2019/20 - A Clear Objective

As it's pretty quiet on here at the moment..

In general footballers respond better to clear objectives. If there isn't a clear objective there is a tendency for them to look at their performances from a personal career progression and pride of performance point of view, often highlighted by mid-table teams that have little to play for at this time of year. In the summer should MJ and the club come out with a clear objective for the players to aim for next season, and just as importantly, for the fans to get behind and be more inclined to buy season tickets?

For me, it's about time the club set a clear positive objective for an upcoming season for players and fans to buy into, and realistically play-offs should be our aim..

The problem is, if you have objectives, you generally need consequences if those objectives are not met. That concerns me.

Unless more money is invested them it will be mid table at best

I'm sure privately Jolley had set his stall out this summer for what he expected to achieve.

The problem is with this club that we've had so many years of decline and neglect that bucking the trend is like turning a tanker.  Fenty and those who defend him will point to the promotion out of the Conference as a success, but it wasn't.  It really wasn't.  It wasn't even a correction.

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Look at that, 20 years of decline with two short and sharp upward spikes.  Spike one was the failed attempt at promotion in 2006, spike two was the promotion from the Conference at the fourth time of asking from the play-offs.  That doesn't represent anything but wholesale failure.  

It pains me to say it but I don't think we can just hope that we can churn out a promotion push at the drop of a hat.  We tried it in 2006 and when it failed, we then went into further decline because it was a short-term approach.  There was no succession planning, there was no contingency if promotion failed and all the star players left.  We ended up with a manager who probably didn't want the job in the first place, players who didn't know why they were here and then had to bring back a manager who hadn't managed for five years to give us some sort of stability.

What Jolley is trying to do and I actually think he's doing quite well is building something for the future.  He's not gone all in on a big promotion push.  He hasn't gone and got a couple of big names in on one-year deals with the view to maybe making it this year but not thinking about the year after or the year after that.  I think part of the reason he let Ben Pringle terminate his loan deal was because it became clear he wouldn't be here for next season.  I think both Grayson and Dennis were loaned with the view to permanent moves (or longer term loans) for next season - of course that opinion may well change when the players are here.  I like the fact he's giving us an identity in the way we're playing (or trying to play) but also giving our own talent a chance. We've got Clifton, Rose, Pollock and Battersby under contract from our own youth set-up.  Add to that Brandon Buckley who I'm sure will get offered a deal in the summer too.  

The fact we've got something that represents a building block for the future is enough for me at the minute.  I want promotion, I want to see Town in League One pushing for a Championship slot.  But if we go all in on that and it doesn't work, it's burst bubble time again and we're back to square one or even worse.  

Next season - more progression.  With the improvements we've made in the last 12 months I don't think it's unrealistic to think we could and probably should be looking at top 7 next season.  But I would be a bit worried if the club came out and said this is what we expect, as wigworld says that then sets the success/failure tail wagging and I think we need to look a bit beyond the end of our noses for a few years.

MJ will make us a little better every season,

Whether that is good enough to get us promoted will be down to the backing he receives from the board.
It would be good if the board come out and say we are going for promotion and will back Jolley as much as we can.

I like diehardmariner's post and agree with it completely. But haven't we already gone public with an objective - Championship in 5 years' time wasn't it? Not sure if that was intentional...

I would imagine the targets will be based upon calendar milestones once the fixtures come out and the squad is in place.

Often managers target what points they think they can get from clusters of games over the period of the season.

I doubt whether they’ll be a public target and that doesn’t bother me TBH but looking at how MJ & AL operate I’m sure there will be a group mission and challenging but achievable personal objectives for each player and staff member.

It’s hard to tell what’s achievable until both windows are complete but in reality I’d be happy for more consistency next season and then a real push the season after.

I think if we can keep hold of MJ and working to this same plan of bringing through home grown players and mixing them with some quality experienced players and odd quality loanees we will improve year on year . This Season has gone much as I expected and I am delighted barring one bad run to have kept away from the bottom most of the Season . Realistically I expect next season to be pretty much the same and another decent cup run and chance of the Play Offs is acceptable . However like most fans I want us top 7 with a chance of automatic and a decent cup run and some quality signings to boot

I think the target should be top half with an aspiration of top 7. You can't say we have failed in we finish 8th, I'm not sure where our budget puts us but that should approximate to where we should finish. Another factor is which 6 teams change, there could be some bigger incoming fish that the outgoing or vice versa.

Quoted from GrimRob

I think the target should be top half with an aspiration of top 7. You can't say we have failed in we finish 8th, I'm not sure where our budget puts us but that should approximate to where we should finish. Another factor is which 6 teams change, there could be some bigger incoming fish that the outgoing or vice versa.

I agree. We need to say that we want to be one of the teams in the top ten and not the bottom fourteen. No harm in that at all. Make a play off place an objective while knowing that most fans would accept an admirable tilt at it with a bit more consistency and progression. The amount of times fans have been on here criticising the club for not having mission statements or showing ambition and the amount of times fans on here have calculated that we'd be in the play offs if it wasn't for the first ten games. "Gentle Progression" isn't going to boost season ticket take up as much as "The Jolley Revolution" ever did. And no increase in season tickets, little or no increase in budget and so the cycle continues. Sometimes being a little bold and brave with statements can effect things into reality and aiming (not demanding) for the play offs isn't really that much of a stretch is it? Just a little boost in positivity instead of retreating back to well-worn vague statements of competitive budget, get to 50 points etc. I know we're all a bit shot to pieces at times with how things have gone over the past twenty years and obviously very guarded about future prospects but look who's in and around the play-offs this year.. Tranmere, Carlisle, Stevenage etc. We've got a good manager, we've got a larger core of players than most teams in the division will have over the summer and a larger fan base than most, just the sort of profile we identify with our own tips for promotion. I really don't think it's out of the way to have aspirations of the play-offs. If JF or MJ came out and said it, how many on here would think they were mad? And how many on here who don't think the club or MJ should set a goal of aiming for a play off place, privately think that a tilt at the play offs (ie 10th or higher finish) is where they think we should be anyway and will judge accordingly. A few positive noises could go a long way to build a positive mindset and just falling short wouldn't be the end of the world in everyone's eyes. Finishing in the bottom half, public targets or not, would be a failure next season anyway as it wouldn't show any improvement, so openly aiming for a few places higher instead of guarded navel gazing borne out of a lack in confidence wouldn't do any harm at all imho..