Are we in a Crisis?

[the wanderbus]

I dont think its a crisis....yet,but it could easily become one.We need a backbone to the side hopefully the recovery of Oatway & Hinshelwood will take some of the pressure frome the youngsters but we still need an experienced striker and a midfielder who can put his foot on the ball.Our side at the moment is lightweight, give them a year & they will be among the best in this league.The only problem is without re-enforcements will we be in this league?

 

[Wilka]

Yes sitting six points of the play offs.... this is a crisis

(ok so were 3 points off the bottom four as well)

A worrying dip in form, but not the end of the world just yet!

 

[BensGrandad]

But we threw away our chance of getting players during the Championship, if we had invested we would have stayed up.

I said that last year and was slagged off. So what is different now that reality is showing its face.

We need to bring in an assistant to Dean Wilkins and allow Dean White to revert back to Chief Scout and get out and find us 3 or 4 players who are not boys.

 

[Kukev31]

Hopefully a few McGhee outers will now realise he wasn't really doing that bad a job.

We are a very young side with a couple of key players out, this season was always going to be tough. I do believe that when Hinsh and Oatway get back we will be a much stronger unit, and we won't go down this season. So I don't think we are in a crisis, just a bit of a slump.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

All roads lead back to Falmer and the stadium whether you like that 'excuse' or not.

Point is when DK wrote out a business plan back in 1999 on our return to Withdean he acted on the assumption that we would probably be playing there about 4-5 years down the line and probably accounted for the fact that cash would have to be spent on one public inquiry.

What he probably didn't account for was the attritional divide and rule tactics of LDC. As the wait has gone on longer the money has got scarcer and scarcer some of which os probably sitting in account on the off chance that a loss at the High Court may result in the club paying out costs to LDC.

What happens off the pitch will affect the playing side of the club. Until 2002 the lower leagues were awash with ondigital money and that stopped abruptly during a season and almost put a couple of clubs out of business overnight. Whilst we were not reliant as much upon it, the dissappearance of it would have certainly affected the clubs finances.

To add to that was the costs of the second public inquiry and the consequent high court actions by LDC. Cullip and Currie were sold to make up the shortfalls and once you start selling players to cover costs the brain should surely tell you there isn't much left swilling around any transfer kitty. And if that kitty is empty you can be guarenteed that the wage structure is going to be pretty tight too. Consequently good players in their prime are no longer affordable, meaning acquisitions are usually the untried young, injury prone and old heads who have seen better days. On top of that the long battle with LDC means that the promise of playing your future in a nice shiny state of the art stadium is minimal. It becomes far more difficult to sell the club to players who only see the portacabin changing rooms and ad hoc stands when they come to play against us at Withdean.

As the team Adams built has come to the end of its life it has become difficult to replace the various parts of it; the leadership of Cullip and Oatway; the striking skills of Zamora; and the general never say die team ethic. Coppell really only patched things up, found a striker who initially seemed to be an ideal replacement for Zamora and added a few astute loans. McGhee got one last promotion out of them but was forced to sell the best players in the side to keep the club afloat and it was a failure to replace these that have led us back to where we are.

Until Falmer is sorted we are restricted by Withdean and the antics of the LDC which are tying much needed cash we need up. Less cash lessens the ability to attract decent experienced managers and coaches who in turn are not able to attract the players they want. Both Adams and Coppell spoke about a limit where they could take the club operating under its current restrictions and jumped ship when they felt they had reached them. McGhee tried to stay longer but the whole situation just undermined and eroded both his actions and the team.

We got lucky for a few years surfed the wave of success and now we as supporters are going to have to take the rough times coming up until Falmer is ready to go.

 

[Stinky Kat]

its got the hinchelwood era written all over it. we play boys against men and get done most weeks.

Accrington Stanley here we come unless the team is invested in Mr Knight

 

[BensGrandad]

But Roy McFarland says Withdean is a lovely pitch and would have no factor in whether a player came or not.

MM also said that at the fans forum but DK disagreed and suggested Withdean was the reason that we couldn't sign players.

e are not in a crisis yet but heading that way and the decline needs to be stopped now or I can see a repeat of the days under George Curtis, who in the 60s said the same 'we will rely on youth' we finished up going from Div2 (now Championhip) to Div 4 (now Div 2)

 

[Theatre of Trees]

Accrington Stanley here we come unless the team is invested in Mr Knight

And where is this investment going to come from?

 

[Theatre of Trees]

But Roy McFarland says Withdean is a lovely pitch and would have no factor in whether a player came or not.

Would you buy a house just looking at the garden then?

 

[BensGrandad]

And where is this investment going to come from?

This has been raised many times and we still come back to the same answer from the supporters point of view the vast majority are not concerned of how or from where it comes so long as it does and the team benefits.

 

[Stinky Kat]

And where is this investment going to come from?

Well we keep getting told there is money for players (100k) so get someone in to guide the kids.

Football is a business and you need a product that people want to see. £24.00 to watch a youth team get beaten by men is not entertaining so people wont come. Mr knight has to invest, speculate if you like, to accumulate more income through the turnstiles

 

[Beach Hut]

I really think the club cannot afford to turn down any potential investor, the shame of this I reckon is that there will be loads of interested investors as soon as Falmer gets the green light.

 

[Withdean Wanderer]

Well we keep getting told there is money for players (100k) so get someone in to guide the kids.

Football is a business and you need a product that people want to see. £24.00 to watch a youth team get beaten by men is not entertaining so people wont come. Mr knight has to invest, speculate if you like, to accumulate more income through the turnstiles

Bingo

 

[gollum]

I still can't understand the appointment of Wilkins apart from being the cheap option. Why take one of the best youth coaches away from what he's best at doing and throw him into the deep end. The best option would have been to appoint an experienced manager with DW as assistant and then appoint him full time when that manager moves on. What contacts does DW have at the moment to bring in new players? My concern now is that if results do not improve and we find ourselves in the bottom four we will ruin his career as well as the confidence of a number of youngsters.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

Well we keep getting told there is money for players (100k) so get someone in to guide the kids.

Football is a business and you need a product that people want to see. £24.00 to watch a youth team get beaten by men is not entertaining so people wont come. Mr knight has to invest, speculate if you like, to accumulate more income through the turnstiles

Problem is those who do speculate want a return. Successful and rich businessmen don't give away their hard earned cash for nothing (Jack Walker excepted).

If we're running the club frugally then there probably is a little bit spare floating around but because there isn't much of it, it is not going to be thrown at the first thing that comes up.

 

[curly]

to be honest, although we have had a few problems in the past few years, but i think we are headed for sunday morning pub league football, say what you like but we've had some good managers in the past few years, who have the ability too bring in half decent players, well except magoo, also we had a few good players, in the team at the time what have we got now, and what are we likely too get, the future looks poor, i'm sorry but dean and dean are not the solution lets look at the past, the current players may like em, but we need new plyers

 

[Beach Hut]

If we're running the club frugally then there probably is a little bit spare floating around but because there isn't much of it, it is not going to be thrown at the first thing that comes up.

So explain the wasted money on El Turienzo ?

 

[BensGrandad]

So explain the wasted money on El Turienzo ?

I think that will be put down to a mistake which anybody is entitled to make but not too often.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

So explain the wasted money on El Turienzo ?

Can you?

TBH I think that decision has further influenced the fact that money is not going to thrown at anything unless it is EXACTLY what we need.

 

[Beach Hut]

I think that will be put down to a mistake which anybody is entitled to make but not too often.

Kitson.......................