Whats happening to our club

[Freya]

Torquay, Barrow and Guiseley are all historically lower table sides.

Torquay historically have been a football league side/top end conference team and only recently have started struggling.

(one instance for example. Ask yourself why a defender is wearing number 8 on his back just shortly after ARH (no.8) left. Odd number for a defender)

Haha of all the things to moan about, are you ok?

[Lancaster Branch]

And?

If you’re spending more than you rake in it doesn’t matter about what happened a few years previous or what’s happening down the road etc

Edit: replying to northscaler

[Steeley]

Using ARHs shirt for a new signing. Repercussions of signing up to a deal with player layer who charge about £200 for a players shirt.

[Bigfathoss]

Clear who it is and its none of them

Just wanted that point across there whilst I had the chance. Ill sign out now.

It's not clear.

[MikeRenney]

Seems clear to me. Give up a former member of this forum. For a change let us know what you thought of the game last night.

[spirit of 1990]

Ill sign out now.

Posted 11:00am.

A budget that was still smaller than Edmos.

Posted 11:03am. What happened?

[Fazered]

Northscaler, Rigger, a former member of this forum wonder what they have in common? They can't tell us what happened last night because they weren't there

[barrowaberdeen]

Is anyway else sick of the Paul Cox argument back and forth?

A lot of good points from the rugby (that you C.E?) in terms of town involvement and positivity- fully agree. However, when it comes to locals and the level we are playing at, it simply doesn't work- so it's either 2 leagues below with a mixture and part -time or this- I know which I prefer. That's where the comparison just doesn't work, on the pitch.

Whoever bought them, the playing staff have to take some responsibility.

Bottom line, this has been an acrimonious, transitional season with bad mistakes (in some cases compounded) on all sides. The sad thing is there shouldn't be different sides- a plague on all who have been contributing to that. We just need to stay up and reset- because it will be more of the same, and muh, much worse if we get relegated- is that really worth it for a group of people to be able to say 'told you so'?

All the suggestions re marketing etc for 2018-19 have been suggested before. it will need something radical (and pies apparently)

[Bluebird_john]

I'll give you that one, he should've let him go but hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it? Perhaps Paul Casson was holding out hoping they would find the money to buy out his contract, perhaps it was stubbornness, perhaps he was holding him back as pay-back for all he'd been up to for the previous six months...who knows? It doesn't change the fact that he'd been doing what people now know he'd been doing going back to pre-Christmas. I remember having a phone conversation with Paul Casson last year about just that question, not that I'm letting you into what was said but it sort of made sense as things stood at the time.

If he was this non league Pep Guardiola that you seem to think he is how come he was sacked at Mansfield, left/pushed? at Torquay, left/pushed at Barrow and sacked at Guiseley? not great on a CV is it? Three of those clubs gave him for the most part what he always says he needs - money, but it still wasn't enough to save him.

If youve supposedly got a rotten tooth then it'll fall out after a while if you don't treat it. If you take the choice to get rid of it earlier then you'll save time and hassle over the long run in your mission for a perfect smile. To not fully trust a manager and let him stay on for the most crucial part of the season where the squad is built, is a very strange business decision.

He won the league with Mansfield and had he not done that then they wouldn't be a football league team right now. He had a big budget yes, but that is needed to get out of this league (someone tell the owner) and was he was successful.

Torquay, Barrow and Guiseley are all historically lower table sides.

He actually left Torquay after not being paid and doing the job free of charge for a month. I hardly think he was to blame for that.

The fact he turned Barrow from a seriously relegation threatened team to a play off chasing, FA CUP third round team was him being a good manager. Smart signings with the help of Ogden, a simple (fair enough it was boring) style of play resulted in success and the sun shone from his arse for all Barrow fans. At Barrow he was sold the clubs ambitions and everything was rosy.
From January last season and onwards however those ambitions were realised to be false. Simple as that. Hence why the serious investment has seemingly tightened from that point onwards. Who knows what could have happened had he not had to rely on the cheaper option of youth loans.

Its clear to see now with the backing Pennock isn't getting that it wasn't Cox wanting the world and everything in it. It was clearly the owner tightening up. It happened in January last year, it happened over pre season, its happening now. A lot of folk on here said that it was Casson being smart with money when recent events are starting to suggest that the funding might not actually be there.

(one instance for example. Ask yourself why a defender is wearing number 8 on his back just shortly after ARH (no.8) left. Odd number for a defender)

He signed players for free and they got sold for huge profits at this level and the money from those deals (£250k) wasn't reinvested into the playing squad. (seriously, where is that money?)

Guiseley was obviously a very strange period and fair enough he really hasn't done a good job there at all. Hes tried to move them into full time by signing a full time squad whilst keeping on the part time players. It really hasn't worked out for both parties.

Jose Mourinho has been sacked by Chelsea twice and left Real Madrid by mutual consent. That doesn't mean his CV isn't any good.

