In your opinion, the biggest problem at GTFC is?

Quoted from Marinerz93

Anybody who voted the biggest problem at GTFC is the fans has had their head up their bottom for the last 15 years or part of the inner circle full of yes men.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/cmO8YVe.gif[/img]

As a representative of a fans group I obviously couldn't (and do not) see the fans as "being the biggest problem" but I get increasingly frustrated on here that just because some people have a different opinion they are labelled as "part of the inner circle" or a "Fenty Fan".
When people are asking for a debate then the least they can do is accept that most if not all debates have two sides to them.
The survey results thus far are covering a huge range of opinions and each needs treating on its merits if we are to get close to making the right decisions about the way forward.
Oh and judging by the results of this poll so far it's a bloody big inner circle!!

Quoted from Gaffer58

The Fishy  Five and all the keyboard bullies !!!!

Right your name’s going on the list. Be warned!

The reason John Fenty became the chairman of GTFC was because he was a fan and also had the finances to do it, which is something a lot of fans would have done if they were in his position.
I would like to think that most of the fans in this position would have thought I can run a business but running a football club is something totally different. Any man with an ounce of sense would employ a person with a knowledge of running a football club. I think he thought Pete Furneaux could this, That was his big mistake.
To their credit they did get close to getting us within a few minutes of getting us into League One in 2006. We still had the play offs to give us that opportunity and we did indeed get to the finals only to be let down by his dear friend Mr Slade.
Since then it has been downhill except for getting us promoted back into Division 2.
Mr Fenty never seems to learn from his past mistakes. He has a board of people who have invested next to sodomist all into the club. All they are there for is to form a quorum who all agree with him. He then reappoints his dear friend Mr Slade, a manager who had been sacked in his last 3 appointments. In what way did JF think this would all end well. The fans were divided as soon as he was appointed. Along with the style of play, players signed, results, fans forum, the statement of intent a couple of weeks this season has been a catalogue of errors.
The couple of million you invested into the club many years ago was very welcome but the damage you have done to the club since then financially, personally for 3000 loyal fans, the history of the club and any future investment means you don't deserve a penny of it back.

Quoted from barralad

As a representative of a fans group I obviously couldn't (and do not) see the fans as "being the biggest problem" but I get increasingly frustrated on here that just because some people have a different opinion they are labelled as "part of the inner circle" or a "Fenty Fan".
When people are asking for a debate then the least they can do is accept that most if not all debates have two sides to them.
The survey results thus far are covering a huge range of opinions and each needs treating on its merits if we are to get close to making the right decisions about the way forward.
Oh and judging by the results of this poll so far it's a bloody big inner circle!!

Ian you have to accept that there are many backers of JF who follow his belief or stand by his statements, I agree that more people have said it's down to the fans but again some of these votes will be to back JF regardless, interesting that no one has said why it is the fans that are the biggest problem, bearing in mind fans of other clubs have done far worse than Town fans given our circumstances. You don't blame the customers if the food is rotten and service is extremely poor.

Also bear in mind Ian that if it wasn't for the hard and great work the trust do, the divide between fans and club would be greater and far more ferocious than it currently is. With what we have had to endure as fans over the last decade and support we have given, to me our fans are golden, yes we get a few who spoil things but this just isn't a Grimsby thing and sometimes those who blame our fans fail or are unwilling to accept this.

Quoted from barralad

As a representative of a fans group I obviously couldn't (and do not) see the fans as "being the biggest problem" but I get increasingly frustrated on here that just because some people have a different opinion they are labelled as "part of the inner circle" or a "Fenty Fan".
When people are asking for a debate then the least they can do is accept that most if not all debates have two sides to them.
The survey results thus far are covering a huge range of opinions and each needs treating on its merits if we are to get close to making the right decisions about the way forward.
Oh and judging by the results of this poll so far it's a bloody big inner circle!!

Well it was me asking for a debate. By doing so, I'm accepting there's two sides. My point was, I'm yet to see the other side (only in hitting a button or a red cross) and I'm intrigued to see if they can enlighten me in any way as to why the fans are the biggest problem..

Reasonable enough.. surely..

To be fair I may have been a bit harsh in some of my criticism of Fenty. I think he is a fan and has done his best.  However, all things must come to an end sometime and I think he and his board have demonstrated beyond doubt this season that their time is up.  His inner circle should stop protecting him and start having a quiet honest word with him to look at handing over the reigns to someone or something new. He has to count his benign loans as the cost of his stewardship and leave with some dignity before things turn nasty.

Quoted from Bigdog

Well it was me asking for a debate. By doing so, I'm accepting there's two sides. My point was, I'm yet to see the other side (only in hitting a button or a red cross) and I'm intrigued to see if they can enlighten me in any way as to why the fans are the biggest problem..

