Thetownend.com

Having a good rant. Bit late now though, some of the blames at your fault also im affraid.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/swindon_town/9447580.stm

can they just clarify how many points we're adrift and how many games are left? It's not clear.

He comes across as a bit of a tool, again.

Really? He is spot on unfortunatly he is about 3 months too olate in saying so.

How so?

agree with DRS - talks sense, but sounds like he's as gobsmacked as we are about the level of performance.

 I assumed this was going to be a thread about him walking.....so good that it isn't.

 Managers often bleat about not being given time....and I think the Boards decision to grant Wilson longer was at the time correct. It's a shame he couldn't turn it around, but this is modern football....mercenary players who don't give much of a shit beyond their next contract.

This leaves us with the process of a massive summer clear out, and a wholesale reconstruction job for the new manager.  It will at least be interesting during the close and pre season.

It's easy to be wise after the event - at the end of the day he must have backed Wilson's signings, in fact I suspect he probably played a strong hand in most of them as he clearly likes a good meddle - he's quick to jump on the players/management (fair enough!) but no acknowledgement of his own trainwreck of a season decision-wise.

The old cliche about put up or shut up springs to mind...

This is starting to really concern me. We've struggled in the recent past to bring in even a couple of decent players in postions that have required it, and particularly have often left things to the last minute. (Apart from full backs and central midfielders, we're pretty good at picking those up)

The prospect of half the squad departing at the end of the season and us having about 12 players come the start of August has me more than a little worried.

I think he's got a point. At the end of the day as a chairman you support your manager. If Wilson wants to sign a certain player you offer the funds to sign him. Sadly Wilson picked some shit and it's all back fired. I'd imagine Fitton was hoping investment into more players after last season would see us come on stronger. It all went wrong when Wilson started signing players in positions we didn't require players for urgently.

Genuine question but what do you mean by this?

I was surprised when Prutton came in when we already had a midfield which was dominant throughout most of the season. Perhaps somebody as back-up, but not another first-teamer.

If it isn't broken, why fix it?

You've alluded to Fitton walking on a few other occasions as well - but why?  Must admit I've seen nothing to suggest that he's even thinking about this.  (Or is this your male intuition at work?)

Reg likes to scare people. Don't you reg :D

To be fair Fitton himself has said that chairmen should not really be at the helm for longer than 3 years.

I was equally baffled at his left back signings.

The prospect of half the squad staying is what frightens me...

Come on DMR, that sounds like a thisis post and you're normally better than that! If he hadn't backed Wilson then we'd have cause to moan but he did, and it didn't work out, but I'm not sure that you can expect much more from a Chairman. Yes, maybe he stuck with Wilson for too long but I've not seen any evidence of Fitton actually meddling in team affairs. I've heard apologies from Chief Exec for the Board's mistakes and that's fair enough for me. We all make mistakes but I'm confident that the lessons from this season will be learnt. If I'd invested as much as they have I'd make bloody sure I learnt my lessons asap!

Spot on interview.

With hindsight far to many waifs and strays in the what may be or what may have been category signed not enough players with proven experience or consistency at this level.  Perhaps with the exception of Rose who if I recall Wilson mentioned his head has been all over the place this season. 

 

For my two penn'orth ... I don't think the timing of this interview with AF's comments about players is very clever. If there is the remotest chance of a miraculous escape it is hardly the best motivation to have the chairman publicly criticising players right now.

You could use the same argument that they could do with the extra kick up the arse. It's not as if him not criticizing them openly has led to a big improvement.

It doesn't come across as a kick up the arse though fB. It sounds defeatist, apologetic and blame shifting. There are ways of delivering a kick that would have been more positively effective IMO.

Don't forget our dominant midfield from last season was Ward-Ferry-Douglas-JPM, and when Prutton was signed we only had two of those available. Ferry signed later (with Caddis), so our midfield pair at that time would have been Douglas & Timlin

I think it's a bit to be worried about the players motivation.

And like Ben said, if anything, it's could be the kick up the arse they should have had long ago.

the time for blame has been and gone.there are plenty of people who could have the finger pointed at them.board,management and players.
what we need now is for the club to have a solid plan for next year.
a promotion year from league 2 would be enjoyable and dropping to the basement for a season wont dent fans pride for long.
promotion is much needed though, as if we stagnate in div 4 then a major rot may well set in.

