Seismic change needed at the Club?

The background: Team and Managers
I listened to the home commentary yesterday.  They said we were very good, whilst all bar one of their players were having a poor game. This is measured against their usual very low standards.   They had not created any chances at x point in the second half or (in their opinion) ever looked like pulling 2 goals back.  Well they did.   God help us if their players were having a good day or we were poor.

When the Duo were appointed I do remember them making comments to the effect about "non stop effort, fighting for every ball, having a good team spirit, physically imposing ourselves on other teams, being mentally tough".    I thought good, maybe less skill and less football but we should get the players that will grind out more results this season.  Something that is needed in this League. The managers had a successful record as well - but at a lower levels.

What we have had is probably none of the above qualities. Not to any degree of consistency or standard.    Witness taking the lead in 4 consecutive away games and only getting 1 point.    Some players were inherited but others have been bought.  The managers have to accept a large amount of the blame.

As supposedly good and successful managers, it is very worrying when they say that they have tried everything but nothing is working to improve the teams performance.   (After the Ebbsfleet team surrender, the managers own public surrender).  They said that the team has no confidence and can only get this back by winning matches!!  I would have thought that you need confidence in football to win a match in the first place. No manager in football or elsewhere should ever admit to these type of comments in public.  It is their job to fix these faults in the team, not wash their hands of the problems.

The Club:
The way the team play and the way the managers feel and speak is indicative I think of the much wider malais within the club.  Some have said it is "rotten to the core", as an exile I cannot really comment on this.  It is certainly not a model of good business, efficiency and common sense. The culture at the Club impacts on the way the team and managers are.  Mike Newell and others have said very much the same thing before.

As the Club has deteriorated over the last years it reminds be of the last years of the British Empire.  Despite many relegations, losing nearly £1M a year, the Club (and the many many staff) continue as if nothing has happened. Living in their own fantasy world. The team might be near to rock bottom, but the Club is not.

Seismic change is needed at the Club.  A root and branch overall (as they say) must be done, which will never be done by insiders.  It has to be severe cuts in costs.  We have to have new owners, investors, an overall of the Club and new positive outlook. The Club operating within its reduced budget and changing the culture of negativity that prevails everywhere. (I offer no answers as to how this could happen.  Only that it needs to happen - and soon).

Failure for this to happen will mean the Club continues to sail towards the iceberg, in blissful ignorance of what lies ahead, 100 years after the Titanic sank.  We could end up like Chester, Scarborough or Halifax.

Seismic change can be very good for some Clubs:
If there is external control, funding and change then Grimsby could start the long climb back to rescue their proud football heritage.  It can be done.  Wrexham and Cambridge are very high in the table. Both nearly went bust last season and in the summer.   Having a reality check shakes you up but you come out of it much stronger if you survive. Both these clubs scrutinised every aspect of their costs, team, staff and Club. They started again from the abyss and are doing well. Like condemned men reprieved. They do not carry "excess" costs because they cannot afford to do so.

Another example - York.  They had collecting buckets out when we played them in the FA Cup replay.  York were desperate for money just to survive.  Many fans here will have put money in.  Now look at the team they have and where they are in the League. They have also gone through the same base soul-searching process as Wrexham and Cambridge.  Grimsby Town just do not realise just how wrong their business is for this Division and their reducing budget.

was that fenty in or fenty out then?  

Good post .change is needed

Some good points but confused at what you're actually saying.

"changing the culture of negativity" - sounds like we've heard it before !  

"external control" - what do you propose ?

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

A root and branch overall (as they say) must be done, which will never be done by insiders.  It has to be severe cuts in costs.

Why is cutting costs the answer to a "root and branch" overhaul if structure and finance are separate things ?

Let's face it, as outsiders I doubt we'll never know what exactly could be wrong within the club.
I guess that's why your proposals and solutons seem a bit vague ?

If the only solution is "cut more" I'd guess Fenty might do that anyway, but will it solve anything in terms of success ?

The only thing I'm more positive about is we might finally be heading towards a younger players policy but I'm concerned whether we've got the right expertise in the building to overcome the tough challenges it would present to make it successful.

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

The background: Team and Managers
I listened to the home commentary yesterday.  They said we were very good, whilst all bar one of their players were having a poor game. This is measured against their usual very low standards.   They had not created any chances at x point in the second half or (in their opinion) ever looked like pulling 2 goals back.  Well they did.   God help us if their players were having a good day or we were poor.

