Should we be worried?

Neerav has mentioned not wishing to bankroll losses forever.

They have folded the women’s team - and I doubt that was a huge expense.

We now announce pre-season friendlies, all away as is dictated by circumstance - and all under fifty miles and an hour’s drive away.

Extreme cost cutting looking from outside- and we know the losses made each year.

I think it may be interesting to see how many are sold and how the squad is re-assembled off the back of this.

 

Yep, i think its quite concerning. Although equally - if they're *actually* going to do what they *said* they were going to do last year and stop spunking money on peripherals and instead focus everything on giving the mens first team a competitive chance, then i'm all for it.

 

No more so than I was last week or last month. As sad as some decisions are, they're all good decisions and will help towards cutting cost without having an impact on the senior squad.

 

Makes you think....Getting the pitch ready for home friendlies despite the Boxing and doing a few academy pitch tweaks to keep the women's team would have both been pretty simple to do.

They will be saving a few bob having friendlies where they can get a coach there and back same day, without needing to book foreign camp travel or hotels.

 

Let’s hope it is just that

 

We'll know in about 8 weeks when we see what they put on the pitch for the first league game...

 

The thing that caught my attention on the pre-season was how lower level the opposition. Normally i would see things like starting with York and Harrogate, increased levels and finished with say a championship team. Only friendlies of course but i would expect the standard to increase.

 

Let's be real, you have absolutely no idea. Its easy to say all this without knowing. You keep saying things are disappointing or simple to tweak but clearly it isn't.

 

I can see their reasons behind such fixtures, they’re probably hoping to build confidence early doors by snatching a draw or 2

 

While St George's Park might be a nice jaunt for the coaching team I don't think it's proved particularly beneficial in terms of improving fitness levels. I think it makes sense to keep friendly games local, hopefully the clubs we're playing will benefit from a decent away crowd, and our lads will get a solid run out.

It would have been better to get one decent side in there, but there is an 11 day gap between Alfreton and Harrogate, perhaps there'll be a training camp and behind closed doors friendly?

Also I think the club deserve credit on this, I seem to recall we didn't have friendly fixtures announced until late June last year.

 

I dont think there's any extra worry needed anywhere. The women's team news is a bad blow but as I've said on another post I can understand it in context. The main thing we need to worry about is recruitment in the summer. The women's team was great but at the moment its not priority because it was embryonic. The men's team is priority. If the situation was reversed and we were a women's team with a marginal men's team I'd say the same thing.

 

No

 

Yes. I suppose this puts the new latest Chinese billionaire rumour to bed.

 

We did St George’s the summer of 2020. An outstanding facility and the players were in great shape. Finished 5th in the Championship.

Obviously, you can’t put it solely down to that. For example, a year later we went to Loughborough which isn’t quite as good, but it’s still elite. We got relegated.

Stendel took them nowhere in his first pre-season. They trained on the main pitch all summer (never known that before). It was about visualising things. Went unbeaten at Oakwell.

 

Can't remember exactly last season.
Derby at home. ?
But season prior was a bit of a calamity. Crewe at home on the academy pitch. (Main pitch relaid) A couple Either postponed or behind closed doors away.

 

22-23
Worksop Town (A), Crewe Alexandra (H), Sheffield United (H), 3pm

23-24
Worksop Town, AFC Fylde, Hull City, Blackburn Rovers, Mansfield Town and Crewe Alexandra

i think

 

All Away friendlies, don't want to start losing at home too early

 

Yes very worried the Muppets are running the club into the ground and have been since they took over now the chairmans pockets have been sewn up we are in the mess some of us knew we'd end up in while others pretended otherwise and still do. They don't know what they are doing and haven't from day one when it was Lee and Conway running the show all that happened when the current lot took control was that it was a different set of Muppets in the Boardroom the decision making didn't improve at all.

 

I'd argue that we've been run terribly and incompetently since administration

 

How? We were run well under Patrick yes he funded the club and academy but we punched well above our weight under his ownership for quite alot of years under his reign. Not sure in this day and age how a club like ours with 10k loyal fans in a working class town, surrounded by big city clubs competes above mid table in league one without a owner losing money. Footballs changed massively in the last 30 years unfortunately.