Can't listen to Ollie.

Quoted from The Yard Dog

We this season are playing the surival game and this has been stated by the club,

.

Where?

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

I've read your post twice and still don't get the Brian Hanrahan reference.

Are you posting on the Fishy and simultaneously posting on a chatroom about 80s TV history and got the 2 mixed up?

Most of us oldies will recall that live broadcast with a lump in the throat. Bit like 'they think it's all over' and Denis Law's yellow card defence, ''I called him an old coot sir''.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

I've read your post twice and still don't get the Brian Hanrahan reference.

Are you posting on the Fishy and simultaneously posting on a chatroom about 80s TV history and got the 2 mixed up?

Basically we started the season with 72 EFL clubs and come the end of the season hopefully we end with 72 clubs, having lost none.

Quoted from Croxton

Most of us oldies will recall that live broadcast with a lump in the throat. Bit like 'they think it's all over' and Denis Law's yellow card defence, ''I called him an old coot sir''.

I'm far too young.....*cough*

Quoted from The Yard Dog

Basically we started the season with 72 EFL clubs and come the end of the season hopefully we end with 72 clubs, having lost none.

Got you  

I wondered that BCT. The only connection with Town I can think of is that it’s difficult to say Brian H’s name and the name of our famous manager from the early 70s.

Or maybe it’s about Grimsby Harriers.  

I’m trying to work out the logic of using a lack of match fitness as an excuse and then rotating the squad constantly.  Surely the way to achieve match fitness is to play matches?  Teams at this level, well the successful ones at least, play their best players to a system they understand, it doesn’t need to be anymore complicated than that.

The present circumstances are unique, obviously, but as ever there are the same old teams playing the long shot of gambling with money they don’t have.  We haven’t and I doubt we ever will while the vast bulk of potential loss rests on one persons shoulders.  I’d like to think that there would be reward other than survival for our cautious approach and severe penalties for those more cavalier...... but there won’t be.  We’ll survive as a club and probably retain league status, however, the gamblers will probably benefit from a bailout which makes you question what is/was the right approach.  

Fans want success, one individual wants his money back, unless that gap is bridged a future of mediocrity is as good as it gets.  Let’s be brutally honest, the club, or at least the dictator in the shadows, hasn’t got a plan other than:-

1. Survive without investment
2. Get lucky with a transfer fee
3. Have a decent cup run
4. If 2 or 3 happen, recover loan

Sad really for all those who spend money unconditionally

I’m entirely sure fans want success, more to see the club just moving forward and a plan to do that. That is likely to bring some success but I really don’t think it’s just about fans wanting to get promoted or whatever.

Our youth system clearly has some positives but the investment in it must limit what they can achieve and do. Our commercial department is somewhat draconian, the ticketing process, the contempt in which fans have been held and so on.

Some progress from that would go a long way. It’s not just about throwing thousands at a squad to may be get promoted but investment and ideas across the board to at least put the club in a progressive state of mind.

Instead what we’re left with is an acceptance from the top which filters down in to the fans of just accepting we exist. Being happy to just be there. Accepting that there’s lack of development in any aspect of the club but it’s ok, at least there’s still a club. At what cost one might add.

Naturally the pro Fenty folk among our fans will say it could be worse whilst pointing at clubs that have gone but the way side, ignoring that their issues go beyond simply having a dodgy owner. The Fenty out brigade are sometimes ridiculed for ‘not being realistic’ or accused of having expectations way beyond what is possible, again, something which isn’t true. Is it so wrong to want to see my club invest in its training facilities or youth system rather than being proud of a new portacabin?

We’ve an owner that clearly doesn’t want to invest, that’s his choice, an owner that has taken money out yet hasn’t used it as payment against benign loans he has. A claim that he desperately wants to sell the club but the one serious opportunity he found ways to knock it back, making accusations and public comments, ironically, failing to demonstrate himself how he could help the club remain stable in its hour of need...

Then we have holloway, a name, a relative success in the game and someone who could help drive the team forward. He has a lot to say for himself, some makes sense, some is complete jibberish. Will he be a success? Who knows, we all want it to work but in reality it’s probably unlikely, in 30 years we’ve had 2 managers that have built year on year and had eventual success...

