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Post by Lobster on Feb 14, 2018 14:07:18 GMT
There are a lot of threads on this forum about whether we can stay up, how many points we need, who should be kept on, whether we have the right manager and so on. Is it just me that thinks none of this is very important?
The club could still fold within the next few months. A promising few weeks since the news of the cashflow issue was announced doesn't change the fact that we're operating in a way that is not sustainable and this still needs to be foremost in our minds.
I'll keep going to matches when I can, hoping we win and getting frustrated when we lose, but really I just see the rest of this season as something to get through. The priority is cutting costs and raising money, and hopefully tomorrow's match will drive this message back home.
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Post by chesterken on Feb 14, 2018 14:12:00 GMT
There are a lot of threads on this forum about whether we can stay up, how many points we need, who should be kept on, whether we have the right manager and so on. Is it just me that thinks none of this is very important? The club could still fold within the next few months. A promising few weeks since the news of the cashflow issue was announced doesn't change the fact that we're operating in a way that is not sustainable and this still needs to be foremost in our minds. I'll keep going to matches when I can, hoping we win and getting frustrated when we lose, but really I just see the rest of this season as something to get through. The priority is cutting costs and raising money, and hopefully tomorrow's match will drive this message back home. Nail on head sir. |
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Post by sqzl on Feb 14, 2018 14:16:54 GMT
You're right to be honest. Some people are deluded enough to believe relegation would be the end of us regardless. I think it's the best thing for us with the budget potential we have next season being so low. I guess the biggest frustration for me, is why does it take us announcing near bankrupcy for everyone to really start pulling together and raising these fantastic sums of money? I hope we maintain the fundraising going forward, it really is the future of the club.
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Post by gezzer on Feb 14, 2018 14:48:52 GMT
What a ridiculous thread title for a board that's all about Chester FOOTBALL club. If it really isn't that important then go and watch Cheshire Pheonix (I do BTW) indoors, cheaper admission and much more exciting plus they do the Community side much better than us IMO. Me? Like you I want to see Chester FC as a sustainable FC playing competitively in the highest league possible with an ambition of reaching the football league again. Where we differ is that I believe with the budget we have next season we will be fighting relegation in NL North anyway so will pretty much face the same issues as staying in the NL. Going forward I really hope that we use the experiences of the last few years to make the right decisions. SQZL, you are dead right re fundraising, one learning for me is that £100k was not enough as a rainy day fund again it has to be an initial target we aim for then build on it.
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Post by Frank Owen’s Paintbrush on Feb 14, 2018 17:10:02 GMT
Completely agree with Lobster and sqzl.
Some might even suggest that the club needs relegation this season in order to better balance the books.
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Post by Al on Feb 14, 2018 17:27:46 GMT
Completely agree Lobster and Sqzl.
Significant reduction in playing budget means we would be on a hiding to nothing in here next season.
Those proclaiming we must stay up I think would also be the ones expecting us to challenge for the play offs next season.
Its people living in cloud cuckoo land. What we need are people who are more level headed and can see what is best for the club in the long term. Survival this year means we will struggle to finish off the foot of the table next season. Relegation means we might struggle next season, depending on those lads on two year deals, but we will have a far greater chance of being competitive at National League North level than we can be at this one.
I've seen it all on twitter and Facebook where people seem frankly oblivious to how serious a financial issue this is, whereby people proclaim we just need one or two lads on loan (good ones cost ££) or that we should sack Bignot (would cost ££) and bring in bloke x, y, or z (all of whom have a history of failure).
The next few months I sort of see as some sort of sado masochistic experience where we pay to endure god knows how much shite on the field and x amount of players leaving to be replaced by lads on peanuts. We'll be better off in the long run but by God its going to be painful
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Post by Pseudoscally on Feb 14, 2018 18:23:18 GMT
I agree that getting relegated this season will not be the end of the world as some are predicting, and yes it may well be beneficial for us long term.
What I can't agree with though is that we should accept it as a formality. How can we possibly expect people to part with £18 for the remaining home fixtures knowing that the club have all but given up on the pitch? We really need more people through the turnstiles, not less.
What about the players? Especially the senior pros who've refused to move on. What message does that send to them? Of course, they'll turn up and probably do enough to not get slaughtered and may grind out a couple of draws but to me that's just not on.
As I said, getting relegated wouldn't be the end of the world but neither would staying up. Either way, we go into next season with ambition, affordable pricing structure, a realistic budget and players with the right attitude.
