Forum Replies Created
-
What will acting like spoilt brats achieve CT?
Grow up and support the team you claim to follow.
I’ll say it one more time you reap what you sow. People like you think they’re blameless when in fact they are very much part of the problem.
‘Reap what you sow’ should be nailed to the boardroom wall. It’s been so true these past seasons.
But with the complacency and arrogance on display here, there’s no reason to suggest 21/22 will be any different.1 user thanked author for this post.
Good piece from Max Bell.
I don’t know Pawn but his record suggests a stubborn streak which makes him oblivious to those with different opinions. This, together with a need for control from the boardroom to the boot-room to the pitch, has made him dismissive of other points of view, and led him to fall out with managers, players, press, fans, and even the local council.
It’s also no surprise that some of the most influential people in the club seem to be his own family.
Despite all this, if plans had come to fruition, with dazzling, ‘sexy’ football, a promotion, and a ‘starchitect’ designed stadium, all would be fine.
But, it hasn’t. It’s gone from bad to worse, and there’s no sign it’ll get any better. With the club haemorraging cash, the aim is now to batten down the hatches, cut losses and protect business interests. And with no change in sight, the clubs most valuable asset – not the ground but the fans – are in revolt.
What seems to be needed is a greater willingness to listen and act on the advice of others, and a devolution of decision-making down to those who are professionally capable of exercising it. Of course, they have to have a decent budget to do the job too.
But perhaps most of all, the club needs to get in touch with its fans again, and a bit of sackcloth and ashes from Swanns Sr and Jr would go a long way to repairing and re-establishing relations. It would cost nothing in financial terms, and the gains could be immense. Give Me Sunshine? We can all wish.
7 users thanked author for this post.
To pick the protests that you do value, judge what is important in life. And a protest against someone who paid the players 100% through covid with very little income coming in is a good employer in my books, just because he hasn’t achieved what he wanted doesn’t mean people should turn on him at least he gave it a go.
Judge what is important in life?? The anger shown on this board reveals that the club is very important in the lives of many.
Players receiving their pay cheques? It has nothing to do with it. A protest is in the offing because the supporters feel cheated at how badly the club is being run; the dreadful performances, the dreadful league position, the broken promises, the disdain for the fans…
Come on AWG, you’re looking though the wrong end of the telescope. If you really were a shop steward, you’d understand the value of protest to show the strength of feeling about this. But if your MO with aggrieved workers was merely to ask them if they had been paid, and to consider what is important in life, how on earth did you manage to get elected some ten times in thirty years?
1 user thanked author for this post.
Yes, in the interests of transparency, which has lately been so unfashionable in business and politics, the record can be seen here.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00123622/charges
Just search for others’ names and companies on this public register, should you wish to do so.
Well said, DM.
And UTI99, re. fans, customers and the Sky generation – it’s companies like Sky who have been responsible more than anyone for replacing fans with fickle customers. The big money they’ve brought into the game has turned the top clubs into global brands with customers worldwide, the vast majority of whom never actually attend a game.
Plus, the way TV income is distributed has widened inequality in football, and forced into administration many small clubs like ours, who now really struggle to keep up.
Local fans have become even more important to these clubs, as they are an important source of income where TV money is relatively small. So, the clubs should be working hard to attract and keep them.
But, there’s a feeling that SUFC is not doing this; that it’s taking them for granted, angering and alienating them by saying they talk crap, they’re morons, or ‘who cares’ if they leave after 60-odd years, etc. etc. And as if that weren’t enough, season after season we have witnessed a standard of football rarely seen outside public parks.
Now, for all kinds of reasons, the days of fans suffering in silence have gone. Even ours, who are now planning a protest, which will certainly attract regional and quite possibly national attention.
I don’t know if all this is a lesson they teach in the business schools, but it’s one the club would do well to learn before it’s too late. But, maybe it already is.
1 user thanked author for this post.
We’ve been terrible this season just like we were in the season before we signed Mussy, Bara and Crosby, then look what happened.
That kind of argument can excuse anything.
Look, it was 17 years ago, with a different management, manager and players, plus a different attitude of the club towards its fans!
Complacency rules.
3 users thanked author for this post.
You reap what you sow. Remember that.
Seems to me these words should be on the boardroom wall. Never been more appropriate.
5 users thanked author for this post.
It’s not just the tedious football. It’s been the manner of it, the way it came about – the repeated signing of weak players, the revolving door of managers, the stubbornness of the chairman, the broken promises, and above all, the falling out with the club’s most important asset – the fans.
And, there seems to be no end in sight.
4 users thanked author for this post.
I think naivety applies to a number of the players, they know they aren’t getting new contracts apparently but they aren’t exactly putting themselves in the shop window with their pitiful performances.
I expect their agents will be telling them they can get better clubs but in reality those we release will finish up in non league or part time.Disputes over contracts – haven’t we been here before? Remember a few seasons back how performances suddenly went off the boil after ‘words were had’ when Swann allegedly refused to discuss contracts during a decisive time in the promotion push.
And now rumours are circulating that contract offers have been withdrawn just as performances have gone from bad to worse.
Coincidence?3 users thanked author for this post.
Good post NI.
We shouldn’t forget the role of the ‘selection committee’ at GP, which must carry the can for wasting so much money on inadequate players.
I have no idea what role Swann junior has in this, but the very idea that a lad in his 20s might be experienced enough to know and recognize in others the attributes which go towards making a suitable player for a club like ours, is really beyond belief.
That’s because it’s not just a question of a footballer’s skill, but also has to do with their character and temperament, and whether they can respond to the kind of management style in place at the time.
And that’s why managers are keen to make these decisions for themselves. It’s also why – despite the odd success – someone so young and comparatively inexperienced is ill-qualified to make such important decisions on behalf of the club.
UTI99 needs to realize that it’s the club who has transformed fans into customers.
Ability to pay has become more important than loyalty and commitment.
Swann’s response to the elderly season ticket holder is perfect example, with decades of loyalty dismissed as irrelevant. His response was ‘fine, if he’s not happy, then he should stop going.’
But that, UTI99, is not how you grow the fan base. It is not how you develop fans of the brand, fans who these days have a limitless choice of entertainment.
Saying that fans’ attitudes “stink”, doesn’t help either. It just enrages supporters, and has the potential to be another ‘morongate’ moment which divides fans and club even further.
Really, if Swann junior did Business Studies at uni, dad should be asking for his money back.
6 users thanked author for this post.
All true, and knocking the elderly season ticket holder who said it would be his last season, was a particularly cheap shot.
The chairman claims everyone’s been ‘working so hard’ and blames Covid, but as other say above, this is the same at all clubs, yet their fans haven’t had to put up with dismal performances season after season.
As has been said before, it’s not just the league position, it’s the repeatedly dull performances which are driving fans away, coupled with management that doesn’t seem to give a fig about the fans.
3 users thanked author for this post.