Personally I haven’t listened to pre or post match managerial comments for years. They offer little insight in truth and as this post has proven, cause great discussion about absolutely nothing. The fact is, our team is so inconsistent, there is a possibility of being a half decent side but excuse after excuse and chopping and changing is impacting that...hopefully it gets sorted; in the mean time, we’ll have fans saying it’s ok, we’re still here. We have fans wanting the season cancelled and there are fans that just want football to continue and will support their team (although some fans get arsey at this if it’s not super positive support all the time).

Quoted from 139914

I’m trying to work out the logic of using a lack of match fitness as an excuse and then rotating the squad constantly.  Surely the way to achieve match fitness is to play matches?  Teams at this level, well the successful ones at least, play their best players to a system they understand, it doesn’t need to be anymore complicated than that.

The present circumstances are unique, obviously, but as ever there are the same old teams playing the long shot of gambling with money they don’t have.  We haven’t and I doubt we ever will while the vast bulk of potential loss rests on one persons shoulders.  I’d like to think that there would be reward other than survival for our cautious approach and severe penalties for those more cavalier...... but there won’t be.  We’ll survive as a club and probably retain league status, however, the gamblers will probably benefit from a bailout which makes you question what is/was the right approach.  

Fans want success, one individual wants his money back, unless that gap is bridged a future of mediocrity is as good as it gets.  Let’s be brutally honest, the club, or at least the dictator in the shadows, hasn’t got a plan other than:-

1. Survive without investment
2. Get lucky with a transfer fee
3. Have a decent cup run
4. If 2 or 3 happen, recover loan

Sad really for all those who spend money unconditionally

Don’t disagree with most of what you said.

With the fitness aspect, players need to be brought up to match fitness in stages otherwise they risk injury*. Also playing at a high level (and by that I mean professional level of sport) the fitness demands are such that decent recovery time is needed. These guys are competing much closer to their physical potential than amateurs do, so even if they don’t have a ‘day job’ they need rest.

* as a trivial example, I dug out my bike in the summer and started using it more for exercise. If I push it too much I start to get muscle strain which means I might not be able to get back on it for a while thus defeating the object. I cycle to the pool and take a long round trip to get there and back. At first it was bloody knackering even though I had the cardiovascular fitness for the swim before. Took me a while to get used to it. When I did, I started pushing myself going further and faster, and more often. Result - laid up for days with no energy. I had to rotate the squad and send the wife out to exercise for me 😉

Obviously begs the question why we didn’t have a proper pre-season.

Quoted from 139914

I’m trying to work out the logic of using a lack of match fitness as an excuse and then rotating the squad constantly.  Surely the way to achieve match fitness is to play matches?  Teams at this level, well the successful ones at least, play their best players to a system they understand, it doesn’t need to be anymore complicated than that.

The present circumstances are unique, obviously, but as ever there are the same old teams playing the long shot of gambling with money they don’t have.  We haven’t and I doubt we ever will while the vast bulk of potential loss rests on one persons shoulders.  I’d like to think that there would be reward other than survival for our cautious approach and severe penalties for those more cavalier...... but there won’t be.  We’ll survive as a club and probably retain league status, however, the gamblers will probably benefit from a bailout which makes you question what is/was the right approach.  

Fans want success, one individual wants his money back, unless that gap is bridged a future of mediocrity is as good as it gets.  Let’s be brutally honest, the club, or at least the dictator in the shadows, hasn’t got a plan other than:-

1. Survive without investment
2. Get lucky with a transfer fee
3. Have a decent cup run
4. If 2 or 3 happen, recover loan

Sad really for all those who spend money unconditionally

I think your points 1-4 just about sums up the present situation, but what intrigues me the most is how the club was sold to Ollie?

He certainly would not have come if he was told the 1-4 points would he? So presumably he and Fenty would have discussed how to get out of the cycle you describe.

Once this incredible season is out of the way, what is the plan hatched between the owner and the manager/director? My best bet is that Ollie hopes to raise enough money in transfer fees to allow the loans to be paid back, allowing a clean start hopefully with fresh investment.

Ollie was quite adamant he wanted to leave a legacy; he was determined to take us to a better league placing in the pyramid and although that seems a long way off at the moment, we have to believe he can pull it off or points 1-4 will be on an endless loop.