Quite right.

I can't stand to read the quotes at the moment.

I agree. That 2 minutes spent communicating to the fan base by answering a question posed by a local journo is 2 minutes that could have been spent pointlessly speculating as to which players and coaches will or won't be available in 2 months time.

As much as I agree with your overall point arriba, I do think people are a little too easily displeased when the board, management or players come out and say something honest in an interview that they are obliged to attend.

Dougie not impressed....

 dougieno4 Jonathan Douglas
Love when the shit hits the fan it's somebody else fault. It's a coward trick to blame others....

How fucking ironic

Indeed!

I don't think anyone can be excempt from blame -

Fitton has made mistakes
Wilson has made mistakes
Players have made mistakes.

What is important is that these mistakes can be learned from and we can ensure we all work together, board, management and players to ensure that this holocaust of a season isn't repeated.

Petty bickering isn't going to achieve anything.

At the time Prutton seemed like a very decent signing, perhaps as backup for Douglas.
I think most people agreed that we needed competition/suitable backup for Douglas because when he was suspended on one or two occasions last year we really missed him.
However, playing Douglas & Prutton in the same team obviously doesn't work and upsets the balance. Douglas and Ferry last season were great together and i'm disappointed that they haven't continued with this for this season.

Prutton may have been a great signing had we not had Douglas, who knows?

Agree with a lot of the positive comments on this thread - whilst this season has been a complete trainwreck, top quality planning over this summer with the right recruitment of management and players could lay the foundations for back-to-back promotions which the success of Leeds, Millwall and Norwich in the Champ are demonstrating is possible

Although they were never in league 2

For the pedants that clearly means recently.

But if we are not keeping Hart then who will make the decision on the retained list, it can't be down to the new manager as he wouldn't know the players.

Although I suspect there is a good idea of who is going and who is staying with just a couple with question marks hanging over them

This season the problem hasn't been the midfield it's been the defence and forwards. Yes, Douglas, Prutton, Ferry, McGovern etc. haven't had the best of seasons but trust me that hasn't been the problem.

Yet of the midfield had performed better, the defence and attack would have functioned better as a result.

All the cogs were fucked up.

Agree. You can't exempt the midefield from critisim, they have been just as poor this year, espescially compared to the standards of last year.

Bournemouth were though....Rochdale haven't done badly either.

So what edition of this weeks Adver is Fitton going to admit the boards own mistakes?

I thought Watkins had already done that?  I may be wrong, of course.

Yeah he was on the radio a couple of weeks ago and was pretty frank about hwo this seasons gone from their point of view.

Fact is as a whole team we have played to deep all season,almost like the away team when playing at home,trying to defend then breaking,thats ok if you have finishers like Cox/Austin who can play that way,not people like Pericard/Dossevi/Andrew who are more of a hold up player.
Douglas has been playing like a centre half most matches because the defence is under so much pressure.
Also its imperitive we get a solid keeper,because they are the most important part of any defence,Lucas is to injury prone and Smith has had to many chances.

I have listened to the two Fitton interviews on the radio the last couple of days. Fitton was interviewed after the Hartlepool game and sounded quite down with the whole season and more or less accepted relegation. Felt he put too much blame on the Manager's signing given AF's active involvement in signings and that we made the wrong signings and the budget was there (7th highest in the Div). He felt some players might come good e.g Benyon with time.

Today he said that the club took their eye of the ball in the immediate aftermath of Wembley including Wilson taking time to get away after the defeat and didn't plan early enough for this season. He said this season they wouldn't make the same mistake and will look to appoint a new manager by the end of this month (Hart is a strong candidate) and would need to make acquisition/disposal decisions.

Felt Fitton/the board could have taken more accountability, after all Fitton is ultimately in charge of the football side and I can't believe he just went out and signed the players Wilson wanted with no say. He must be pretty damned frustrated that they sorted out all the old financial mess and got the club financially stable compared with most of clubs in the League and they end up relegated.

