Fans forum

[AwayDayYeltz]

First of all, completely agree with all Andy said.
Main points,please forgive me if I've left anything out.

Keith stated that there was little to no infrastructure at the moment so as part of improving this there will be the creation of an under 21's side to act as a conduit between youth and first team. Matches to be played Saturday mornings.

Steve Hinks, former assistant to Richard Sneekes at Sutton to head up the academy.

Two new classrooms to be erected alongside the perimeter fencing between the phone mast and cafe. (sponsored by Karen's company)

The bar in the JG to be moved to the back wall making it longer. Greenalls & Fixed wheel to provide the booze. Future development could be to remove/sell the Steve Lynch suite and extend the JG.

Ali is now a contracted player. (the first in many a year) apparently Stourbr*dge have already tried to nick a couple of our players, both of which said no.

I'm sure i heard at one point that John Hill will have an improved budget.

Oh i nearly forgot. Towards the end of the coming season there will be a review of the club badge (Hurrah)

All in all an awful lot of work to be done, but at last we can all be assured the club is in safe hands.

Many thanks for that - it's appreciated.

Very pleased to hear there will be an U-21's set up. One thing (out of many!) that has frustrated me is the fact we have not once used any player from our youth team. Given the abysmal season we have just endured, If we never used any players from a successful youth side, like we have, in our first team, then when will we? Why wasn't any player tried, they couldn't have done any worse!

Was the question asked at the forum? It seems a little pointless to have a set up and not at least give one youth player a game? Hopefully this U-21's side will bridge the gap and we'll see some youth players breaking through.

[andy]

Thanks for this update- would have loved to attended but had to be elsewhere. All sounds incredibly promising.

Great news on putting Ali on a contract, as he looked a very good player towards the end of last season. And a big thumbs up on Fixed Wheel as well!

Stupid question alert - presumably being on contract means that should any club wish to sign him, we'd have to agree a transfer fee?

Correct sir. A fee would be negotiated.

Also it's very much in their minds to have players break through from the U21's to the first team.

[Noggin]

To add to Andy’s point slightly, the concept was to have a means of progression from youth level to U21 to senior, using loans of young players to teams further down the pyramid to get them experience of playing adult football. Obviously this will not be an instant process, but I feel reassured by the idea of having a tangible plan for the future rather than the piecemeal/ad hoc approach of the last 3916 days.

[AwayDayYeltz]

With regards to budget, where does it stand in comparison to the rest of the league? Now, I'm not naive enough to think that will be openly disclosed. But by the same token, John, Matt, and I think Colin all stated we had one of the lowest budgets in the league last year from various columns in the local papers. Where is the information taken from in relation to others clubs in our league and their budgets?

Just curious as to how such information is gained, is it simply word of mouth at games, is there a website (highly doubtful), or does it require research into a clubs finances such as accounts on Companies House? Or is it assumptions? If I was a manager or owner I'd be very cautious releasing information on playing budgets for a number of reasons.

From a fans point of view it's difficult to know what to expect, although it's been said that the budget will be increased is it still relatively low? Will we have an average budget? Or a good budget?

Regardless of budget I'd like to see us dip into the loan market for long term loanees from professional clubs. We've been very successful in recent times in getting quality loans in this way (Hales, Reffell, Sweeney, Anderson, Udoh - from memory). What I don't like to see is a lot of short term loans. That doesn't do squad cohesion any favours.

It'd be interesting to know what the expectations of the new ownership team are in terms of league position? I'd have a reasonable guess this depends on how we do in the FA Cup competitions. We're due a cup run to get a much needed cash boost. Especially after the very early exit last year. And whether attendances pick up - which hopefully they will.

From my own point of view, and I'm guessing many will disagree with me here, I'd expect at the very least a mid table finish. I'm basing that on the fact we have an increased budget (of course I don't know how much, so that's a little bit of guess work on my part) , and from what I believe to be a decent spine of players in our squad, which will hopefully see more additions.

A mid tabled finish (no relegation fights please!), and a good cup run would be a successful season for me.

Lower table and no cup runs would be poor.

