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I will make my opinion plain so no one thinks I'm sat on a fence. My apathy doesn't extend so far that I can't be bothered to be annoyed for our club and its awesome fans (small in number but huge in commitment and knowledge of the realities we face).
1. Eddie Davies needs to pot Gartside TODAY. Retire, resign, shunt him somewhere else in Moonshift, whatever it takes PG must NOT be chairman any longer.
2. A new chairperson (man or woman, don't care as long as he/she is competent) should be appointed with immediate effect.
3. The chair's first task is simple, to seek out and appoint a new manager, one who CAN motivate players and has a mind capable of adapting to a plan B if his or her favoured "system" hasn't worked. That manager should be surrounded by people who know what they are doing, preferably at least ONE solid assistant manager and a specialist coach for each main area of play (ie GK,DEF, MID, ATT) and the various medical/ physio and other support staff needed to make a modern football team function at its best. A caretaker management team should be put in place for as long as necessary while the search goes on and their sole remit should be to steady the ship, to prevent further decline. I realise JP is a common choice amongst the fans right now and as a caretaker I'd be fine with him and LSL as his assistant but I wouldn't want them to do it permanently. They should be given the rest of this season but ideally we'd start the summer window with the new management team in place ready to work.
4. In the summer the five out of contract players should either be given new contracts at reduced salaries to fit our ACTUAL status as a championship or (hope not) League One team. If they won't accept that then wish them well and wave goodbye. The salaries thus released should be immediately put at the manager's disposal to recruit new players in the needed positions.
5. The relationship between the Senior Team and the others such as the reserves and development squad MUST be made much closer. The fact so many of our "promising" prospects aren't getting even a whiff of first team action is alarming to say the least. We either have a bad scouting network or the manager simply isn't fully aware of what level these youngsters are at; either way we need to fix that lack of communication or scouting ability quickly. We'll never be able to buy a Premiership Level player for full price so we have to find them early and develop them ourselves. We may well wind up becoming a "selling" club as these kids become top class and go to "Big" clubs but that's no bad thing imo. If we make a profit on just 1 in five of them it would be self funding at least.
6. We as fans MUST accept the reality and be reasonable in our expectations BUT the club has to remember that they work for US not the other way around. This may actually be the most important point, relations between BWFC and its core customer base need to be better from both sides. The best way to do that would be for the club to come clean with us, to tell us what really CAN be done in our current position and we need to be able to accept that the BSA days are gone forever. That way both sides would know the truth and would be able to work together to help the club grow again.
I appreciate none of this will be easy BUT I truly feel it's essential that something like this should happen.
1. Eddie Davies needs to pot Gartside TODAY. Retire, resign, shunt him somewhere else in Moonshift, whatever it takes PG must NOT be chairman any longer.
2. A new chairperson (man or woman, don't care as long as he/she is competent) should be appointed with immediate effect.
3. The chair's first task is simple, to seek out and appoint a new manager, one who CAN motivate players and has a mind capable of adapting to a plan B if his or her favoured "system" hasn't worked. That manager should be surrounded by people who know what they are doing, preferably at least ONE solid assistant manager and a specialist coach for each main area of play (ie GK,DEF, MID, ATT) and the various medical/ physio and other support staff needed to make a modern football team function at its best. A caretaker management team should be put in place for as long as necessary while the search goes on and their sole remit should be to steady the ship, to prevent further decline. I realise JP is a common choice amongst the fans right now and as a caretaker I'd be fine with him and LSL as his assistant but I wouldn't want them to do it permanently. They should be given the rest of this season but ideally we'd start the summer window with the new management team in place ready to work.
4. In the summer the five out of contract players should either be given new contracts at reduced salaries to fit our ACTUAL status as a championship or (hope not) League One team. If they won't accept that then wish them well and wave goodbye. The salaries thus released should be immediately put at the manager's disposal to recruit new players in the needed positions.
5. The relationship between the Senior Team and the others such as the reserves and development squad MUST be made much closer. The fact so many of our "promising" prospects aren't getting even a whiff of first team action is alarming to say the least. We either have a bad scouting network or the manager simply isn't fully aware of what level these youngsters are at; either way we need to fix that lack of communication or scouting ability quickly. We'll never be able to buy a Premiership Level player for full price so we have to find them early and develop them ourselves. We may well wind up becoming a "selling" club as these kids become top class and go to "Big" clubs but that's no bad thing imo. If we make a profit on just 1 in five of them it would be self funding at least.
6. We as fans MUST accept the reality and be reasonable in our expectations BUT the club has to remember that they work for US not the other way around. This may actually be the most important point, relations between BWFC and its core customer base need to be better from both sides. The best way to do that would be for the club to come clean with us, to tell us what really CAN be done in our current position and we need to be able to accept that the BSA days are gone forever. That way both sides would know the truth and would be able to work together to help the club grow again.
I appreciate none of this will be easy BUT I truly feel it's essential that something like this should happen.
