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Post by Lobster on Apr 14, 2018 21:27:04 GMT
Chester FC is a small club with a limited fan base, but we can’t agree on anything.
It sums things up that we couldn’t even manage to keep an Internet forum together. We’ve ended up losing a historic forum over a ridiculous moderating issue.
An Aldershot fan posted on here a few weeks ago asking for suggestions on where to have a pint before the game. It ended with Chester fans rowing among themselves and calling each other ‘bellends’.
We constantly pine for ‘investment’. When potentially good news comes forward, we mock it by turning it into seven pages of ‘Betty Swollocks’ gags.
Two members of the board and a former manager left last week, seemingly because they simply couldn’t reconcile their differences with others.
Our already poor attendances have got a lot worse in recent weeks, even knowing that attendance at games is crucial to our short-term survival.
We’re one of the few clubs in the country privileged enough to appoint our own board of directors. Only a couple of hundred bothered to do so (I will admit myself that I just didn’t get round to it and missed the deadline).
Nobody seems to have any fire in their belly. There’s no anger, no injustice. There’s just a lot of grumbling and unhappiness. I tried to get a fundraising thread started this morning. It got three replies, one of which was telling me what a stupid idea it was.
I’m a big advocate of fan ownership, but are we just too different a set of fans for it to work, and not a big enough group to be able to operate with factions? I don’t know if it’s the area itself - it’s so polarised. Wealthy and deprived, English and Welsh, Labour and Conservative. We’re only about 60-40 behind fan ownership by the looks of things. Healthy debate and disagreement is good but there doesn’t seem to be any common ground we share at all.
I post this without any sense of superiority. I’ve always said I consider myself part of the problem. I talk a lot but can’t make many games. I don’t think I have any useful skills to bring to the club. What I’m wondering is can you and me do more? Forget the board, forget the working groups, can Joe Bloggs who does or doesn’t pay his £15/18 at the turnstile find some way to make this work? Can the average Joes who call themselves Chester supporters find some sort of common ground to work on?
We need an identity, a goal, a collective thought process. Fan ownership can work, but unless things change, it won’t work here. Individually there’s not a lot we can do about our poor support - we can’t clone ourselves - but we can change our own attitudes and levels of cooperation. I have to be honest and say that with all the will in the world, it feels like we’re getting absolutely nowhere.
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Post by Paul Da Part on Apr 14, 2018 21:33:23 GMT
Agree with 95% of your post there Lobby.
The "Betty Swollocks" on the investment thread is probably some of the more light hearted posts we have seen on here in a while...... Surely you can let us have that one?!
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Post by histsci on Apr 14, 2018 21:39:29 GMT
Chester FC is a small club with a limited fan base, but we can’t agree on anything. It sums things up that we couldn’t even manage to keep an Internet forum together. We’ve ended up losing a historic forum over a ridiculous moderating issue. An Aldershot fan posted on here a few weeks ago asking for suggestions on where to have a pint before the game. It ended with Chester fans rowing among themselves and calling each other ‘bellends’. We constantly pine for ‘investment’. When potentially good news comes forward, we mock it by turning it into seven pages of ‘Betty Swollocks’ gags. Two members of the board and a former manager left last week, seemingly because they simply couldn’t reconcile their differences with others. Our already poor attendances have got a lot worse in recent weeks, even knowing that attendance at games is crucial to our short-term survival. We’re one of the few clubs in the country privileged enough to appoint our own board of directors. Only a couple of hundred bothered to do so (I will admit myself that I just didn’t get round to it and missed the deadline). Nobody seems to have any fire in their belly. There’s no anger, no injustice. There’s just a lot of grumbling and unhappiness. I tried to get a fundraising thread started this morning. It got three replies, one of which was telling me what a stupid idea it was. I’m a big advocate of fan ownership, but are we just too different a set of fans for it to work, and not a big enough group to be able to operate with factions? I don’t know if it’s the area itself - it’s so polarised. Wealthy and deprived, English and Welsh, Labour and Conservative. We’re only about 60-40 behind fan ownership by the looks of things. Healthy debate and disagreement is good but there doesn’t seem to be any common ground we share at all. I post this without any sense of superiority. I’ve always said I consider myself part of the problem. I talk a lot but can’t make many games. I don’t think I have any useful skills to bring to the club. What I’m wondering is can you and me do more? Forget the board, forget the working groups, can Joe Bloggs who does or doesn’t pay his £15/18 at the turnstile find some way to make this work? Can the average Joes who call themselves Chester supporters find some sort of common ground to work on? We need an identity, a goal, a collective thought process. Fan ownership can work, but unless things change, it won’t work here. Individually there’s not a lot we can do about our poor support - we can’t clone ourselves - but we can change our own attitudes and levels of cooperation. I have to be honest and say that with all the will in the world, it feels like we’re getting absolutely nowhere. isn't 52% a stunning majority? |
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Post by Paul Da Part on Apr 14, 2018 21:41:19 GMT
I must say, I'm not exactly helping either with my "glass half empty" views but it's a forum after all, I can only voice my opinion, which will differ to others. If everyone agreed though, this place would be pretty boring. As for fans calling each other "bellends" on the Aldershot topic (I didn't see said posts) but I'm afraid it doesn't surprise me. We must be one of very few clubs who's supporters get a kick out of insulting each other. Very off-putting.
