The big picture what are your thoughts?
Oct 9, 2023 17:31:40 GMT
rjdgull, stefano, and 1 more like this
Post by petef on Oct 9, 2023 17:31:40 GMT
Just thought I would share my own personal views on the bigger picture of club ownership, the manager and the ambitions of those who own it.
We have to guess of course as the owners do not wish to communicate with the support base.
We all seem to just discuss the week by week deficiencies of the squad etc and feel its important to keep asking questions of the current regime even though we are virtually powerless.
I feel its time we started asking a few more questions and insisting on getting a few answers.
Here's a copy and pasted FB thread I contributed in recently with Bob Cole who posted the opening remarks.
Bob Cole states.
On April 24, 2023, in a statement responding to calls for him to say something regarding our relegation to the National League South, Clarke Osborne said:
“For us, next season in whatever league it is business as usual…”
At least he’s being true to his word!
One bad season or even two can be explained away by bad luck (injuries) or external factors (Covid) but the long term fortunes of any club are a result of the owner’s commitment and intentions. Playing regional non league football (step 2, the 6th tier) we’ve now lost away to Aveley and Hemel Hempstead and at the the weekend we lost at home to Maidstone.
We are two steps away from the Southern League Division One South with Tavistock and Exmouth!
When you are an ex EFL club, with a history that goes back to 1899 and a stadium the size of Plainmoor, you can only drop so many leagues before you have to stop saying “There are no mugs in this league”!
Yet I would challenge Pep Guardiola with the resources and squad that Gary Johnson has at his disposal to get us out of this league. Yes, we undoubtedly have a few good players but the squad is paper thin. Most games there’s no one on the bench that can come on to change the game. If Clarke Osborne was intent on getting us out of this league Gary Johnson would have a squad that was evidence of the money that he’d invested in it - like Wrexham’s (🤮 ) last season. When we should be a team to be feared in this league we are looking like an easy scalp.
When the property developer Osborne acquired our club he had plans to make money by developing Plainmoor and building a new stadium. Those plans seem to have come off the rails, not least because the freehold of the land on which the stadium sits is not owned by the club (but the Council) and the only viable site within the Bay for a new stadium is now earmarked for a solar farm. So what are Clarke Osborne’s plans now? What happened to the five year plan? Where is the intent to get us back to the Football League?
Surely we deserve better than what amounts to this managed decline of our great and cherished club?
My response.
This is our level now. Hopefully it wont be any lower but there's no guarantee. The only Guarantee being G J will still likely be manager!! The monkey on our back of being a former ex FL club raises expectations. In reality we have no automatic right to ever be one again it has to be earned and have an owner who cares and genuinely wants to move the club forward. We have to get real with the club as it stands today a far cry from what it was when I first supported the club in the mid sixties when we were on the verge of promotion to what is now the Championship. A rickety old ground with the Mini stand at one end - the pride of all supporters and where all the noise was made. Attendances regularly topping 6 or 7 thousand and football fare we can only dream of today. Whats on offer these days, the match day experience, is generally dire in every respect, expensive and poor quality food to complement the generally dire football on offer. I would gladly return to the days when I would hand over my ten shilling note pocket money at the turnstile , pay my shilling for a programme and watch a committed, high quality entertaining football match in a fantastic atmosphere. Rarely missed a home match in fifty plus years always dreaming of better. The dream for me ended during covid when I realised I could no longer stand for two hours of a match day to witness the demise and continued decline of the club I once new . There are better run clubs along side us with short history's but with football passionate owners who genuinely want a better standard for their clubs. I no longer get that feeling and that's a tragedy thats been playing out now for a number of seasons and why I no longer attend. Impossible ofcourse to shake it of., after all its been a life long commitment without prejudice but times have changed I refuse to stand and watch the gradual demise and stale low quality while having the piss taken by the secret society that is now TUFC.
Bob Cole.
A heartfelt post from a true fan Pete.
I agree that we have no automatic right to be a Football League club but to accept that this is our level is to give up. You’re right to point out that there are better run clubs at this level with more passionate owners who want a better standard for their club. But why can’t we have an owner who cares and genuinely wants to move the club forward? Why should we settle for this?
I hope that in the not too distant future that the club will be on an upward trajectory again and you’ll want to be there again to see it.
My response.
Thanks Bob. I cannot honestly see how fans can make any difference. The clubs owners do not want to communicate with the riff raff supporter whatsoever, They realise they would only face criticism and get into arguments if asked where the club was heading. Its an unusual policy and a intentional one. GJ is the sole mouthpiece and he just talks load of meaningless twadle these days in defense of his squad and never gets put on the spot in interview. Surely a pre condition of being interviewed by the useless Dom Mee who just sucks it all up and puts a positive spin on every question and virtually answers his own questions . So bloody annoying. . "Hey Gaffer" .... Very little supporters can do we're at the mercy of a group of businessmen with no interest in football and they have their own agenda without doubt. Why else would they continue to pump money into the club to keep it afloat? Its clear to me that policies have clearly changed since the play off final defeat and the manager is just towing the company line. He's a professional at the very tail end of his managerial career and unlikely to want to rock the boat or make ambitious demands. GJ is the perfect yes man and buffer for those in charge. I re-watched back the play off final a while ago, At the very end of that match Garry Johnson looked l totally indifferent as if he didn't really care one way or another. A manager invested in the future of the club would have been in pieces. That told me alot, its all front. The very last thing the owners want is a manger with ambition.....
