Accepting failure

I said the other day on here that we the fans have a habit of accepting failure and making excuses for it .
From now on from top to bottom of this club if something isn’t right I expect to see it called out.
If balls aren’t round , training facilities not right , funds aren’t available , players aren’t interested , I want to see it outed in public.
I don’t want to hear how lucky we are to still have a club , how spoiled we’ve been or how difficult things are as I know this club should be two leagues higher than it is and wound be if run correctly .
I expect our fans , manager and especially board members to put this info into the public domain and I expect us as fans to react and let our feelings known.


We can’t continue to accept second best if we want success

Quoted from grimps

I said the other day on here that we the fans have a habit of accepting failure and making excuses for it .
From now on from top to bottom of this club if something isn’t right I expect to see it called out.
If balls aren’t round , training facilities not right , funds aren’t available , players aren’t interested , I want to see it outed in public.
I don’t want to hear how lucky we are to still have a club , how spoiled we’ve been or how difficult things are as I know this club should be two leagues higher than it is and wound be if run correctly .
I expect our fans , manager and especially board members to put this info into the public domain and I expect us as fans to react and let our feelings known.


We can’t continue to accept second best if we want success

I don't. Our average attendance doesn't put us in that league, it puts us in league 2. Football has changed a lot in the last 20 years and past performance is not relevant to the fact that lots of clubs who had more potential fans have managed to attract those fans yet we couldn't even when we were 'good'.

Quoted from grimps

I said the other day on here that we the fans have a habit of accepting failure and making excuses for it .
From now on from top to bottom of this club if something isn’t right I expect to see it called out.
If balls aren’t round , training facilities not right , funds aren’t available , players aren’t interested , I want to see it outed in public.
I don’t want to hear how lucky we are to still have a club , how spoiled we’ve been or how difficult things are as I know this club should be two leagues higher than it is and wound be if run correctly .
I expect our fans , manager and especially board members to put this info into the public domain and I expect us as fans to react and let our feelings known.


We can’t continue to accept second best if we want success

I agree entirely.

Some of us called it out under Fenty for years, but far too may of our fellow fans seemingly want to accept second rate dross.

All the excuses we have had trotted out for years wont wash. We have the potential to be a successful league 1 club and that should be the aim from day one.

There is only one man to blame for all our ills and it is Fenty. Everybody else, players managers and backroom staff are just pawns in his game of run it cheaply and hope for the best. We never had a chance to succeed.

Assuming the takeover goes through, it will have to be different. Ironically I think the new owners will get far more public scrutiny than Fenty ever got; how he got away so lightly will always baffle me.

Quoted from pen penfras

I don't. Our average attendance doesn't put us in that league, it puts us in league 2. Football has changed a lot in the last 20 years and past performance is not relevant to the fact that lots of clubs who had more potential fans have managed to attract those fans yet we couldn't even when we were 'good'.

If we're using attendances as the primary determinant, the bottom half of League One is about par for the club based on it's infrastructure today. Attendances in recent years have been typically top 8 in League Two, but that's with a consistently bottom 8 side, and we still get higher gates than a number of League One clubs.

If we were to ever find ourselves at that level again (and it feels a million miles away right now), by the time you've accounted for the better quality of football and bigger away followings our attendances would absolutely not look out of place at that level. In the long-term there's no reason we couldn't aspire to achieve similar to what Rotherham have in recent years, flitting between the top of League One and the bottom of the Championship in a modest but modern stadium.

Right now it's all about healing our wounds and beginning to slowly rebuild from the bottom up, but we shouldn't underestimate the club's long-term potential. That hasn't disappeared.

Quoted from grimps

I said the other day on here that we the fans have a habit of accepting failure and making excuses for it .
From now on from top to bottom of this club if something isn’t right I expect to see it called out.
If balls aren’t round , training facilities not right , funds aren’t available , players aren’t interested , I want to see it outed in public.
I don’t want to hear how lucky we are to still have a club , how spoiled we’ve been or how difficult things are as I know this club should be two leagues higher than it is and wound be if run correctly .
I expect our fans , manager and especially board members to put this info into the public domain and I expect us as fans to react and let our feelings known.