We won't all get on, but making things personal is crossing a line. Unfortunately, we do it far too often.
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Post by Neil Fishers Biggest Fan on Apr 14, 2018 22:07:57 GMT
Personally speaking, if the communication was better from the football club, there would hardly be any reason to complain or speculate on here surely?
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Post by sqzl on Apr 14, 2018 22:11:57 GMT
We're a big part of the problem for sure, but more importantly we are the cure too. We need to give time to rebuild and do our best to pull together in these difficult times, rather than point the finger so often. We all love to moan on here, me included!
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Post by chesterken on Apr 14, 2018 22:17:18 GMT
Yes we are and I cannot see how it’s going to change, too many people get off on picking fights with each other at a time where we need to pull together. We need to all come to the last game but you can bet we will get a shed load of people saying “ I am not going until x y z, which part of pulling together do we not understand.
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Post by norwegianblue on Apr 14, 2018 22:33:02 GMT
I think the fan base have just about had a gutfull over the last two seasons and the frustrations are taken out with the aid of a keyboard.
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Post by eltonblues on Apr 14, 2018 22:51:13 GMT
Paul Da Part is right, my Betty Swollocks comment was just a lighthearted response to the seemingly endless negative BS pulling every decision to bits. Social media is a real challenge for anyone that puts their head up and volunteers to help our club.
So, Lobster is right we are our own worst enemy.
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Post by South Wirral Blue on Apr 14, 2018 23:28:29 GMT
I dont think 'we' are the problem.
'We' are the ones who tried to save the board from themselves!!
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Post by bluetartan on Apr 15, 2018 1:54:26 GMT
Fan ownership can work, it has worked previously, it’s only gone wrong recently, reading most posts on here is depressing at least far to many wind up merchants and people with agendas, If you spout shite loud enough and long enough it becomes reality, same with the world in general, social media as great as it should be gives a platform to people with disruptive natures. We as a collective need to assist our board and our club and make this work. Failure to do so will end this club and force us all and our children into the false and nasty hands of the premier league.
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Post by Charfield Blue on Apr 15, 2018 6:13:37 GMT
What is for sure is that Chester related discussion on this forum and social media has become a vehicle and outlet for many people's bile, anger & frustration. It may be cathartic for some, damaging for others. But for sure what it does is create an overhanging hostility which has a negative effect on our club. So yes, we are part of the problem in terms of how we as fans outside of the board react and respond to the issues and problems that we encounter.
Of course ultimately everything is down to us because fans own the club and fans elect from amongst our own to run the club. But those that don't fully understand / buy into that or see a them and us situation still have a massive influence.
I've said elsewhere, if this model is to survive and prosper we need to be less knee jerking / spleen venting in terms of our reactions and more questioning / constructive criticism. This has been the first real test to our model and we have to learn the lessons both as a board and as fans.
However, what I will say is that bile, anger and frustration is still better than what potentially could come next which is outright apathy, disinterest and disengagement.
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Post by Harry Lime on Apr 15, 2018 8:02:36 GMT
Personally speaking, if the communication was better from the football club, there would hardly be any reason to complain or speculate on here surely? Agreed. That would alleviate some of the more negative conspiracy theories. Problem is, we've lost confidence in the Board to run the club properly. This has been compounded by the appalling last 15 months on the pitch. I actually believe the majority of the current board can turn this around. We'll need a fair bit of convincing, though. There will always be the keyboard warrior type out there. You can fairly easily spot them, and block their posts, if you choose. I did that with a couple of well known irritating posters. This forum seemed less vitriolic after that. If Deva-Chat collectively wants to be taken more seriously, some of the personal abuse needs to stop. It deflects away from the sensible and constructive views posted by many. |
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Post by thetheremin on Apr 15, 2018 9:00:58 GMT
There’s definitely two camps.