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Post by Al on Feb 14, 2018 19:07:03 GMT
I agree that getting relegated this season will not be the end of the world as some are predicting, and yes it may well be beneficial for us long term. What I can't agree with though is that we should accept it as a formality. How can we possibly expect people to part with £18 for the remaining home fixtures knowing that the club have all but given up on the pitch? We really need more people through the turnstiles, not less. What about the players? Especially the senior pros who've refused to move on. What message does that send to them? Of course, they'll turn up and probably do enough to not get slaughtered and may grind out a couple of draws but to me that's just not on. As I said, getting relegated wouldn't be the end of the world but neither would staying up. Either way, we go into next season with ambition, affordable pricing structure, a realistic budget and players with the right attitude. Define ambition. Our ambition could be to be competitive next season and finish top half. What would you expect next season if we went down or stayed up? Conference National level = survival? Conference North Level = play-offs? Remember key to everything is our budget. It determines how many players we can bring in and what calibre of player we can bring in. 250k will not get us an awful lot in terms of individual quality. Which is why you need a manager who can work to a tight budget and assemble a squad for little to no money. If we stayed up next season and say both Wrexham and Tranmere go up, next season would be disastrous for us financially as both our biggest gates will be lost, and we'll be in a national league with most sides in the southern regions. It's not unambitious to look at what would be best for the club in the long term, a couple of years trying to rebuild the club at national league North level amongst a lot more local clubs who will bring bigger support than the likes of Torquay or Dover will be better for us all. |
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Post by Pseudoscally on Feb 14, 2018 19:29:54 GMT
I agree that getting relegated this season will not be the end of the world as some are predicting, and yes it may well be beneficial for us long term. What I can't agree with though is that we should accept it as a formality. How can we possibly expect people to part with £18 for the remaining home fixtures knowing that the club have all but given up on the pitch? We really need more people through the turnstiles, not less. What about the players? Especially the senior pros who've refused to move on. What message does that send to them? Of course, they'll turn up and probably do enough to not get slaughtered and may grind out a couple of draws but to me that's just not on. As I said, getting relegated wouldn't be the end of the world but neither would staying up. Either way, we go into next season with ambition, affordable pricing structure, a realistic budget and players with the right attitude. Define ambition. Our ambition could be to be competitive next season and finish top half. What would you expect next season if we went down or stayed up? Conference National level = survival? Conference North Level = play-offs? Remember key to everything is our budget. It determines how many players we can bring in and what calibre of player we can bring in. 250k will not get us an awful lot in terms of individual quality. Which is why you need a manager who can work to a tight budget and assemble a squad for little to no money. If we stayed up next season and say both Wrexham and Tranmere go up, next season would be disastrous for us financially as both our biggest gates will be lost, and we'll be in a national league with most sides in the southern regions. It's not unambitious to look at what would be best for the club in the long term, a couple of years trying to rebuild the club at national league North level amongst a lot more local clubs who will bring bigger support than the likes of Torquay or Dover will be better for us all. I would say first thing would be to get away from equating size of budget to the ambition. There have been plenty of examples of teams with low budgets punching above their weight and equally teams with excessive, money no object budgets and have continually struggled. The key is to attract players with the right attitude who have clear personal ambitions to play at a higher level and not journey man pros picking up an easy wage. It doesn't always have to be about money. We have so much more to offer as a club. Personally I'd love to see the deva at least half full every home game and if that means charging £8/£10 then that's what we should be doing, regardless of the league we're in. As for setting a target at the beginning of a season, all I would say is that we shouldn't be going into any campaign with the aim of 'just survival' regardless of budget. Look where that got us last year, we got to 50 points and stopped. I actually think we got rid of Burr too quickly and JM too late. We had finished mid table the season before with Burr and would have probably stayed up anyway had we kept him. Remember, we had beaten Aldershot 8-2 only a few weeks before his sacking. Anyway, telling the players now 'don't worry about winning today lads, we've already accepted relegation. Go and have a run around for 90 mins' really grates on me. They've let us down and if they wont move on then they should at least show some pride in wearing the shirt. |
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Post by Lobster on Feb 14, 2018 19:35:04 GMT
What a ridiculous thread title for a board that's all about Chester FOOTBALL club. If it really isn't that important then go and watch Cheshire Pheonix (I do BTW) indoors, cheaper admission and much more exciting plus they do the Community side much better than us IMO. Me? Like you I want to see Chester FC as a sustainable FC playing competitively in the highest league possible with an ambition of reaching the football league again. Where we differ is that I believe with the budget we have next season we will be fighting relegation in NL North anyway so will pretty much face the same issues as staying in the NL. Going forward I really hope that we use the experiences of the last few years to make the right decisions. SQZL, you are dead right re fundraising, one learning for me is that £100k was not enough as a rainy day fund again it has to be an initial target we aim for then build on it. My thread title was a bit sensational and 'clickbait'. Sadly, on the internet, that sometimes helps in getting attention and interaction. I'm slightly concerned at the amount of talk about fairly trivial football matters like whether this player should be starting over that one and who our manager should be next season. Make no mistake, we are a club in crisis and there won't be a 'next season' unless we prioritise the immediate need for funds. I feel that, perhaps because we haven't had a home game in ages, some of the urgency of a couple of weeks ago has been lost a little bit and we've fallen back into a cycle of lazy grumbling about a crap team, when the problem is much bigger than that. For example, does anyone know if we have reached or exceeding the initial £50K we need to raise yet because the last I heard we were on £45K. Tomorrow's game will help, but we should see that as a bonus because we can't get Colin Murray and Jeff Banks to have a whip-round of their contacts every few weeks. I don't disagree with you that success in the Conference North next season is far from a given. I think we could be in for a tough few years, possibly back-to-back relegations even. I think the rest of this season is going to be ugly and I fear that somebody is going to really smash us between now and May, possibly putting seven or eight past us, and it's going to hurt. But we need to be strong and see the bigger picture. We could possibly look at Newport County for inspiration. They were plodding about in the Dr. Martens league and suchlike for years, but now they're having a good season in League 2 and took Spurs to a Cup replay. Supporter owned as well. |
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Post by rjshbdhmtrm on Feb 14, 2018 19:40:21 GMT
Didn’t Newport have a serious cash injection by someone who lifted a big amount of cash via the Euro Lottery?