We can’t continue to accept second best if we want success

I don’t want to see it in public.

One aspect of the incoming Board’s history that I am confident of is that they will improve fan and club interaction.

As a fan, I wouldn’t want, say (purely random) Harry Clifton moaning on Twitter that the balls were flat at training. As with any company, there should be systems in place so that the players can raise concerns with the managers and the managers can have an open conversation with the directors / owners. It should then be dealt with internally.

We have to give Stockwood and Pettit time to sort out this mess. And by time I mean several years, not the first 45 mins of next season.

You say we accept failure but I would also argue that during our time in the Championship, we didn't actually appreciate how good we had it? How embarrassing were the 'Carr Out' protests after we got relegated from the Championship with hindsight?

Quoted from pen penfras

I don't. Our average attendance doesn't put us in that league, it puts us in league 2. Football has changed a lot in the last 20 years and past performance is not relevant to the fact that lots of clubs who had more potential fans have managed to attract those fans yet we couldn't even when we were 'good'.

You're dead right football has changed over the past two decades. With that statement in mind, why hasn't the club changed? The facilities, the people, the processes. Same people doing the same things for 20 years hoping for a different result.

Thoughts please Mr Pen Penfras

Quoted from Poojah

If we're using attendances as the primary determinant, the bottom half of League One is about par for the club based on it's infrastructure today. Attendances in recent years have been typically top 8 in League Two, but that's with a consistently bottom 8 side, and we still get higher gates than a number of League One clubs.

If we were to ever find ourselves at that level again (and it feels a million miles away right now), by the time you've accounted for the better quality of football and bigger away followings our attendances would absolutely not look out of place at that level. In the long-term there's no reason we couldn't aspire to achieve similar to what Rotherham have in recent years, flitting between the top of League One and the bottom of the Championship in a modest but modern stadium.

Right now it's all about healing our wounds and beginning to slowly rebuild from the bottom up, but we shouldn't underestimate the club's long-term potential. That hasn't disappeared.

That number of league 1 clubs was 5 when covid struck. With 2 NL clubs having more than us. There were 3 L2 clubs with well over 7500, a number we haven't bettered since 1983/84. Our support would go up a bit with more success and more away fans, but it's not going to add 2000 onto the gate, which would have put us 15th in league 1. In 97/98 we averaged 5271 supporters in what was a very successful season with all of the things that you're claiming would put us higher up the standings if we had them.

It's all well and good dreaming that we can bring numbers through the gate, but we're a club in an isolated area with low income jobs and a history of success not driving attendances.

Quoted from SomeSanity

You're dead right football has changed over the past two decades. With that statement in mind, why hasn't the club changed? The facilities, the people, the processes. Same people doing the same things for 20 years hoping for a different result.

Thoughts please Mr Pen Penfras

My thoughts are that like a lot of small northern towns, we haven't had a mega rich owner to gift us money and facilities that would allow us to compete with the sugar daddies and influx of primarily southern clubs with growing support bases as local football has become more popular in the south. That combined with the big clubs being able to take away any player with a modicum of talent for peanuts has led to our stature in the footballing world falling and being unable to punch above our weight anymore.

Quoted from pen penfras

That number of league 1 clubs was 5 when covid struck. With 2 NL clubs having more than us. There were 3 L2 clubs with well over 7500, a number we haven't bettered since 1983/84. Our support would go up a bit with more success and more away fans, but it's not going to add 2000 onto the gate, which would have put us 15th in league 1. In 97/98 we averaged 5271 supporters in what was a very successful season with all of the things that you're claiming would put us higher up the standings if we had them.

It's all well and good dreaming that we can bring numbers through the gate, but we're a club in an isolated area with low income jobs and a history of success not driving attendances.

