“What we’re doing is working,” Cheltenham Town captain Sean Long on Wade Elliott’s step up to management
When asked about how his new manager Wade Elliott’s step up to management was going, following Michael Duff’s departure to Barnsley in the summer, Sean Long put together a great answer.
When discussing the former Bournemouth, Burnley, and Birmingham City midfielder, Elliott, with the group, he told us, “I don’t think it needed to change a lot, obviously he has his own stamp and his own ideas, but we had a good bit of success in the past couple of seasons, so what we’re doing is working. And it’s probably just adding to that now.”
I got the chance to speak to Long, the current Cheltenham Town Captain, earlier this month as part of a collective of trainee sports journalists.
To start the affair, Long was asked on his thoughts of the sudden retirement of his teammate, Matty Blair, and the overwhelming amount of praise of his character on and off the pitch.
The Irishman answered with “I think you’ve probably seen it everywhere now how nice of a person he is...Obviously on the pitch he drove standards.” He finished on the topic by telling us he’d be a massive miss in and around the changing room.
One of my fellow journalists asked Long what, after last season’s survival, the team would be looking to do in this campaign, to which he answered, “You look at the teams and the money in the league now...For me personally, I think it will be a big achievement to stay in the league again.”
On the potential of a senior Ireland call-up, having spent time in the youth teams earlier in his career, the 27 year old revealed to us, “I think if you look at the Ireland squad now, there’s a lot of players playing in League One and lower down the league’s so there’s a massive opportunity there to get a call up.”
He then went into his time in the 21’s and lower, telling us that the honour to represent his country at any level was a massive achievement, before finishing with “It’s probably up there with one of the highlights of my career.”
Of course, with it being a nationwide story, the Robins’ captain was bound to be asked about their 7-0 defeat to Exeter in the Carabao Cup, and their subsequent win in the league less than two weeks later.
He told the group that “I think it was good playing them so close after that game...We could give a good account of ourselves and show Exeter what we were really about.”
Long then went on to say “It was hard to take, all the lads were down and disappointed, upset, but we all stuck together, stuck to the process, went again, came in, trained, worked hard and luckily enough ended up beating them in the league.”
To finish up, the defender was asked about his future plans in and out of football, first the prospect of playing abroad.
He started off with a joke, “I think the language barrier would be difficult for me, people can barely understand me speaking in English.” Before revealing his aspiration to finish his career in Ireland, to be back home with his family.
After he’s hung up his boots, Long’s certainly got a plan, “I’ve got my badges done up to a point, I need to get my (UEFA) A (License), I’m doing a degree as well, just to give me options when I finish playing.”