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So, farewell then Stan "The Man" Ternent (and Sam "Pizza Face" Ellis)! The loss of Bury's most successful management team since the 1920's has come as a severe blow to Bury FC., although there was a certain air of inevitability to their departure. Ternent's strong links with Burnley - they were his first club as a player and he still lived in the town - together with a feeling that he had taken Bury as far as he could, meant that any half decent offer from the Purples was bound to have him on the X43 bus to Turd Moor as quick as you could say "Gizza Job"!
The fact that Ternent has jumped ship is an indication of what we're up against here at Gigg Lane. Let's face it, our history is liberally sprinkled with instances of managers leaving Bury to "advance their careers" with clubs in lower divisions. The highly rated Dave Russell abandoned the Super Whites many years ago to join that surging force in football, Tranmere Robbers.
Even Tom McAnearey in the late 1960's believed his CV would look better after he disappeared in a clod of dust to Aldershot (and just look what happened to them).
Bert Head (remember him?) took one look at his dismissal notice then set fire to it and used it to light a celebratory cigar as he immediately started his new job with Crystal Palace.
I suppose we have to face the fact that Bury Football Club has traditionally been seen as a "little" club, and moving up two whole divisions in as many years has not YET altered many people's perception of this. We know the club is continuing to make some advances on this front - perhaps the best example is the progress being made by Andy Feeley in his community development role. On the other hand, we've argued for years that the club needs to look even more seriously at PR and closely examine the way it markets itself top the public.
In the light of Ternent's departure and the rather unseemly clamour among certain senior players to trade in their white shirts for a fistful of dollars, maybe the club needs to look at ways of increasing its standings among the game's "professional classes" as well.