Who Are We?

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I think the premier league clubs can afford to do as you say, but what chance of that lower down? McMenemy, Kerr and Buckley have been the most successful managers in my lifetime and all with different styles. The one thing they had in common was winning which is the main thing. Getting the best manager for the job regardless of style is my main concern.  

You're probably right to be fair. In terms of doing it to the extent that those Club's I mentioned do.

However there are still things I would like to see us put in place as aims/values that we could be proud of and use to sell the Club when recruiting.

For instance, I'd love us to really commit to youth development and implement some of the stuff Bignot spoke about to bridge the gap between YT's at 18, to being ready for first team football.

I'd love us to say, right, each season we want to give first team debuts to 3 academy graduates, and sign a minimum number of youths on pro deals each year too.

Imagine the strength and pulling power that would give us to attract young players, and keep the best local kids in our system rather than going to Hull, Scunny or elsewhere. If we build a reputation for believing and investing in youth, and progressing players into the first team, kids, their families and lads released at 16 would all be more keen to come to us.

It was difficult for Hurst to do stuff like this with the pressure of needing to get promoted ASAP out of a league with 2 promotion spots, but hopefully going forward we could look at things like this.

In 2018/19 season all EFL clubs have to have 1(i think) player that has played at the club at youth level. 19/20 it goes to 2 players, if you cannot do that you lose that spot on the bench i.e 6 subs instead of 7. Hopefully this may help the clubs bridge a small gap in youth development.

The target is to beat Cambridge on Friday

Quoted from Civvy at last

I think sometimes people  think GTFC is a bigger club than it really is.
I'd rather cringe this week than fight off relegation. next season.  
People look at the managers 'available'  and moan when we don't sign Adkins or Readfern or whoever.
Has it occurred to anyone they might not actually want the job !!!!!
After six long years in the wilderness we are back in the league. JF is probably petrified of going back there and I can't blame him. He got burnt with Woods and made damn sure it was t going to happen again.  If people want to laugh I really don't give a fat rats t-t. I trust Slade to steady the ship in the league we're in and that will do for now.  

And newel plus rob Scott! Good post civvy. I think the op has a point, I've always wanted us to see if we could replicate what Crewe did and what many French and Dutch clubs do with having a really vibrant youth set up. The other option is a bit more ephemeral. The weird thing about gtfc is that it's geographical isolation is a negative, but in actual fact can be a positive. There have been a number of players, not always successful I grant you, who have come to the club because of close connections. Equally for a minority of players they just fall for the place and don't move on, or like the place so much they are more than happy to return. In the past we've had the mores, graham Rodger, Paul groves, Dave smith, Stuart Watkins the ex sheff wed lad smith, who have all made massive contributions to the club. We also have a similar breed now.slade is a possible example, but we have Disley, wilkinson, woods, Dave Moore, Pearson mckeown and possibly gowling who seem to have a deep affection for the place. If you can harness this then you may get the continuity of purpose and committment that the op is looking for. A bit ephemeral as I said but I hope it makes some sort of sense

It's an interesting question and I think a lot of fans would like to see their club do something that makes it stand out from the rest.  Now, no club is going to be able to reinvent the wheel.  All methods of playing the game have been done before, it's just about finding a system that suits the players you have and executing it well.

In a perfect world, I would be having GTFC play super attractive football every week with us passing each team off the park and every player having come from our youth team.  But that's not going to happen.  

The thing about a long-term plan is that, unless you are one of the big six or seven clubs in the PL, it's going to fail at some point.  Every season several teams have to get relegated and one day, it's going to be your club.  So there are problems that arise that require short-term solutions.  I personally don't want Town to become a sacking club but sometimes it will be needed.  Our goals at the moment should be to 1) stay in the league, 2) slowly build towards a promotion and 3) improve club/fan relations, which for some reason seem to be at an all-time low at the moment.  The majority of clubs will have the same aims.  The board think that this week's decision will satisfy the first two, so I think we'll have to bite the bullet in terms of how our club looks to the outside world for the time being.

But there are things which I believe can be realistically achieved within 20 years that could give the club a renewed purpose and identity:
- A sustainable business structure, with an income stream partly provided by a new stadium.
- A partially fan-owned club, with safeguards in place to protect us from a takeover by any basket case Italian businessmen.
- A more accountable board, with responsibility for decision making spread more evenly.
- Moves to reduce ticket prices over a period of time after/if the new stadium is built.
- A youth structure that is capable of producing graduates who are good enough for the first-team.
- A local player to be in the squad each season; this would give the team an identity and bridge the gap between players and supporters.

The last one may not be consistently achievable each season but I'd like to see an attempt to make it happen.  We can't really expect to have any control over our style of play or footballing direction, we have to trust the management staff's opinion on that.  We just need to make sure that the club's future is safe for the next generation of fans to enjoy.

Let's be honest, even though Bignot wasn't getting results, everything he said and was doing to bring the behind the scenes section of the club was correct. That development will now stop and we'll continue to be behind the rest of the league, especially with the youth team.

Quoted from Grantley

Let's be honest, even though Bignot wasn't getting results, everything he said and was doing to bring the behind the scenes section of the club was correct. That development will now stop and we'll continue to be behind the rest of the league, especially with the youth team.

Really good post from mariner devil and many points in there than the trust in particular should be considering.
I agree grantley that Bignot was at his best talking about these things, but don't forget the youth set up and development are areas where wilkinson has oodles of experience, not least from his own life story! It may not be all doom and gloom especially with Wright and rose plus the lad at Grantham looking so promising

Quoted from Tommy

You're probably right to be fair. In terms of doing it to the extent that those Club's I mentioned do.

However there are still things I would like to see us put in place as aims/values that we could be proud of and use to sell the Club when recruiting.

For instance, I'd love us to really commit to youth development and implement some of the stuff Bignot spoke about to bridge the gap between YT's at 18, to being ready for first team football.

I'd love us to say, right, each season we want to give first team debuts to 3 academy graduates, and sign a minimum number of youths on pro deals each year too.

Imagine the strength and pulling power that would give us to attract young players, and keep the best local kids in our system rather than going to Hull, Scunny or elsewhere. If we build a reputation for believing and investing in youth, and progressing players into the first team, kids, their families and lads released at 16 would all be more keen to come to us.

It was difficult for Hurst to do stuff like this with the pressure of needing to get promoted ASAP out of a league with 2 promotion spots, but hopefully going forward we could look at things like this.

We already had some players that had come through the youth system but he would rather send them out on loan than give them a try but then puts a defender in as a left sided midfielder who was poor against Doncaster and according to MB cost us a goal that day then preceded to play him in the same position where he was dreadful against Blackpool.

Quoted from Grantley

Let's be honest, even though Bignot wasn't getting results, everything he said and was doing to bring the behind the scenes section of the club was correct. That development will now stop and we'll continue to be behind the rest of the league, especially with the youth team.

You know this for a fact do you?

Don't think we will slip back in development terms Slade will have ideas of his own on how to run the club. Bignot might have opened the boards eyes to what is required back stage, the reserves have been very successful that can only be a good thing imho. A good fitness coach is another good idea but you need to balance the books. We can't afford a massive squad of over 30 players and still have a big back room. We all marvelled many players came in January most I have ever known but I thought hang on how the hell do we pay for everyone now seems as most of the players they replaced where not loaned out???