewardship of the next manager, all the best to them too. Dan, Bruno, Myles, the lot of them. Good people who had time for us in the stands.

As for the team, the Bog End waits to see who arrives. I hope they bring their dinner.

📸 by Daniel Yankah