To respond to GOG’s comments I would say that success is relative. For Chelsea, success is winning the Premiership Title and/or The Champions League. Coming second is failure. For Crawley Town Fc, success will probably be meant just staying in Div 2 for the season and not getting relegated. For us Gills’ fans, success is just simply getting promoted into Div 1. I am afraid that the players cannot be asked to take nor accept sole responsibility for this year’s performance(s) they might be just following orders/tactics, training methods, team selection and for playing in a scratch team due to injuries to other key players. Tactics come from the Manager. The team then should get motivated by both the captain and the Manager to carry out the task in hand. All (including Scally) should take some share of the blame for what has gone on this season. If they had got promoted, you can bet your bottom dollar that they would all taken credit and then demanded a pay rise while Scally does a lap of honour around the hallowed turf of Priestfield. I don’t envy Hessy’s task at all for next season with his very limited budget to buy players or even to just get them on loan. Choice is one thing, money is another. Football management is so much easier this side of the turnstiles whilst tapping away here on the keyboard whilst looking out of my window at the floodlights of Priestfield Stadium, home of the Gills. UTG
If you go back a year 2010/11 pre-season there were polls on most Gills forums. "What would you consider to be a good season" 75% said consolidation and a top ten finish. Why having achieved their expectation are they now unhappy?
I feel that there is a great difference between a good season and a successful one. As far as a good season is concerned, it means satisfactory in quality. For me it means not getting relegated for others it may mean “standing still” or, consolidating. A successful season means the attainment of wealth, position, honours for the club or the like as per the definition in the dictionary. It is on that basis I feel that the season has been a failure.
Baldy - how can you say "a good season.......for me it means not getting relegated" and then go on to state "I feel that the season has been a failure". We did finish 8th you know, we didn't get relegated.
If you read my earlier post, I did say that there is a difference between a good season and a successful one. Do you feel that we have had a successful season? Because, I don’t. I agree that we finished 8th but that does not mean that it is a successful season. Would you like to have a good season every year in Div 2 where we finish 8th every time? Because, if we did, I would soon get very bored and walk away from a club that lacked ambition to do much better in the Division.
Bayo received an offer we could not compete with... http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/sport/2011/may/26/adebayo_akinfenwa.aspx? quote - He was made a two year offer and the package he has been offered is something we canât get anywhere near.
Hard to criticise him for wanting more money, at the end of the day if you were offered more money and a longer contract at another place of work you would take it. So Bayo i can understand, however Palmer and Barcham annoy me as we have paid there wages whilst they have sat a lot of the season out and now they leave for nothing. These 2 annoy me more then Bayo and obviously Cody, can't blame either of those, they played most games and performed in almost all.
The problem of trying to recruit to a club with a small budget is summed up by Keith Hill (Rochdale manager) quoted in today's local paper "We have the opportunity to recruit the type of players we want, but we have to be patient. Everyone asks for stupid money, then they go away on holiday, come back and ask for less stupid money – then pre-season is two weeks away and then panic sets in." Despite the relatively small budget Rochdale are in a stronger position to attract players because Keith Hill and David Flitcroft have established the core of a squad that wants to play for them, and players being approached are aware of the potential benefits to their careers by being coached and managed by Hillcroft (as they are collectively known). The quality of the coaching also means that it is a little easier to get players from clubs in higher divisions in on loan deals because the clubs loaning the palyers know that their assets are going to be coached well. So, with all due respect for Hessy's passion, to try and persuade players to come and play for the Gills is going to be a much more difficult task. He needs to have in place a 2-3 year plan (or longer), with special regard to the way in which he wants the team to play, and then get in the players who are either already capable of playing the way he wants or who are willing to learn or adapt how to play that way. Just planning to stay in the division for next season will only mean that the problems we are experiencing now will be reproduced next year. Having a longer term plan will also be helpful in selling the idea to potential players, but it's going to be difficult to sell a long term dream to some players and then offer them a 1 year contract. I don't envy him the job one bit at the moment, but now is the time to start showing what skills he has both as a manager and a coach.
STEVENAGE.........if they can manage two successive promotions on a shoe string with a poor attendance record (11,500 for a playoff final) why cannot we do better? Lets forget the bitching re Hessy, Scally et al.......just answer me this question please Mr Scally......You own the ground, you have the benefit of the second highest attendances (after Bradford), you have cleared out the dross (and some of the good players too) what are YOUR plans? Even on the club website your last 'post' was welcoming everyone to the Macclesfield game. Hardly the stance of a 'hands on and committed' chairman that you claim to be. Gillingham Football Club is a business, not a hobby. Please keep us, the fans who put the money week in and week out in to the club, informed. Thank you.
Yeah what a joke only an attendance like 11,000 when in 09 there was 53,000 last year there was like 40,000, It may have been at Old Trafford but there should have been more.
