There's a John Fenty interview!

Apparently available on iFollow - if there's any subscribers out there!

Had Mariners Player but found iFollow to be garbage and don't subscribe.

It's a decent interview to be fair i used to give people my username did it before but they cottoned on and I got it banned haha.

Basically says they has been a couple of decent applicants for the new job and the usual merry go round mangers looking for a job.
He's asked for the fans to get behind the team for the remaining fixtures this season and support Wilkinson on Saturday. He seemed a lot more relaxed than his last few interviews like a burden has gone.

He said:

- it was a difficult decision.
- that hard work is all well and good but sometimes it isn't enough.
- we haven't had "lady luck" in recent weeks and that the penalty decision was questionable on Saturday.
- Slade cannot say that the board haven't given him time to turn things around but the form has been too poor. He added that fans want "knee jerk reactions" and the board has to "hold its cool".
- They've had a whole raft of applications, they're going through them and, interestingly, will proceed to making approaches for permission to speak to candidates.
- said he didn't reveal the length of contract because sections of the media "ridiculed" a 6 month rolling contract suggesting it didn't give suitable protection.
- he said it works for the club and he's had nightmares with managers on 3 year contracts and he has never known a manager turn down an appointment because of a rolling contract.
- he said the atmosphere against Cheltenham was better, the Fenty out stuff was channelled in the right manner it and needed to be maintained so results would improve.

Just watched it, not always his biggest fan but I thought in the main it was a good interview.

I agree with him that now is the time for all fans to get behind the club at this difficult time starting at Cambridge and to try to spur the players on to get the points we need as soon as possible

Looks like he's had a difficult few days.

Good to hear from him on what's gone on.

Some weird stuff about the media and contracts. Why can't he just let stuff go? Regarding contracts I think he's probably right regarding a 6 month rolling protecting the club, but he's also too rigid to have the foresight to give someone a longer contract when they've been successful.
I'll always be getting behind the team in the ground, but I'd still like to see the board leave. Drop the debt.

to me, it sounds very much like he'd like Paul Wilkinson to get the job if things work out over the next game or two.  Seemed to imply the acting manager has a different "mindset" (I think that's the word he used) about managing the club.  If so, will be very interesting to see the approach on Saturday.  Fenty did make the point though - with which I agree - that until their v late pen in the first half we were much the better side.  We played decent football in rough conditions and it would have been a fair reflection had we go in one or two up.  

He also said that Wilco needed to be different in his methods to Slade, so theres a challenge

Quoted from Mariner55

to me, it sounds very much like he'd like Paul Wilkinson to get the job if things work out over the next game or two. Seemed to imply the acting manager has a different "mindset" (I think that's the word he used) about managing the club.  If so, will be very interesting to see the approach on Saturday.  Fenty did make the point though - with which I agree - that until their v late pen in the first half we were much the better side.  We played decent football in rough conditions and it would have been a fair reflection had we go in one or two up.  

I agree, came over to me as if PW has different views on to how we should set up and play. Let's hope so and I appreciate some on here wanted him gone as well as RS but  let's just see what happens on Saturday and give Paul and the players our full support.

I have said that Pauls advice might have been ignored by Slade,

I am sure it was now,

Can't wait for Saturday now , come on town !!!!!!!!!

I think situations like we've just had, haven't put JF in a good light. Ever since the catastrophic fans forum, the club has ducked every question and basically stuck their head in the sand.

As supporters, we need to know that the club are listening and those in the upper echelon are actually taking notice. Communication is absolutely vital so, this coming from JF is a welcome relief.

Now, let's keep it going John, don't listen to your mates on the board about what you should think. You are a supporter of this club as well as the rest of us. It's time to show that passion and comradeship with your fellow fan.

Quoted from Mariner_09

He said:

- it was a difficult decision.
- that hard work is all well and good but sometimes it isn't enough.
- we haven't had "lady luck" in recent weeks and that the penalty decision was questionable on Saturday.
- Slade cannot say that the board haven't given him time to turn things around but the form has been too poor. He added that fans want "knee jerk reactions" and the board has to "hold its cool".
- They've had a whole raft of applications, they're going through them and, interestingly, will proceed to making approaches for permission to speak to candidates.
- said he didn't reveal the length of contract because sections of the media "ridiculed" a 6 month rolling contract suggesting it didn't give suitable protection.
- he said it works for the club and he's had nightmares with managers on 3 year contracts and he has never known a manager turn down an appointment because of a rolling contract.
- he said the atmosphere against Cheltenham was better, the Fenty out stuff was channelled in the right manner it and needed to be maintained so results would improve.

For that read Burnsey. Never backward in having a pop at JF.

