Swindon Town V Scunthorpe

[ronnie21]

The good old Adver has had a field day!!  On their centre page spread on the game they gave the result as 1-1 (although they did credit the two Scunthorpe goalscorers!), claimed the attendance was 3,346 including 1,106 visiting supporters, and weather was crisp (!) and the pitch muddy!!  Their journalist is as shoddy as our team - on the plus side there is a nice picture of Sir Ian Botham smiling away in the sun!!

[ferret]

And on the flip side, the club might not be put up for sale until the owner is aware that a party is interested.

It's not an aguement, it's reality.  You can shout for Power to leave as much as you like, but:
1.) He's not going to just walk away and write off the money
2.) He's not going to openly come out and say the club is up for sale, that reduces the amount he is likely to get for it
3.) Unless there is an identified buyer, we are better off with Power, otherwise we could just cease to exist.  I know we are all pissed off with things but surely it's not worth gambling the clubs future existence on whether there is somebody out there that will step in and take it on.

I would prefer him gone as much as the next guy, but I only want him gone when we have a suitable replacement, not another Jed and not the liquidation route..

I'm no expert on this sort of thing, but if (as I believe is the case) Power has stated that we are near enough breaking even, how the hell could his departure result in the club going bust? Surely if we just remained independent / self sufficient, with a handful of Directors overseeing things, there wouldn't be an issue?

[Nemo]

I'm no expert on this sort of thing, but if (as I believe is the case) Power has stated that we are near enough breaking even, how the hell could his departure result in the club going bust? Surely if we just remained independent / self sufficient, with a handful of Directors overseeing things, there wouldn't be an issue?

Near enough breaking even on 7k gates in Legaue One =/= near enough breaking even on 2k season ticket holders in League Two

[Bogus Dave]

Then you might get Jed or BEST holdings... or, if we're really lucky, another Fitton type. Clearly, the ideal situation would be to have a buyer waiting in the wings who would clearly be an improvement. Years ago that might have been the Trust/Bill Power but they're not really set up to run the club at the moment.

Any new owner might be better, might be worse (yes, that very much is possible). They might not exist at all and then we'd really be in trouble. You can see why people might be a bit risk averse at least?

We could have been lucky and had Andrew fitton spend millions of pounds on being relegated, rather than tuppence

[ferret]

Near enough breaking even on 7k gates in Legaue One =/= near enough breaking even on 2k season ticket holders in League Two

Right, so then we just budget accordingly. We'll be above average L2 crowds whatever happens. And we must only have a handful of players under contract, none of whom would be on silly money anyway.

[BambooToTheFuture]

Ahh but Ferret. Even if the club is breaking even we don't know what the shortfall is that Power may be fulfilling. Although we'll lose £1mil (Powers est.) for relegation, the Gates aren't massively different for ourselves whether in L1 or L2 bar the local matches which will always be elevated. The harder thing is, getting unrefined assets and making them good (Gladwin, honest he was good but rose too quick imo) or being loaned a nearly refined asset and buffing it up to then either elevate your position or make a slightly above market offer to parent club (ala, Luongo, Pritchard, Mason, Byrne, Wes, Vigs...etc). Even in this poor season we have managed to still do this with Vigs. Granted the skill is not so much in the development, I think the skill is in the talent identification, without a true scouting network Power does rely on "friends" to offer him players. Now even your best mate isn't going to give you his best Pokemon cards is he. He'll give you Grade B or C, because that's still sharing...a true scouting network or just a Head scout and an assistant would bring about more knowledge of an upcoming player than any sports scientist will do. I'm all for these things in football but at a smaller club the core basics are needed and needed to be good.

I've digressed a little so apologies...but back to the "Break even" point. As far as we know, the club is stable under Powers tenureship. I'm not one for saying Power should go right now because that would be an action based on emotion and we all know a certain US President who just loves to act on impulse.

I think at this moment in time, Power is stabilising us off the field. That in no way means that I want our league status to be put at risk, however without a viable option in place and/or Power willing to sell, it is Power who will remain.

To conclude, the Waterford experiment may work in our favour, strangely. The lads who went there have done ok-well as I understand and the level is similar to L2 so they should be League ready and toughened up a little. There are players already at that club who could come here too. Which Power will undoubtedly get on the cheap and probably factor them in a sell on clause  so both concerns (both his clubs) do ok out of it in the future. e.g 50k for one of their "Gems" or "Failed stars" with a 20% SoC we sell for just 500k they get 100k which in turn builds them up and they can bring through even more development. Or as some may say...Power will pocket the lot. Tbf if he did turn 50k into 500k I'd be happy if he made 100k for himself and 150k into Waterford that still leaves 250k for us to spend on a decent player at L2 level.

Atm, I'll say we must wait with baited breath because until the Waterford project gets rolling to our benefit we can't jump away too soon. This is all really difficult to see too positively in light of our recent relegation, I understand. However i'm giving it until August to see what has been done. If things haven't been put in place or we don't see any progress in the sense of recruitment/management/sponsor acquisition/progress on ground buying by the Trust etc,  then I will be more concerned.  

