This evening, we welcome our good friends from West Ham United Football Club, can I wish their Directors, Manager, Players, Staff and Supporters a pleasant stay with us and a safe journey home.
Well after our promotion via the play-offs last season, we’ve reached the last two weeks of pre-season in the blink of an eye and as such the trialists who haven’t quite impressed enough to get a deal have departed and we wish them well. That said I’m still expecting a couple more signings and us settling on a 19, 20-man squad in the coming weeks if the right players become available.
In truth, we do feel the squad does not quite have enough depth or experience in certain areas at present, so we will look to bring in some senior players to supplement our current dressing room. However, as I’ve said many times, there’s no point rushing to make a wrong decision at this stage, so I’ve asked both Luke and Charlie Hunter to stay in the market, stay patient, be a bit bullish and stay tough with agents if need be but go with their instincts.
When you are looking at bringing full time EFL or National League players here, there are so many other factors to consider. Like where do they live? Will they need to re- locate? Do they need accommodation? Are they married? Do they have a partner and do they have kids?
Good recruitment for a club our size is always going to be difficult, but good recruitment is now such a huge part of my future investment, as we try and create a more successful club with an ever-improving infrastructure. Properly run clubs like ours with planning produce positive environments, that in turn creates happy players, happy staff and if we want to keep our football club moving forward after promotion we will need a happy camp.
You always need good people around you if you want to build a good business model or football club and, in all honesty, good people do often come at a premium in today’s market. That said we are not helped at present by unintelligent agents and intermediaries who are at present holding clubs like ours to ransom and it’s fair to say they are not my favourite people at present haha.
I have found along with Luke Garrard and Charlie Hunter, that if we find say a young player that possibly fits our criteria, then things quickly turn solely to a young players wage and it’s then more about the agents fee….. sometimes that’s difficult for me to compute, as young players often do have ability, but most have absolutely no pedigree at our level to talk about and need time to develop.
Thats when some agents and intermediaries really annoy me, because they just don’t do their homework on clubs like ours, they forget we have a track record of producing top young players and when I listen to them, most do not protect their young clients.
For me they often show no care, and some don’t even come and look around the club that they say they want their client to sign for, not before wanting to talk money. Surely their first actions before money, is to look around our training facilities, look at our associated facilities, ask about how we train, how we travel, what player care is in place, what insurance is in place?
I could go on and on, but most of these representatives don’t even ask Luke where he sees the player fitting in or what system we play. If an agent doesn’t know us or doesn’t take enough interest to acquaint themselves with our infra-structure or take an interest on how we might develop the player, then I believe they are negligent in so many areas.
Yes, you might sign for another club for an extra £200 but those clubs often have squads of 25 upwards and that’s just short sighted, as most of these young players will get swallowed up and lost in the system.
We’ve of course lost players to these types of clubs who often have yo yo budgets, who have poor training facilities, clubs who no onsite gymnasium or rehab facilities. Many have poor pitches, no established infra- structure, some travel badly, some have little or poor insurance, some have poor medical departments and some don’t even want to pay for consultants, scans, MRI’s and operations when a player is injured – but I suppose as long as they pay better agents fees than we do, then the agents will continue to steer the player that way.
As such players, especially good young players and their families, perhaps with little experience do not always see the real reasons why they should consider signing for us. That said, an agent neglect is not a reason or valid argument for me to put less investment into our development infrastructure and more in the agents pockets to get a player, as I feel that’s counterproductive in the long run?
For me I would find that immoral as some of these agents at our level are not as intelligent as they think and some in truth are just plain greedy, as the real talent always lies with the player. In those circumstances we must choose to move on and look at what perhaps an older player might bring to our current youngsters within the dressing room in terms of their experience, nous and leadership, as these things are equally important to us.
Before we sign a player whether young or experienced, we try to do our homework. We look for references and opinions which are very important as through our football contacts we normally find out about most players attitudes, discipline, desire and even the players support network and family make up. Yes, I know It’s very easy for us all to go on Wikipedia and get a players age, their former clubs, their height, where they used to live and look at their injury record each season and game per season ratio – blimey even I can do that.