When the Duo were appointed I do remember them making comments to the effect about "non stop effort, fighting for every ball, having a good team spirit, physically imposing ourselves on other teams, being mentally tough".    I thought good, maybe less skill and less football but we should get the players that will grind out more results this season.  Something that is needed in this League. The managers had a successful record as well - but at a lower levels.

What we have had is probably none of the above qualities. Not to any degree of consistency or standard.    Witness taking the lead in 4 consecutive away games and only getting 1 point.    Some players were inherited but others have been bought.  The managers have to accept a large amount of the blame.

As supposedly good and successful managers, it is very worrying when they say that they have tried everything but nothing is working to improve the teams performance.   (After the Ebbsfleet team surrender, the managers own public surrender).  They said that the team has no confidence and can only get this back by winning matches!!  I would have thought that you need confidence in football to win a match in the first place. No manager in football or elsewhere should ever admit to these type of comments in public.  It is their job to fix these faults in the team, not wash their hands of the problems.

The Club:
The way the team play and the way the managers feel and speak is indicative I think of the much wider malais within the club.  Some have said it is "rotten to the core", as an exile I cannot really comment on this.  It is certainly not a model of good business, efficiency and common sense. The culture at the Club impacts on the way the team and managers are.  Mike Newell and others have said very much the same thing before.

As the Club has deteriorated over the last years it reminds be of the last years of the British Empire.  Despite many relegations, losing nearly £1M a year, the Club (and the many many staff) continue as if nothing has happened. Living in their own fantasy world. The team might be near to rock bottom, but the Club is not.

Seismic change is needed at the Club.  A root and branch overall (as they say) must be done, which will never be done by insiders.  It has to be severe cuts in costs.  We have to have new owners, investors, an overall of the Club and new positive outlook. The Club operating within its reduced budget and changing the culture of negativity that prevails everywhere. (I offer no answers as to how this could happen.  Only that it needs to happen - and soon).

Failure for this to happen will mean the Club continues to sail towards the iceberg, in blissful ignorance of what lies ahead, 100 years after the Titanic sank.  We could end up like Chester, Scarborough or Halifax.

Seismic change can be very good for some Clubs:
If there is external control, funding and change then Grimsby could start the long climb back to rescue their proud football heritage.  It can be done.  Wrexham and Cambridge are very high in the table. Both nearly went bust last season and in the summer.   Having a reality check shakes you up but you come out of it much stronger if you survive. Both these clubs scrutinised every aspect of their costs, team, staff and Club. They started again from the abyss and are doing well. Like condemned men reprieved. They do not carry "excess" costs because they cannot afford to do so.

Another example - York.  They had collecting buckets out when we played them in the FA Cup replay.  York were desperate for money just to survive.  Many fans here will have put money in.  Now look at the team they have and where they are in the League. They have also gone through the same base soul-searching process as Wrexham and Cambridge.  Grimsby Town just do not realise just how wrong their business is for this Division and their reducing budget.

A very good post.

I do think it is fairly obvious though, for all the managers (bar Slade,who is very single minded) to fail so spectacularly,means that the club as a whole is indeed in a mess.

Everything seems to be wrong,and maybe it started when we thought a new stadium was imminent - too keen on a fresh start and the eye taken off the ball so to speak, and its been downhill all the way.

We all know the common denominator in all this and until he goes it is unlikely to get any better.

It is absolutely true that we are miles behind most of the football world in the way we conduct ourselves in how a club should be run,(both Hull and Scunthorpe can teach us a lot) but what has also happened is that clubs way below our historical standing have come on in leaps and bounds to overtake us - on much smaller budgets.

It really is a terrible shame,but until the chairman calls time on his involvement we will continue to be run like this - unless a miracle occurs and he can change his spots.

The club may have to take another massive downward drop before it ever starts climbing the leagues again. We are not competitive and crowds are dwindling, going to BP  is a painful experience and we may end up part time soon.

In my opinion the loans that hang over the club prevent any possible progress and paint a picture of uncertainty regarding the future of Blundell Park,

Time for the loans to be written off and the club to cut it's cloth accordingly.

Questions...??????????

Where is the funding coming from to keep the team going for next season?

Are we being run down deliberately to not argue against part time status next year?

