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Paul Barnes gone

The new one said:
The club is bigger than any one person manager or players. So something gone wrong I said a couple of weeks ago about his interview it works both ways not seen any player come out and slag him off about tactics or training
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The club is since September bigger than one person, it's a shit show and needs to be sorted. The board need to take ownership of their failings with not bringing the club into a structured alignment where if a manager leaves we don't fumble around with NO reserve/B team or academy!
 
bkbk said:


new contracts to the staff offered recently?
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To be fair I can see sense in that. About eight weeks ago Hamlet were top of the form table, albeit generally agreed undeservedly. The points tally since Paul and co. took over was generally agreed to be play off ish. Such a dramatic turn around, especially if implemented against a 20% budget cut, is impressive. Their contracts expired at the end of the season.

The number of geographically suitable Conference South capable players is limited. We are far short of the biggest payers. Clubs are starting to recruit for next season imminently. If you have the manager you want, extending them so they can commence recruitment makes total sense. Starting recruitment months after the other clubs is not a good place to be.

Obviously about six weeks ago the wheels came off behind the scenes so the offer now looks a bit daft. It needs to be viewed through the perspective of the club's situation at the point of offer.

If the form had carried on and a bigger club had nicked Paul for next season I suspect we'd be asking why he hadn't been tied down.

The other point is is all the assistants have also gone the club seem pretty confident someone will be in situ very quickly and that they will bring their own staff.
 
Roger D said:
The number of geographically suitable Conference South capable players is limited. We are far short of the biggest payers. Clubs are starting to recruit for next season imminently. If you have the manager you want, extending them so they can commence recruitment makes total sense. Starting recruitment months after the other clubs is not a good place to be
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I'm intrigued by this point. We're in London, the most populated city in the country, and next to a train station. We're not trying to get guys to come to Chippenham or Weymouth. In terms of the loan market there are loads of football league clubs around too.

Or is it the case London is so expensive NLS level players can't afford to live nearby,
 
My perception is Conference South is a bit of a pinch point in signing players. It's a very high standard but is a bit niche.

Younger lads will often play higher up for less money to 'chase the dream'. Many years ago we lost a player to Dagenham for £75 a week plus travel card. (Edited to clarify Daggers were in the Football League then. It worked, the lad in question had a long professional career.)

Other players who are good enough but can't get an EFL gig often want to be full time, so look for a full time Conference National or South slot.

Then you have the players who are good enough but don't fancy the travel in Conference South due to work or family commitments. Kenny Beaney and Marc Weatherstone both cited this when leaving after promotion to tier two.

There's only so many players capable of playing Conference South and that's three big subsets already gone.

Out of those still available the geographical location will certainly help Hamlet get some deals over the line but don't underestimate how far players at this level are willing to travel. It's the nature of the beast given the lack of jobs. There used to be a lad who lived close to the ground who played for Worcester City in the pre Conference South days. The Weymouth side that went up included a fair smattering of London based players I believe.

Also geography hinders some signings, due to travel time when entering into and crossing London. Look at the Cambridge based player who left early in the first season at Step Two. It was the journey time he cited as reason for leaving, not the distance.

Throw that in, add in the fact Hamlet aren't massive payers - look who some of last season's team we would probably have liked to retain now play for - and being late into the recruitment market doesn't strike me as wise.

I agree loans can be useful to strengthen a squad but no more. You aren't allowed to build a full squad of loan players. Even if you could, it would be hugely risky given the possibility of recalls etc.
 
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In the days of Steve King Lewes had a fair smattering of South London based players including Junior Kadi and Peter Adeniyi. Of course the perfect example of how far players will travel is Lambeth-born Barry Hayles who would travel down to Truro City.
 
Al Cunningham said:
Be good to see Tom interview Ben about hhe current situation and put the video on the DH YouTube site
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This feels essential at this point. I’m possibly being unfair, but it feels like the Board is happy to be heard during the good times, and disappears behind formal statements and oblique programme notes during the bad times.

There’s an ever growing list of questions that have been unanswered for a while now - I’m sure I’ll miss some, but the whole Crouch affair, the departure of Rose and his team, the ownership of the club’s playing infrastructure under Aspire, and now the appointment and departure of Barnes. As custodians of those decisions, the ongoing ignorance of fan concerns around them is a huge issue for me.

None of this is a dig at baleboy_93 by the way - I’m beginning to suspect he’s working under similar restrictions in his role to the size and scope Barnes faced in his.
 