Good interview but sounds like wilko is in with a shout if we get a couple of quick wins.

I think a 6 month rollling contract is a good decision to start with, but sometimes you have to be flexible, a good manager is hard to come by and when you get a consistently good manager over time, who may feel he deserves more security, and more backing with the sort of support staff that other teams in professional football have, then that should be considered.

the cost of not at least giving Hurst a 12 month rolling contract and a strength/conditioning coach has had to be paid out many times more with all the managerial and squad balls-ups since.

If we had, in some alternate reality, appointed Danny Cowley to the job 18 months ago, we would not have held on to him as Fenty would have kept him on a short contract and he would have been snapped up. Lincoln soon got him on a 5 yr deal and now only a championship club can afford to buy out the contract most likely. In all fairness Fentys way is safer at preventing the catastrophe of a manager who can't be sacked but does mean success is unlikely to be sustained as any decent manager will soon be on his way. However, if even when you have a catastrophically bad manager (like Slade, AND woods) you delay pulling the trigger for so long that kind of ruins the advantage of such contracts. He does seem to have learned a little bit in that he didnt give Slade the truly insane length of time he gave woods tho.

Quoted from Mariner_09

He said:

- it was a difficult decision.
- that hard work is all well and good but sometimes it isn't enough.
- we haven't had "lady luck" in recent weeks and that the penalty decision was questionable on Saturday.
- Slade cannot say that the board haven't given him time to turn things around but the form has been too poor. He added that fans want "knee jerk reactions" and the board has to "hold its cool".
- They've had a whole raft of applications, they're going through them and, interestingly, will proceed to making approaches for permission to speak to candidates.
- said he didn't reveal the length of contract because sections of the media "ridiculed" a 6 month rolling contract suggesting it didn't give suitable protection.
- he said it works for the club and he's had nightmares with managers on 3 year contracts and he has never known a manager turn down an appointment because of a rolling contract.
- he said the atmosphere against Cheltenham was better, the Fenty out stuff was channelled in the right manner it and needed to be maintained so results would improve.

Not shooting the messenger here M09, but if other people's opinion never seems to bother him. More inconsistency.

Very informative. John always wears his heart on his sleeve.

We have decent backing for League 2 in terms of finance.  I wouldn't give anyone more than an initial 6 month deal, but might give a year if they are looking ok after 6 months.

If you won't come as a Manager on a 6 month (rolling) contract then how much faith in your own ability do you have?

If you can't back yourself to do a job over 6 months then I don't want you!

Quoted from toontown

I think a 6 month rollling contract is a good decision to start with, but sometimes you have to be flexible, a good manager is hard to come by and when you get a consistently good manager over time, who may feel he deserves more security, and more backing with the sort of support staff that other teams in professional football have, then that should be considered.

the cost of not at least giving Hurst a 12 month rolling contract and a strength/conditioning coach has had to be paid out many times more with all the managerial and squad balls-ups since.

If we had, in some alternate reality, appointed Danny Cowley to the job 18 months ago, we would not have held on to him as Fenty would have kept him on a short contract and he would have been snapped up. Lincoln soon got him on a 5 yr deal and now only a championship club can afford to buy out the contract most likely. In all fairness Fentys way is safer at preventing the catastrophe of a manager who can't be sacked but does mean success is unlikely to be sustained as any decent manager will soon be on his way. However, if even when you have a catastrophically bad manager (like Slade, AND woods) you delay pulling the trigger for so long that kind of ruins the advantage of such contracts. He does seem to have learned a little bit in that he didnt give Slade the truly insane length of time he gave woods tho.

Good post. Lincoln are in the fortunate position, for now, of having a owner who is willing and able to put money into the club. He also recognised the potential of the Cowley brothers but to be fair to the GTFC board they also recognised the potential of Scott and Hurst. Even though that partnership didn't work out they did persevere with Hurst and he did get us back into Division 2. The big difference between the clubs then became obvious. Lincoln gave the Cowley brothers a long contract and money to spend on decent players. The board of Grimsby Town would't give Hurst  a better contract or more money to bring in decent players. Hurst left, Bignot came in, which didn't seem a bad choice, but for some reason after the club reached the magical 50 points it all went Pete Tong.I have never got to grips with happened when we reached that magical figure but I do think there are reasons why he wasn't allowed to push for the play off places, which  became more obvious after the convincing win at Blackpool and him then being sacked.  I can't be arsed to go into the latest debacle with Slade because there are several thousands recent posts relating to it. At the end of the day clubs and businesses can only go forward if there is somebody willing to invest in the future of the club. We haven't had that for many seasons and until we do we will flirt with relegation and ultimately be relegated again into non league because the present  directors don't seem to the have the finances or the wherewithal to take the club any further.