Apart from being relegated have you any more depressing news? Get the bad sh!t out the way now and prepare for a new begging with positive, not negative, posts.

Quoted from pen penfras

That number of league 1 clubs was 5 when covid struck. With 2 NL clubs having more than us. There were 3 L2 clubs with well over 7500, a number we haven't bettered since 1983/84. Our support would go up a bit with more success and more away fans, but it's not going to add 2000 onto the gate, which would have put us 15th in league 1. In 97/98 we averaged 5271 supporters in what was a very successful season with all of the things that you're claiming would put us higher up the standings if we had them.

It's all well and good dreaming that we can bring numbers through the gate, but we're a club in an isolated area with low income jobs and a history of success not driving attendances.

I think quite easily the better standard of football that would ensue were we to find ourselves in League One, and substantially larger away followings would add around 1,000 to our average gate. We averaged 5,259 in League Two in 2016/17 which after the initial excitement of being back in the league was a fairly poor season - 5,500 to 6,000 is eminently achievable in League One.

Still, this is a purely hypothetical argument for now as the only league we'll be playing in next season is the National League.  

Quoted from pen penfras

My thoughts are that like a lot of small northern towns, we haven't had a mega rich owner to gift us money and facilities that would allow us to compete with the sugar daddies and influx of primarily southern clubs with growing support bases as local football has become more popular in the south. That combined with the big clubs being able to take away any player with a modicum of talent for peanuts has led to our stature in the footballing world falling and being unable to punch above our weight anymore.

Bollox, in 20 years we've been left behind as clubs around us flourished, it lays firmly at the door mat of one man's pure incompetence at running a football club successfully.

Quoted from pen penfras

I don't. Our average attendance doesn't put us in that league, it puts us in league 2. Football has changed a lot in the last 20 years and past performance is not relevant to the fact that lots of clubs who had more potential fans have managed to attract those fans yet we couldn't even when we were 'good'.

If you look at attendances from the 80s and early 90s they was just as bad or worse at clubs similar  for even a lot bigger than us now , Bolton , Bradford , Huddersfield and Hull ect got crowds as bad or even worse then ours .
They got new grounds showed ambition and pushed on , we accepted failure .
Our crowds now are league two because we’ve been at the bottom of it or non league for 12 years

Quoted from pen penfras

My thoughts are that like a lot of small northern towns, we haven't had a mega rich owner to gift us money and facilities that would allow us to compete with the sugar daddies and influx of primarily southern clubs with growing support bases as local football has become more popular in the south. That combined with the big clubs being able to take away any player with a modicum of talent for peanuts has led to our stature in the footballing world falling and being unable to punch above our weight anymore.

Sorry but I don't buy that. Look at FGR, 20 years ago they were nobody. Yes, their Ecotricity guy has come in, but they have something GTFC hasn't had in the last two decades.

A real brand proposition. Look at the big names the club counts amongst its sponsors. They haven't done that by idly watching the clouds go by the office window. They brought in people who knew what they were doing. Got the branding and proposition right off the pitch and gained positive media attention from it.


In recent years the only positive media coverage the club has had is Op Pro, a fan initiate and the shirt amnesty which I'm sure JS would have come up with.

Quoted from pen penfras

I don't. Our average attendance doesn't put us in that league, it puts us in league 2. Football has changed a lot in the last 20 years and past performance is not relevant to the fact that lots of clubs who had more potential fans have managed to attract those fans yet we couldn't even when we were 'good'.

Although, it must be noted that as a match day experience Blundell park is big dump as you are ever going to find. We simply have not moved with the times

One of the challenges with calling out the things that are wrong is that the Principle Funder ran the club as a closed shop and we, the fans, had no sight of many things that were happening. The first we knew of something was when it was done and dusted. Often accompanied by the incoherent ramblings of el presidente on the club website blaming anybody but himself for why actions had to be taken or were not taken.

It will not be hard for 1878 to be more open.