There are so many points where it went wrong probably with Paynter going and not replaced adequately. Surely money should have been spent here. The late signings of Ferry & Caddis seemed to unsettle the balance of the team. You could understand Wilson wanting 2 players for every position but he seemed to want to try and accommodate all of them especially in midfield. Greer going must have seemed the right decision and they thought that 2 from 3 of the other centre backs would come good. No replacement for Paynter put all the focus on Austin so he got both frustrated and big headed believing he was the main man, would that have happended with another 20+ goal a season man alongside him?

You could look at certain games in the season. Plymouth at home after 2 wins we pulled it back to 2-2 and then lost the game. The same with Peterbrough away if we had held on would have given us momentum. Something must have been wrong in the dressing room after the Crawley game and not playing a game for 2-3 weeks must have allowed things to brew rather than playing the next Saturday and getting it out the system. Charlton away got everyone hyped up that we could perform and as the results fell away after that a side assembled for a play off push has proved not up to a relegation battle compared with the teams around us with more modest expectations.

Will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks and whether we try to keep the side, alot of players are on 2 year contracts or if there is a complte clear out?

Good write up that.

Personally I think Fitton needs to take a step back from footballing matters. Yes, he should be ultimately responsible for them as chairman, but this season's shown we need someone in who actually has a bit of sense when it comes to transfer policy.

i think fitton might not look at himself as blameworthy at all.
pissed douglas off too it would seem.not that i have much sympathy for him either.

Totally agree with everything Oaksey Moonraker said. The next managerial appointment is crucial and I surely can't be alone in being amazed that Fitton has said Harte is a strong candidate.  I don't believe he's done anywhere near enough to be considered on a permanent basis. Quite frankly at times he's seemed completely clueless. If he gets the job it will be fairly clear that Fitton has learnt nothing from the previous mistakes he's made and is obviously adverse to the opinion of the supporter.

Chairmen always say the incumbent's a strong candidate though, usually a couple of days before the caretaker manager's passed over in favour of a proper permanent manager. It's just one of those standard meaningless verbal tics in football.

Any of our Scotch contingent know much about Jim McIntyre manager of Dunfermline?

What strikes me at the moment is a lack of even half appealing managers.  Usually there is a short-list of 4-5 names, some are usually unrealistic but they usually make for a decent wish list.
At the moment I’d be hard pushed to name even two out of work managers that would be credible choices to replace Hart.
 
Looking north of the border McIntryre and perhaps even Bollan at Livi look like two very promising up and coming managers that are  worth a sniff and would work well along side an older head like Hart.

Looks like he's now deleted that one...

I did hear last week that if we are relegated (when) Nick Watkins will step down.  Don't know how true it is, and I don't know if it is a push or not.

Certainly hope not. He's done a bloody good job IMO

likewise.

I hope that's the case.


That would be a real shame if it happens.  Nick Watkins has worked tirelessly behind the scenes and genuinely seems to care about the club.  I expect most will disagree with me, but quite honestly I think he'd be more of a loss to the club than if Fitton stood down.

I would only disagree in so far as I think it would be a fucking big loss for either of them to go.

Im going to be chairman.

Strap yourselves in

Guess that means we can expect an imminent arrival of Kingy then Tans?

Damn straight.

And strippers in the concourses

If Fitton interferers with what the manager wants to do he's a meddling eejit that knows nothing about football and who should leave the football people to get on with that mysterious business of recruiting players.

If he does nothing and lets Wilson get on with it and Wilson cocks it up he's also an idiot. Which is it to be?

You've got to be shitting me...

Worst signing for years and on mega bucks too!

I'd echo that, I think Nick does a very good job behind the scenes and keeps the backroom ticking along it would be a shame if he felt his time was up and I think we'd be worse of for it.

For 130k a year i would hope he does do a fucking good job.

Somehow I think £130k a year isn't the mega bucks to him, that it would be to you or I... personal motivation and interest in the club is clearly the key behind such a role at a club like ours.

The club don't seem to respond to emails or written mail anymore. Know quite a few people who have asked questions (in a polite way) and got no replys.

To be honest Ive heard things have gone downhill behind the scenes even quicker than they have on the pitch.

In what way?

