[spireitematt]

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.

Don't think we will be able to turn it around even in the Conference. We could do a Bristol Rovers or a Cheltenham and bounce back at the first attempt or we could do a Stockport or York and drop down to National League North or possibly do the likes of Halifax, Hereford etc.

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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 .

Well Bolton were suppose to be interested last season but not sure how true that was. Dennis will leave, would not surprise me if we sell him to Bradford in the summer but Mansfield fans seem to think they are going to get him.

Season ticket & ticket prices in general will need to be reduced to attract the fans to watch Non-league next season otherwise if the prices remain the same it will put fans from turning up and like you say it will more than likely effect the budget also. The only positives you can take is playing and visiting away grounds you wouldn't normally visit.

Salford City vs Chesterfield doesn't sound right does it especially when Salford City were playing in the North West Counties League not that long ago.

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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.

We had to move away from Saltergate Dev, It would have been very difficult to make adjustments to the ground especially with the houses around the ground and the fact we still had the wooden stand. The Proact is a very attractive stadium which will attract players and its a stadium which can be used for different things other than football, such as concerts etc.

Paul Cook created and built a great team with the likes of Doyle, Clucas, Darikwa etc and I think Paul Mitchell the scout was a big help to finding gems. Got to say well done to John Coleman because he has done well with Accrington with a small budget, a few seasons ago they missed out on making the L2 playoffs but look like they will be promoted or will win the league.

I agree Dev, what is the point of bringing in loanees from Premier League and Championship clubs where they are in the youth team or development squad, you may as well use your own youth players and give them experience and a chance to show what they can do and see if they can establish a permanent spot in the starting eleven. A lot of these Premier League and Championship players will not have played first team football for their parent club but are expected to help battle against relegation. When you're in a relegation battle you need experienced players who can get you out of it, who have been there before.

Cuts will happen Dev and it will be interesting to see if the wage budget and transfer budget will be cut.

I think it will be a HARD EXIT or a CHEXIT. (Decided to change the name of the thread to CHEXIT, to give it that more dramatic effect)