Quoted from Zmariner

Although, it must be noted that as a match day experience Blundell park is big dump as you are ever going to find. We simply have not moved with the times

I genuinely find BP depressing and embarrassing. I often think 'what must visiting fans think of this sh*thole?'

Even worse is that last time we were in NL (how I hate that fact) some away fans thought that, by comparison with their own grounds, Blundell Park was like Wembley to them.  

Quoted from Youngy

You say we accept failure but I would also argue that during our time in the Championship, we didn't actually appreciate how good we had it? How embarrassing were the 'Carr Out' protests after we got relegated from the Championship with hindsight?

Unfortunately a vocal minority are more interested in who they can get removed from the club than about enjoying success. There were plenty of people complaining and asking for Buckley's head just a couple of seasons out from a double Wembley promotion season. We'd kill to be getting promoted from League One to the Championship these days and be lasting like 5 seasons in the Championship. Even when things are good the moaning will be about something.

Quoted from SomeSanity

In recent years the only positive media coverage the club has had is Op Pro, a fan initiate and the shirt amnesty which I'm sure JS would have come up with.

I don't want Stockwood to come up with these ideas.  I want him to harvest a culture where people within the club feel they can come up with these ideas.

Your point is absolutely right though.  FGR, as much of a pantomime villain as they and Vince are, have got a strong business model.  A direction that they all work towards.  We've had an idiot dictating that things are done on his terms and his terms only, based not on his knowledge of the product or market but because he struck gold with his fish business 20 years previously.

Quoted from pen penfras

I don't. Our average attendance doesn't put us in that league, it puts us in league 2. Football has changed a lot in the last 20 years and past performance is not relevant to the fact that lots of clubs who had more potential fans have managed to attract those fans yet we couldn't even when we were 'good'.

Football has changed a lot in 20 years - sadly Grimsby Town didn't.

Quoted from diehardmariner

I don't want Stockwood to come up with these ideas.  I want him to harvest a culture where people within the club feel they can come up with these ideas.

Your point is absolutely right though.  FGR, as much of a pantomime villain as they and Vince are, have got a strong business model.  A direction that they all work towards.  We've had an idiot dictating that things are done on his terms and his terms only, based not on his knowledge of the product or market but because he struck gold with his fish business 20 years previously.

You cannae teach creativity. But what you can do is bring in people with relevant skills and/or knowledge. It's not difficult I've been saying it for years. It's more than ideas, its the ability to see those through and put them into action.

FGR promote sustainable football, (although the money they spend in relation to their fanbase is anything but sustainable). Although what they practice isn't what they preach, what they do off the field is something clubs up and down the lower divisions should be undertaking.  The question is what is our proposition, the answer to that is simple. As a club, we should be playing on our fishing heritage more. A small passionate community who do an awful lot with very little. This is where we position ourselves, target brands who resonate with our club principles, the challengers so to speak.

The clubs branding should reflect this, I'm not talking our crest, that's sacred but our identity
We are Mariners, experts in our trade, we don't have a lot but fu*k me we work hard for it.

Well after the disappointment of last night, I for one will be looking forward to next season non league new start, new owners, new player additions and a proven managerial team, bring it on!

Quoted from pen penfras

My thoughts are that like a lot of small northern towns, we haven't had a mega rich owner to gift us money and facilities that would allow us to compete with the sugar daddies and influx of primarily southern clubs with growing support bases as local football has become more popular in the south. That combined with the big clubs being able to take away any player with a modicum of talent for peanuts has led to our stature in the footballing world falling and being unable to punch above our weight anymore.

Small town clubs :-
Lincoln
Scunny
Harrogate
Barrow
Mansfield
Morecombe
Accrington
Donny
Fleetwood
Rochdale
Rotherham

All in the north

Wycombe
Gillingham
Burton
Cheltenham
Cambridge
Newport
Exeter
Crawley
Stevenage

All in the rich south, but poor.

The one thing about all these small town clubs is that they have made some form of investment in the last 17 years without mega rich owners. They will all be in the EFL next year.

