Right then - what's the plan?
- Thread starter AveryDave
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Pink Panther
Well-Known Member
At least Hornchurch is easy to get to with a cracking micropub at Upminster, whereas Aveley's a bit fiddly and in the middle of a beer desert.
The Hornchurch team today included Jamie Mascoll, Rickie Hayles, Liam Nash and Ade Yusuff, with Chris Dickson on the bench. They lost the final at home to Cheshunt last season.
Truro City won at Bracknell in the promotion final for the other remaining place in National South. They must be chucking a fortune into a black hole (again) to reach a higher division, while playing to tiny crowds a long way from home, with no imminent chance of returning to Truro. I can't say I'll miss meeting them again, especially after the way they messed us around with that fixture at Torquay the last time.
The FA will need to formally allocate all clubs to a league during the next few weeks, but I reckon we can safely say the definitive list for our division will be:
Billericay Town
Bognor Regis Town
Canvey Island
Carshalton Athletic
Chatham Town (P)
Cheshunt (R)
Concord Rangers (R)
Cray Wanderers
Dulwich Hamlet (R)
Enfield Town
Folkestone Invicta
Haringey Borough
Hashtag United (P)
Hastings United
Hornchurch
Horsham
Kingstonian
Lewes
Margate
Potters Bar Town
Whitehawk (P)
Wingate & Finchley
Moroccan Sunset
Well-Known Member
Interesting to see who people would keep. I was thinking hard about it today, and the only ones I'd want are Quade, Jones, and Holland. I'd love Powell and Felix back too (interesting that the latter was visibly upset at full time - his heart was in it even if plenty of others' weren't), but I think both were very good this season and I wouldn't begrudge either of them a move up the ladder. Thompson and Haile are more than welcome to come back and have a crack in pre season.
The rest can go, I think. I really think now is the time to be ruthless and give ourselves a fresh start. Mills and Ming have been great servants to the club, but I think Mills has really dropped off this season. He's taking longer to get shots off, his pace has nearly disappeared, and he just looks like a faded force to me. I don't mean that as any disrespect to the bloke - he's a smashing fella, who's won games for us nearly single-handedly at times, and he was clearly playing with discomfort in that final run (his legs were so heavily strapped.) I think time and injuries have just caught up and I almost wouldn't be surprised if he hung his boots up, in which case I hope we could keep him on in some off-field capacity. Ming was injured a lot at the start of the season and I didn't really like the fact that he was clearly causing chaos in Barnes's dressing room. Everyone knows he's a Gavin loyalist too, so maybe not what we need from here on in.
I suspect Holland might go anyway, particularly if Raymond, Vint, and Porter all leave (and they will). Porter for me summed himself up by hitting great form at a crucial point of the season, only to get himself sent off for not shutting his bloody mouth and being suspended for the game that decided our fate. I'm sure all of those players are well connected so they'll undoubtedly talk their way into another club, but their reputations - Holland's aside - will have taken a battering after this season and rightly so. I don't know why Holland would want to stick that closely to them - he's far better than them, and they'll make him play at a lower level than his ability deserves.
Wood, Blackman, Smith, Grainger, Krasniqi, Kalala, Owusu, Fawole were all either poor, injury prone, ill-disciplined, expensive, had crap attitudes or a mix of all five. I'd let them all out. The 5 loanees will all go as well of course, and frankly bar Woodman I didn't think they were great shakes either. Phillips I suspect is much better than he showed, but injuries really hampered his impact. I'd like Campbell to stay but if he's pricey he can go, too.
The rest can go, I think. I really think now is the time to be ruthless and give ourselves a fresh start. Mills and Ming have been great servants to the club, but I think Mills has really dropped off this season. He's taking longer to get shots off, his pace has nearly disappeared, and he just looks like a faded force to me. I don't mean that as any disrespect to the bloke - he's a smashing fella, who's won games for us nearly single-handedly at times, and he was clearly playing with discomfort in that final run (his legs were so heavily strapped.) I think time and injuries have just caught up and I almost wouldn't be surprised if he hung his boots up, in which case I hope we could keep him on in some off-field capacity. Ming was injured a lot at the start of the season and I didn't really like the fact that he was clearly causing chaos in Barnes's dressing room. Everyone knows he's a Gavin loyalist too, so maybe not what we need from here on in.
I suspect Holland might go anyway, particularly if Raymond, Vint, and Porter all leave (and they will). Porter for me summed himself up by hitting great form at a crucial point of the season, only to get himself sent off for not shutting his bloody mouth and being suspended for the game that decided our fate. I'm sure all of those players are well connected so they'll undoubtedly talk their way into another club, but their reputations - Holland's aside - will have taken a battering after this season and rightly so. I don't know why Holland would want to stick that closely to them - he's far better than them, and they'll make him play at a lower level than his ability deserves.
Wood, Blackman, Smith, Grainger, Krasniqi, Kalala, Owusu, Fawole were all either poor, injury prone, ill-disciplined, expensive, had crap attitudes or a mix of all five. I'd let them all out. The 5 loanees will all go as well of course, and frankly bar Woodman I didn't think they were great shakes either. Phillips I suspect is much better than he showed, but injuries really hampered his impact. I'd like Campbell to stay but if he's pricey he can go, too.
