to be continued in the next post.....
My part two:
4: People mock the increased crowds at BTFC but what do you expect, and again, is there anything wrong or unusual about this? Any club that is successful attracts more fans and as GT says, BTFC is galvanising the community and putting the small town of BTFC on the map. More people coming to watch football has got to be good for the game.
I’M NOT MOCKING THEM PER SE, I WOULD EXPECT THEM TO INCREASE. AS A LIFELONG HAMLET FAN I’VE SEEN OURS JUMP IMMENSELY AND QUICKLY OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, AND WE HAVE HAD TO TAKE SOME MOCKING TOO. BUT-AH, ISN’T THERE ALWAYS A BUT-IF MR. TAMPLIN HADN’T GONE ON SO LOUDLY ABOUT GETTING TWO, THREE EVEN FOUR THOUSAND A WEEK THEN WE WOULDN’T BE KEEPING SUCH CLOSE TABS ON YOUR GATES, AND WOULD JUST SEE THEM AS A BIG INCREASE THAT WE’D EXPECT, FOR THE AMOUNT OF LOCAL INTEREST YOU’RE CREATING IN YOUR PART OF THE WORLD. WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN SAYING ‘BLIMEY, BILLERICAY HAD A DECENT CROWD AGAINST KINSTONIAN’…INSTEAD WE’RE LAUGHING BECAUSE OF TAMPLIN’S PREDICTIONS/ESTIMATES.
5: GT has brought fun and excitement to the Bostick League. He’s a showman, a businessman and a visionary. Because of him non-league football will get a boost in terms of media exposure and increased attendances at games. Every team in the league will benefit from BTFC’s publicity (Lowestoft for example got a bigger crowd last Tuesday than they would normally have expected.)
I’M NOT DISPUTING WE WILL GET A NUMBER OF CURIOUS LOCALS ON SATURDAY, AND OTHER CLUBS WILL BENEFIT TOO, AS YOU SAY LOWESTOFT DID. BUT THAT IS NOT A REASON TO SAY HE’S DOING A GREAT JOB. PEROSNALLY SPEAKING I DON’T NEED MR. TAMPLIN TO BRING FUN AND EXCITEMENT INTO THE BOSTIK LEAGUE. I HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING THE HAMLET MAN AND BOY SINCE 1974, AND HAVE NOW BEEN ON THE CHAMPION HILL TERRACES, AS WELL AS AWAY GAMES, FOR OVER FOUR DECADES. OUR CURRENT SPELL UNDER GAVIN ROSE OVER THE BEST PART OF THE LAST DECADE HAS BROUGHT ME FAR MORE FUN AND EXCITEMENT INTO MY LIFE THAN I EVER BELIEVED POSSIBLE. HE’S A SHOWMAN? YES, WITHOUT A DOUBT, BUT THAT’S NOT ALWAYS A GOOD THING. HE’S A BUSINESSMAN? YES, BUT ONE WHO’S CLEARLY PREPARED TO CUT CORNERS AND BREAK THE LAW, WHICH IS PUBLIC RECORD. A VISIONARY? MAYBE FROM WHERE YOU’RE SITTING…BUT IT’S FAR TOO EARLY TO SAY THAT. IN FIVE YEARS TIME IF YOU’RE MORE THAN HOLDING YOUR OWN IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE NATIONAL, THEN I MIGHT ACCEPT THAT, EVEN IF I MIGHT NOT USE THAT EXACT WORD MYSELF, BUT UNTIL THEN…MY PERSONAL JURY IS OUT.
Having said all this, here are a few concerns:
1: It is important that everyone at BTFC acts with dignity and humility in a way that wins friends and doesn’t make us a ‘hate’ club or ‘toxic.’ I would prefer if we had rivals who grudgingly respect us rather than despise us. I fear we have set ourselves up as the ‘great Satan’ of our league who are making headlines for the wrong reasons. We don’t want a situation where families are put off the club because of negative publicity (the same goes for sponsors.) Nor do we want confrontational and potentially aggressive atmospheres at matches caused by antagonism created by Twitter spats etc.