They are there because of investment in the stadiums, pitch, training facilities and players. One club has failed this sort of investment over the last 17 years and the chickens came home to roost, the last chance saloon shut its doors and the fat lady sang breaking the last thread.

Grimsby Town Football Club is where it is because of the above reasons and being a small town is not one of them. In times of need, the club has been failed by one person, Fenty.

Open your eyes, take of those rose (Fenty) coloured specs.

Quoted from SomeSanity

You cannae teach creativity. But what you can do is bring in people with relevant skills and/or knowledge. It's not difficult I've been saying it for years. It's more than ideas, its the ability to see those through and put them into action.

FGR promote sustainable football, (although the money they spend in relation to their fanbase is anything but sustainable). Although what they practice isn't what they preach, what they do off the field is something clubs up and down the lower divisions should be undertaking.  The question is what is our proposition, the answer to that is simple. As a club, we should be playing on our fishing heritage more. A small passionate community who do an awful lot with very little. This is where we position ourselves, target brands who resonate with our club principles, the challengers so to speak.

The clubs branding should reflect this, I'm not talking our crest, that's sacred but our identity
We are Mariners, experts in our trade, we don't have a lot but fu*k me we work hard for it.

You can develop the creative mindset though.

The one thing that’s been consistently lacking, aside from investment, honesty, vision and ambition is creativity.

We’ve had some great ideas in the last twenty years but when yeh came to shove they were one offs, often done or created by someone else. Then, when a little investment and time was needed the club didn’t want to or looked for a cheaper, less appropriate alternative.

You only have to look at the club shop website or the online ticketing stuff. It’s dilapidated and antiquated.

Not a single soul on our board in the last 15 years at least has had a forward thinking idea or proposition, the ones that have have copulated off Becauee it’s not worth their time when everything gets shot down or poo pooed Becauee poor old John doesn’t like it.

Quoted from Poojah

If we're using attendances as the primary determinant, the bottom half of League One is about par for the club based on it's infrastructure today. Attendances in recent years have been typically top 8 in League Two, but that's with a consistently bottom 8 side, and we still get higher gates than a number of League One clubs.

If we were to ever find ourselves at that level again (and it feels a million miles away right now), by the time you've accounted for the better quality of football and bigger away followings our attendances would absolutely not look out of place at that level. In the long-term there's no reason we couldn't aspire to achieve similar to what Rotherham have in recent years, flitting between the top of League One and the bottom of the Championship in a modest but modern stadium.

Right now it's all about healing our wounds and beginning to slowly rebuild from the bottom up, but we shouldn't underestimate the club's long-term potential. That hasn't disappeared.

I agree with every single word you say apart from one Poojah. Why slowly? Why not urgently or as quickly as possible?

Quoted from Bigdog

I agree with every single word you say apart from one Poojah. Why slowly? Why not urgently or as quickly as possible?

I read the slowly as a kind of, not throw everything at everyone all at once. Address key issues swiftly and try and solve them and then work quietly and efficiently on the others...I may be wrong.

A way in which we don’t overwhelm ourselves I guess...like I say though, I could be wrong though, I’m sure Poojah will respond...

Quoted from aldi_01

I read the slowly as a kind of, not throw everything at everyone all at once. Address key issues swiftly and try and solve them and then work quietly and efficiently on the others...I may be wrong.

A way in which we don’t overwhelm ourselves I guess...like I say though, I could be wrong though, I’m sure Poojah will respond...

My biggest fear about the takeover is if there is lack of new investment to go with it.  New funding will be just as important as new ideas. Ideas can only get you so far without funding, and better funding enables reduced timeframes.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

You can develop the creative mindset though.

That's a fair point, but.. We are all creatures of habit, and when folk have done things in the same way day-in-day-out for nye on two decades, that habit is difficult to break. We have
some very talented fans at the Football Club who have the skills and the know-how to really push this club to a new level off the pitch..... Use 'em.

The club mentality of using multiple freelancers and farming stuff out makes everything disjointed. It's a total mess.