Final note. Right now, Power should stay. Williams should return to the role of head coach. A new manager should be in position or in negotiation no later than the day after the Charlton match (even being interviewed at SN1 while everyone else is at The Valley). Talking of Charlton...I'd love Chris Powell. He may not drop down as a L2 manager but it'll be a while since he took up a role. Possibly enjoying his TV work for the BBC but the game always pulls them back in. Would he work under the conditions though (or is that a bit of a myth as Power isn't really around that much). A half decent manager can get what he/she wants out of the players and even more so if the owner isn't sniffing around too much. Maybe we should be pioneering and be the first club to employ a female manager? There are some very good coaches and managers out there it's just the male chauvinist stigma that is stopping them from coming through.

*ALL* Come and attack me with your constructive criticism ya rascals!

[Peter Venkman]

And on the flip side, the club might not be put up for sale until the owner is aware that a party is interested.

It's not an aguement, it's reality.  You can shout for Power to leave as much as you like, but:
1.) He's not going to just walk away and write off the money
2.) He's not going to openly come out and say the club is up for sale, that reduces the amount he is likely to get for it
3.) Unless there is an identified buyer, we are better off with Power, otherwise we could just cease to exist.  I know we are all pissed off with things but surely it's not worth gambling the clubs future existence on whether there is somebody out there that will step in and take it on.

I would prefer him gone as much as the next guy, but I only want him gone when we have a suitable replacement, not another Jed and not the liquidation route..

Yep this is how I feel.

[Power to people]

That's pretty inevitable going by what Power said, I don't want to see him sacked though just moved back to coaching and let someone else doing the management.

Moved back ?

So the man that failed as a manager stays at the club and a new manager is forced to work with the bloke that failed, then the new manager has to spend time looking over his shoulder just to ensure he is not being stabbed in the back by the bloke that failed and thought he done his best.

Bollox get rid of him and his staff and start afresh

What I would like see happen is a new manager comes in with experience of the FL, he is allowed to pick his own assistant and team.

Power allows the new manager to pick his own players and tactics and style, the manager does not necessarily have to have final say on players that can be a decision between manager and power but he needs to be involved in everything.

I expect loans but lets have 2 or 3 not 6 or 7.

I'm sure this will cost bit of extra money but speculate to accumulate, and if we have a good season then some of the players will be in demand and 1 or 2 maybe can be sold for profit.
 

[bilko]

Power as we laa know has cocked up appointing Williams and cocked up not replacing him in January or got him to take a step back and bring a proper manager in to keep us safe and then re-evaluate in the summer but he should have bitten the bullet and spent some money to get a proper manager as all the other clubs around us did.

Now with big clubs and good following like Pompey - Plymouth - plus the local derbies and if Birmingham go down Power would have been guaranteed some good money from bigger crowds. The guys a total twat for not getting a proper manager in and now we are going to have a tough job getting out of L2 because I don't believe he will invest properly again in the summer I still think he will dictate how we should play and which players to bring in whereas that will leave him limited if he does change LW as manager because most proper managers will want control of how the team plays etc.
The ideal guy to get us out of this league would be Cotterril and as much as I don't like him he would do the job but he would clash with Power and not sure he would drop to a L2 side as he's currently with Redknapp at Birmingham so if they stay up he will probably stay there next season anyway. But he knows what is required to get out of L2.
I get a feeling it will be youth next season who will get battered in L2 as they are more physical than L1 and a lot of hoofball.

Power has a lot to sort and he doesn't convince me he will do the right thing again he will be worried about his back pocket.

if he was really that keen to keep us in L1 he would have acted in January by replacing Williams or bringing more experienced and better players in but again he wouldn't pay the money to bring them in and that sums it up for me - its all about him and sod the club.

[Barry Scott]

There's one statement that even now, still gets repeated and now annoys me intensely. I think it must be that it's been said so much, by so many different people that everyone now believes it without question: Williams is a good coach.

Really? Honestly? Do people wholeheartedly believe this? Maybe he is, but is "good" good enough? And if he's so good, why are the team so unfit and can't defend for shit?

[Costanza]

Luke Williams shouldn't be offered a new role regardless of how good a coach he might be.

I'm always a firm believer of when a manager leaves, they've all got to go - Williams, Embleton and maybe even Thornton.

I've said it several times before and, gosh darn it, I'll say it again that these three coaches have zero experience as footballers in the Football League and that lack of experience has seemingly proved costly, amongst various other things of course.

[Power to people]

There's one statement that even now, still gets repeated and now annoys me intensely. I think it must be that it's been said so much, by so many different people that everyone now believes it without question: Williams is a good coach.

Really? Honestly? Do people wholeheartedly believe this? Maybe he is, but is "good" good enough? And if he's so good, why are the team so unfit and can't defend for shit?

And if he is that good a coach why is he still here ? Why has he not been poached by a better club ?

[Private Fraser]

There's one statement that even now, still gets repeated and now annoys me intensely. I think it must be that it's been said so much, by so many different people that everyone now believes it without question: Williams is a good coach.

Really? Honestly? Do people wholeheartedly believe this? Maybe he is, but is "good" good enough? And if he's so good, why are the team so unfit and can't defend for shit?

Yep.  I said something similar to the people who sit near me before a recent game.  Actually, I asked them if they could tell me which first team players they thought were showing any improvement since the start of the season.  They couldn't think of any. Nor can I.

[RedRag]

The only player I can think who may have improved over the season is the one not coached by Williams, namely Vigs.  That's a shocking indictment for a club whose focus has supposedly been on developing young players.

[Private Fraser]

......and Vigs's kicking hasn't improved at all IMO.