dibo
Well-Known Member
This off-season is critical (and given that we're locked in for the spoon, it's basically off-season already. Unkind people would say our performances suggest the off-season started six weeks ago).
The club is going to have to work hard to retain members.*
It's not petulant to be angry at how bad we've been this year. It's not fickle to demand that the club make some sort of statement about how that's going to be addressed.
The talk of rebuilding the business, delivering a profit for the first time since 2008, opening the next stage of the COE - all of this is lovely talk, and gives people more reason to be confident that the club will be around in 10 years.
I know I'm encouraged by it and between these things and the new TV deal, I can see a future for the club where we're going to have potential investors lining up to get a slice of something really exciting.
But I didn't go to my first Mariners game in 2005 because I was interested in the business. I wanted to follow a football team that represents my area with pride.
Unfortunately, whilst the business stuff is going well, we are f**king awful on the park. We've been bad before, but this is something else.
We need to make a statement about the football - not just for the fans, but for the squad and the coaching staff and the league more generally. What is it that's going to change next year? How is it going to get better? What is it about this year that has held us back?
I'm presuming that the player turnover has hurt us badly, that we're still massively under-spending compared to the rest of the league, and it's been suggested that we've got cap money tied up in players who are no longer available to us.
If these things are true, then our off-season signings should reflect the absence of these impediments.
Our head coach was seemingly appointed after he had been hired as a TD and his 'global' search for someone else to appoint as head coach failed to turn up anybody else who was willing and/or suitable.
Let's go back to step 2, and re-start that search. I don't feel it's fair to TW to kick him to the kerb for struggling to get the side competing when he's in a job that he wasn't initially intended to be doing *and* in which he's had to operate under major constraints unique to our club.
With a new coach and significant signings (even entirely within the cap constraints - nobody's asking for Ronaldinho here) I think that statement would be made.
But these things need to be clicking into gear promptly. If we're to appoint a new head coach it should be as soon as humanly possible. That new coach should work with TW to deliver a plan for the squad for the next several years, including development plans for our academy and NYL players as well as specs on intended acquisitions and identify any players who no longer fit our requirements.
We need to see that these plans are in place, that we're clicking into gear and the machine is working properly.
Without this, we're going to have a lot of people who just can't see the point of showing up.
*Not me, or my +1; we're locked in.
The club is going to have to work hard to retain members.*
It's not petulant to be angry at how bad we've been this year. It's not fickle to demand that the club make some sort of statement about how that's going to be addressed.
The talk of rebuilding the business, delivering a profit for the first time since 2008, opening the next stage of the COE - all of this is lovely talk, and gives people more reason to be confident that the club will be around in 10 years.
I know I'm encouraged by it and between these things and the new TV deal, I can see a future for the club where we're going to have potential investors lining up to get a slice of something really exciting.
But I didn't go to my first Mariners game in 2005 because I was interested in the business. I wanted to follow a football team that represents my area with pride.
Unfortunately, whilst the business stuff is going well, we are f**king awful on the park. We've been bad before, but this is something else.
We need to make a statement about the football - not just for the fans, but for the squad and the coaching staff and the league more generally. What is it that's going to change next year? How is it going to get better? What is it about this year that has held us back?
I'm presuming that the player turnover has hurt us badly, that we're still massively under-spending compared to the rest of the league, and it's been suggested that we've got cap money tied up in players who are no longer available to us.
If these things are true, then our off-season signings should reflect the absence of these impediments.
Our head coach was seemingly appointed after he had been hired as a TD and his 'global' search for someone else to appoint as head coach failed to turn up anybody else who was willing and/or suitable.
Let's go back to step 2, and re-start that search. I don't feel it's fair to TW to kick him to the kerb for struggling to get the side competing when he's in a job that he wasn't initially intended to be doing *and* in which he's had to operate under major constraints unique to our club.
With a new coach and significant signings (even entirely within the cap constraints - nobody's asking for Ronaldinho here) I think that statement would be made.
But these things need to be clicking into gear promptly. If we're to appoint a new head coach it should be as soon as humanly possible. That new coach should work with TW to deliver a plan for the squad for the next several years, including development plans for our academy and NYL players as well as specs on intended acquisitions and identify any players who no longer fit our requirements.
We need to see that these plans are in place, that we're clicking into gear and the machine is working properly.
Without this, we're going to have a lot of people who just can't see the point of showing up.
*Not me, or my +1; we're locked in.