Quoted from Bigdog

My biggest fear about the takeover is if there is lack of new investment to go with it.  New funding will be just as important as new ideas. Ideas can only get you so far without funding, and better funding enables reduced timeframes.

Exactly right

Quoted from Bigdog

I agree with every single word you say apart from one Poojah. Why slowly? Why not urgently or as quickly as possible?

If I'm honest, I think 'slowly' and as 'quickly as possible' are one and the same in this instance. We mustn't underestimate the state we are in as a club - we have well and truly let ourselves go.

If GTFC were a person, there would be a string of Channel 5 documentaries about us. We'd be that bloke whose spent the last 18 years of his life gorging himself on fizzy pop, Chinese takeaways and Micro-Chips. We're ridden with bed sores and possess body parts that no human being should have, meaning we haven't seen our own genetalia since about, ooh, October 2016. Which is a good job really, because unbeknownst to us our balls aren't round anymore.

Every night we go to sleep with the real threat of suffocating under the weight of our own flab, whilst our sanitary regime consists of nothing more than an occasional sponge bath of the areas and crevices on our body that can be reached without the assistance of hydraulic apparatus. Our dank, one bedroom flat hasn't been renovated since 1996 and is ridiculed by all who have the misfortune to enter it. As for the smell - the stench of failure and píss-soaked bedsheets consumes the air, but we've been living this way for so long we barely even notice it. We have been gradually edging towards the grave for almost two decades, one bad choice at a time.

The good news is that all is not lost. We can recover, and we are about to be put into the care of some good doctors. But first the fire brigade have to remove our bedroom window and crane us into the ambulance. Only then can the healing process begin. And healing all that damage, inflicted over many years by poor decision making, will take time. A couple of weeks eating salads will not have us looking like a mid-90s Peter Andre.

We should absolutely expect to see the green shoots of progress quickly, but that doesn't necessarily mean we should automatically expect to be pushing hard for promotion back into the EFL at the first time of asking. It's possible, Bristol Rovers did it as we know all too well, but it shouldn't necessarily be the expectation in my opinion, as galling as that may be.

We are in a sorry old state. This is only the beginning. Have patience and I believe that in time we will look back upon these dark days and laugh about them, from a much, much better place.

Quoted from Poojah

If GTFC were a person, there would be a string of Channel 5 documentaries about us. We'd be that bloke whose spent the last 18 years of his life gorging himself on fizzy pop, Chinese takeaways and Micro-Chips. We're ridden with bed sores and possess body parts that no human being should have, meaning we haven't seen our own genetalia since about, ooh, October 2016. Which is a good job really, because unbeknownst to us our balls aren't round anymore.

Disgustingly beautiful.

I often assumed we spent the 90s and early 00s gorging on foie gras, fondue and farmy, French reds. We enjoyed it. We got fat. We were spoilt. But we could still fit into our Town replica kit. Vertical stripes to the rescue.

Unfortunately, around 2003, the fine French food was replaced with elephant leg döners, tins of Amsterdam Maximator and Rustlers microwaveable burgers.

Fenty stapled our stomach but put us on a high cholesterol drip. We were still getting fatter but without the enjoyment of eating and tasting the food.

Quoted from Poojah

If I'm honest, I think 'slowly' and as 'quickly as possible' are one and the same in this instance. We mustn't underestimate the state we are in as a club - we have well and truly let ourselves go.

If GTFC were a person, there would be a string of Channel 5 documentaries about us. We'd be that bloke whose spent the last 18 years of his life gorging himself on fizzy pop, Chinese takeaways and Micro-Chips. We're ridden with bed sores and possess body parts that no human being should have, meaning we haven't seen our own genetalia since about, ooh, October 2016. Which is a good job really, because unbeknownst to us our balls aren't round anymore.

