Thetownend.com

Apologies to all of you that read this, as its about a weeks worth of frustration rolled into one long essay. Just need to get some things off of my chest.

Before the moaning starts though, I would just like to say how proud I was to be English when we won the Ashes on Monday. Having followed the progress of the England side since the mid 90's, it made the victory all the more sweet, to remember the doldrums that we'd arisen from. Every single England player is a hero imho. Even those that were criticised for their performances (Gilo, Bell, G Jones' glovework & KP's fielding) all contributed towards this historic occasion. This England side will be the Worlds No 1 test side in 12 months and for many years to come. Fingers crossed, they can continue the improvements shown in the one day side over the past 12 months and become World Champions at the World Cup.

All this national pride in the cricket team, has taken some of the media heat off of Sven and the England team, but for me, it makes me even more frustrated. The cricket side show exactly what it should mean to anyone who competes for their country, in any sport. They display pride, passion, desire, level-headedness, determination, team spirit, respect and balls. All things that are lacking from nearly every England football teams display i have witnessed recently.

The answer, seems to me, to be money. Your average English football "star", will be earning anything upwards of £40,000 p/w and some will be earning double that and then some. Thats not including bonuses and any extras they make from advertisements, bribes etc. Correct me if i'm incorrect, but the average England cricket player will be earning approximately the above quote, per annum. I realise that this argument basically is all down to the turnover of football compared to cricket, and its the reason why big name Charlie's can hold larger clubs to ransom over wage demands. But what gets my goat, is the way that the majority of players treat this huge privilige of being at the pinicle of their sport, representing the entire country in the international arena, with such blatent disregard.

I get the feeling with the current crop of England players, that they believe their own hype too much. The public WANTS England to win the World Cup, so the media turn this into EXPECTS England to win the World Cup, which in turn, leads to certain members of the England team thinking they have an aura of invincibility. Many of the team, and indeed the boss, turned up in Belfast, expecting to win heavily, thinking that even a half-arsed attempt at a performance would be enough and N Ireland would just roll over and play dead. Lets hope we don't make that mistake again, although i feel it will be all to soon before they do.....

In a way, I feel sorry for Sven, in much the same way I do for AK. Both were doomed to failure imo, as soon as they took/re-took the jobs on. Sven is a foreigner, and was always going to be criticised at the first sign of trouble. And by trouble, I mean us not winning the European Championships or World Cup which, given our past track record, is about as unlikely as it gets.

King is an abrasive, bullish kind of manager, who was always going to be a marmite character with the fans. At the first sign of any trouble and by trouble, I mean not in the hunt for promotion, he was going to get the fans on his back. In reality, he has done a good job on a shoestring budget. Not a fantastic job, but I would consider a good job keeping us in the league this year. I can't deny that I get frustrated with the man sometimes, in fact often. His tactics leave us baffled, he appears to have no motivational skills and a distinct inability to bite his tongue when he should. However, he must be doing something right, as he is keeping a small club, with a smallish fanbase, in the 3rd tier of the Football league, which imo, is a great feat.

Thats not to say he is untouchable. If results continue, and I won't put a timescale on it, he shouild probably go. But from past knowledge, King has a knack of turning results around when the going gets tough, and I still have faith that he can turn it around.

Time is running out though. Because of wage cuts, this team is likely to get worse as time goes by, not better. The only thing that can stem this flow, is ground redevelopment/a new stadium. One of these two things HAS to happen very soon, otherwise this club that we all love will die. Its a trend.....Play-offs--->Mid table--->Strugglers-------->Relegation? If we get relegated, I don't think we will be able to survive, that is the harsh reality of it. Following on from another topic, if this club went out of existence, i couldn't follow another team, such is my love of this club. I fear I may lose all interest in football..... :cry:

Please STFC board, do something positive to safeguard this clubs future, before I lose the will to watch football.

Thanks, STFC Village

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If you read this, go get yourself a cup cake to cheer yourself up, you deserve it :wink:

MODS, if you want to move this topic to another section, by all means. I couldn't decide where to put it, as it covered a plethora of subjects.....ok 3, but i like the word plethora :P

Cracking post village , agree with all of the above wholeheartedly.

Good post and I totally agree we desperately need the ground development soon.

I think England's cricketers earn more than that though. I read than Flintoff makes over a million a year just from endorsements, and his english cricket board contract is about £300k a year.

This says he could make up to three million a year soon too.

http://in.sports.yahoo.com/050913/137/604fi.html

Thanks for the correction Ben, I wasn't completely sure. However, that is Freddie Flintoff, our star player. I wouldn't have thought all of the players would be looking at the sorts of figures in Fred's ball park......Gilo, Bell, G Jones etc.....

Oooooooo, my post was just shy of 1000 words!

Thats the most i have written in one go in 3 years (since A-levels). Come to think of it, thats the most i have cumulatively written in the past 3 years :shock:

Spot on I think....now wheres my cup cake :evil:

exactamundo. Wheres my fucking cup cake :evil:  :mrgreen:

I also read it, but don't fancy a cup cake - can I have some bombay mix instead?

The top band ECB contract is £300,00 basic. This does not include the £5,000 match fee for each Test and presumably around £1,000 per ODI, nor does it include win bonuses.

I imagine the guys on the top band are Vaughan, Trescothick, Flintoff and perhaps Harmison.

I imagine most county captains will be on around £150-200k a year whilst the rest will vary anywhere between £30k and £200k (for overseas players).

Boeta, thanks for further clarification, although my i still stand by my original point.

KT, Pie and DV....the quote is "go get yourself a cup cake to cheer yourself up", not "go see Village, because he has been up all night making cup cakes and if you ask him nicely he will give you one for free".

Bollox, that last bit is going to be mis-quoted :)

Come on you midnight cake baker - give me something nice after reading your (non-musical) opus.

Someone had to do it....

http://www.heb.com/mealtime/recipe/dalmatianCupcakes.jpg

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:  :twisted:

Hmm, nice thought but I don't like chocolate. :?

Any chance you can find some cheesecake?

http://www.johncarverinn.com/images/cheesecake.jpg

I can't be arsed with anymore cooking, so DV and Pie can share the cup cakes, KT, enjoy your delicious looking cheeeeeeeesecaaaaaaaake. Took hours of preperation....

Ummm, now you're talking!

Cheers dude.

Nice cup cake..... :)