Might be a bit of a long post this as I'm sat on a train
Listening to the Seasider podcast last night got me thinking this morning, so i thought i would share some thoughts based on some of the stuff i heard and read last night on the podcast and also some of the Twitter content I've seen this week
Firstly i thought the podcast was pretty decent, to be honest i don't always listen to it as it comes across a bit dull sometimes with the same blokes saying the same things week in week out, however last night was good
The Raggy speech was fantastic and summed up some of how i feel about the goings on at our club, Andy with his marketing background also made some really good points that i agree with and i urge fans who haven't listened to it to give it a whirl, i think there were less than 200 people watching it last night so not massive numbers
In the words of that tw@t from Dragons Den this is where I'm at
Firstly I'm not anti Simon Sadler, this is something that I've been accused of recently and I'm not. I was actually pleased when he bought the club and I've been supportive and critical in equal measures i think. When he first bought the club he did what i think was right in getting rid of his first manager Grayson and bringing in a fresh faced younger coach in Critchley, it was difficult for NC in the early days and his inexperience showed and it wasn't until he changed his formation and playing style that the results improved. Simon Sadler was also instrumental in this early journey by backing NC in both transfer windows with some really good loans like Ellis Simms and some key experienced players like Kenny Dougal who had been playing at a higher level. We paid money for young hungry players like Marv, Jerry and Keshi who were all key to our promotion. Promotion was very much a joint effort between the owner, board and coach, the fans played a small part as it was mainly during covid but Oxford at home and the win at Wembley were fantastic. ALL LOOKED GOOD ........
We had a feel good factor about the place as the club went into the new Championship season on a high, we made some decent signings but mainly focusing on younger players who had been at bigger clubs, Josh Bowler being the main man and what a delight he was to watch, a couple of decent loans in Ryan Wintle and Djon Sterling but if I'm being honest looking back we were still a little short in key areas. The first half of the season was good, we had some great results and away days and it really felt like the club was aligned with fans buying in to the process, the North stand and the work done by a few individuals to get that stand rocking was something really special, it was probably the most passionate home end in the country.
Then something changed in my opinion around January time, i was a poor transfer window and we looked a bit under cooked in several positions, NC also looked like he had lost his mojo a bit, it was strange as we weren't actually that far from the play off places and the season just fizzled out, losing at PNE was one of the worst performances i can remember for a long time, bizarre post match interviews form NC and club just seemed dead with very little coming from the board or owner
NC left amid some rumours about a lack of backing from the owner and we went into the new season looking miles off, poor marketing from the club at season ticket time and a ludicrous match day price point didn't help the mood. I've also never understood why the club don't do a 12 month direct debit option like other clubs do, Andy and Raggy spoke about this last night. It was a right mess from top to bottom, poor signings, a new old manager in Appleton (who the fans were never going to get behind) and a shed full of loan players it was a cluster fuck of incompetence from top to bottom. We heard very little form the owner whilst the ship was sinking and any feel good factor from the start of the season before had gone. it was like people at the club just weren't @rsed
And so it continued
Relegation was nailed on and McCarthy was probably up there with our worst ever manager and that takes some doing when you consider idiots like Carr, Clark, Hendry and Riga
We still heard very little from the owner unless of course it was the NC welcome back interview or the telling off to fans, NC was always going to divide fans just like the MA appointment its almost like its been done on purpose
This season hasn't been much better than last season and that takes some doing, boring football, poor tactics and players played out of position, losing Yates was a blow as he was the heartbeat of the club, similarly with Dougal and this January transfer window was garbage
The club is just sleep walking again and everything we as a fanbase fought for appears to be lost, the atmosphere at games is poor and some crowds have been really low we as a club have become as dull as dishwater, you only hear from the club when they want something and all this talk of fans parliaments and charters are a complete waste of everybody's time and effort except of course for the 3 FSA people who appear to run BST and their 800 members, they love all this sort of shite
We are a unique fantastic club in the party capital of the UK and when we are all united we are hard to stop, we have a fantastic passionate support that is dwindling and this malaise needs to stop NOW, even my kids aren't that bothered about going to matches, Port Vale and Burton in a week saw to that
I want to hear from Simon Sadler, i want to know what the plan is for the future, i want to know what's happening with the stand and training ground projects, I want to know how the club is going to get back to how it was 2 and a half years ago and i want to know what is going to happen with our current manager who appears to have lost his mojo again' he either needs help or sacking as the whole club is in a steady decline.
I expected better from life long fan Simon Sadler (if some cnut thinks that makes me entitled then so be it its nonsense word used by folk with zero ambition anyway)
Lets get this club back aligned and everyone moving in the same direction, it has to come from the top though
Over to you Mr Sadler
and I’m too busy to get really stuck in on avftt most days now.
UTMP