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Pink Panther
Well-Known Member
You and players are like Imelda Marcos and shoes. You just want to keep having new ones! I'm more or less the opposite. I'd rather hang on to those who can do a job until I'm sure we have someone better, but I don't suppose Hakan will be as sentimental as I am about keeping familiar players who've been here for a few years.
It's impossible to predict what might happen at this point, it's 14 years since we had a manager other than Gavin Rose starting the season. Gavin in 2009 and Craig Edwards in 2007 both had a complete clearout and started from scratch with an entirely new squad. They both arrived in the summer, whereas Hakan has already had a couple of months to size up the situation, so it's slightly different. He's probably already tapped up a lot of potential players, but then again he was probably banking on still being in National South.
My feeling is that Hakan will undertake a complete rebuild and won't retain many, if any. I got the feeling he didn't especially fancy Taylor, whose versatility seems to have counted against him under all three managers this season. He's perpetually been a short term solution to plug a gap, who then gets squeezed out again. I believe Holland initially joined us from Bromley because he has a lucrative day job and couldn't commit to their new training regime. He just wanted to play for a decent local club and wasn't looking for the biggest payday. I've always felt he seemed a good fit for our club. He's strong and disciplined with a good passing range. I reckon he might be attractive to someone like Welling or Tonbridge. Jones showed considerable promise for me in that late run of games although his distribution needs improving. He's got very safe hands and often catches high balls that most modern keepers push or punch away.
Hakan favoured players with a strong defensive game during his opening two months, so people like Raymond, Powell and Crichlow had limited game time. I disagree that the loan signings weren't great. I'm not saying we should keep them all, even if we could, but they all did a valuable job for me. Half our clean sheets for the entire season came in the final month with those guys stiffening the core of the team. Phillips was clearly carrying an injury but if we'd landed Woodman, Stephens and Lawless a month earlier I'm sure we wouldn't have gone down.
It's been suggested that Hakan likes Thompson and Haile but didn't feel they were experienced enough for the relegation battle we were in, so they may well be options for next season. I think I'm right in saying Hakan signed Porter, Krasniqi and Powell (on loan) for Maidstone. Whether that's of any significance now, I don't know.
I still feel a bit stunned that we're back where we were 10 years ago, as newcomers in the Isthmian Premier Division. A decade of painstaking progress and consolidation wasted by poor recruitment, poorly timed changes of team management, poor performance on the pitch even though the club appears far stronger and in a much more stable position off it. The last time we went down it was by a huge margin with only 4 wins in 42 games and it took 12 years to climb back. In a way it's a wonder we ever got back. We could easily have kept slipping lower, as attendances diminished further, like Tooting have over the last few years. This time we're in a great position everywhere except on the pitch. If only we'd stayed up there's every reason to believe we'd have had our best ever National South season next year and kept building on that. It's so bloody frustrating.
scousedom
Well-Known Member
Grainger I assume is bucketed as “expensive”? That’s the only reason I can think for having him go. He’s been player of the season most years since signing. And if the budget isn’t affected and he can’t find the wage elsewhere, maybe he won’t mind giving it one season in the league below - he might reason to himself he’ll get a lot more games where he’s not constantly being called into action and can chat to the crowd a bit!
Edited to add: I’ve just spotted your motive for the almost total clearout. Clearing the decks to spend 100% of the budget getting Nyren back. I for one am all in on that.
Pink Panther
Well-Known Member
I believe it's an ACL injury. Not the worst type I heard, but not one you want to risk rushing back from in 3 months like Kalala did. It must be doubtful he'll be playing for anyone on the opening day of next season.
Inpopular opinion I’m sure but I disagree on Grainger, the spectacular saves masked the failure to do the basics. A keeper that lets in close to 80 goals cannot be blameless. He is very poor on corners and set plays, too short to dominate when pressurised at set plays, rarely comes to claim crosses, distribution poor when compared to someone like Preston Edwards. Beaten numerous time by over hit crosses and always unsure in windy conditions. Horrendous error cost us against Eastbourne when we never looked like getting less than a point. Not vocal enough which showed in the inability to organise his defence.
Balham did it the other way round. The senior club were set up to provide somewhere for players graduating from the Balham Blazers youth set up to play adult football.
As an aside I saw Balham at Farnham Town recently. They played some lovely football and scored the second best goal I've seen live in 46 years of watching football. The players deserve much better gates than they draw.
Pink Panther
Well-Known Member
I remember reading that about Balham a few years ago, probably when they knocked us out of the London Senior Cup in 2018. Not entirely dissimilar to how Dulwich Hamlet FC began all those years ago, set up to provide a team for old boys of Dulwich Hamlet school.
Paula_G
Flitting in & out like Tinkerbell on Meth
In a similar vein Peckham Town began just over 20 years ago playing in an Under 14s League. I believe there are now around 20 junior teams playing in the clubs colours as well as the first teams for both the men & women. The interest in the women’s side is continuing to grow and hopefully there’s going to be a development side starting up before too long .
Steve Deltasix
Member
Spoke to Charlie yesterday he can start running in two weeks, had a lovely chat as we’ve got up know him quite well
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Moroccan Sunset
Well-Known Member
Some good news: Deon Woodman has had his QPR contract extended. Glad to see he's not just been hoofed out with the hundreds of other released youngsters - hope he gets a crack at the first team.
Pink Panther
Well-Known Member
I'd like to think we helped him to earn that chance. I was under the impression they were going to release him, although I can't remember where I heard that now.
As I said a fact
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