Maidstone United head coach Hakan Hayrettin speaks about his appearance on BT Sport documentary The Gaffer
Published: 06:00, 20 August 2019
Maidstone duo Hakan Hayrettin and John Still joined the list of football managers to have starred in fly-on-the-wall documentaries when they appeared on BT Sport's The Gaffer last week.
The pair featured along with Craig Hignett (Hartlepool), Ben Strevens (Eastleigh), Neil Smith (Bromley) and Simon Weaver (Harrogate), as TV cameras followed the progress of each club.
They didn't hold back as United hurtled towards relegation and probably could have filled an hour on their own.
The first glimpse of Hayrettin saw him cursing Blair Turgott's missed penalty against Barnet while cameras also followed him to the chip shop he owns in London as well as a visit to his mum's house.
Maidstone's head coach enjoyed the experience.
"I was trying to be as honest as possible," said Hayrettin.
"The one thing I can tell you now is last year I felt the squad of players we had didn't have empathy for the badge. I think this year we have.
"I tried to be honest, I tried to come across in that manner, I tried to tell them how it is.
"If you can’t do the job then don’t do the job.
"We’re cut out to do the job, that’s why we do it and other people can’t.
"Other people take youth-team jobs and academy jobs where we’re at the front line, because the fish always stinks from the head down, doesn’t it?
"I knew the microphone was there. I was in control of what I was saying, especially when Blair missed the penalty!
"I’ll be honest, I had some people from BT text me and phone me and say that out of everybody that was on the programme they thought I was the most sincere, the most honest and came across well.
"I said, ‘if you’ve got a spin-off, give me a shout!"
The most famous fly-on-the-wall remains Channel 4's An Impossible Job, which followed the late Graham Taylor during England's doomed 1994 World Cup qualifying campaign.
Peter Reid provided plenty of entertainment in Premier Passions, which charted Sunderland's relegation from the Premier League in 1997, as did Barry Fry in There's One Barry Fry, as Peterborough went down under the colourful ex-Maidstone boss.
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Craig Tucker