However, Wikipedia will not tell you if the lad has had a difficult time in recent years through NO fault of his own, If he’s struggled to get over a release, bereavement or relationship, if he’s had a bad agent experience or been given bad advice? It won’t tell you if he has an interfering or over caring family, if he has had relocation problems, if he likes social media too much, if he likes a drink, a bet or if he lives the wrong life etc.
As such a bit of ‘old school’ homework can help your decision making and by having ‘old school’ values aligned with solid football contacts and not being too judgemental, it allows you at times to trust your instincts and can help in making a decision on a players future.
All the data in the world for me are just helpful sets of indicators nothing more. For me, the best managers in football at every level are still those ‘old school’ man managers. Those are the guys who can communicate what they want from players, what they expect from their dressing room, they will also protect those within their care, will try to improve them as people, improve them as players and will make them believe in themselves.
Good managers have a presence, some have an inner belief and confidence, some have well-earned reputations, and some are just great communicators in their own right….. All though will with the right club environment create care, unity, create a focus and most will experience success.
All though these types of managers are winners they will also have a personality. They will trust in their gut instincts and understand how to communicate simple instruction on how they see the game and what they want from a player. As such I’m sure our patient recruitment policy this summer will serve us all well going forward, but of course it can be hugely frustrating as we near the new season.
Club Info
Next week our South Stand planning application finally gets submitted at HBC. In truth I’m very excited about it, as this latest project is aligned with both Meadow Park and Brook Road Car Park. It has taken me six years of meetings, architects, drawings, submissions, planning, arguing our residents cause, arguing the park users needs and arguing the clubs case to get what is an amazing local project to this stage.
In truth, the execution of the build over the next two years is both complicated and costly, but it’s imperative for me, my partners, my sponsors, the council and our community to not only get across the board agreement but be ready to push this project on from a position of strength.
I know our supporters, town, community can see where my year-on-year investment has taken us and see how our past local investment has improved things incredibly. I’m happy in the knowledge that our fans can now enjoy these improvements on the pitch, within our bars, when sitting in the stands, standing on the terracing and all around our facility and so it’s now onto the away end and onto the next stage.
Although time and tide wait for no man, having just enjoyed my 63rd birthday. Can I say a very big thank you to all those who text, emailed, sent cards or letters to me, it was very kind of you all. That said we must not stand still for a moment as there is still so much to do here if we are to fulfil our ambitions of having our Stadium ready for the EFL.
As such we must start to plan with a bit more detail re the next stages of our development. It begins next week with the planning application almost ready to go. In truth I’m so pleased to finally begin the next stage of what will be my biggest development to date during my time as Chairman of the football club, made even better by thankfully being back and competing in the National League once again.
I feel I’ve learned from many of my mistakes over the years, and in truth the club has in my opinion never looked better. It’s clear our support base has continued to grow, albeit a tad slower than some would like, but I’m always more than happy with steady growth.
Why? Because it has enabled me to build the club, build relationships, grow the fanbase and cement good partners and good sponsors, all that has created long term collaborations with HBC, EBTC, AFC, AWFC and can now include our Education Partners at SCL in that.
The next stage of our growth though must involve the first team being competitive, the academy being strong and involve the completion at the South End of the ground, because we must finish our Stadium in double quick time while I’m young enough to enjoy it.
Why? Because as a community you all so deserve good facilities, and as parents and grandparents we all want to drive local standards up and as a club we also desperately want to deliver EFL football one day.
Only through sustained investment, only through community involvement, only with step-by-step improvement and only through the partnerships within our two councils, our town, our community and our fan base, can we hope to ever create long term legacy for our children, our grandchildren and that really does matter to me.
Back to this evenings football, the pre-season games from tonight onwards will start to become true indicators for Luke in regard to what is perhaps still needed within his dressing room. After WHU tonight we have just two pre-season games left and our next visitors here are ex-football league club Rochdale on the first day of the season, before we make the long journey North to another ex-football league club Carlisle United.
I must say win, lose or draw, I’m really looking forward to our first week back within the National League. It’s of course a huge challenge but it’s where I feel we now belong, and I couldn’t have said that 27 years ago.
Let’s hope for an open, attacking game this evening and may the best team win.
Take care,
Danny.