Quoted from Mariner_09

- he said the atmosphere against Cheltenham was better, the Fenty out stuff was channelled in the right manner it and needed to be maintained so results would improve.

Respect to John for this.

Quoted from Mariner_09

He said:

- it was a difficult decision.
- that hard work is all well and good but sometimes it isn't enough.
- we haven't had "lady luck" in recent weeks and that the penalty decision was questionable on Saturday.
- Slade cannot say that the board haven't given him time to turn things around but the form has been too poor. He added that fans want "knee jerk reactions" and the board has to "hold its cool".
- They've had a whole raft of applications, they're going through them and, interestingly, will proceed to making approaches for permission to speak to candidates.
- said he didn't reveal the length of contract because sections of the media "ridiculed" a 6 month rolling contract suggesting it didn't give suitable protection.
- he said it works for the club and he's had nightmares with managers on 3 year contracts and he has never known a manager turn down an appointment because of a rolling contract.
- he said the atmosphere against Cheltenham was better, the Fenty out stuff was channelled in the right manner it and needed to be maintained so results would improve.

My knee's been jerking for quite a few years now and no mistake.

Quoted from Cambs Mariner

Good post. Lincoln are in the fortunate position, for now, of having a owner who is willing and able to put money into the club. He also recognised the potential of the Cowley brothers but to be fair to the GTFC board they also recognised the potential of Scott and Hurst. Even though that partnership didn't work out they did persevere with Hurst and he did get us back into Division 2. The big difference between the clubs then became obvious. Lincoln gave the Cowley brothers a long contract and money to spend on decent players. The board of Grimsby Town would't give Hurst  a better contract or more money to bring in decent players.

So what the club should have done is given Hurst a 5 year contract despite a fairly large portion of the fans trying to drive him out for the last few years of his tenure. Can you imagine the uproar if that had happened? It's all well and good in hindsight saying that Hurst was brilliant, but it was only after he got us promoted that he got a bit of a break and by that time the damage was already done. And it's only after the job he's done at Shrewsbury that people have overwhelmingly decided he is a good manager.

And apparently we should have spent more money, which would mean increasing the benign loans that everybody is so against. You can't moan at a lack of 'investment' on one hand and then moan that benign loans hold the club back on the other.

Good interview, I agree with him on the rolling contract, limits the club's exposure and can't see it putting any serious candidate off.

Quoted from pen penfras

So what the club should have done is given Hurst a 5 year contract despite a fairly large portion of the fans trying to drive him out for the last few years of his tenure. Can you imagine the uproar if that had happened? It's all well and good in hindsight saying that Hurst was brilliant, but it was only after he got us promoted that he got a bit of a break and by that time the damage was already done. And it's only after the job he's done at Shrewsbury that people have overwhelmingly decided he is a good manager.

And apparently we should have spent more money, which would mean increasing the benign loans that everybody is so against. You can't moan at a lack of 'investment' on one hand and then moan that benign loans hold the club back on the other.

You do know the directors don't have to loan the club money. They can just donate funds.

It sounded to me that Wilko is JF 1st choice, which I wouldn't be averse to, as long as there's a distinct difference in the way the team is set up.  i.e. actually creating chances and trying to play football.

Come the summer we have only a few contracted players, which means any new manager can sign the players he wants.

Wilko doesn’t fill me with confidence but I’ll back him on the pretence that it was slades tactics and line ups every week. We will see quickly if that was case on Saturday very very quickly and if we get the new managers bounce or is same same old

Quoted from headingly_mariner

You do know the directors don't have to loan the club money. They can just donate funds.

No expert on company law but I'd be surprised if directors were allowed to just give money to a PLC. I'm assuming that GTFC is a PLC, of course!

I'd imagine the only way to put money in would be by loans or share purchases.

Quoted from Maringer

No expert on company law but I'd be surprised if directors were allowed to just give money to a PLC. I'm assuming that GTFC is a PLC, of course!

I'd imagine the only way to put money in would be by loans or share purchases.

Well we’ve just paid slade wages for doing intercourse all except destroy our club that should have been illegal

Quoted from Maringer

No expert on company law but I'd be surprised if directors were allowed to just give money to a PLC. I'm assuming that GTFC is a PLC, of course!

I'd imagine the only way to put money in would be by loans or share purchases.

It was fine for the mullens to put into op promotion

I'd imagine that the Mullens' contributions just counted as part of the O.P. crowdfunding process so not directly giving money to the club themselves.