We have to guess of course as the owners do not wish to communicate with the support base.
We all seem to just discuss the week by week deficiencies of the squad etc and feel its important to keep asking questions of the current regime even though we are virtually powerless.
I feel its time we started asking a few more questions and insisting on getting a few answers.
Here's a copy and pasted FB thread I contributed in recently with Bob Cole who posted the opening remarks.
Bob Cole states.
On April 24, 2023, in a statement responding to calls for him to say something regarding our relegation to the National League South, Clarke Osborne said:
“For us, next season in whatever league it is business as usual…”
At least he’s being true to his word!
One bad season or even two can be explained away by bad luck (injuries) or external factors (Covid) but the long term fortunes of any club are a result of the owner’s commitment and intentions. Playing regional non league football (step 2, the 6th tier) we’ve now lost away to Aveley and Hemel Hempstead and at the the weekend we lost at home to Maidstone.
We are two steps away from the Southern League Division One South with Tavistock and Exmouth!
When you are an ex EFL club, with a history that goes back to 1899 and a stadium the size of Plainmoor, you can only drop so many leagues before you have to stop saying “There are no mugs in this league”!
Yet I would challenge Pep Guardiola with the resources and squad that Gary Johnson has at his disposal to get us out of this league. Yes, we undoubtedly have a few good players but the squad is paper thin. Most games there’s no one on the bench that can come on to change the game. If Clarke Osborne was intent on getting us out of this league Gary Johnson would have a squad that was evidence of the money that he’d invested in it - like Wrexham’s (🤮 ) last season. When we should be a team to be feared in this league we are looking like an easy scalp.
When the property developer Osborne acquired our club he had plans to make money by developing Plainmoor and building a new stadium. Those plans seem to have come off the rails, not least because the freehold of the land on which the stadium sits is not owned by the club (but the Council) and the only viable site within the Bay for a new stadium is now earmarked for a solar farm. So what are Clarke Osborne’s plans now? What happened to the five year plan? Where is the intent to get us back to the Football League?
Surely we deserve better than what amounts to this managed decline of our great and cherished club?
My response.
This is our level now. Hopefully it wont be any lower but there's no guarantee. The only Guarantee being G J will still likely be manager!! The monkey on our back of being a former ex FL club raises expectations. In reality we have no automatic right to ever be one again it has to be earned and have an owner who cares and genuinely wants to move the club forward. We have to get real with the club as it stands today a far cry from what it was when I first supported the club in the mid sixties when we were on the verge of promotion to what is now the Championship. A rickety old ground with the Mini stand at one end - the pride of all supporters and where all the noise was made. Attendances regularly topping 6 or 7 thousand and football fare we can only dream of today. Whats on offer these days, the match day experience, is generally dire in every respect, expensive and poor quality food to complement the generally dire football on offer. I would gladly return to the days when I would hand over my ten shilling note pocket money at the turnstile , pay my shilling for a programme and watch a committed, high quality entertaining football match in a fantastic atmosphere. Rarely missed a home match in fifty plus years always dreaming of better. The dream for me ended during covid when I realised I could no longer stand for two hours of a match day to witness the demise and continued decline of the club I once new . There are better run clubs along side us with short history's but with football passionate owners who genuinely want a better standard for their clubs. I no longer get that feeling and that's a tragedy thats been playing out now for a number of seasons and why I no longer attend. Impossible ofcourse to shake it of., after all its been a life long commitment without prejudice but times have changed I refuse to stand and watch the gradual demise and stale low quality while having the piss taken by the secret society that is now TUFC.
Bob Cole.
A heartfelt post from a true fan Pete.
I agree that we have no automatic right to be a Football League club but to accept that this is our level is to give up. You’re right to point out that there are better run clubs at this level with more passionate owners who want a better standard for their club. But why can’t we have an owner who cares and genuinely wants to move the club forward? Why should we settle for this?
I hope that in the not too distant future that the club will be on an upward trajectory again and you’ll want to be there again to see it.
My response.
Thanks Bob. I cannot honestly see how fans can make any difference. The clubs owners do not want to communicate with the riff raff supporter whatsoever, They realise they would only face criticism and get into arguments if asked where the club was heading. Its an unusual policy and a intentional one. GJ is the sole mouthpiece and he just talks load of meaningless twadle these days in defense of his squad and never gets put on the spot in interview. Surely a pre condition of being interviewed by the useless Dom Mee who just sucks it all up and puts a positive spin on every question and virtually answers his own questions . So bloody annoying. . "Hey Gaffer" .... Very little supporters can do we're at the mercy of a group of businessmen with no interest in football and they have their own agenda without doubt. Why else would they continue to pump money into the club to keep it afloat? Its clear to me that policies have clearly changed since the play off final defeat and the manager is just towing the company line. He's a professional at the very tail end of his managerial career and unlikely to want to rock the boat or make ambitious demands. GJ is the perfect yes man and buffer for those in charge. I re-watched back the play off final a while ago, At the very end of that match Garry Johnson looked l totally indifferent as if he didn't really care one way or another. A manager invested in the future of the club would have been in pieces. That told me alot, its all front. The very last thing the owners want is a manger with ambition.....