Reasonable enough.. surely..

Yep..pretty reasonable actually. It amazes me still that people who are already anonymous won't put their heads above the parapet and argue their corner. You can spend a long time putting together posts only to see red (and green) markings but no development of the argument.
As I said last night if I thought fans are the biggest problem then any position held on an organisation trying to represent fans would be untenable but in the interests of debate here's a stab at a Devil's Advocate view.
Blundell Park used to be a fortress. Now, if I were the manager of a team coming to Town I'd tell my players to go all out for an early goal because any positivity generated by a decent start turns instantly to outright anger if an early goal is conceded. There's a guy who sits four rows in front of me (Not you Friskney!) and to my right who bellows Slade Out with the precision of an atomic clock every minute. Now I'd be the last person to claim that our new goalkeeper is likely to be a future international but the all too apparent nervousness in the crowd in defensive situations must transmit to the players and, as the situation has got worse mistakes are creeping into a defence that earlier in the season was pretty strong. The Morecambe game for me was a totally new experience. In 50 years of watching the Mariners I've never heard the players being booed back onto the pitch (and during that half a century I've witnessed plenty of first half performances that have been more meritorious of it than recent fare served up.). I was out in Cleethorpes with an ex-player last weekend and the conversation turned to the atmosphere at Blundell Park. He was quite clear that playing in front of a decent sized crowd coupled with concentration levels required mean that you do not pick up individuals comments during the game because of the level of background noise. He went on to say though that you do notice it when walking out at the start or after half time. I get the criticism of Slade but he spends half time trying to gee the players up to get back into the game. Said group of players then walk out to a crescendo of boos from their own fans. Go figure! Freedom of speech is a marvellous maxim- one which I can get Voltairesque about but with it comes a certain sense of realism and responsibility. Booing (or cheering!) are not reflex reactions. You have to consciously decide to do it which is a tiny step away from thinking "What am I trying to achieve by this action?" There will be people who say it doesn't make a difference which begs the question "Why do it then?"
There are an increasing number of people who are prepared to countenance the team getting hammered to hasten the end of the manager. When Newport's second goal went in someone behind me, unable to contain their excitement was heard to say "Yesss he must be gone now!" What the actual....
Last Saturday in the concourse under the stand at Colchester at half time I spoke to someone. The conversation went something like this. Me:- Well that was better wasn't it?" Him:- "A bit-but it shouldn't be enough to save him he's got to go" I didn't see them after Colchester equalised but I'm willing to bet there was relief on his face!
Now let's turn to Social Media (ironic really seeing as all of this is on a form of Social Media)..I flipping hate it. Back in the day if someone started spouting sh1te in a pub you had two realistic options 1. Punch them (OK maybe not quite realistic in my position) or 2. Walk away. Now it's in your face. I turned on my phone whilst sat in a cafe last Saturday looking for team news. I was surprised by the line up but a large group of people on Facebook in the badly misnamed GTFC Fans Group decided in an instant that it wasn't going to work. In most cases there were no elucidated reasons for these pronouncements but it's a feeding frenzy where anything (even slagging off the current players as a means to get at the manager) goes. These comments are by and large from people that you wouldn't come into contact with under any other circumstance.
It's got to the stage where fans are being called idiots (and worse) for continuing to support the team. To counteract that I'm fed up of seeing posts on Social Media along the lines of "I'm not going again until Slade is gone" I've been around long enough now to know that we have had far worse times than we are currently having. NO-ONE wants to see us back in the abyss and I'll concede that part of the problem is at the moment that that experience is still too raw and genuine fans are worried.
I've just read through what I've written and there are plenty of opportunities for people to drive buses through the gaps in my arguments. Let's have the debate and at least some acceptance that fans have some responsibility for their actions.
**Awaits arryarryarry's two line condemnation linking the whole post to a far worse scenario from the past**

Quoted from realist

To be fair I may have been a bit harsh in some of my criticism of Fenty. I think he is a fan and has done his best.  However, all things must come to an end sometime and I think he and his board have demonstrated beyond doubt this season that their time is up.  His inner circle should stop protecting him and start having a quiet honest word with him to look at handing over the reigns to someone or something new. He has to count his benign loans as the cost of his stewardship and leave with some dignity before things turn nasty.

What happens is that friends close ranks to support their friend. I'd like to think that if one of my friends was suffering any level of abuse that I'd stick up for them.
Looking at it as an outsider I'm not sure it can turn nastier..

Trying to stand back from the 'bearpit' choices offered, I'd suggest our chronic inability to develop local youngsters to first-team standard.
We won two promotions with a side packed with local players - and for a club our size what's the alternative? We can't compete with the money.

