From positive to negative....

I hardly ever post on here, but I have a look at the other posts all the time.  I love this site as some cracking bits of info are leaked.  I very rarely feel the need to post, but I am certainly one of those, the minority it seems today, who feels the Connell deal is a kick in the teeth.

I have been confident of our chances so far this pre-season, but now I feel completely deflated.  I also feel a little bit stupid; I went in the club shop a few weeks ago, and some guy was buying a new Town shirt.  He was asked if he wanted a name and number, and he asked "which number will Connell be this season?".  The woman in the club shop said "well, it hasn't been decided if he's staying yet".  Why not?  He was under contract and we'd had no official approach for him from a FL club, so we were told.  With hindsight, all the fans who said Hearn was signed as a replacement for Connell were absolutely spot-on.  The club obviously knew Alan was leaving, and Career Underdogs deserves some credit for saying this many weeks ago, he clearly got it right.

The thing that gets me is, I've turned from an optimist into a pessimist within the space of reading the news of Connell's departure.  I can understand why Fenty has kept quiet and rebuffed Luton, this all makes sense, but letting Connell go does not.  How do you replace 29 goals?  You can't.  I think Swindon have got a bargain at 150K.  We couldn't replace Alan like-for-like if we spent every penny we've got for him.

This has all made me feel, for the first time, that maybe we'll struggle this season.  OK, maybe the managers were just assessing the whole squad at the tail end of last season, and maybe that's why it took them so long to win a game, but maybe they're actually out of their depth at BSP level?  Maybe all the BSN players are glorified Sunday Leaguers?  Maybe our arrogance in thinking that Lincoln will fall into the same trap we did last season is well off the mark?  Why do we assume they'll go the same way we did, and struggle?  It's not a given.

Every year a minnow (Crawley; Rich?  Yes. A minnow? Still yes) gets replaced with a big club; Stockport, at least as big as us.  And what do we do?  We try to replicate every small club in the BSP by recruiting "grafters" and "athletes".  You can bet your a#se that Southport and Kettering have plenty of them, too.  What set us apart from all the average BSP teams?  Connell.  The one bit of class we had.

There is this myth that you need to fight your way out of this league, but I'm beginning to think the truth is that you can assimilate yourself into a typical, brusing BSP team and just fall in line with all the other dross.  We might currently be doing that, who knows, really?  We haven't got a Scooby Doo whether Hearn, Pearson or Church can step up.  We don't know if Disley is in the BSP because he's no good anymore.  We don't know if Spencer is the biggest donkey we've had since Iffy Onoura!!!!!

I'm going to support this team, no question, but all of a sudden I'm not so sure we're playoff certainties, as has regularly been predicated on here (and by me to people I know, also).

The 150K (which we don't even know if this is true, probably nearer 100K is more like the correct figure) is merely a drop in the ocean when looking at the club's overall debt.  Every penny needs pumping into the squad via transfer fees for in-demand players, but this won't happen.  And Fenty will never let us find this out, due to the "undisclosed" nature of the fee.  We get 100K every year for 5 years due to the Bennett deal, and how much of this did Fenty splash to keep us in the league?  Nothing.  And don't tell me that we spent a fortune on loans to keep us up, they saved a fortune by taking on Woods (we all knew it was a stubborn mistake) and the likes of Devitt, basically a school kid, were probably on peanuts.

Basically, unless Fenty and his cronies are willing to do a Jack Walker and buy our way out of this league, we're here to stay.  We can complain about Crawley over spending, but they've done what we simply cannot do as things stand; get promoted.

The curse with this club still remains, and he's stearing the ship this season too.  God help us!

Fenty; prove me wrong, please!

Worried, of Grimsby.........







Rant over, I promise!

Carlo, If a portion of the money we received for AC is invested in areas of the team that need strengthening, this is actually a very good deal for GTFC - Connell was idolised by the fans as one shining light in an otherise mainly poor set of players, but is he a world beater NO, his previous league record shows that - he was a class above at times last season, but without actually saying it  was clear he wanted away, anyone sensible  knew he was likely to be on his way - very few clubs outside Championship level are paying transfer fees, so the deal we got from Swindon was a good one.
We were never 'play off certainties', even if AC stayed, but the news of him going doesn't make me any less optimistic for next season, others will step up to the plate, as i posted on another thread ,Coulson  will score goals if played as a striker and not wasted out wide, Hearn has a fantastic goalscoring record, admittedly  at a slightly lower level  and the other new players MIGHT just have as much impact as AC did for us last year, Disley for example is a very good player in the middle of the park,  which was something lacking ALL last season - keep the faith and support us back to the FL at the end of next season.
We will be thereabouts come the end of the season - mark my words.

