New Direction?

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

We start from a very low base.  Therefore even mediocrity is a big improvement for us.  The sky is the limit for us.  

God, I'll kill for a season of mid table mediocrity.

Quoted from pen penfras

Definitely sounds good, but the only thing that anybody really cares about is success on the pitch. Hopefully this builds a positive atmosphere and it spreads throughout the club.

That is so out of tune with what I'm hearing from so many other fans.

This is all of our club, no matter who the current man at the top may be, and we should all be able to feel proud of it, as we have previously, instead of feeling recurring embarrassment at the shenanigans going on from that position.

Success will come, and this should be built on rather than waiting for footballing fortune, or luck, to hand it to us as has been the norm for so long.

We will do this with foresight and good planning, I.e. making our own luck, and plans such as the Bcorp one will give us a good grounding to build on it and sustain it.

Quoted from coddy60

That is so out of tune with what I'm hearing from so many other fans.

This is all of our club, no matter who the current man at the top may be, and we should all be able to feel proud of it, as we have previously, instead of feeling recurring embarrassment at the shenanigans going on from that position.

Success will come, and this should be built on rather than waiting for footballing fortune, or luck, to hand it to us as has been the norm for so long.

We will do this with foresight and good planning, I.e. making our own luck, and plans such as the Bcorp one will give us a good grounding to build on it and sustain it.

But you're only hearing from the fans who are complaining, the rest are just quiet. We took about 15k to Wembley and I think even more in 2015. Having a nice community spirit isn't going to get those people to regularly turn up to matches, at least not in the long term. Success is what keeps people going and the other stuff is a bonus.

Of course everybody wants to lose the embarrassing events and not have them happen any more. Yes, it's about time a different direction was taken to try and turn our fortunes around, but that is not what brings fans through the gate, and anybody that genuinely believes that is deluded. Is there any example of a club that has significantly increased its following without success being the precursor to this?

A direction at all would be nice!

We have been treading water for far too long when investment has been badly needed. We must have the worst facilities in the league, and it's about time something was done to bring us up to date with all the other teams we compete with, and that includes the majority of teams in the conference.

Little wonder we can't attract decent players, and keep the ones we've got. It's not just about the money we pay, but the facilities we have, and that they show lack of ambition.

Quoted from pen penfras

But you're only hearing from the fans who are complaining, the rest are just quiet. We took about 15k to Wembley and I think even more in 2015. Having a nice community spirit isn't going to get those people to regularly turn up to matches, at least not in the long term. Success is what keeps people going and the other stuff is a bonus.

Of course everybody wants to lose the embarrassing events and not have them happen any more. Yes, it's about time a different direction was taken to try and turn our fortunes around, but that is not what brings fans through the gate, and anybody that genuinely believes that is deluded. Is there any example of a club that has significantly increased its following without success being the precursor to this?

Ok, let's just stick with your notion that success on the field is all that matters for a moment. How do we get from where we are right now, which by all accounts is the polar opposite of successful, to a point where we are at the very least punching at our natural fighting weight?

The club's reputation is toxic - we are a killer of careers, both managers and players alike. We are an absolute laughing stock. As is often referenced on here, we are geographically disadvantaged and the area itself, unfairly in my opinion, does not have the best of reputations amongst outsiders.

Add to that training facilities that are well below par for this level in this day and age, matched by a complete lack of infrastructure in terms of non-playing staff. A decrepit ground with dank, cramped changing rooms (and yep, I've been in 'em). An owner who is almost universally disliked by the fan base. Year upon year of abject failure. We are a last resort for players, and rightly so it would seem.

You can't just focus on the end-product - results. You have to concentrate on the means to the end. Strong moral values mindful of all those who work for the club and the wider community don't pay the wages of better players, but they absolutely will in the short-term get more people through the gates. Then you can think about organically funding better training facilities, bringing in specialised coaching staff, building an effective scouting and recruitment system, shaping a philosophy and attracting better players and longer-term initiatives like the long overdue new stadium.

Then and only then, will the results start to come. Check out how the likes of Brentford, Wycombe, Rotherham, Peterborough, Accrington, Fleetwood and Shrewsbury are doing and then look at some of the commonalities. What about AFC Wimbledon, who had to start from the ninth step of non-league in the early noughties and still managed to get themselves back in the football league before we did. All of them no bigger clubs than us historically, most of them smaller in fact. It's no fluke whatsoever that they are where they are and we are where we are.

