Today we welcome our very good friends from Eastleigh FC, can I wish their Directors, Manager, players and supporters a pleasant stay with us and a safe journey home.
For me this feels like a very good time after winning in the FA Cup at Eastbourne Borough and with around a third of the season gone, to take stock of our growing ambition, our progress and possibly take this opportunity to try and improve ourselves by allowing Luke and Charlie to look at the current squad and look at the current transfer and loan market.
Having spoken to them both about their thoughts on further recruitment, they do feel this is perhaps a good time to evaluate where we can improve competition, no matter how small the margins. As such, they will look at how we might strengthen where possible in certain areas, but that is sometimes hard to do in mid October as a lot of the available players are either out of our price range, short on fitness or certified sick notes.
As such my bank balance will only empty if a good player becomes available in the right area, with the right pedigree and with the right injury record. That said, experience is telling me that Luke and Charlie are quite right in terms of this being a very good time for us to strengthen.
It’s not quite as simple though as, “let’s strengthen”, because we’ve quietly built a quality squad that’s very much together and we will not without a lot of thought look to disrupt it too much. I completely understand that we do have a slightly smaller squad compared to most of the clubs currently fighting at the top of this division, but as I’ve said many times before, a small squad can sometimes be a plus not a minus, as all players want to play.
In truth, we are at present playing some great football, it’s also very evident that we have a real togetherness that shows and this squad are demonstrating they have a big appetite for hard work. We already know that we’ve surprised everyone with our quality since the start of the season and in that time we’ve beaten some very good sides. In recent weeks Luke has ensured that we have not become over confident and I feel we’ve deservedly moved ourselves into the top 5 of this league.
That is of course rewarding for Luke and the dressing room, so now might be the right time for me to support Luke, Charlie and the dressing room with possibly another signing before the lads get too fatigued after their recent efforts in both league and cup, and before it affects our league form.
I don’t want to over dramatise these things, as fatigue is the same for every club, and we can help things considerably by controlling our discipline, thus control our suspensions and that would be a huge plus this season. At our level of course some clubs have much bigger attendances, some will have bigger squads and some will have far bigger budgets. So to counter that we might in the short term need to consider signing an extra body or two, but Is this the right time for me to sell the family silver ha-ha, to wheel and deal, or go for broke? No it’s not, but it is time to open up the purse strings but please understand my budget margins are still very tight.
I’m not a Chairman who has ever taken risks with our first team budget and any overspend if built only on emotion, but equally when you start a season as well as we have, and if an opportunity appears for us to go to the next level, then I’ll always do my very best to get a player onboard if Luke really wants him.
My financial disposition has been helped a tad by the departure of Nathan Ashmore, who’s been allowed to go out on loan to Bedford Town in the National North. This loan materialised at Nathan’s request, as he wanted to play more and be ready in case Finn Herrick picked up an injury or was recalled by West Ham United.
As an ‘old school’ Chairman Nathans loan had to work for me on a business level. This loan though has worked out for all parties after I made it clear to Charlie Hunter that if he could get the loan monies sorted out, then I was always going to allow it. Why? Because we have a 24 hour recall, we’re getting Nathan’s wages paid in full and because I can allow those loan monies to go straight back into Luke’s budget.
The only downside at present to report, is that our Academy recruitment and our education provision has not quite been at the level we could have reasonably expected this season and that will bring me problems further down the line. As such I’m going to need a full review of all things Academy prior to Christmas and would then hope to have things either back on track or the problem solved by May 2026.
Only after my full review will I sit down with Billy Hunter, Luke Garrard, Charlie Hunter, Micky Engwell and Ross Weare and decide where I might take things. On a more positive note after the recent 3-0 pumping of both Yeovil Town and Eastbourne Borough, I note one, two or even 100 of you, are getting a little bit carried away with our good start to this season and who can blame you?
That excitement is ok by me because it’s totally shared by me, especially after that horrendous sleepless night relegation season 18 months ago, followed by our late, late promotion charge just 6 months ago. As such our fans, sponsors and partners excitement does not in any way feel like additional pressure to me, as I’m enjoying it to the max as much as you are.
What I would say to everyone is “The National League is incredibly expensive, it’s bloody relentless, it’s full of good teams, it’s full of good players, it’s full of bigger clubs with bigger attendances than ours, with far bigger budgets, but so what and at present who cares, lets just enjoy this moment in time together, let’s continue to dream big, but at the end of the day let’s all stay just a tad realistic.”
What comforts me most and it might sound a tad big headed is, even though this league is a huge challenge to us on crowd averages of around a thousand, it is not filled with many better run football clubs than ours. That is a huge factor in how I go about my business and it’s why I always
ask that you supporters fully appreciate my staff, because what they do for me, you, this football club, our town and our wider community is truly off the scale and none of them, trust me, are getting rich on what I’m paying them.
As such I don’t care too much if we hit a bad patch further down the track, as it’s all part of life at National League level and it’s why we will try to plan ahead by strengthening where we can now to try and see off any avoidable mini slump in the months ahead. Slumps of course will come to the very biggest and best football clubs in the land, so if a slump should arrive at our door, lets hope it doesn’t last as long as say Manchester United’s, Morecambe’s or our good friends up the road at St Albans City.
As Luke, our dressing room and you supporters soon look toward Christmas, we as a club are looking to navigate the first half of this season by staying at the top end of the table. However after the Southend United draw a few weeks ago I for one out of necessity must turn my attention more
to next season and the new away fan zone and South Stand build and in truth my focus, expertise, energy and project skills must be harnessed fully in that area.
It’s paramount we get the ground completed on schedule and on budget in the foreseeable future. All of which means I’m going to need a lot of committed people wrapped around me. As that will equate to expert project management, advice and that can only help me create an intelligent build programme and ensure we get my planning application through at the first time of asking.
If I can get my pre build programme scheduled and the whole project fully costed before Xmas, it would mean I’m back on schedule regarding the overall project. If officers at HBC are reading my programme notes this week, then it’s time for us to get ready for many more behind closed door meetings, as I’ll need everyone’s support including the HBC Executive, Councillors, Officers and Planners.
I’ll also need a lot of help from all our local Councillors across the aisle, plus EBTC and AFC, and I might need to lean heavily on my bank balance, accountant, architect, trusted contractors and Football Foundation…. I’ll of course be as driven and as mad as always, as it’s the only way I know how to do these full on projects, while ensuring if we begin the build before the end of this current season that we’ll finish on time ready for next season.
So for my own madness and possible insanity, I do need everyone to understand that I must manage my down time a little bit better than I have of late, As recently I’ve been completely caught up in our summer works, caught up in AWFC’s recent floodlight lunacy and in UEFA’s new ground grading madness. While like you supporters, I’ve got myself caught up and excited about our football team, by our fantastic start, by our new brand of football and in truth I’m still excited by just being back in the National League.
Anyway enough of my excitement and diatribe let’s get back to today. I’m happy to say after our promotion that we can once again welcome back the likes of Eastleigh FC and my old friend Stewart Donald to our humble abode. We already know what a difficult team they are to play against, and know both their strengths and their weaknesses. We also know our strengths, and this season we feel our strengths will give us a chance to win most football matches at the level.
Lastly, whoever you support let’s hope for and open, attacking game and may the best team win.
Take care,
Danny.
Proposed development: South Stand
