Stewart
Hope you've had an enjoyable Bank Holiday Stewart, and I'll gladly have a stab at your two questions
1.That money saved will be of more use to us now, being put towards recruiting for next season. Quite who we could have got in willing to join a struggling team at the wrong end of the National League is debatable, but in any case even with injuries to key personnel such as the Captain, to important team members such as Dan Sparkes, taking into account compassionate leave that deprived us of Shaun Harrod’s experience up front, we still had players capable, as has been proven, of a 17th place finish.
'It’s looking desperate, we need more players, if we don’t get them things might get so bad that we’ll have to put Jordan Lee in the starting line up'!. Throwing money (particularly when we didn’t have much of it coming in) isn’t the only solution…. although predictably, it’s the first one that fans call for. Take away that option and instead you have to coach and motivate Jordan Lee instead, i.e adapt a different management solution rather than ask the Chairman to purchase a solution for you off the shelf. And to his immense credit Kev did succeed in doing that, and what fine performances Jordan was capable of, without the need to spend on bringing in an additional player who might not even have done as well as the Bournemouth youngster.
As Clarke said in his video interview,
'A motivated staff is important and ‘The team Manager is top of the list for the necessity to be motivated in his job’Does anyone question how well motivated King Kev has been to succeed in the task of putting a team out to beat relegation ?
We’ve seen money spent on important additions such as a General Manager and a Head of Recruitment. Their input into the process of improving things, getting us better prepared, and with a greater knowledge of our opponents is, of course, overlooked. Whereas in reality it doesn’t solely have to be spending on players that improves things. Some supporters may refuse to consider any other factor other than expenditure on players, but it’s a blinkered approach, and as was proved, their are other routes to reaching the same ultimate goal.
2. How would people know if it would be a catastrophe if they don’t know the contents of the 5 year plan ? Just in case there’s anyone who doesn’t remember the question, it was:
‘How important is it to avoid relegation as part of our 5 year plan ?’Now if the 5 year plan mostly focuses on improving issues such as work with the community, progress towards moving to a new ground, getting a youth system started, then relegation might not necessarily be the key point. If it targets a particular place in a particular League, and little else, then it’s of much more significance. But without having knowledge of the proposed plan, how would anyone know whether it had been catastrophically affected ?. How would people know if it would be a catastrophe, if they don’t know the contents of the 5 year plan ?
But I think there are other obvious considerations as well. If you’re the business owner and you might soon have had the task of trying to persuade people to buy Season tickets to watch National League South football, why ever would you label playing at that level as 'catastrophic' ? Commercial suicide in my opinion,
'Come and buy tickets to witness the disastrous level we’ve fallen to'. The more positive message that it was ‘very very important’ that we stay up, which is what Osborne actually
did say, was eminently sensible, whereas focussing on a massive negative such as ‘catastrophic’ would, to me, have surely indicated that Osborne needed his head examined. What a godsend to the media that would have been.
‘One step closer to catastrophe' every time we dropped points. And I’m sure that sort of hyperbole would have thrilled Kev...just when he’s doing everything he could to take pressure off the players, Osborne turns up and announces armageddon awaits ….no pressure lads.
It’s a similar situation where your message can’t be isolated and go only to supporters while everyone else’s ears are shielded. It was only on Saturday that Kev referred to Jordan Lee’s
‘horrific’ debut. But while thinking that, it’s the last word Kev would have used at the time. Just imagine the headlines:
‘Manager blasts young player for disastrous error on debut’, which would have knocked what little confidence the lad had left, completely out of him. But after Saturday's match, when the circumstances have changed so much, a more truthful
‘Shocker of a debut Jordan’ is quite acceptable, and even the player can smile when reminded, as he collected his Man Of The Match trophy for last weekend's impressive performance.
So yes, in the privacy of the boardroom, of course admit relegation would be a catastrophe if you want to…..but announce it in public ??...pure madness ! And recognise the different perspectives and responsibilities depending on the position you hold. As an example, think back to who got relegated with us in 2014; Bristol Rovers.
For Rovers supporters they could talk about catastrophe until the cows came home; and they did all that Summer long !.
'Our great club, 94 years in the football League' etc etc… and they moped all Summer wailing about their catastrophic relegation. It HAS to be different for the owners of the business. They had to set about putting things right, planning for the future, and getting things on track again….not shouting 'CATASTROPHE' from the Bristol rooftops. Just how catastrophic for their plan was it ? Well again, without knowing the plan how can we judge ? But for instance, if it was to get into the Championship within 5 years, then they’re 3 years in and making good progress.
You’ve seen enough of the Forums, Stewart, to be well aware how they work. Osborne got criticism for not saying it, but I’m convinced, would have been open to even more criticism if he had. Similarly, whatever news or ideas come out of the club during the coming week, we know there’s already a queue of those itching to criticise and find fault. Ready to rack their brains to squeeze out every negative thought they can muster. Clarke Osborne knows there’s still a fight to be won. The militants are tenacious, and their loyalty to the red flag undimmed, but ultimately I think they can be beaten and Torquay United can emerge victorious.
And my answer would be 'It is, it is, and no one more so than me. Having emphatically denied ever uttering or typing a word of admiration for Chris Roberts, I was therefore totally certain that no evidence, even badly documented, could possibly exist.