THOSE TWO WORDS: ‘DIGNITY’ AND ‘HUMILITY’. UNTIL MR. TAMPLIN LOOKS THEM UP IN A DICTIONARY AND WORKS OUT HOW TO IMPLEMENT THEM YOU ARE DOOMED & THE VAST MAJORITY OF NON-LEAGUE WILL BE LAUGHING AT YOU, AGAPE AT WHAT YOU ARE DOING, WITH NO RESPECT AT ALL. RESPECT HAS TO BE EARNED. FORTUNATELY I DON’T USE TWITTER, BUT HAVE SEEN ENOUGH OF HIS POSTS TO WONDER HOW ON EARTH HE CAN EVEN GET AWAY WITH SOME OF THEM. FOR THE RECORD I AM NOT A MR. TAMPLIN OR A BILELRICAY TOWN ‘HATER’, MORE OF A ‘PITIER’.
2: It would be better in my opinion to answer the ‘haters’ with dignity and restraint. There’s no point getting into slagging matches. Let them think and say what they want and let the football do the talking. Let’s be professional in the way we conduct ourselves. If people slag us off a polite and dignified response achieves more than responding with insults. It makes the other person look bad and it doesn’t get the rise they are looking for.
YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THOUGH, WHY PEOPLE ARE POSTING AND TO DO THAT YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THE POSTS FROM MR. TAMPLIN HIMSELF. IT IS NOT THE SO-CALLED ‘HATERS’ THAT HAVE TO ACT WITH ‘DIGITY’ AND ‘RESTRAINT’ BUT THE MAN HIMSELF!
3: Self-confidence is good but boasting isn’t, especially when we haven’t won anything much yet. Even when we do win stuff we need to be gracious in victory, not gloating.
I THINK YOU SHOULD BE TELLING HIM THAT, NOT EXPLAINING TO US, TO BE HONEST.
4: Personally I like the mural but I wonder if it was wise having pictures of GT on it. This will be an easy target for away fans and internet trolls. GT is a working class man from Essex and he may offend middle class sensibilities with his tastes, but so what?
I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH MURALS IN FOOTBALL…AND HAVING PUMPED IN, TO THE ‘ORDINARY MAN IN THE STREET’ A PROVERBIAL SMALL LOTTERY WIN, HE CAN DO WHAT HE LIKES. BUT HE IS ONLY SETTING HIMSELF UP FOR ‘ABUSE’ BY DOING SO, AND SHOULDN'T BE SURPRISED WHEN HALF OF THE NON-LEAGUE WORLD ARE LAUGHING AT HIM AS A RESULT.
5: GT is untested as a manager and I hope that he does well this season. But if not I hope that he will leave the football side in the capable hands of an experiences and talented manager and concentrate on what he does best; having a dream and taking the necessary steps to make it a reality.
IT’S BLOODY LUDICROUS THAT HE’S ON THE BENCH TO BE HONEST, AND I THINK, THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE REALLY SAYING IN THIS POST. BUT WITH WHAT WE’VE SEEN OF MR. TAMPLIN ALREADY, WITH HIS COMMENTS AND HIS PERCEIVED EGO, DO YOU HONESTLY THINK HE WILL EVER LET AN ESTABLISHED MANAGER JUST GET ON AND MANAGE, WITH THE MONEY HE’S PUMPED IN? I CERTAINLY DON’T THINK SO.
Anyway, that’s my comments done and dusted, I don’t expect you to agree with them all, but at least respect them a little, especially as I’ve ‘wasted’ my lunch break typing this all up!
Personally, with the huge budget you’re working on, which is unprecedented at Isthmian League level, even when there have been rich owners in the past, anything other than a romp to the title must be seen as a huge failure for you.
I’ve already said I don’t hate Billericay Town per se, but with your hugely inflated budget don’t pretend there’s a ‘level playing field’ out there, no matter how much work you do on your bumpy pitch. If we come second and go up in the play-offs, behind you winning the title, then I will resent you for the rest of your life. Because, no matter what you say about there having always been rich owners in football, I will never forgive your club for denying me what would have been the only Isthmian League title in my lifetime.
Anyway, thanks for posting on here, and having the bollocks to try to defend your club. It is appreciated by me, at least.