Paula_G said:
In the days of Steve King Lewes had a fair smattering of South London based players including Junior Kadi and Peter Adeniyi. Of course the perfect example of how far players will travel is Lambeth-born Barry Hayles who would travel down to Truro City.
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Seem to remember that under Terry Brown, Margate would train in Kidbrooke to enable them to attract players from in and around London - certainly during their promotion season from the Isthmian that featured Laurent Hamici's last minute winner against them at Champion Hill before they went on to beat us in the play-off semi final.
 
AveryDave said:
Seem to remember that under Terry Brown, Margate would train in Kidbrooke to enable them to attract players from in and around London - certainly during their promotion season from the Isthmian that featured Laurent Hamici's last minute winner against them at Champion Hill before they went on to beat us in the play-off semi final.
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Yeovil trained at Salisbury during their Isthmian stay. Most of the players came from either Bristol area or London.

Dover have trained on the London / Kent borders before now but I don't know if they still do.

It happens higher up too. Barrow were still training in Manchester in for their first season back in the league.
 
AveryDave said:
This feels essential at this point. I’m possibly being unfair, but it feels like the Board is happy to be heard during the good times, and disappears behind formal statements and oblique programme notes during the bad times.

There’s an ever growing list of questions that have been unanswered for a while now - I’m sure I’ll miss some, but the whole Crouch affair, the departure of Rose and his team, the ownership of the club’s playing infrastructure under Aspire, and now the appointment and departure of Barnes. As custodians of those decisions, the ongoing ignorance of fan concerns around them is a huge issue for me.

None of this is a dig at baleboy_93 by the way - I’m beginning to suspect he’s working under similar restrictions in his role to the size and scope Barnes faced in his.
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Tbh, I think so much of this could be dealt with if there was some board engagement on here. It's where a lot of fans congregate and discuss stuff, so why can't one of the 5 come here to answer questions/thoughts/concerns? When I buy something off Amazon they want to know what I thought of the service - they don't tell me that if I want to give feedback I have to make the effort to go to them.

I think a lot of the anger and belligerence that's on here at the moment stems from the fact that no one from the board bothers with Urban, all valid concerns are just ignored, presumably because some of us are critical of the board's decisions. But the worst thing you can do with people who are pissed off is ignore them - it'll just make them angrier, more suspicious.

The tactic seems to be to let Tom and Liam soak up the shit, but that's not fair. They're not the ones making the decisions.

I, for example, would love to know why it took us to Tues/Weds to sack Barnes when he'd lost his last game on Saturday. We've lost at least one very valuable training session, and short of an announcement this afternoon, we're likely to lose another tonight. Why was Barnes's contract not terminated on Saturday evening, Sunday latest? It means the new manager will have had much less time with the squad than he should have had.

I don't know why I bothered writing this. The board don't read Urban anyway.
 
Roger D said:
My perception is Conference South is a bit of a pinch point in signing players. It's a very high standard but is a bit niche.

Younger lads will often play higher up for less money to 'chase the dream'. Many years ago we lost a player to Dagenham for £75 a week plus travel card. (Edited to clarify Daggers were in the Football League then. It worked, the lad in question had a long professional career.)

Other players who are good enough but can't get an EFL gig often want to be full time, so look for a full time Conference National or South slot.

Then you have the players who are good enough but don't fancy the travel in Conference South due to work or family commitments. Kenny Beaney and Marc Weatherstone both cited this when leaving after promotion to tier two.

There's only so many players capable of playing Conference South and that's three big subsets already gone.

Out of those still available the geographical location will certainly help Hamlet get some deals over the line but don't underestimate how far players at this level are willing to travel. It's the nature of the beast given the lack of jobs. There used to be a lad who lived close to the ground who played for Worcester City in the pre Conference South days. The Weymouth side that went up included a fair smattering of London based players I believe.

Also geography hinders some signings, due to travel time when entering into and crossing London. Look at the Cambridge based player who left early in the first season at Step Two. It was the journey time he cited as reason for leaving, not the distance.

Throw that in, add in the fact Hamlet aren't massive payers - look who some of last season's team we would probably have liked to retain now play for - and being late into the recruitment market doesn't strike me as wise.

I agree loans can be useful to strengthen a squad but no more. You aren't allowed to build a full squad of loan players. Even if you could, it would be hugely risky given the possibility of recalls etc.
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Excellent post.
 
Moroccan Sunset said:
Tbh, I think so much of this could be dealt with if there was some board engagement on here. It's where a lot of fans congregate and discuss stuff, so why can't one of the 5 come here to answer questions/thoughts/concerns? When I buy something off Amazon they want to know what I thought of the service - they don't tell me that if I want to give feedback I have to make the effort to go to them.

I think a lot of the anger and belligerence that's on here at the moment stems from the fact that no one from the board bothers with Urban, all valid concerns are just ignored, presumably because some of us are critical of the board's decisions. But the worst thing you can do with people who are pissed off is ignore them - it'll just make them angrier, more suspicious.

