A few things that bother me

I'm sorry . I was feeling fed up this morning. That post wasn't any help to anyone . I'll go take my tablets and cheer up instead

Still think we will do enough to survive mid 40s will be enough this season and we’ll scrape them just

Quoted from It Bites

JS keeps referring to Grimsby Town Football club as the Corporation
. It's not a corporation, it's a football club .

PH looks far too relaxed and under no pressure at all

The playing side has not improved at all in league 2 since JF

The Staff bill must be massive but have they all made a difference?

We are sleep walking all the way to relegation

Why don't we approach league games like the fa cup games ? ( That one's a bit tongue in cheek )

I find your first point a bit pedantic.

As for relegation, thankfully I think it’ll be two of the current bottom three… but I can see us sleepwalking into making the last few games nervy affairs.

Could the other staff potentially make a difference in the longer term as opposed to the short term?

I struggle to pick fault in your other points.

I personally think -

JS can refer to the cor-club however he wants, he's put his money where his mouth is after all

PH isn't under any pressure, he's a cog in a long term machine and I'm not sure piling the pressure on him would neccesarily improve performances

The playing side was doing great to begin with, fatigue has set in with 2 months less pre-season than anyone else and more games played last season, plus they are all trying to stay injury free for a chance at the big cup game.  I don't care what anyone says, subconsciously that's where they are at.

7 points and 4 games in hand separate us from the drop zone, it's seriously not panic time.

Honestly if we get through to the 6th round it'll continue to be the case, can I blame the players? No, I'd do the same.  If we get knocked out then we might start to see lads playing for contrcat renewals in teh summer and upping their game with no distractions.

Gotta love The Fishy. One minute we're planning our FA Cup semi final accommodation the next we're bemoaning a lack of improvement since the Fenty era.

You must have forgotten the multitude of seasons of mercenaries we've previously endured in L2. The players we have now actually seem to care. It's no secret that we're a fair few signings and improvements away from being a force at this level but I personally think we've seen enough to know that we're not going down this season.

PH looks far too relaxed? He probably is quite chilled and fair play to him, I say. He's had some crap jobs and worked for some crap owners so I'm glad he's now in a positive place. Zen Hurst v2.0 is a hell of a lot more in touch with us as fans than Ear Cupping Hurst v1.0. I'd rather have an air of calm around the place now than a load of flappers screaming their heads off unnecessarily.

or everyone could just chill, get off the players/owners/manager backs. Rewind 12 months eh....

Incredibly harsh to say all the extra staff haven't improved us because the majority of them, by this I'm talking those back office functions, will have no impact on the footballing side of the club.  They're there to improve the 'Corporation', the business side of the pitch.  If they're successful they'll increase revenue which should, you hope, mean Hurst has extra resources at his disposal.  

The right here and now, I don't think we know if they've made improvements or not.  If I'm going to be a harsh critic, I'm erring on the side of no.  Perhaps a case of too much, too soon when it came to change and there's a lot of things that appear to be a bit sloppy at the minute.  The ticketing farces that are ongoing (despite what the club claim), the Twitter account getting locked out for god knows how many days, the empty advertising slots, the constant noises we hear that people who previously got looked after by Dave Smith are now disregarded.
We don't know the circumstances around these issues but at face value it doesn't look great, yet anyway.  My suspicion is that some of the people who have left were pretty much holding things together, their absence has created an absolute vacuum.  That in itself needed addressing one way or the other.

Looking objectively at it, I would say the disappointment for me is that if these individuals did hold the fabric of the club together, moving them on at such pace is a bit unfair really.  There's a lot of talk about culture and changing it, but cultures are inherited and for staff that were at the club for years they've become accustomed to that culture.  It takes time to change mindset and disrupt yourself.  Transition is difficult and the last 18 months weren't really the most settled of environments to do it in either.  

I'm probably at the point of questioning some of the decisions that are made on a day-to-day basis, whilst still buying into the overall objective and vision.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Incredibly harsh to say all the extra staff haven't improved us because the majority of them, by this I'm talking those back office functions, will have no impact on the footballing side of the club.  They're there to improve the 'Corporation', the business side of the pitch.  If they're successful they'll increase revenue which should, you hope, mean Hurst has extra resources at his disposal.  