Quoted from petethemariner

Carlo, If a portion of the money we received for AC is invested in areas of the team that need strengthening, this is actually a very good deal for GTFC - Connell was idolised by the fans as one shining light in an otherise mainly poor set of players, but is he a world beater NO, his previous league record shows that - he was a class above at times last season, but without actually saying it  was clear he wanted away, anyone sensible  knew he was likely to be on his way - very few clubs outside Championship level are paying transfer fees, so the deal we got from Swindon was a good one.
We were never 'play off certainties', even if AC stayed, but the news of him going doesn't make me any less optimistic for next season, others will step up to the plate, as i posted on another thread ,Coulson  will score goals if played as a striker and not wasted out wide, Hearn has a fantastic goalscoring record, admittedly  at a slightly lower level  and the other new players MIGHT just have as much impact as AC did for us last year, Disley for example is a very good player in the middle of the park,  which was something lacking ALL last season - keep the faith and support us back to the FL at the end of next season.
We will be thereabouts come the end of the season - mark my words.

Despite how negative my post was, I really hope you're right.  I just can't help thinking that a good 7 or 8 teams in this division have squads maybe better than ours.  We finished low down last season, and we've replaced BSP players with BSN players.  There are risks there, I just hope S&H have got it right.  I hope we're not turning into a typical BSP team, because every season 22 of those either stay down or go down, and I'm not sure we can rise above the likes of Luton, Wrexham, Stockport, Darlo etc......

Cracking post and I share a lot of your concerns.

You made several good points and the best one I thought was "We couldn't replace Alan like-for-like if we spent every penny we've got for him."

There is speculation we'll be doing just that but I don't think we will be - it now looks like Hearn was his replacement all along.

Even if we do, what would be the point in selling to acquire anybody else who couldn't fill his shoes ? It makes little sense.

I'm still optmistic, but the picture you paint of "grafters" lacking quality is just as believable.

Luton and Wimbledon footballed their way out and it's gonna take more than just graft to get out of the league.
Like you say, most other teams will grafting away too.

Sorry to be pedantic  80's but Luton are still with us in the BSP wilderness - Crawley for all the money
they spent weren't just a footballing side, they 'mixed it a bit' and also went long when the need required it,
we have to get out of this Buckleyesque dreamworld of passing our way out of this league - it will not happen.
Maybe you will be proved right that we will be TOO direct, onlt time will tell that, but i think we have to give everyone at GTFC the benefit of the doubt before a BSP ball has even been kicked.

No problem pete and thanks for putting me right.
Sorry I meant Crawley.  

And yeah, I totally agree with what you say.
Whilst I have some "doubts" it's got to be more effective than Woods style !
So I'm certainly not writing us off before a ball has been kicked, I'm optimistic.

I have to say I too share your concerns. Although I don't doubt for a moment that this is probably a good bit of business, as Alan wanted to be back in the league and with his family in the South, that doesn't make up for the loss.

As you said, if we spent every penny we'll receive for him, we probably won't get another striker of his quality. It has been 15 years since anyone banged in as many goals as he did. That doesn't come along too often. And although I like the sentiment of bringing up players with ambition, on paper, the 'non league-ness' of our squad worries me. I'll reserve full judgement until I see the new lads play, but letting quality like Alan go, whilst bringing in players from beneath us doesn't scream playoff push to me. It says mid table obscurity.

I guess what I'm basically saying is quality like Connell helped me believe we were a cut above. I don't think now we've ever looked more non league. Time will tell I guess.

I don't care who the player is, if he doesn't want to be here then get rid and get the best you can for him.  Upgrade the midfield with a mix of skill and guile and you have a team that can and will get goals and more importantly see games out.  I'm hoping for a play off play and anything can happen from there.

Quoted from 1600

Cracking post and I share a lot of your concerns.

You made several good points and the best one I thought was "We couldn't replace Alan like-for-like if we spent every penny we've got for him."

There is speculation we'll be doing just that but I don't think we will be - it now looks like Hearn was his replacement all along.

Even if we do, what would be the point in selling to acquire anybody else who couldn't fill his shoes ? It makes little sense.

I'm still optmistic, but the picture you paint of "grafters" lacking quality is just as believable.

Luton and Wimbledon footballed their way out and it's gonna take more than just graft to get out of the league.
Like you say, most other teams will grafting away too.

we couldnt replace AC for the money we got for him ?

wasnt he a free transfer ?

maybe we could then ?

A Bloody good point !  

Tough ask though.