The tactic seems to be to let Tom and Liam soak up the shit, but that's not fair. They're not the ones making the decisions.

I, for example, would love to know why it took us to Tues/Weds to sack Barnes when he'd lost his last game on Saturday. We've lost at least one very valuable training session, and short of an announcement this afternoon, we're likely to lose another tonight. Why was Barnes's contract not terminated on Saturday evening, Sunday latest? It means the new manager will have had much less time with the squad than he should have had.

I don't know why I bothered writing this. The board don't read Urban anyway.
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I think a public facing version of the three year plan would be a good idea.
 
Roger D said:
My perception is Conference South is a bit of a pinch point in signing players. It's a very high standard but is a bit niche.

Younger lads will often play higher up for less money to 'chase the dream'. Many years ago we lost a player to Dagenham for £75 a week plus travel card. (Edited to clarify Daggers were in the Football League then. It worked, the lad in question had a long professional career.)

Other players who are good enough but can't get an EFL gig often want to be full time, so look for a full time Conference National or South slot.

Then you have the players who are good enough but don't fancy the travel in Conference South due to work or family commitments. Kenny Beaney and Marc Weatherstone both cited this when leaving after promotion to tier two.

There's only so many players capable of playing Conference South and that's three big subsets already gone.

Out of those still available the geographical location will certainly help Hamlet get some deals over the line but don't underestimate how far players at this level are willing to travel. It's the nature of the beast given the lack of jobs. There used to be a lad who lived close to the ground who played for Worcester City in the pre Conference South days. The Weymouth side that went up included a fair smattering of London based players I believe.

Also geography hinders some signings, due to travel time when entering into and crossing London. Look at the Cambridge based player who left early in the first season at Step Two. It was the journey time he cited as reason for leaving, not the distance.

Throw that in, add in the fact Hamlet aren't massive payers - look who some of last season's team we would probably have liked to retain now play for - and being late into the recruitment market doesn't strike me as wise.

I agree loans can be useful to strengthen a squad but no more. You aren't allowed to build a full squad of loan players. Even if you could, it would be hugely risky given the possibility of recalls etc.
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Really appreciate this Roger, thank you
 
Hopefully I’m up for it Can’t do no worse I sack all the players and get the supporters eleven in But being serious now 2 men I think can settle the ship x Maidstone manger or tunbridge angels man
 
The new one said:
Hopefully I’m up for it Can’t do no worse I sack all the players and get the supporters eleven in But being serious now 2 men I think can settle the ship x Maidstone manger or tunbridge angels man
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So the ex-maidstone manager or the other ex-maidstone manager? I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the extent of our board’s contacts book.

We could get some of their board members too? Since we probably just asked them what they recommend.

Lets hope they don’t offer us Harry Wheeler as bantz.
 
Moroccan Sunset said:
I think a lot of the anger and belligerence that's on here at the moment stems from the fact that no one from the board bothers with Urban, all valid concerns are just ignored, presumably because some of us are critical of the board's decisions. But the worst thing you can do with people who are pissed off is ignore them - it'll just make them angrier, more suspicious.
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Couldn't agree more.

The supporters were treated with near contempt over the Crouch affair, starting with that 'press launch' when we weren't even told the actual reason why he was coming to the club - we had to read that in a tabloid newspaper some days later.

And yes, urban can be snippy, but it's always been generally supportive of the club and I've invited the board to contribute here multiple times, even offering to let them start 'read only' threads, so they don;t have to deal with fan comments (although they should, IMO)
 
editor said:
Couldn't agree more.

The supporters were treated with near contempt over the Crouch affair, starting with that 'press launch' when we weren't even told the actual reason why he was coming to the club - we had to read that in a tabloid newspaper some days later.

And yes, urban can be snippy, but it's always been generally supportive of the club and I've invited the board to contribute here multiple times, even offering to let them start 'read only' threads, so they don;t have to deal with fan comments (although they should, IMO)
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Sounds like a job for Kevin Rye
 
Bugpowder Dust said:
Ben is behind the goal almost every week, why not have a chat?

Always been friendly and approachable, even though some people on here paint him as some sort of anonymous malign controlling influence.
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Ben leads the Board and the decision making on critical matters that impact all areas of the club, why not address valid concerns from supporters in a clear and transparent way on a regular basis?
 
AveryDave said:
Ben leads the Board and the decision making on critical matters that impact all areas of the club, why not address valid concerns from supporters in a clear and transparent way on a regular basis?
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Fan cosplay is more important.

Because he is behind the goal, he can be in touch with what the fans are thinking, and what they are thinking is my property portfolio is down, any chance you can get Crouchy back down for a second season.
 
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