The right here and now, I don't think we know if they've made improvements or not.  If I'm going to be a harsh critic, I'm erring on the side of no.  Perhaps a case of too much, too soon when it came to change and there's a lot of things that appear to be a bit sloppy at the minute.  The ticketing farces that are ongoing (despite what the club claim), the Twitter account getting locked out for god knows how many days, the empty advertising slots, the constant noises we hear that people who previously got looked over by Dave Smith are now disregarded.  We don't know the circumstances around these issues but at face value it doesn't look great, yet anyway.  My suspicion is that some of the people who have left were pretty much holding things together, their absence has created an absolute vacuum.  That in itself needed addressing one way or the other.

Looking objectively at it, I would say the disappointment for me is that if these individuals did hold the fabric of the club together, moving them on at such pace is a bit unfair really.  There's a lot of talk about culture and changing it, but cultures are inherited and for staff that were at the club for years they've become accustomed to that culture.  It takes time to change mindset and disrupt yourself.  Transition is difficult and the last 18 months weren't really the most settled of environments to do it in either.  

I'm probably at the point of questioning some of the decisions that are made on a day-to-day basis, whilst still buying into the overall objective and vision.

Great post and I would agree with most of what you've posted. I sometimes think of the saying 'if something seems too good to be true, it probably is' when I think of the takeover. I still wonder if the running of a football club takes the owners out of their comfort zone because of the variables that they can't control.

I think it's easy to underestimate the legacy that Fenty left on the place and how long it takes to rebuild that level of damage.

It's no secret that he let nobody have room to make a decision themselves and I think for some it was too much to step out of that mindset, especially as quick as was expected.  

Stockwood isn't quiet about wanting people to think independently and challenge the business and themselves, if they don't then they're out.  In his book he openly recalls that when he took over Simply Business he moved on over half the workforce within a year.  The writing was on the wall.

But football isn't like other businesses, comparing what he and Pettit have done previously to a local football club is very different.  Let me be clear, I'm not questioning either of their business acumen.  They know their excrement, quite clearly.  But just taking the commercial side as an example, a lot of our existing commercial activity was local.  It was built on trust and relationship building, which I'm told Dave Smith was excellent at.  Could he have done more to bring in additional business?  Perhaps. In the 15 years he was at the club prior to 1878 taking over was he ever given that opportunity?  Unlikely.  Is it fair to expect him to develop that skillset immediately?  Again, no.  Was his value recognised at keeping existing customers noted and acknowledged as unsustainable if he left?  I think perhaps not.

Another point.  Stockwood isn't running the club.  He's the chairman, not the CEO.  He's got other business activities and interests, he lives in Manchester.  Debbie Cook runs the club on a day-to-day basis.  If Stockwood is good to his word on trust, ownership, taking control etc. then she won't be running every decision by him.  

I think 1878 are great, I think they articulate what they want to an unbelievable level that we could only have dreamed of previously.  Their ethos and values are incredible and align with mine and I suspect an awful lot of our fanbase.  They get 'it'!  

But perhaps just maybe, this out with the bathwater approach wasn't what was needed for the club.  The absolute encouragement is that Stockwood talks at length about continuous improvement, part of that is reviewing the changes you've made and then going again.  Improvement isn't a straight line, it will and does have bumps in the road.

What we have in 1878 are two very, very successful businessmen who, in their 'normal' working life make vast amounts of money. First and foremost they have been GTFC fans for many more years than they have been businessmen.

As with any business, the aim is to make as much money as possible, which they both do successfully. They have both thrown loadsamoney into this club already, and openly admit that 'the club' is and will still be losing money year on year for a few years to come, but they are happy to continue to lose those large amounts of money personally and thats something that we should all remember and take into consideration.

Being the owners of the 'business', its only right that they want and need the right people working for them, so as much as we have been saddened to see long term staff 'moving on', it wont have been something that 1878 will have done lightly if it was their choice. Either they will have seen that the staff were not of a level that they needed amongst their ranks, or some of the staff members themselves, who had plodded along taking home a paypacket monthly under the previous regime, didnt want the change.

As 'diehardmariner' touched upon, "when he took over Simply Business he moved on over half the workforce within a year". He only wants the best working for him. End of.

"Simply Business, a business insurance provider which has gained recognition for its treatment of its employees. Simply Business was voted as the number one ‘Best Place to Work’ in the UK by The Sunday Times in both 2015 and 2016, with Stockwood winning the overall Best Leader award in the latter year"

Now THAT is the type of person you want in charge.

Yes while 1878 have money, they have nothing like the money being pumped into Wrexham, and several other NL teams, but we are now in the league again and need to secure our league position first before anything. All small steps.

[and then when the contacts that 1878 have come in with millions of pounds of investment then we can all dream but until then........]