Adver News: SWINDON TOWN: Portugal media ban does no one any favours

[joteddyred]

Out of interest Rob, are you relatively comfortable with what's happening at the County Ground at present?

[sonicyouth]

of course he is, RobT is the original happy clapper

[Bert Heads head]

The thread title is sooooooooooo apt. No favours at all to anybody

The relationship between the Club and the local Press (not the national Press so much as they are cynical bast*rds) is always important. Sam knows this because a good relationship with the club gets him news, interviews and occasional scoops, which sells the newspaper. Good for him and good for the paper, as STFC is certainly the single most important topic in the whole of the Adver.

The club should know (but apparently don't) that the relationship is good for them too - keeping the news level, and therefore the fans' interest, high keeps the interest in the club rolling along. This gets bums on seats at the CG, which is what the club needs to achieve their budget.

Bigger crowds and happy fans affects the players. They play better, more as a team, we are more successful, everybody is happy and everybody looks forward to the next game.

It's all positive and works to the benefit of all, the fans, the players and the rest of the club, and the Adver of course. It is a shame that somebody at the club doesn't really appreciate this.

Sorry to be boring and state the obvious, but imo it seems important that somebody at the club ought to know all this..... I will now go and lie down for a while.

[Reg Smeeton]

 Presumably reports of STFC events in Portugal will be found in the Haringey Independent.....as an aside I see our 1st team game v PdC's mob in the Asia Cup is being shown on Sky

[THE FLASH]

I can confirm that I'm off to Corfu in two weeks and Sam is not coming with me.

[wheretherealredsare]

I'm coming back for a visit in August and I expect you all to leave the country.


(PS. How do you change the custom title under your user name?)

[Jamiesfuturewife]

That Sams quite cute isn't he?! 

[DRS]

Bitch

[DV]

Maybe they want the new manager to have an uninterrupted week with his new team but then that would give us nothing to get our knickers in a twist about so that's probably not it.

This would make sense....if we had a new manager.

I cant imagine anything of note will happen in Portugal. All the important stories are going to be about the manager which will most probably happen at SN1 anyway (or White Hart Lane)

[Benzel]

This would make sense....if we had a new manager.

I cant imagine anything of note will happen in Portugal. All the important stories are going to be about the manager which will most probably happen at SN1 anyway (or White Hart Lane)

What I mean is, if the board know who their man is, maybe he'll be out there, kept under wraps and there'll be a big reveal on their return.

I admit it is extremely unlikely and seems far too organised for this lot but I just can't be arsed to get worked up about this to be honest.

[flammableBen]

It's much easier to say "yeah, come out and chill with us. Watch the training, see who we're giving trials too!" When you know what the fuck is going on yourself.

Otherwise it's "SHIT we've got no manager, no idea what we're doing, signing players randomly ourselves and don't want to ask questions for a week. "

[Reg Smeeton]

It's much easier to say "yeah, come out and chill with us. Watch the training, see who we're giving trials too!" When you know what the fuck is going on yourself.

Otherwise it's "SHIT we've got no manager, no idea what we're doing, signing players randomly ourselves and don't want to ask questions for a week. "

I think both of those are quite difficult to say....

[tans]

Team bus should be leaving for margate in a min

[Honkytonk]

If I was the club in this situation, I would have my chosen managerial candidate lined up and ready to go out to Portugal and meet the players there. That way, due to the fact we have very little time left before season starts, he gets to work with the players and train them without having to deal with the press and fans taking up time and thinking space with press conferences, interviews, Twitter arguments etc.

Then again if I was in charge of the club the past 9 months of shame and disappointment wouldn't have happened.

[RobertT]

Out of interest Rob, are you relatively comfortable with what's happening at the County Ground at present?

Am I over the moon about the fact our squad needs to be completely overhauled in one summer and we don't have a Manager - NO

Am I ready to begin a lynch mob at the magic roundabout because we have owners who cannot pump endless sums of money into the clubs coffers to afford and expensive squad - NO

The facts are:

Our annual spend on players wages had spiralled too high.  It was done so because we had someone who was willing to underwrite it.

The Chariman then agreed to an even bigger spend, which upset the owner who in turn replaced him sharpish and put the wheels in motion for a quick sale  He had already signalled he wanted to sell the club, but his commentary at the time suggests the decided at this time to draw a line in the sand with 31st Jan 2013 as the end date.

New eoners without much by way of funds behind them have purchased the club in the absence of any other offers, or for that matter, a ready and waiting fan ownership option.

The wage bill has to be brought down by a considerable amount.

Innovative ways of achieving that are being attempted (Spurs tie up)

We are not fully aware of how that relationship is designed - that is a concern, something the local press would do well to understand and report on.

By radically reducing wages, replacing players and getting a new manager, the season is shrouded in uncertainty.  It is risky, that is for sure.

As I mentioned elsewhere before, the approach the board have been taking is very similar to Fitton when he first arrived.  Keep costs under control, invest in youth, try building relationships with top clubs to get dibs on talent, seek out new ways of bringing in money beyond season ticket and match day sales.  Fitton got this pretty close to spot on, but got a bit caught up in principles when certain things were not working - agents for example.  As much as he had the best moral idea, by spiting agents when nobody else was joining in, we started to reduce our appeal and seemingly had to pay a little too much to people to get them in.  That lead to our season that ended in relegation.

So, I have no issue with the wage reductions, with the bringing in of youth and the attempts to find new revenue streams.  I am accepting of the fact the board have fuck all cash to thro away at this game, much as it would be if we the fans were in charge.  I am "ok" with the Spurs link, provided we retain autonomy in the deal.  I would like to know what caused KMac to leave so swiftly.