1. Fans who have been through decades of turmoil supporting the old club, and witnessed us have several of the top 10 worst club owners in British football ever. For the sake of having a club we are willing to compromise on performance on the pitch to an extent. Admittedly we may have put too much trust in the way the club was operated recently but let’s fix that.
2. Fans who see performance on the pitch as the be all and end all of everything, and are willing to risk the long-term existence of the club for the hope of success on the pitch. They see fan ownership as a barrier. They’re impatient. They maybe need to look at the long battle the likes of Newport faced getting back to where they belonged.
Group 2 is made worse by being empowered to say whatever they like using social media and forums like this. Even playing badly for one half in a match can result in an avalanche of online abuse against individuals, and against fan ownership. Seen it so many times. A lot of our fans seem to have no inner dialogue and no filters - they just post bile and hate often for seemingly trivial reasons.
Then apart from our own fans there’s another couple of groupings:
1. The trolls from certain other clubs. Been plenty on here and some have fallen hook, line and sinker for it
2. I suspect a fair few people still causing trouble on behalf of a certain individual with the initials SV
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Post by paulie on Apr 15, 2018 9:15:00 GMT
Chester FC is a small club with a limited fan base, but we can’t agree on anything. It sums things up that we couldn’t even manage to keep an Internet forum together. We’ve ended up losing a historic forum over a ridiculous moderating issue. An Aldershot fan posted on here a few weeks ago asking for suggestions on where to have a pint before the game. It ended with Chester fans rowing among themselves and calling each other ‘bellends’. We constantly pine for ‘investment’. When potentially good news comes forward, we mock it by turning it into seven pages of ‘Betty Swollocks’ gags. Two members of the board and a former manager left last week, seemingly because they simply couldn’t reconcile their differences with others. Our already poor attendances have got a lot worse in recent weeks, even knowing that attendance at games is crucial to our short-term survival. We’re one of the few clubs in the country privileged enough to appoint our own board of directors. Only a couple of hundred bothered to do so (I will admit myself that I just didn’t get round to it and missed the deadline). Nobody seems to have any fire in their belly. There’s no anger, no injustice. There’s just a lot of grumbling and unhappiness. I tried to get a fundraising thread started this morning. It got three replies, one of which was telling me what a stupid idea it was. I’m a big advocate of fan ownership, but are we just too different a set of fans for it to work, and not a big enough group to be able to operate with factions? I don’t know if it’s the area itself - it’s so polarised. Wealthy and deprived, English and Welsh, Labour and Conservative. We’re only about 60-40 behind fan ownership by the looks of things. Healthy debate and disagreement is good but there doesn’t seem to be any common ground we share at all. I post this without any sense of superiority. I’ve always said I consider myself part of the problem. I talk a lot but can’t make many games. I don’t think I have any useful skills to bring to the club. What I’m wondering is can you and me do more? Forget the board, forget the working groups, can Joe Bloggs who does or doesn’t pay his £15/18 at the turnstile find some way to make this work? Can the average Joes who call themselves Chester supporters find some sort of common ground to work on? We need an identity, a goal, a collective thought process. Fan ownership can work, but unless things change, it won’t work here. Individually there’s not a lot we can do about our poor support - we can’t clone ourselves - but we can change our own attitudes and levels of cooperation. I have to be honest and say that with all the will in the world, it feels like we’re getting absolutely nowhere. I don't recall any problems in the first 4/5 years of the reformation, all board members had a vision and the fans were all riding the crest of a wave. The problem is the revolving door policy of directors and chairmen, they all have had different visions and agendas. I personally feel the turning point was when Tony Durkin took the reigns, moving the club away from being a family friendly community club to a normal run of the mill football business. |
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Post by Al on Apr 15, 2018 9:27:59 GMT