Under-18s won 5-0 at Lincoln....just saying.

Quoted from barralad

Yep..pretty reasonable actually. It amazes me still that people who are already anonymous won't put their heads above the parapet and argue their corner. You can spend a long time putting together posts only to see red (and green) markings but no development of the argument.
As I said last night if I thought fans are the biggest problem then any position held on an organisation trying to represent fans would be untenable but in the interests of debate here's a stab at a Devil's Advocate view.
Blundell Park used to be a fortress. Now, if I were the manager of a team coming to Town I'd tell my players to go all out for an early goal because any positivity generated by a decent start turns instantly to outright anger if an early goal is conceded. There's a guy who sits four rows in front of me (Not you Friskney!) and to my right who bellows Slade Out with the precision of an atomic clock every minute. Now I'd be the last person to claim that our new goalkeeper is likely to be a future international but the all too apparent nervousness in the crowd in defensive situations must transmit to the players and, as the situation has got worse mistakes are creeping into a defence that earlier in the season was pretty strong. The Morecambe game for me was a totally new experience. In 50 years of watching the Mariners I've never heard the players being booed back onto the pitch (and during that half a century I've witnessed plenty of first half performances that have been more meritorious of it than recent fare served up.). I was out in Cleethorpes with an ex-player last weekend and the conversation turned to the atmosphere at Blundell Park. He was quite clear that playing in front of a decent sized crowd coupled with concentration levels required mean that you do not pick up individuals comments during the game because of the level of background noise. He went on to say though that you do notice it when walking out at the start or after half time. I get the criticism of Slade but he spends half time trying to gee the players up to get back into the game. Said group of players then walk out to a crescendo of boos from their own fans. Go figure! Freedom of speech is a marvellous maxim- one which I can get Voltairesque about but with it comes a certain sense of realism and responsibility. Booing (or cheering!) are not reflex reactions. You have to consciously decide to do it which is a tiny step away from thinking "What am I trying to achieve by this action?" There will be people who say it doesn't make a difference which begs the question "Why do it then?"
There are an increasing number of people who are prepared to countenance the team getting hammered to hasten the end of the manager. When Newport's second goal went in someone behind me, unable to contain their excitement was heard to say "Yesss he must be gone now!" What the actual....
Last Saturday in the concourse under the stand at Colchester at half time I spoke to someone. The conversation went something like this. Me:- Well that was better wasn't it?" Him:- "A bit-but it shouldn't be enough to save him he's got to go" I didn't see them after Colchester equalised but I'm willing to bet there was relief on his face!
Now let's turn to Social Media (ironic really seeing as all of this is on a form of Social Media)..I flipping hate it. Back in the day if someone started spouting sh1te in a pub you had two realistic options 1. Punch them (OK maybe not quite realistic in my position) or 2. Walk away. Now it's in your face. I turned on my phone whilst sat in a cafe last Saturday looking for team news. I was surprised by the line up but a large group of people on Facebook in the badly misnamed GTFC Fans Group decided in an instant that it wasn't going to work. In most cases there were no elucidated reasons for these pronouncements but it's a feeding frenzy where anything (even slagging off the current players as a means to get at the manager) goes. These comments are by and large from people that you wouldn't come into contact with under any other circumstance.
It's got to the stage where fans are being called idiots (and worse) for continuing to support the team. To counteract that I'm fed up of seeing posts on Social Media along the lines of "I'm not going again until Slade is gone" I've been around long enough now to know that we have had far worse times than we are currently having. NO-ONE wants to see us back in the abyss and I'll concede that part of the problem is at the moment that that experience is still too raw and genuine fans are worried.
I've just read through what I've written and there are plenty of opportunities for people to drive buses through the gaps in my arguments. Let's have the debate and at least some acceptance that fans have some responsibility for their actions.
**Awaits arryarryarry's two line condemnation linking the whole post to a far worse scenario from the past**

A good and well thought out response Ian, you have highlighted some of the stuff like fans booing the players, there are many counter arguments why I feel the majority of our fans are 1st class. To counter your booing I offer up what McMenemy and others have said about BP, the difference being they gave us a team to believe in and the players that had belief in what they were doing. People boo to let the players/management and board know they aren't happy, it is up to them to correct what's wrong and the fans won't boo, I don't know anybody who just goes to boo for the sake of it, people are turning against whats going on at BP because they have had enough.

The money raised for op promotion and the support on the fishy for a member who was in a dark place, also the money that was raised for Matty & Richard for the Pontoon gates of honour. The away support and before that how our fans rallied behind the club to try and stave off relegation.

The work the trust has done is beyond anything that the club has done.