I dont post often but do read the forums daily, never missing a single post. I get whats happened, we can go back over a decade and point the finger at who we blame. It has been a knock on effect of poor ownership and management regimes with each one successively becoming worse. But we have done all that to death and we need to look at how we can survive the future.
There appear to be a few good people on the forums that seem to know a bit about the inner workings of football, especially in the lower leagues. Regardless of what others think of these peoples opinions I have read much information that I have found interesting and educational.
One suggestion grabbed my interest in particular and at first I was a little outraged and dead against the idea, I spat my tea, swore and harrumphed at such a notion. I was vehemently against this. Moving our training base to a more central location to attract decent players and save money on having to pay a fortune in wages to make them relocate. Have them travel to home matches just on match days. How dare you all I said.
I have always got a bit testy and annoyed with the obsession that we have to recruit all our players from outside the area, many seem to feel nobody south of Bristol ever kicked a football before. There must be talent around here surely. However after soaking in some knowledge its clear most talent in the area wouldnt touch us with a bargepole. We have treated the youth prospects with utter contempt over decades, no scouting, players overlooked or just ignored. Anybody half decent is hoovered up by Plymouth, Exeter, both Bristols, Yeovil etc. Or even some talent moves further away and up the pyramid. A club should always look to discover and nurture its own talent but we dont do that do we.
Therefore I have changed my outlook and truly believe as a non league team having to cut its cloth whether its NL or NLS if we are to afford any football talent it is imperative we set up a training base in a suitable location further up the country. I read other day that uncle Clarke is ready to spend money on our current training ground. Well I would say save your money Mr Osbourne because this is what we need to do.
Unless Clarkey wants to spend more money on us therefore putting us tighter in a chokehold.
Only other downside would be if our management and players are 80/90 miles away young Mr Harrop cant keep his beady eye on them can he. Or is that another plus?
Then there is the other issue of full or part time. Well, again I was adamant we need to be a full time club, but now I'm not so sure. When you see the plethora of part time clubs that have whooped us on a regular basis in the last four years you have to ask whether its worth it. There are part time clubs thriving in our current league, in a heady position we can only dream of, all on much lower attendances than we have been achieving. You can argue these clubs are undoubtably better run, and more professional with various extra revenue streams. TUFC could learn a lot from other clubs but nobody involved wants to know. At this moment in time we need to cut expenditure and get our house in order.
Moving training base and going part time go hand in hand I feel. We attract the type of players we need, they dont have to move to the south west, we can also allow them to continue other jobs/careers they have therefore football wages dont have to be so extortionate. I have read examples recently of very good or even outstanding players who are unwilling to go full time and give up their proper job as it is just not in their interest. This could actually work in our favour if we are smart. I would rather have semi pro's like this than wannabe's or has beens masquerading as professionals which is what we have been treated to for many years now.
If we were a football league team I would never suggest such things but unless we do something drastic then nothing will change.
Go on, tell me why I'm wrong.
