Marcus Bignot Full time players??

I can't really speak for football contracts as I don't have any experience but in general employment, when you have a primary job, that employer can reasonably expect that you are available when they require you and any other part time roles will have to fit into the needs and demands of the primary employer.

Personally, I can't help but feel that footballers get far to easy a ride, good pay, a bit of light training and a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. It would be nice to see them actually have to go and do 50-60 hours a week for dreadful employers and low pay like many of the supporters. Only then would they appreciate that spending a days wages to go and watch that shower of shite yesterday leaves most supporters feeling a bit peeved!

It's a difficult balancing act - in the previous leagues we managed to stay part-time and have the cream of the crop in terms of available players for that. We could go properly full-time and, due to our finances, struggle with discarded youngsters and "last payday" journeymen, but we currently have some sort of mash-up of the two as it stands.

There's reasons why he has been removed from all his previous positions at other clubs. He has brought some sponsorship our way, no doubt. Beyond that though his management has been dreadful and has/will cost the club a lot of money over the next year and a half. Will that outweigh what he brings in sponsorship wise? How, under the circumstances that last season ended, could he/the club allow JM to sign up players on two year contracts. That is the most criminal aspect of his dealings so far. Does our club not learn anything about contracts?

I suspect oldnotdecrepit is actually Whopper3

Thinking ahead but I wonder if Bignot will order the players in for training on Christmas Day this year, ahead of the potentially vital home game against Guiseley on Boxing Day. Disciplinarian managers often seem to believe in doing that (Mark Wright definitely did so at least once) and I doubt as things stand Bignot would trust this crop of players to prepare properly if at their homes.

The information that was made available in 2014 when we changed from p/t was that we moved to essentially a hybrid p/t - f/t model, players were to be paid for 44 weeks of the year (as opposed to 52) and would train for 3 mornings per week, as opposed to 2 evenings that we had up to that point.


I'm assuming the mid-way position was due to finances and that we couldn't afford a 100% f/t squad. I suspect we still can't. MB was expressing his opinion immediately after a dire performance, but he is not in control of contracts or employment at the club. The way things might work would be to ask players to commit to 1 or 2 extra training sessions per week on a voluntary basis, and perhaps for a set period of time. I suspect that enough would do this to make it worthwhile, and without it eating up any more cash we need for new signings (although perhaps some kind of end of season bonus if we stay up could also be considered, one where those players who have volunteered to work unpaid would get extra). That would deal with contract of employment issues, but I agree it isn't ideal.

I think Maguire might have more influence than people realise. The board are essentially fans with little or no experience of running a football club and I suspect they turn to him as he at least has experience in the running of a football club albeit it with questionable success.

Matty Waters describes himself as a professional footballer on his twitter profile. Head in the clouds if ever there was one. I'm sure he is a nice lad, and in terms of talent he is way above any level I played at,  but he is never going to be a professional footballer. 

Very interesting read. Suggests there were some very paly deals done in the summer between JM and some of these players that Bignot is challenging. Sounds like he is challenging them to commit to the cause or bugger off. Will be interesting to see the reaction.

Maguire


“Most of the squad are on 52-week contracts now and they are on standard National League football contracts. They are not typical employment contracts that have fixed days and have them contracted to a certain number of days training each week. The contracts in place are designed to meet the needs of the football club when they arise, such as changes in dates for games etc. Adding an extra days training won’t affect this, although it won’t be ideal for all of them.



“But this is the next step that we have to take as a football club.”

Craig Mahon is my favourite Chester player, possibly my favourite since reformation, but I would be quietly relieved if he left by mutual consent. 

Every season it's been "I'm looking to put last year behind me, this is my season" and then he's out for two thirds of the season. We can't afford to have presumably one of our biggest earners out for so long, and we've got another season and a half of this.

Guiseley have now announced they are going full time.

Assuming that the CFC unofficial site's stats are correct -
2013/14 - Mahon played or was an unused sub in 83% of league matches (excluding 5 matches when out on loan at Fylde where he made 6 appearences)
2014/15 - Mahon played or was an unused sub in 96% of league matches
2015/16 - Mahon played or was an unused sub in 91% of league matches
2016/17 - Mahon played or was an unused sub in 63% of league matches
2017/18 - Mahon played or was an unused sub in 93% of league matches to date.
Prior to joining CFC Mahon made over 130 appearences in three seasons for Vauxhall Motors.