Agree with all of this regarding Cox but not with the nonsense about the shirt numbers

[bluebird90]

Is anyway else sick of the Paul Cox argument back and forth?

A lot of good points from the rugby (that you C.E?) in terms of town involvement and positivity- fully agree. However, when it comes to locals and the level we are playing at, it simply doesn't work- so it's either 2 leagues below with a mixture and part -time or this- I know which I prefer. That's where the comparison just doesn't work, on the pitch.

Whoever bought them, the playing staff have to take some responsibility.

Bottom line, this has been an acrimonious, transitional season with bad mistakes (in some cases compounded) on all sides. The sad thing is there shouldn't be different sides- a plague on all who have been contributing to that. We just need to stay up and reset- because it will be more of the same, and muh, much worse if we get relegated- is that really worth it for a group of people to be able to say 'told you so'?

All the suggestions re marketing etc for 2018-19 have been suggested before. it will need something radical (and pies apparently)

Fully agree, with regards to local players, there isn't the strength in depth locally for players at this level, where as in Rugby, there is. That's one area that needs to be addressed - why have we managed to include local players in the past but no longer do?

It can't solely be put down to the performance teams or the club, but surely there must be an advantage of having someone involved there with experience of having played at national league level or above. This is what you have at the rugby, coaches of equivalent experience coaching players and it's a theme throughout, e.g. Crarey running the first team, Carter running the u19s, first team players running the coaching. A local set up by people who know exactly what it takes to be at that level. I'm not knocking any of the current set up of coaches, they do an amazing job, but it really does grind on me when they boast of players going to Workington etc - that isn't down to the performance teams - it's something that always happened before! Let's aim higher!

I'm sounding all negative and I really don't want to as I know this journey is going to be rocky, but as a fan of over 40 years, I've never felt more out of touch with the club. I think we need to take a leaf from the rugby and have a very clear focus on what we want to achieve in the short term. I'm well aware that things change, but if we could maybe make a well rounded plan that is stuck too and includes a solid plan on connection, then people might have a bit more 'buy in'.

[bluebird90]

As for the 'rugby attendances were low last year', then my response would be that they were at our 'conference north level'. Now they are up, the fans are attending. Let's not forget they were heavily beaten on the first day of the season, but as mentioned earlier, many aren't going for results - if they were, then they wouldn't have attended on Sunday as most would've expected a defeat.

They've made an open and honest account of what they want to do and stuck to it. They've obviously got a solid all round plan which they've gradually built and developed. They want people to not just attend, but to attend and have a good experience. I really hope the town continue to get behind them.

Maybe the issue is deeper, rugby at club level tends to promote itself as a different experience?

[mickmike wilson]

Does it matter, If the demand is there then Supply it...How difficult would it be to buy 2 pie warmers & place 1 in the Crossbar & the other in the Trust shop & have avolunteer walking the terraces with a warming bag full of pies, Have a Supply deal with a few local pie shops & give the paying public a choice.

Advertise it well & give it a minimum 10 home game trail to gauge demand, work at it, not half arsed as per.

There's 3 'food' vans throughout the ground. Why would you need to place them anywhere else?

Not sure if things have changed but previously the food vans used to pay the club to operate & keep all profits & probably have some contract clause not allowing the club to supply food so it might be a moot point & I was just trying to suggest an alternative.

[corner 91]

There's 3 'food' vans throughout the ground. Why would you need to place them anywhere else?

Not sure if things have changed but previously the food vans used to pay the club to operate & keep all profits & probably have some contract clause not allowing the club to supply food so it might be a moot point & I was just trying to suggest an alternative.

The Trust did look into the possibilities of pies a couple of seasons ago. It was almost impossible for the Trust to do them due food hygiene regulations and the changes that would be needed to the shop. Even when they were provided from a pie shop in town. Unfortunately it's not as easy as just buying a pie warmer.

[mickmike wilson]

Not sure if things have changed but previously the food vans used to pay the club to operate & keep all profits & probably have some contract clause not allowing the club to supply food so it might be a moot point & I was just trying to suggest an alternative.

The Trust did look into the possibilities of pies a couple of seasons ago. It was almost impossible for the Trust to do them due food hygiene regulations and the changes that would be needed to the shop. Even when they were provided from a pie shop in town. Unfortunately it's not as easy as just buying a pie warmer.

Thanks for that 91 puts it to bed then eh.

[boyliegladbach]

Not sure if things have changed but previously the food vans used to pay the club to operate & keep all profits & probably have some contract clause not allowing the club to supply food so it might be a moot point & I was just trying to suggest an alternative.

The Trust did look into the possibilities of pies a couple of seasons ago. It was almost impossible for the Trust to do them due food hygiene regulations and the changes that would be needed to the shop. Even when they were provided from a pie shop in town. Unfortunately it's not as easy as just buying a pie warmer.

Not having a go at the trust but makes you wonder how every other sporting event in the country,music festivals,village fairs and everwhere else that sells food to the public manage to do it.