(15-04-2018, 07:46)Lord Snooty Wrote: Wow, what a depressing read. Hope you can manage to turn it around. It used to be that most of the relegated teams bounced straight back up back in the early days of the Conference, but that hasn't been the case recently. Hope you're not stuck down there for years like some.

(15-04-2018, 12:54)bluepooch Wrote: Matt,who would buy Rowley ? He hasn't been seen for months.Id keep him and try playing him !.
So unless we miraculously win 4 out of 5 we will be in the Conference. Out of the current players I wouldn't want to keep many ,after all,these players have resulted in our relegation.So some significant wheeling and dealing needs to be done by Jack in the summer .
I'd keep Evatt ,Maguire ,Talbot, Smith,Rowley and Whitmore .We have no chance of getting Ramsdale back and personally I wouldn't want any of the other loan players back.We also have no chance of keeping Dennis.
What is Dave Allen's end game ? Is he looking to deliberately drive the club into the ground ? Why does he not just cut his losses and sell up ?,he is obviously not interested in the club.I just wish someone would come out and say what the plan is without lying .Something needs to change quickly or we will continue to slide .
Season ticket prices need be reduced significantly.However ,this will affect the budget so the club are in a difficult situation without major investment .

(15-04-2018, 13:12)Devongone Wrote: I don't think Dancing or I will be classifying ourselves as geniuses for predicting what has happened. We are down. Nothing can save us.

All I did was to play around with the names Caldwell recruited to make team as I always have done. I like doing that. It's a game. Of course I never agree with the manager's selection ....... but so what? BUT after Caldwell's two recruitments I really could not come up with a team I felt was balanced and capable of winning, whatever system or style of play I chose. Unfortunately although I think after Jack's recruitment drive I could pick a team that looks better, it isn't much like the team Jack selects and it still doesn't inspire me. I can't understand why we'd recruit a player like Dodds and not play him - he was surely signed to increase our goal power and that's hard when you spend a large part of the game sitting down.

We have accumulated our problems over a number of years. Maybe once we moved from Saltergate this disaster was financially almost inevitable, but the central moment was when Paul Cook realised he wouldn't be financed to continue building a successful side. When Eoin Doyle went I think he saw what would happen to him that if he stayed he would be expected to create similar success on a John Coleman type budget.

I've harped on about Ricky German because he seems like an example of our failure to look beyond the end of our noses. The lad was captain of the juniors, scored goals, and when he wasn't on the field that team struggled without him. When we had a reserve team he scored there too. 11 goals in three weeks! Yet his one first-team start was I think ruined by following instructions from a thug! He's barely been afforded more than a few minutes in the first team on his appearances since, he's been given loans which won't help him and now if he's even as good as he was when captaining the juniors I'll be surprised. BUT to succeed we need to develop young talent and uncover unrecognised talent from lower levels that we can develop. UNTIL we realise that is our way to be, our modus operandi, our survival mechanism, we'll continue on our downward path UNLESS some fool steps in to finance a more expensive policy.

I've said again and again, why loan in players to lose you games? We can lose with our own players and save money on the mercenaries who turned out not to be the magnificent seven. The purpose of loaned players is to win games.

Matt is so right about our contract problem for next season. Weir and Coke shouldn't even be considered for extensions. Then we need to find ways to be rid of Barry, Anyon, Wiseman, Sinnott, Brewster, O'Grady, McCourt, Hines and Kay. Hird, Evatt and Talbot DESERVE prolonged discussions about what they and we want to do next season. They are proper Chesterfield players and could play a part in our future if they wanted.

It is not only on-field where we need to economise. We cannot carry either a large backroom or a large administrative staff. Whoever is our manager has to be VERY hands-on. We have a good man in Llera, we need to hang on to him, but Tommy Wright's a flop, do we need a goalkeeping coach, our fitness regime seems to injure players in training without outrunning any opposition ......... questions need to be asked and without wanting to turn into George Osborne, CUTS HAVE TO BE FACED.

IF as Matt suggests we stay loyal to Jack Lester we need to recruit an assistant who knows non-league inside-out. If we go into next season like a fluffy-headed old EFL team we'll get taken apart. As Matt says the Proact will look like Wembley to them, it'll be worth a goal start to everyone we play! And when we get our team together it needs to be capable of withstanding physical challenges and be willing to scrap, possess speed, athleticism and power AND footballing ability is an absolute requirement, because there are a lot of good players in the Vanarama.

I'd like to read what a practical business man like Dancing would do. At the root of our decline is our owner's disenchantment with us. If he achieves the miracle and sells the club at a price that satisfies him then that changes everything (and not necessarily for the better). BUT we HAVE to plan on the basis of a club remaining in chaos, in which finance will be unwillingly provided in limited amounts. It looks like we'll have to find a way back from a HARD EXIT. And we'll have to succeed despite Mr Allen, not because of him. So we're going down with a Stockport attitude and we need to get a Bristol Rovers outcome!

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Just read Pooch as I was posting! You are right - by not playing Rowley we are reducing his value and possibly ruining his development. I can see the point in resting a young player. But I can't see the point of putting him on the bench, leaving him there, and sending him the message - anyone is more likely to win us a game than you! And that makes me doubt Jack Lester.

(16-04-2018, 13:52)Devongone Wrote: The worry about cuts is they have to be judicious. I fear we'll cut low-hanging fruit and avoid the dead wood that somehow retains the ability to protest loudest.

Unfortunately we can't cut Mr Allen. So we have to work round him.

I'm sure a move from Saltergate was pretty inevitable at some point, but we seem to have built a stadium that certainly initially raised interest in the team and played a part in its success, but which in the long term we could only afford by continuing to succeed and attracting new income streams. Not investing in the team has made the stadium increasingly uneconomic. On-field and off-field activities are inextricably tied together. Long-term the question of Mr Allen remains central, but most of the Vanarama teams are financially challenged too - especially if Danny Rowe wins Fylde the play-offs.

(16-04-2018, 18:02)Devongone Wrote: I don't think Salford will make it. If Salford slip up and lose a game Harrogate's goal difference is better by 21!

If Kidderminster don't pinch a promotion spot in the play-offs, IF we were serious about getting back to the EFL, we'd straight in for some of their players. Sonupe, Croasdale, Ngwatala, Ironside and Horsfall would all do a job a step up and would bring some non-league nous with them.

Of the teams we might be up against only Tranmere, Wrexham, Aldershot and Orient have a significant following. You could add Stockport and York to the list if they got back up. If Boreham Wood don't make it to the EFL, and they're in fourth place and have an attack good enough to see them promoted, their crowd on Saturday was just 551.