Every night we go to sleep with the real threat of suffocating under the weight of our own flab, whilst our sanitary regime consists of nothing more than an occasional sponge bath of the areas and crevices on our body that can be reached without the assistance of hydraulic apparatus. Our dank, one bedroom flat hasn't been renovated since 1996 and is ridiculed by all who have the misfortune to enter it. As for the smell - the stench of failure and píss-soaked bedsheets consumes the air, but we've been living this way for so long we barely even notice it. We have been gradually edging towards the grave for almost two decades, one bad choice at a time.

The good news is that all is not lost. We can recover, and we are about to be put into the care of some good doctors. But first the fire brigade have to remove our bedroom window and crane us into the ambulance. Only then can the healing process begin. And healing all that damage, inflicted over many years by poor decision making, will take time. A couple of weeks eating salads will not have us looking like a mid-90s Peter Andre.

We should absolutely expect to see the green shoots of progress quickly, but that doesn't necessarily mean we should automatically expect to be pushing hard for promotion back into the EFL at the first time of asking. It's possible, Bristol Rovers did it as we know all too well, but it shouldn't necessarily be the expectation in my opinion, as galling as that may be.

We are in a sorry old state. This is only the beginning. Have patience and I believe that in time we will look back upon these dark days and laugh about them, from a much, much better place.

I'd definitely attach your analogy to our bricks and mortar crumbling infrastructure, ie existing stadium, new stadium and training facility, although the latter is reportedly already being addressed and also the fall from grace of the club's reputation. But.. I'm struggling to think of anything else that can't be fixed relatively quickly without manpower, modest extra investment and shrewd radical decisions..There's a chance for Stockwood and Pettit to outline an instant rebirth rather than a diet lasting years..

Quoted from Bigdog

I'd definitely attach your analogy to our bricks and mortar crumbling infrastructure, ie existing stadium, new stadium and training facility, although the latter is reportedly already being addressed and also the fall from grace of the club's reputation. But.. I'm struggling to think of anything else that can't be fixed relatively quickly without manpower, modest extra investment and shrewd radical decisions..There's a chance for Stockwood and Pettit to outline an instant rebirth rather than a diet lasting years..

The challenge as I see it is that there’s so much to do. The training ground, the non-playing staff infrastructure, scouting capabilities, our youth system which has been for the most part unproductive over the last 20 years.

Then there’s the state of the squad - the following players are contracted beyond the end of this season and I don’t expect many others not under contract to be here beyond that:

Macca
Waterfall
Morais
Rose
Williams
Wright
Gibson
Jackson Jr
Lennie
Scannell

As a foundation, it’s not overwhelming me with excitement and I’d expect at least three of those will have to be moved on, which costs money. Realistically, we’re going to have to go out and sign a minimum of 10 players not currently at the club, on the back of a substantial drop in revenue.

I have huge confidence in what the new owners will bring to the party, but to the best of my knowledge they are not wealthy to the extent that they can bank roll a football club. It may be that they can borrow some money and take some calculated risks, but I can’t imagine GTFC or for that matter any non-league club is a particularly attractive prospect to lend money to.

The things that can be changed easily and for little cost will happen quickly I have no doubt. Communication with the fans, community initiatives, the general culture running through the club etc. - all things which are hugely important to restoring faith within the club.

But those things aren’t going to translate on the pitch immediately - their effects will be less direct and take time. The things which can have the biggest impact on next season are going to be things like player recruitment, infrastructure and facilities. I don’t claim to know what the masterplan is, but I’m struggling to see how we can do anything too transformative in the short-term.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really hopeful for the future under new leadership and I am confident we will see vast improvements throughout the club in the coming years. I just think we need to be realistic that this might not manifest as promotion at the first time of asking next season. If it does, then it will come as a very pleasant surprise.

Quoted from Poojah

The challenge as I see it is that there’s so much to do. The training ground, the non-playing staff infrastructure, scouting capabilities, our youth system which has been for the most part unproductive over the last 20 years.

