Calm heads and deep breaths

Discussion in 'Bulletin Board' started by ark104 (v2), Oct 15, 2019.

  1. ark

    ark104 (v2) Well-Known Member

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    First and foremost I would rather we weren’t owned by any individual (or group of individual) millionaires. It has never sat comfortably with me, whether that millionaire be a local fan or international business person. The former certainly provides comfort of general good intent, but that good intent only stretches as far as their personal circumstances allow. The latter meanwhile will only be involved for personal benefit, whether that be vanity or commercial gain, and not the best interests of the club beyond that. Fan ownership models have always been my preference, even if that means we are unsustainable at this level, and I am not naïve to the challenges that administering a democratic body of fans would bring.

    I can only guess at the anticipated personal benefits that have driven a disparate group of individuals to coalesce around our football club. Whilst I take little comfort in the football league’s ratification of a fit and proper owner I do however take heart in the endorsement of Patrick Cryne. Whilst I at times disagreed with his strategies and felt there were periods where the club did not receive enough of his attention I don’t think anyone could doubt his genuine care for our wellbeing. As such I hope that he did his own rigorous due diligence and was subsequently convinced that the new owners intentions were good.

    Beyond that I think there needs to be a collective deep breath taken regarding the last couple of weeks. Whilst none of it sits well with me, particularly the lack of communication – I would add oversight to that but has the governance and transparency of our or other football clubs ever been anything other than opaque – it’s worth looking at the issues objectively. In doing so I’m not sure how much anything they have done has deviated from their stated strategy.

    · Throughout they have said that they would sell players who are entering the last year of their contract and won’t sign a new deal.

    · They retained the vast majority of the playing squad that was relegated on higher league wages to achieve immediate promotion back to the Championship.

    · They have offered contract extensions early to players that have been identified as key to the club – certainly an improvement on the Cryne era.

    · They have secured new players on much longer contracts ensuring we are in control of whether we retain or lose them – again the correcting the general biggest criticism of the Cryne era.

    · They have improved the fan experience and made (admittedly modest) improvements to the stadium.

    · In addition to this they have sold Keiffer Moore because they (rightly or wrongly) believed that they had received an offer that exceeded his value.

    To be honest I don’t really have an issue with any of the above. I’m not sure that we should automatically sell someone as they enter the last year of their contract as their worth may be greater over the course of a season than the transfer fee received. However, if this is going to happen I would certainly prefer it to take place in the summer rather than in January when there is little chance of securing a replacement.

    Which brings me on to my biggest criticism of the strategy – the lack of experience. I’ve argued before the flaw in this approach, not least as it undermines their own commercial strategy as a young player will improve quicker and their subsequent value will increase higher if they are playing alongside a few older heads and leaders on the pitch – see Alfie Mawson and Kevin Long. I genuinely think we have signed some really good footballer who are all capable of playing a high pressing game (see the Fulham game), but once a few defeat’s bite and heads go down it unravels quickly and it is difficult to stop the decline.

    But I take this to be a flaw in their strategy rather than some sign of malevolent intent. They may stick with this approach as they believe it can work or, hopefully, review and change tact – surely pragmatism is key to success?

    As for Stendel I am hugely disappointed that he has gone, but again I reserve a degree of judgement as we don’t know what has gone behind the scenes or how he has raised his issues behind closed doors. The only positive I can take at the moment is that they identified and appointed him in the first place with clarity of mind and strategy so hopefully his replacement will be as successful.

    So I guess my point is this has not been a good period for the owners, the lack and form of communication has been startling, and they have questions to answer. But this should be down in a calm measured atmosphere without prejudging them on conjecture and assumptions.
     
  2. wombwell-red

    wombwell-red Well-Known Member

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    1. This is fair enough but why have we sold Kieffer Moore who had multiple years left on his contract?

    2. It's been reported that they all had relegation clauses in their contracts which mean the pay was reduced, also in the contract was promotion clauses which fetched the wages back up so at the time when we were relegated the wages were also dropped. Plus we sold Potts to cover the losses made from getting relegated apparently.

    3. Yep can't argue with this point, they've been offered contracts nice and early and as per their plan if they aren't signed up with a year to go they are shipped on (no matter how important they are to the team)

    4. This is also fair enough we're throwing long contracts at players but we've lost our manager because we had him on a 12 month rolling contract? If he was sacked part of the reason why it was easy to get rid of him was because it'll take little to no compensation to do so. Long contracts for players but not the for the manager?

