"We are looking at bringing in a marketing person."
The bar at this club is just astonishingly low.
It is starting to dawn on me that these guys might just be rubbish. It may be no more malevolent than absolutely rank, borderline comedic, ineptitude.
"We got a manager in! Are you not entertained?!"
I have never fully brought into the idea of it being purposely criminal in nature. I have always edged towards a degree of utter incompetence, littered with self interested parties trying to have their say and make their way.
Lets be honest, they've just listed some pretty basic stuff that a football club should always be doing - we've put some grass down! What else did you think you should do with it, lay tarmac?
We appointed a Head Coach - you know, because we hadn't had one in months.
I am well beyond words from this group - nothing Clem says will help. The evidence before our eyes shows us all we need to know. Without a serious change in approach, we get more of the same, maybe with the odd bit of luck. A club that cannot figure out whether or not they can fund a bike rack, fix some taps, stick up some nets at a leased training ground etc. is not going to materially be different in 12-24 months time. There is no acknowledgement that fundamental change is required.
You do no sustain Youth Academy success over a prolonged period if you do not invest in it. If you do not have an appetite to get that investment, then you go in a different direction.
You do not materially change the revenue of a football club without investing in the hard product - the infrastructure of the ground. A remodel of the Legends lounge is not going to find new revenue by itself. You have to be investing in new channels, in new sources, by bringing existing unused space into better use.
You do not sustain higher level football if your training ground receives zero investment. Imagine running a Brand Dealership for Porsche from a portacabin. The Salespeople can put in all the effort they like, but you are being set-up to fail - your infrastructure is designed to sell Used Astra's and over time that is all you will be able to achieve.
You do not create a sustainable L1/Championship level club by using the brand, time, effort and money in creating a pathway to Visa's from Pakistan.
Everything on their list is basic, fundamental, that even a shit club should be doing, apart from the talk of a ground development. Oddly, or not, the one thing that Clem is probably here for in the first place - again, self interest driving focus (it's a good area to focus on, I agree with that, but it's more evidence of what matters and what they can manage to do).