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Post by Lobster on Feb 14, 2018 19:49:02 GMT
Didn’t Newport have a serious cash injection by someone who lifted a big amount of cash via the Euro Lottery? Quite possibly, but that still is supporter input. There's nothing stopping a wealthy Chester supporter putting money into the club under a fan-owned model. |
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Post by Hannibal on Feb 14, 2018 20:45:23 GMT
Didn’t Newport have a serious cash injection by someone who lifted a big amount of cash via the Euro Lottery? Quite possibly, but that still is supporter input. There's nothing stopping a wealthy Chester supporter putting money into the club under a fan-owned model. I know a Newport fan in Wrexham and he reckons that when that Euro millions winner fell out with the club and left the club repaid all the money. |
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Post by gezzer on Feb 15, 2018 9:11:03 GMT
Quite possibly, but that still is supporter input. There's nothing stopping a wealthy Chester supporter putting money into the club under a fan-owned model. I know a Newport fan in Wrexham and he reckons that when that Euro millions winner fell out with the club and left the club repaid all the money. Thought I read that their cup run netted them £700k. Oh if only..... |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2018 9:46:48 GMT
I think there are some good points in this thread. I can only speak for myself, but think most of the other people I know around CFC think the same.
Should we fight to stay in the Conference? By God YES. We should strive to play as high as we can, and that means we should try to stay up. That needs everyone to be positive, from team manager and players, to supporters and staff.
Should we bankrupt ourselves trying to do it? No, absolutely not.
Should we plan for every eventuality? Yes. Including a proper long term SUSTAINABLE future for Chester FC.
Do we want to be a Football League club again? You are damn right we do.
Just got to work out how to do it now. All of us.
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Post by gezzer on Feb 15, 2018 10:46:48 GMT
I think there are some good points in this thread. I can only speak for myself, but think most of the other people I know around CFC think the same. Should we fight to stay in the Conference? By God YES. We should strive to play as high as we can, and that means we should try to stay up. That needs everyone to be positive, from team manager and players, to supporters and staff. Should we bankrupt ourselves trying to do it? No, absolutely not. Should we plan for every eventuality? Yes. Including a proper long term SUSTAINABLE future for Chester FC. Do we want to be a Football League club again? You are damn right we do. Just got to work out how to do it now. All of us. Thanks NWAS my sentiments exactly, was wondering what the boards stance was for the rest of this season and now answered. I can accept relegation as long as we tried our hardest to stay up and we should absolutely live within our means, does that mean we should never gamble? not necessarily as long as we assess the potential risk and "cover the bet". In any business we sometimes get things wrong, the good ones use it as a learning curve to move forward. |
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Post by oldnotdecrepit on Feb 15, 2018 11:26:11 GMT
I think there are some good points in this thread. I can only speak for myself, but think most of the other people I know around CFC think the same. Should we fight to stay in the Conference? By God YES. We should strive to play as high as we can, and that means we should try to stay up. That needs everyone to be positive, from team manager and players, to supporters and staff. Should we bankrupt ourselves trying to do it? No, absolutely not. Should we plan for every eventuality? Yes. Including a proper long term SUSTAINABLE future for Chester FC. Do we want to be a Football League club again? You are damn right we do. Just got to work out how to do it now. All of us. Thank you. Too many folk have conveniently forgotten the history of football in Chester. Friends of mine from far and wide cant believe we’re no longer in the Football League. We should be looking up not down. I understand the financial plight but agree wholeheartedly with your last statement and tacit acceptance of relegation will obviously only make that more difficult. Cox has gone from Guiseley, I think they’ve accepted they are relegated. If that’s true, only 3 places left. Incidentally I will clutch any straw offered. |
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Post by btb on Feb 15, 2018 15:29:01 GMT
If it had been purely about football I'd have stopped giving my £15 through the turnstile a long time ago. This season and the second half of the previous season have been nothing but a disgrace. But moving back OT I'm in agreement with the OP. I've had a few crazy Chester discussions lately. Statements being made like, if we go down that's it for me. If such and such plays, that's it for me. If such and such is coaching, I'm gone. Does this city even want a football club? I pay my money purely to safeguard the future of the club. I want my kids and grandkids to have a football team in their city to watch. Sadly, I feel other than about a thousand of us the club could shut the gates tomorrow and the city wouldn't shed any tears.
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