Chester FC is a small club with a limited fan base, but we can’t agree on anything. It sums things up that we couldn’t even manage to keep an Internet forum together. We’ve ended up losing a historic forum over a ridiculous moderating issue. An Aldershot fan posted on here a few weeks ago asking for suggestions on where to have a pint before the game. It ended with Chester fans rowing among themselves and calling each other ‘bellends’. We constantly pine for ‘investment’. When potentially good news comes forward, we mock it by turning it into seven pages of ‘Betty Swollocks’ gags. Two members of the board and a former manager left last week, seemingly because they simply couldn’t reconcile their differences with others. Our already poor attendances have got a lot worse in recent weeks, even knowing that attendance at games is crucial to our short-term survival. We’re one of the few clubs in the country privileged enough to appoint our own board of directors. Only a couple of hundred bothered to do so (I will admit myself that I just didn’t get round to it and missed the deadline). Nobody seems to have any fire in their belly. There’s no anger, no injustice. There’s just a lot of grumbling and unhappiness. I tried to get a fundraising thread started this morning. It got three replies, one of which was telling me what a stupid idea it was. I’m a big advocate of fan ownership, but are we just too different a set of fans for it to work, and not a big enough group to be able to operate with factions? I don’t know if it’s the area itself - it’s so polarised. Wealthy and deprived, English and Welsh, Labour and Conservative. We’re only about 60-40 behind fan ownership by the looks of things. Healthy debate and disagreement is good but there doesn’t seem to be any common ground we share at all. I post this without any sense of superiority. I’ve always said I consider myself part of the problem. I talk a lot but can’t make many games. I don’t think I have any useful skills to bring to the club. What I’m wondering is can you and me do more? Forget the board, forget the working groups, can Joe Bloggs who does or doesn’t pay his £15/18 at the turnstile find some way to make this work? Can the average Joes who call themselves Chester supporters find some sort of common ground to work on? We need an identity, a goal, a collective thought process. Fan ownership can work, but unless things change, it won’t work here. Individually there’s not a lot we can do about our poor support - we can’t clone ourselves - but we can change our own attitudes and levels of cooperation. I have to be honest and say that with all the will in the world, it feels like we’re getting absolutely nowhere. I don't recall any problems in the first 4/5 years of the reformation, all board members had a vision and the fans were all riding the crest of a wave. The problem is the revolving door policy of directors and chairmen, they all have had different visions and agendas. I personally feel the turning point was when Tony Durkin took the reigns, moving the club away from being a family friendly community club to a normal run of the mill football business. It most certainly was not all rosey in the garden the first 4-5 years and I guess some of the original board members can vouch for that. Just from the outside everything went amazingly on the field so nobody really gave a toss when it came to off it. And when I say 'nobody' I mean supporters |
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3mm
Full Member
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Post by 3mm on Apr 15, 2018 17:44:56 GMT
Deffo not the fans fault in my view.
Was it the fans who allowed the club to fall into the wrong hands, meaning it was passed from a succession of bad owners to worse?
Was it the fans who sold Sealand Road so "the debts could be paid off" leaving us exiled in Macclesfield, and when we returned, with a 6000 cake tin stadium instead of the 14000 one promised?
Was it the fans who didn't offer Ben Hennigan a new contract in time so he couldn't leave for free on a loophole?
Was it the fans who over-estimated the clubs income / budget this season?
I could go on with any number of "Was it's...
We're just the ones who have to pick up the pieces of whatever is left when those in power leave after they're done. Let's have another whip-round...
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Post by Al on Apr 15, 2018 20:08:53 GMT
Deffo not the fans fault in my view. Was it the fans who allowed the club to fall into the wrong hands, meaning it was passed from a succession of bad owners to worse? Was it the fans who sold Sealand Road so "the debts could be paid off" leaving us exiled in Macclesfield, and when we returned, with a 6000 cake tin stadium instead of the 14000 one promised? Was it the fans who didn't offer Ben Hennigan a new contract in time so he couldn't leave for free on a loophole? Was it the fans who over-estimated the clubs income / budget this season? I could go on with any number of "Was it's... We're just the ones who have to pick up the pieces of whatever is left when those in power leave after they're done. Let's have another whip-round... The wording you choose is interesting 3mm. Referring to the fans as picking up the pieces and then using wording whereby you don't identify "those in power" as fans. Very interesting.. |
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Post by btb on Apr 15, 2018 21:17:20 GMT
I don't think we are the problem but we haven't become the answer to the problem. We all know there has been a sequence of horrendous decisions but we were given the opportunity to save the club. 750 for a home game, seriously, wtf?
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jabber
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Post by jabber on Apr 15, 2018 21:38:05 GMT
Don't think there would be that much of a problem if we all met up regularly face to face , social media is a 2 edged sword, full of good ideas and full of arse holes who do nothing but talk shite but when asked to do something do nothing.
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