City v Whitehawk

Just listened to the interview in full.
I'm just wondering how I would feel as a City player if I heard the 'manager' say the reason why are not getting results is because we can't afford any decent players?!

Pretty crap I would imagine. Just about sums it up.

Bloody rubbish. That team that was put out yesterday (Bowman lacking aside) was a decent team that should have only lost 1-0 at most. There are players there that were more than decent last season - Mellor, Gallanagh - who are just all over the shop and have no confidence. If Hemmings is the result of their spending, I am not sure I want them given any more money. All of us know that we haven't really got the money or players to challenge for promotion - indeed, promotion might be the worst thing for us presently - but we still have the players to be comfortable in this league.

Tapper80 wrote:Was chatting to my Dad about this today and my ideal (and reminiscent choice) would be to get Paul Bodin back. I don't know if he'd be interested but we played some superb football under him and he's an ex player who knows the club. Sorry, don't know how feasible that would be but that's who I'd try to get.

While I agree with Eddie that the board should not be straitjacketed by this 'working for nothing' situation we appear to be in, they would be going to the other extreme in bringing back Bodin. Unless of course he comes a lot cheaper these days! We may have played some decent football in his time as boss, but I don't believe the club got its money's worth. And have you forgotten the depressing final months of his reign - any of those loyal fans who witnessed the shocking attitude of his team at that last day farce at Halesowen presumably haven't!

Mellor,Gallanagh,Simpson,Ball,Walsh, Stearn,Bowman,Artus,Watson,Pratt. These are all good players at this level.Throw in a squad player or two (addlesbury)and one or two who might just develop and suprise you with their progress (allen - I really hope),add in experience (burnell) and its a good team/squad (not perfect given our finances - would love to add to the midfield). Im absolutely convinced that we are good enough to reach the play offs. You can see occasional flashes of what they are capable of. It just needs passion, positivity and a 'crazy gang' mentality and who knows what could happen.If we go up and straight back down - so what. Dont blow the budget and see what we can do. You never know what might happen.

I agree with Bristoldome. We have to be positive.

Defeat tomorrow will of course send me/us into meltdown. Not to put too much pressure on one game but maybe that's the mentality we now need!!!!!

As promised...

Look, I’d be amazed if people didn’t say anything over our start to the season. It has been pretty much a non-stop nightmare. After Concord and Basingstoke I wrote if off as “well, we usually have two or three shocking performances per season, so I’ll forgive them that”, but two of the next three home performances haven’t been much better. We were ok against Chelmsford but they were an ordinary side. Naturally some are going to be put off by attending, we’ve conceded 10 goals at home and scored two, one of which was a penalty. So although some posts have annoyed me, I respect the fact that a lot are actually constructive and we do all care about the club.

On the pitch, we get picked apart so easily and lack a player who can hold onto the ball for long periods as we give it away so cheaply all over the pitch. Artus is a big miss, I think he would have been a lynchpin in that midfield but he’s hardly played for one reason or another. Then we have what happened with Walshy. Yes, hardly a star in the Basingstoke debacle, but we lost something like one game out of 12 that he figured in at the end of last season, so he’s clearly important, a strength in that defence. Keary looks decent enough but Gallinagh looks short on confidence. I’m not sure what’s happened, he’s a solid defender. Other players haven’t performed anywhere near the level they did last season. Is that down to them individually or the management? Watkins and Pratt have performed miracles with the lack of service they’ve received.

There have been a few comments about why hasn’t anyone in the Development Squad been given a go. Have they commenced training yet? I think there has been quite an overhaul of players below the first team; obviously players get older so if they’re not considered for the first team, they move on. I think they lost 8-0 to Bristol Rovers recently in a friendly? Maybe they need more time to gel and see if they can improve and push for a spot in the first team. I can only really judge by what I saw of the Academy last season, I went to 7 or 8 of their games. They play good football and had some stand-out players (I won’t be unfair in naming names, omitting others) but the jump from that to our level is huge. They played one side, Dorchester, who I’m confident my Sunday team would have beaten. I saw the line-up for their win tonight and I only recognised three or four names. Historically, the number of players that come through from this system into the first team is low. I don’t believe Whitehawk had a single player that came up through the ranks (instead using the likes of Sam Deering, a Football League regular last season so must be on some wage to play for them), other teams mention in their pen-pics about two tops, and they aren’t regulars. We have, most of the time, looked towards signing players the right side of 25 since relegation but, and this probably won’t go down well, I think we’re short of an experienced head or two. Players like Alex Russell were crucial towards kick-starting our first season in the Conference. Didn’t have the same impact when he came back but if we can just have someone come in like that for two months or so it’ll make a difference in my opinion.