    5. They've bought us hand-dryers and painted the East stand beams, Thats about it. Is the fanzone all paid for by the fans or have i just made that up in my head?

    6. About Kieffer Moore everyone will have their own opinion about this and there are too many variables to really have a definitive i'm right/You're wrong answer. Personally i believe when we sold Moore we lost our top goalscorer from last season and our plan B in case the gegenpressing style doesn't work. Was that worth 3 million quid? Could we have replaced him better? When Stendel did receive criticism it was sometimes about not having a plan B, and in my mind our Plan B was sat in Wigan having not being adequately replaced.

    The Mawson - Long duo was a great example as to the benefits of buying a young bloke with potential and having him alongside an experienced veteran who he can learn off and who can also help him through the tough moments in football. Imagine Long next to Mads Anderson at the Derby game after we conceded that first goal? It's by no means a certainty that the penalty wouldn't have happened but i can guarantee Long would've encouraged Mads and got his head back up, and guided him through the rest of the game. Instead we had Halme who for me has either confidence or communication issues so at the moment we are seeing two individuals playing Centre back rather then a duo.

    It's just an example but imagine we'd signed an experienced centre back and stuck him alongside Diaby/Andersen/Halme. Then an experienced Defensive midfielder to sit behind Mowatt and Mcgeehan/Dougall who can also teach Sibbick/Styles in training and bring them on. Maybe a winger to teach Wilks/Thomas when to pick his head up and pass rather then smash it into the side netting. Then to top it off an experienced striker in the mould of John Hendrie just to bring the ball down and fetch others into play, teaching the likes of Woodrow, Chaplin and Schmidt that they don't have to go hunting for the ball out on the wing or deep into midfield.
     
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  3. Dys

    Dyson Well-Known Member

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    Read first two lines, seemed like it was going to be sensible & then couldn't be arsed.
     
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  4. ark

    ark104 (v2) Well-Known Member

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    I think we broadly agree, certainly on the experience point.
     
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  5. ark

    ark104 (v2) Well-Known Member

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    Tbf I'd not poster in ages then I saw you talking about helicopters and it reeled me straight back in
     
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  6. Dys

    Dyson Well-Known Member

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    Bringing back the glory days.
     
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  7. dreamboy3000

    dreamboy3000 Well-Known Member

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    How? Genuinely don't think they are responsible for anything positive on those points. Volunteers have improved the concourses and volunteers run the fan zone. Matters the board are hands on with include knocking down part of the west stand so we can't sell tickets in the north side, failing to keep local derby kick off times at 3 pm on a Saturday and failing to get the north stand back to full capacity.
     
  8. Birkdale Red

    Birkdale Red Well-Known Member

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    Which all goes to prove contracts are worth the bog roll they are probably written on. It's OK having a player who has multiple years left, but as soon as said player starts to give it the "I no longer want to be here" spiel, then said contract becomes worthless.

    Gareth Bale did it with his Tottenham sulk, Big Keef is one of many who have followed suit.
     
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  9. fit

    fitzytyke Well-Known Member

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    Re the point about keeping the squad together for last season. Apart from Bradshaw and later, Potts, did we have any offers for our players?

    I'm not challenging you btw. I genuinely can't remember.

    What I will add though, is we really should expect to be highly competitive in league one. We sold Bradshaw & Potts and had Woodrow, Moore & Dougal out injured for chunks of the season, and still achieved a massive points total.

    If we're giving the owners (and their advisors) credit for making us competitive, then they can all carry the can for being the complete opposite this time round.
     
  10. ark

    ark104 (v2) Well-Known Member

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    I don't think it's worthless. It gives you a degree of control to say you're staying or command what you believe to be a fair price for a player which, rightly or wrongly, they did with Moore.
     
  11. Jay

    Jay Well-Known Member

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    When everything comes out in the wash you may find yourself much happier than you are at present.
     
  12. ark

    ark104 (v2) Well-Known Member

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    *******. In one witty comment, responding to my very first point, you've blown apart my whole post.

    As an aside I bought a Chairman Mao t-shirt when I went to China and all the colour came out in the wash, and dyed all my other clothes red. Which was very annoying, but I couldn't help smile at the beautifully irony.
     
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  13. Mr Badger

    Mr Badger Well-Known Member

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    Big breaths..... yeth and I'm only thixteen.
     
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