We are a million miles away from where we ought to be, but sooner or later we have to take that first step. It may only be a small one, but it is one which is absolutely necessary and by no means insignificant.

Quoted from pen penfras

But you're only hearing from the fans who are complaining, the rest are just quiet. We took about 15k to Wembley and I think even more in 2015. Having a nice community spirit isn't going to get those people to regularly turn up to matches, at least not in the long term. Success is what keeps people going and the other stuff is a bonus.

Of course everybody wants to lose the embarrassing events and not have them happen any more. Yes, it's about time a different direction was taken to try and turn our fortunes around, but that is not what brings fans through the gate, and anybody that genuinely believes that is deluded. Is there any example of a club that has significantly increased its following without success being the precursor to this?

There is a response to this above this post on the thread that Poojah has written which gives some brilliant examples.

I'm sorry but reading what you have written in the thread and various other threads it seems that you are the of the same prehistoric ilk as the dinosaurs on the Board who have held this club back and soon will be put to extinction, not before time may I add! To believe that those of us who are completely dissatisfied with this mess are in the minority is to believe that the Earth is flat.

To think that things will be o.k. without fundamental change in this club's DNA is misguided at best, you're clearly and intelligent guy but I'm amazed that you can't see that the only we for us to sustain this club is for it to become part of the fabric of the community and then operate in manner that has mutual benefit for all of it's stake holders and the 1,000's many of whom regularly post on this site who are emotionally invested in the club that they love. A club I might add that over a lot of years has just let them down and taken them for granted.  

Yes if we start to do well the gates will lift, to a degree but to start to do well we need to build from within using a culture of involvement and make GTFC an attractive option on a Saturday (and more Tuesday's if we go down) do that and the rest should happen on the back of it.          

Quoted from pen penfras

But you're only hearing from the fans who are complaining, the rest are just quiet. We took about 15k to Wembley and I think even more in 2015. Having a nice community spirit isn't going to get those people to regularly turn up to matches, at least not in the long term. Success is what keeps people going and the other stuff is a bonus.

Of course everybody wants to lose the embarrassing events and not have them happen any more. Yes, it's about time a different direction was taken to try and turn our fortunes around, but that is not what brings fans through the gate, and anybody that genuinely believes that is deluded. Is there any example of a club that has significantly increased its following without success being the precursor to this?

So you believe there are a silent majority who are satisfied with the last 20 years?? Absolute balderdash mate.

If you're talking numbers, we took 28k to Wembley in 98, and we were a very, by our standards, successful team in that era, but still we never kept pulling them through the gates following our double Wembley visit.

How come they never came back?

I'll tell you one reason, because they would be visiting a second rate stadium, obviously I'm not knocking JF for it at that point, but for a long time now, our plan of attempting to have success with no engagement,  at no cost and with no plan to move forward has been a veritable sack of excrement, so I am well behind any plans the new owners have to bring us up to date as regards training, bringing the fans and community back onside and feeling valued, and, godwilling, a new stadium seems like a way forward to me, and a way to encourage, tentatively, those missing 10 or 23k to the club regularly or even semi regularly.

For me it's all about producing a virtuous circle, every aspect of the club moving forward and upwards. Better facilities and staff bring better players brings better results etc

Right now we are in the opposite of a virtuous circle, we just go backwards and down.

Poojah's list above is spot on but there's one glaring omission - Lincoln. All we have to do is look down the A46 to see how it's done!

Can we become Brentford? Possibly not, we don't have the catchment area. Can we be Lincoln? Bloody right we can and we can realistically believe that we will go beyond them, in time.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

For me it's all about producing a virtuous circle, every aspect of the club moving forward and upwards. Better facilities and staff bring better players brings better results etc

Right now we are in the opposite of a virtuous circle, we just go backwards and down.

Poojah's list above is spot on but there's one glaring omission - Lincoln. All we have to do is look down the A46 to see how it's done!

Can we become Brentford? Possibly not, we don't have the catchment area. Can we be Lincoln? Bloody right we can and we can realistically believe that we will go beyond them, in time.

It wasn't an omission - I just couldn't bring myself to do it...

Quoted from Poojah

It wasn't an omission - I just couldn't bring myself to do it...

Be thankful Scunny aren't an example.