Chances of getting someone like that again? Slim. We aren’t going to go all Whitehawk and splash the cash which we haven’t got (and what they won’t have in the near future I’m sure). I think that’s what people aren’t realising here in their suggestion of “sack the management team” and it’s why I, perhaps too forcibly say “who do you realistically bring in?” Fair enough, someone mentioned Bodin when I asked, but how on earth would we afford that, even if he wanted to come back? We played some sparkling football then because, as far as I’m aware, we threw more money at it to try and win promotion. If I’ve got that all wrong I apologise. We didn’t go up, and within two years we had to field a team of novices under Alan Pridham, a manager whose popularity wasn’t much higher than Arch’s, despite the fact he did what he could in very difficult circumstances.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that, yes, this season so far has been rubbish, bar the result at Boreham Wood which proves we obviously have something about us. However, have the results under Arch really been that bad since he took over? Whilst we are underachieving with this set of players at the moment, surely last season we pretty much finished where we were expected to, especially when you see who finished above us, a lot with budgets we couldn’t compete with. If the money was there I’m sure we would bring in one or two players to freshen things up, but from what I can tell it isn’t so it’s up to this group, as well as the management, to get us out of this mess. Four points from the next two games is crucial.
We brought in a Head Coach who from the word go wasn’t universally accepted, it happened when Adie took over as well, so as soon as there’s a bad run of results some people will crop up on the forum pointing that out, and stay quiet when we win a few. I just think people need to realise that ditching them both and bringing others in isn’t as easy as that. It almost certainly won’t come cheap, even if we think about someone like Laird or Mehew, who probably weren’t given a Steve King type wage. We’re not Chelsea – we can’t just get rid of the manager after a few bad results and not care about the money implications. I want a club to support in the near future. And what if it doesn’t make a difference straight away and we’re still in a mess? Will they be given time to turn it around or will they be wanted out after five or six games?

If Arch decides himself to step down at some point then fair enough, he’s given it a decent go and has tried to build a young side that can compete in this division. I doubt he’ll ever receive any form of credit for it but there we go. I want more than anything for us to bounce back and take away my fear of returning to a very low standard of football in the league below. If we try and pull together, on and off the pitch, I still think we can start climbing the league. We can’t get much worse, surely?

An experienced older head to organise the younger players whose confidence is shot to pieces- joe burnell anyone?!

That's a weird one, I know he was named as a sub Saturday but I swear I didn't see him warming up? Could have just been me though.

stillmanjunior wrote:That's a weird one, I know he was named as a sub Saturday but I swear I didn't see him warming up? Could have just been me though.

I saw him buying some bananas in Morrisons at about 1.45pm. Not sure if that counts.

An excellent post, Junior, most of which I agree with. But to repeat my recent question... What is the point of the Development squad? I agree with you that members of the Academy are some years from playing at our level, but if we can't be utilising more of the under 21s than at present then let's ditch the thing and simply go back to signing Josh Lows in the close season and topping up the squad every 2 months with the latest teenager Cheltenham are looking to ship out!

The development squad aren't even back at the Uni for another week or two anyway, after a few weeks training and settling in for the new intake perhaps a few will be brought into the fold

I am not sure that anyone was saying about development players being the answer this season. Good grief, that definitely would be worrying it that that was the case. I think it was being mentioned that we don't get a whole load coming through.

Sorry, Junior, what does this mean?

other teams mention in their pen-pics about two tops

Marc Monitor wrote:I am not sure that anyone was saying about development players being the answer this season. Good grief, that definitely would be worrying it that that was the case. I think it was being mentioned that we don't get a whole load coming through.

It was a response to 'but if we can't be utilising more of the under 21s than at present'

Palms wrote:The development squad aren't even back at the Uni for another week or two anyway, after a few weeks training and settling in for the new intake perhaps a few will be brought into the fold

Yes, that's a fair point. So give them a couple of months and we can expect to see a couple at least on the bench rather than injured first team squad players?

I see Cadmore got sent off again this evening - I am sure it was very harsh though!

Marc Monitor wrote:I am not sure that anyone was saying about development players being the answer this season. Good grief, that definitely would be worrying it that that was the case. I think it was being mentioned that we don't get a whole load coming through.

Sorry, Junior, what does this mean?

other teams mention in their pen-pics about two tops

Sorry, just had a chance to reply.

I mean teams usually only have a maximum of two players listed in their pen-pics, i.e. squad, who have progressed through their academy. And even then they're only fringe players. Not sure how many Wealdstone had last night.