Sutton's 'Special One' Paul Doswell - the manager with greater say over his future than Arsene Wenger

James Benge20 February 2017

Nothing is more elusive for a football manager than job security. Sutton United boss Paul Doswell has found an elegant solution to that problem… put a million pounds of his own money into the club.

Gander Green Lane, or as the ground is to be known from next season the Knights’ Community Stadium, is unquestionably the house Doswell built. Right down to the 3G pitch that provided so many difficulties to Leeds in the fourth round and, Sutton hope, will do the same for Arsenal on Monday night.

There is more to what Sutton and Doswell have achieved than a weather-proof pitch though. When the Hampshire property developer/National League manager discusses his hopes for the fourth round tie – and what he has achieved so far in South London – he is not dreaming of a tilt at League Two or getting in a few more ex-Arsenal players, but creating a footballing community. And fixing the boiler.

“My job and my family and football are the three things that keep me going,” Doswell told Standard Sport in his pre-match press conference. “All of us sometimes get those in the wrong order: it’s normally football, family and work.

“But then you watch my kids run onto the pitch after the Leeds game. That’s priceless. That’s the most important thing to me.

“Going into League Two or League One holds no enthusiasm for me. I’ve got a very, very good company I need to run, we employ over 100 people. I’m not a CV manager, I have no interest in going to any league club. The National League is the holy grail for us.

“If we get through the playoffs – and League One and League Two let us play with our pitch - I’ll stay. But we’d still be Tuesdays, Thursdays. Maybe Mondays but I won’t be here.”

Doswell’s pride comes not from the cup run, but from what the cup run brings the Sutton community. He talks passionately about how the 3G pitch has brought youngsters to the club, he is vindicated in his pre-match training session. There half the ground is given over to the first team warm-up whilst across the halfway line a group of under-10 girls go through their half-term training drills.

An army of 30 volunteers makes this club tick, from the press officer who has taken four days annual leave to handle a cup run that has made Sutton the biggest story in football to even the chairman, Bruce Elliott.

Sutton United in training ahead of Arsenal FA Cup tie

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“I think he's quite unique,” Elliott says. “He's been here nine years, he and I have got an unbelievable working relationship. At one of the earlier rounds when we had some hospitality, I introduced him as 'The Special One' and everybody laughed, but I think it's actually a very fair description.

“He's Sutton through and through. Nine years ago when he appointed us as his club - that's my take on the interview process that happened - I think he's bought into what we've been trying to do here and he's been just an integral part of it. Obviously the icing on the cake was offering to lend this club the money to lay this fabulous 3G pitch.”

About that pitch. Sutton are evangelic over its benefits and their players are stinging in their criticism of the “boggy” ground they have faced at clubs like Solihull Moors in recent months.

Sutton don’t pay Doswell a wage but ahead of the third round the manager had said that if he drew a Manchester United or an Arsenal he was expecting the 3G money back.

“Well, I don't know about that,” Elliot grins. “The loan that Paul very kindly gave us to enable this to be a community club, which is what the 3G has done, is a 10-year plan. The board of directors will sit down and we'll discuss with Paul what he wants to do.

“Obviously, that 10-year plan is going to be shortened somewhat I suspect by the Cup run. It'll be by agreement with Paul but that's the arrangement we have between us.”

Such is the investment Doswell has put in the club, both financial and emotional, it would be reasonable to assume that he has a job for life?

Elliot says: “He will be here for as long as he wants to be here. He has totally bought into the club, as I say.

“He said to me: 'You'll never need to sack me as I shall know when it's time to go.' I don't think he'll ever, ever leave his connections with this football club because he loves it.”

For once come Monday night Arsene Wenger might meet a manager with greater job security than he, the man who built the modern Arsenal trumped by the man who built Sutton United.

But Doswell’s boss has at least spotted one difference: “I think Arsene Wenger gets paid doesn't he?”

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