Maybe it depends what has been asked and if they are sensible questions, what email address is used it may be an unmanned mailbox

His one was about the reserving of Seats for season tickets after April (the club have said they wont be reserving them), I dont know to what email address.

Mine was about using the 3rd kit for FAC games next season, hand written (politely).

As for things going downhill behind the scenes, thats just what Ive heard. But not replying to mail on a consistant basis is bad news.

I don't think that 2 mails constitutes a consistent basis

He said he knew other people who they hadnt replied to.

Has anyone had replies from the non playing side of the club this season?

I dont bother emailing or contacting the non playing side. I have no reason to as i'm happy with the way the club is being run. I don't see not replying to emails as a sign things are falling apart either. It could just be that people are busy.

I takes a minute to answer an email even if its a polite...fuck off dressed up a bit.

Nick Watkins Replied to my email regarding season tickets the other week

Yes, several. 2 or 3 on the exec side earlier this season, replied same day. And 3 iirc on the commercial side, again same day. Not including the ones I sent this afternoon to say thanks/well done for the kids training session this morning which were replied to in about 10 mins.

Regardless of how quick you can fire off an e-mail, sometimes it isn't the place of staff to write back on certain areas of the business... For example: What if "official capacity" comments are misinterpreted and then passed on to the press?

What training session was that Paul? I didn't see anything advertised?

What the fuck were you expecting? "Sorry Mr White, we won't do it again Sir"?

I suspect this is much like the oft-quoted "rows in the dressing room". When everything's going well, it's just banter and passion and everyone trying to lift the team; when it's going badly it's "dressing room splits"

Thanks Paul/Tans. I'll tell him he must have got the wrong e-mail address.

I dont think they want to discuss the kit thing. Hopefully they will stop the 3rd kit FAC thing next season, and hopefully we'll wear our club colours next time we go to Wembley.

As for the club being so well run that e-mails are not needed, I would say that the club has gone backwards non stop in 12 months.

Fact is the club have improved in this regard,but in my opinion still could do a lot better in certain areas.

Well maybe not. Both "samples" are small enough not to be representative. Maybe me and Tans got them on a good day; maybe your mate got them on a bad day?

You dont even know what it said do you? Fucking cretin.

I've had nothing but fantastic, thoughtful, quick fire replies which completely sorted out my issues within minutes when I've e-mailed the 'office' staff.

Its not very often admittedly but no complaints about that side of things here.

The team has. Not the club. I guess it's down to personal opinion but I don't see much wrong off the field. We've even spent money this season. That doesn't happen often here. Sure maybe the ST prices were a bit annoying for some with the prospect of L2 but can't really blame them for that.

Err, well you kind of said it was about using the 3rd kit in the FA Cup. So yeah, I do kind of.

maybe if you cunts stopped bombarding the club with your petty moans,or arse licking suck up e-mails,they might be able to get on with their fucking jobs.

I sent it just after they sacked danny wilson :D

He even replied to my quip about it being about time too!

 :D

On that note!

Perhaps we should start sending dome emails to the Pox board

"Dear Sir,

As a Bovine LGBT champion, I just LOVE what you've done with the statue

Yours sincerely

Mr Bool Sheet"

Nature of a football club that both are linked. Cant argue with the dismal results. Much fewer ST holders next season.

Also not enough to say money has been spent. Weve spent money on 3 players who have hardly played, partly because the club bought players in the wrong positions. Money has been wasted which is often worse than spending none at all.

The stated philosophy of the club was supposed to be that we were going to stick by a manager for a long period, the club failed to do this with Danny Wilson.

Failure to get Scott Cuthbert to sign a new contract.

Stalling of plans for a new stadium/ground renovation. Record number of games in a season with fans on only 3 sides of the ground.

Only our third relegation to the 4th division since it was created, with vastly superior resources to previous seasons.

Its not all bad, we did get good money for Sean Morrison.

It said please can we have a pink third kit with yellow spots on it for the FAC next season so I can laugh my head off at all the mugs who buy it.

no wonder it got ignored ::)

And here's a photo of former Town "star" Razor Ruddock modelling it:
[url width=340 height=255]http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/years/1993/gallery/340/blobby.jpg[/url]

Nah, thats Andy King :D