Alternately  - is there a new plan to move away from Blundell Park to a newly built stadium if some form of local / regional  / national regeneration grant funding is available?

Guessing - is there anyone in the frame to put fresh money into the club..????

Lastly - who will be on the board in charge at this time next year, and will their money / loans / shares still be safe and useable to benefit the club... and hence the fans ??

Some of us humble people out here, without the cash to invest, would like to know if there's going to be a club left to support next year !!

Please .......??????

Have the managers lost the dressing room?

If the club had gone bust in the summer of 2002 it would be better positioned than it is now.

Seismic change?

I think we should up sticks and move to libya.

Well we've lost a Tripol-lead  

There is something wrong I feel about several aspects of the club. I don't know excatly what, be it setting unrealistic budgets or high turnover of staff and associated paying off contracts or fans beliving we have a comparatively rich chairman to pump money in meaning fans don't think they have to support the club fincially but I do know we cannot keep losing 900k a year and expect the club to survive.

I belive its a never ending cycle of decline. Poor performance on the pitch, less fans in the ground, less money for the club, and so on. As a fan, I feel negative about where we are and that we shouldn't have sunk so low. Maybe there is too much negativity from fans like myself, and its just a vicious cycle of negativity.

I know this is a small point, but why dosent the club, or the supporters trust, have people with buckets standing outside the turnstyles or walking about the stands for fans to put thier loose change in? Anything is better than nothing. Even use the now disused food stall under the floodlight in the corner of the pontoon as a fundraising stall.

Until the Club is right (from top to bottom) any manager and the team has a near impossible job to be successful.

As smaller clubs in this League have shown, it is often not about money.  You can be relatively successful without it.   The important things are for the Club to be well-organised, make every pound count, all pulling together, live according to your income and make the right decisions for the Club.  This includes appointing the right manager.  

Quoted from Abdul19

If the club had gone bust in the summer of 2002 it would be better positioned than it is now.

What  ?!!!  
This is like saying next time you have a headache cut your head off it stops the pain.

Good post. In my profession I spend a lot of time working on the financial side of things with businesses. Looking around the place there's no wonder we're losing so much money. The club is still run as if we're a league 1/championship club when in reality we're a BSP club that turned over a measly 1.6m last year. I'd love to know how many full time non-playing staff we employ, there seems to be far too many for a company of it's size and I think we need to be making cuts in these areas to protect the playing budget as much as possible. *disclaimer, this is my opinion only.

Quoted from headingly_mariner

The club may have to take another massive downward drop before it ever starts climbing the leagues again. We are not competitive and crowds are dwindling, going to BP  is a painful experience and we may end up part time soon.

In my opinion the loans that hang over the club prevent any possible progress and paint a picture of uncertainty regarding the future of Blundell Park,

Time for the loans to be written off and the club to cut it's cloth accordingly.

somebody posted on grim outlook "fenty says hes allready written off the loans in his head,so why not do it legally"    is this a fair point

All the above points are relavent,  however the only way up is a winning team and if we were in the top three the gates would reflect it and almost everything in the garden would be rosey.

So its down to the players and managers I suppose, that IMO is where the buck stops

you cant polish a turd!

Basically for me as much as it pains me to say we need to start acting like a conference club when it comes to the finances. I'm not sure what hours the club shop is open (just had a quick look on the OS and couldn't find anything) but i'll assume it's open Monday to Friday and possibly Saturday on match days. Surely you could reduce the opening hours and only open on certain days, i can't imagine there's the demand to open up Monday - Friday.

Whatever happens, even if Fenty is reelected there has to be wide scale cuts, i'm just amazed its taken this long to realise it. We should have made the sweeping cuts when we got relegated to the conference in the first place.

Quoted from headingly_mariner

The club may have to take another massive downward drop before it ever starts climbing the leagues again. We are not competitive and crowds are dwindling, going to BP  is a painful experience and we may end up part time soon.

In my opinion the loans that hang over the club prevent any possible progress and paint a picture of uncertainty regarding the future of Blundell Park,

Time for the loans to be written off and the club to cut it's cloth accordingly.

Is PC Plod representative of a dearly loved institution by any chance?  

Quoted from tashee69

What  ?!!!  
This is like saying next time you have a headache cut your head off it stops the pain.

Yeah, I might have been being a bit melodramatic there!

Although, having said that, I bet AFC Grimsby wouldn't be that much further down the pyramid!