Next Newport County Manager Odds: Why the Exiles should go for Ben Garner

EFL pundit Gab Sutton explores why Newport County should opt for Ben Garner, as they look to replace Graham Coughlan in the hot-seat.

Newport County is a difficult job to recruit for.

As a club, they’ve had the most success in the last decade with passionate, driven, demanding managers in Justin Edinburgh, Michael Flynn, and to a lesser extent Graham Coughlan, supported by a core of strong characters who share their gaffer’s mentality.

When the Exiles have that, it tends to spark a special spirit in the Amber Army, Rodney Parade can come alive, and they can achieve at times well against the odds.

And yet, incoming owner Huw Jenkins will want the team to evolve in a more process-driven, stylistically idealistic direction similar to what he saw at Swansea – though some County fans might say they tried it before with James Rowberry and it didn’t pay off.

There is a balance to be struck, and the club will have to be careful that, as they look to become more aesthetically pleasing, they maintain the core ingredients that make County, County.

Firstly, it’s possible that James Clarke, Bryn Morris, Shane McLoughlin and Will Evans if he stays bring the connection with supporters, but it doesn’t necessarily all have to come from the manager.

Secondly, Newport can strike the balance by appointing a progressive coach, but somebody who also has EFL experience and therefore some ideas about how to make their principles work in practice, and not just in theory.

And that brings us to Ben Garner, who has learnt a lot from his four years as a number one.

The Kent-born boss is a talented coach with excellent reviews from his time at Crystal Palace, initially with the youth team, then as part of the backroom staff, impressing when assisting Tony Pulis again at West Bromwich Albion.

Nonetheless, Garner hasn’t quite found the right place for himself as a number one, struggling to adapt to what was an unsuited Bristol Rovers squad, initially, and then only getting 11 games into the previous campaign despite the credible return of 13 points.

His most successful stint thus far has come at Swindon, where he got a talented squad into the Play-Offs in 2021/22 after a summer of grave uncertainty that saw John McGreal leave less than a month in, arriving with just one pre-season friendly before the start of the campaign.

Garner may have seen Town’s problems coming down the line under owner Clem Morfuni, and left for Charlton, only to become one of the six different managers the Addicks have had in the last three years.

The 44-year-old inherited an imbalanced squad at the Valley, but it was around the time owner Thomas Sandgaard appointed his son, Martin, as Director of Analytics, despite having no football experience – so he was telling managers he wanted the team to play high-pressing football with the notoriously immobile Jayden Stockley up front.

It’s no wonder the South London club didn’t have much grasp of nuance, or an understanding of how to build a successful team beyond individual quality, and thus Garner was sacked in December.

Colchester enjoyed good form under Garner, after he got the job in March 2023, with the relegation strugglers losing just four in his first 12 – three of which to promotion-chasing sides – but a poor start to the following campaign meant he lost his job as early as October.

With just the one categoric hit in four EFL opportunities, Garner might seem like a tough sell from the outside.

However, he hasn’t had much time to shape his squads the way he would have liked, and despite this, his teams have shown they can deliver the odd big, 10/10 individual performance.

His Bristol Rovers side won at high-flyers Lincoln, his Swindon team once scored 11 goals without reply in a three-game period, Charlton thrashed eventual champions Plymouth Argyle 5-1 in 2022/23, while Colchester enjoyed sumptuous 4-0 and 4-1 thumpings of Crewe and Sutton.

Of course, Garner will be disappointed not to have been able to maintain those performance levels more consistently at his clubs, but the advantage of appointing him, as opposed to a talented first-time manager, is that he already has a lot of the lessons learnt.

So, when Garner presents his PowerPoint of how he will implement his ideas, it’ll be based on first-hand experience of how to do so practically, and maybe not a more naïve, fanciful perspective.

Garner hasn’t found the right club just yet, but at Newport he’d be working under an owner who understands what it takes to cultivate a style in the brutal climate of the EFL.