[piearce9]

Budgets- Always a complete mystery. On one hand, clubs will try and convince new players they've got cash to splash. On the other hand, they'll claim they've got one of the tightest budgets in the league. One thing that's obvious is that money talks, even at this level, and I'm certain that players will switch clubs for an extra tenner a week or a cheeky signing-on fee. With regards to our playing budget, I doubt it's going to change massively and so I wouldn't expect us to be throwing money around to attract "big names". But if we can secure players on contracts, then that is certainly a good sign and helps to protect us against other clubs stealing our stronger players at least.

Expectations- I imagine we should improve on last year, but we have a long way to go before we can be genuinely competitive at this level. Brutally honest, there's possibly only three or four players from the "retained list" that are the right quality for this league. It will be a slow rebuilding process, with players coming and going and so I think us fans need to heed some warnings- there's not going to be any sort of overnight revolution. I've so much confidence in the new owners, but reckon expectations need to remain quite modest in the short term.

[Seamus]

Josh, agree with many of your points regarding budgets and commercial sensitivity, I suspect much of it will come via players/agents offering their services. From my years of following non league football, I've picked up a couple of points giving me an outsider's view. 1. How many contract players do the club have? Those with larger budgets typically have more, the club's without the finance less or none at all. This can be shaped by clubs who follow a youth/satellite model contracting many younger U20 players, ( I recall an East Midlands rival a few years ago trying this, albeit from my view not successfully), also I appreciate it can be difficult knowing how many contract players a club has. 2. Does our team appear to be locally competitive, is can we persuade first team players from rival clubs to move to us, or is the direction of travel the other way, leaving us to scour lower leagues for players. Again this assumes players moving for additional cash when other factors could be very relevant, club stability, plans, ethos, facilities, style, geography, good mates in the squad etc.

[AwayDayYeltz]

Budgets- Always a complete mystery. On one hand, clubs will try and convince new players they've got cash to splash. On the other hand, they'll claim they've got one of the tightest budgets in the league. One thing that's obvious is that money talks, even at this level, and I'm certain that players will switch clubs for an extra tenner a week or a cheeky signing-on fee. With regards to our playing budget, I doubt it's going to change massively and so I wouldn't expect us to be throwing money around to attract "big names". But if we can secure players on contracts, then that is certainly a good sign and helps to protect us against other clubs stealing our stronger players at least.

Expectations- I imagine we should improve on last year, but we have a long way to go before we can be genuinely competitive at this level. Brutally honest, there's possibly only three or four players from the "retained list" that are the right quality for this league. It will be a slow rebuilding process, with players coming and going and so I think us fans need to heed some warnings- there's not going to be any sort of overnight revolution. I've so much confidence in the new owners, but reckon expectations need to remain quite modest in the short term.

Agree with your expectations, I think anyone who thinks we're going to suddenly become a brilliant team (if anyone actually does?) is mad. Let's face it, the club has been rudderless for 2-3 years now and will need a lot of hard work behind the scenes. But that would relate mostly to off the field issues & building a business plan to become self sufficient - I'd have thought?

On the field, it is a little different in that we've had a core of players who have stayed around since the back end of last season , which will give some continuity to the squad - I know the circumstances on the field haven't been ideal over the last few seasons with lots of loans and 50 plus players a season, but it finally feels as though we've got a fairly settled side right now - which will help.

I think you're being a little bit conservative with the players who are good enough for this level, I think at least 6 or 7 players are more than adequate at this level (Platt, Ekongo, Kelly, Poscha, Ali, Goddard and possibly Agbor - with Asa and Hughes good leaders, but will struggle to get 42 games from them!) - All opinions, though! Isn't it? I know Andy will say that all those were involved in a side that finished second bottom last year but I genuinely rate all the aforementioned players - I'd be interested to know if I'm alone in that or do others agree?

We do need some quality additions to compliment that core, though. Especially attacking wise.

[Rotterdam82]

It was said that Lee Hughes as passed his coaching badges over the summer

[AwayDayYeltz]

It was said that Lee Hughes as passed his coaching badges over the summer

I don't think it'll be too long before we see a Hughes / Sneekes double team as our management. I get the feeling the majority of Yeltz fans feel that way too.