Then there’s the state of the squad - the following players are contracted beyond the end of this season and I don’t expect many others not under contract to be here beyond that:

Macca
Waterfall
Morais
Rose
Williams
Wright
Gibson
Jackson Jr
Lennie
Scannell

As a foundation, it’s not overwhelming me with excitement and I’d expect at least three of those will have to be moved on, which costs money. Realistically, we’re going to have to go out and sign a minimum of 10 players not currently at the club, on the back of a substantial drop in revenue.

I have huge confidence in what the new owners will bring to the party, but to the best of my knowledge they are not wealthy to the extent that they can bank roll a football club. It may be that they can borrow some money and take some calculated risks, but I can’t imagine GTFC or for that matter any non-league club is a particularly attractive prospect to lend money to.

The things that can be changed easily and for little cost will happen quickly I have no doubt. Communication with the fans, community initiatives, the general culture running through the club etc. - all things which are hugely important to restoring faith within the club.

But those things aren’t going to translate on the pitch immediately - their effects will be less direct and take time. The things which can have the biggest impact on next season are going to be things like player recruitment, infrastructure and facilities. I don’t claim to know what the masterplan is, but I’m struggling to see how we can do anything too transformative in the short-term.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really hopeful for the future under new leadership and I am confident we will see vast improvements throughout the club in the coming years. I just think we need to be realistic that this might not manifest as promotion at the first time of asking next season. If it does, then it will come as a very pleasant surprise.

With the parachute payment and assuming fans can go to matches, we will have more income than last season. And let's not forget the thousands of extra fans that we've been promised will be turning up once Fenty goes.

Quoted from pen penfras

With the parachute payment and assuming fans can go to matches, we will have more income than last season. And let's not forget the thousands of extra fans that we've been promised will be turning up once Fenty goes.

The extra fans were predicated on us still being proud members of the Football League, but I would guess when the hurt of yet another relegation has subsided most of us will still be going to the games.

I agree with you though, I think there will probably be at least the same amount of income, but I bet the new owners will be savvy enough to know a good start on the pitch is vital, so I suspect we will see extra investment on the pitch.

What they won't do is pretend they are the principal funders whilst just using the fans money as a smokescreen.

Quoted from SomeSanity

That's a fair point, but.. We are all creatures of habit, and when folk have done things in the same way day-in-day-out for nye on two decades, that habit is difficult to break. We have
some very talented fans at the Football Club who have the skills and the know-how to really push this club to a new level off the pitch..... Use 'em.

The club mentality of using multiple freelancers and farming stuff out makes everything disjointed. It's a total mess.

I agree it’s going to take time and not everyone is a budding Elon Musk. A complete culture change is needed. But I think we might be pleasantly surprised by how willing and ready for it many club employees will be.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

I agree it’s going to take time and not everyone is a budding Elon Musk. A complete culture change is needed. But I think we might be pleasantly surprised by how willing and ready for it many club employees will be.

agree with this, plus the consortium have been planning this for a year or 2, and no doubt will have been able to put flesh on the bones of their plan in the last 4 months

Quoted from Knut Anders Fosters Voles

I don’t want to see it in public.

One aspect of the incoming Board’s history that I am confident of is that they will improve fan and club interaction.

As a fan, I wouldn’t want, say (purely random) Harry Clifton moaning on Twitter that the balls were flat at training. As with any company, there should be systems in place so that the players can raise concerns with the managers and the managers can have an open conversation with the directors / owners. It should then be dealt with internally.

We have to give Stockwood and Pettit time to sort out this mess. And by time I mean several years, not the first 45 mins of next season.

How many years do you suggest because many of us are rapidly running out of the ones we have left.

Quoted from pen penfras

With the parachute payment and assuming fans can go to matches, we will have more income than last season. And let's not forget the thousands of extra fans that we've been promised will be turning up once Fenty goes.

I mean the girl private going out the door could leave behind 200k he was gifted for intercourse all other than blackmail on his part...and whatever happened to the free 200k the club made this year with that appeal?

Another gesture by the fans poo pooed I’d imagine, much like Operation Promotion...