I see nothing wrong with a six month rolling contract. If the manager is confident of succeeding it would not be a barrier to joining the club. Of course, everyone knows that Boards of Directors tend to be a bit trigger happy when things are not going well.  But at the end of the day the manger has to get results. the buck stops with them.

Once a manager has proved themselves, that would be the time to talk about two or three year deals.  

One of the hardest Jobs is being a successful football manager, the one that tops it in difficulty is the person/s who trusts that applicant to succeed

Quoted from Cambs Mariner

Good post. Lincoln are in the fortunate position, for now, of having a owner who is willing and able to put money into the club. He also recognised the potential of the Cowley brothers but to be fair to the GTFC board they also recognised the potential of Scott and Hurst. Even though that partnership didn't work out they did persevere with Hurst and he did get us back into Division 2. The big difference between the clubs then became obvious. Lincoln gave the Cowley brothers a long contract and money to spend on decent players. The board of Grimsby Town would't give Hurst  a better contract or more money to bring in decent players. Hurst left, Bignot came in, which didn't seem a bad choice, but for some reason after the club reached the magical 50 points it all went Pete Tong.I have never got to grips with happened when we reached that magical figure but I do think there are reasons why he wasn't allowed to push for the play off places, which  became more obvious after the convincing win at Blackpool and him then being sacked.  I can't be arsed to go into the latest debacle with Slade because there are several thousands recent posts relating to it. At the end of the day clubs and businesses can only go forward if there is somebody willing to invest in the future of the club. We haven't had that for many seasons and until we do we will flirt with relegation and ultimately be relegated again into non league because the present  directors don't seem to the have the finances or the wherewithal to take the club any further.

Are Lincoln being bankrolled or are they merely spending money they have generated from their FA Cup run (over £2m in Prize, TV and gate money) and from their huge amount of season ticket holders and increased crowds?

Quoted from GollyGTFC

Are Lincoln being bankrolled or are they merely spending money they have generated from their FA Cup run (over £2m in Prize, TV and gate money) and from their huge amount of season ticket holders and increased crowds?

That's what i think too. They got the right manager, and the rest just falls into place if the fans buy into it. They were bumbling along the same as us until Cowley came in. Now everyone is saying they have this great, forward thinking board.

You have to laugh at Fenty mentioning the "usual merry-go-round" applications for the job only 10 months after giving Russell Slade his 8th Football League managers job in less than 13 years.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

You have to laugh at Fenty mentioning the "usual merry-go-round" applications for the job only 10 months after giving Russell Slade his 8th Football League managers job in less than 13 years.

Yep, he's now had 4 jobs in 20 months. No doubt someone else will take a punt at some point.

The one worry I have with regards to Wilko getting the job is, if rumours are to be believed,  and we signed Kelly and Hooper on the back of Wilko's recommendation, then one would have to seriously question his recruitment policy and ability to judge a player, not only ability wise, but character, work ethic and attitude too.

To be fair to Fenty he's got to say that about Wilkinson right now, give him his full backing. Would Hurst have still been here if he'd had a longer contract and a conditioning coach?  No. Our fans helped him to make his decision to go to Shrewsbury.  

Quoted from Mighty_Mariner

The one worry I have with regards to Wilko getting the job is, if rumours are to be believed,  and we signed Kelly and Hooper on the back of Wilko's recommendation, then one would have to seriously question his recruitment policy and ability to judge a player, not only ability wise, but character, work ethic and attitude too.

The proof will be in the pudding MM I think it`s fair comment to say the players didn`t seem to be playing for RS or at the very least he was getting very little from them? With Wilko I am very hopeful youth will get a chance starting with the kid from Villa coming into the side and Clifton that in itself will be an improvement.

Quoted from 1mickylyons

The proof will be in the pudding MM I think it`s fair comment to say the players didn`t seem to be playing for RS or at the very least he was getting very little from them? With Wilko I am very hopeful youth will get a chance starting with the kid from Villa coming into the side and Clifton that in itself will be an improvement.

I don’t buy the “not playing” for Slade stuff. The only player who I think downed tools this season was Sam Jones and he’s gone.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

I don’t buy the “not playing” for Slade stuff. The only player who I think downed tools this season was Sam Jones and he’s gone.

I agree he was the obvious one but plenty of others have gone right down since Xmas only Summerfield earning plaudits for putting a shift in regularly.

Quoted from ginnywings

That's what i think too. They got the right manager, and the rest just falls into place if the fans buy into it. They were bumbling along the same as us until Cowley came in. Now everyone is saying they have this great, forward thinking board.

Pretty sure the South African guy put £350k in, which was enough extra cash to appoint Cowley and give him a war chest to sign the right players to win the Conference. Not a great deal of money, but money well invested..