Dramatic Decline

[The Oldman]

4 MILLION IN PLAYER SALES.......OVER 3 YEARS!

AND WHO HAVE WE SIGNED??...theres your reason for decline!

And Falmer legal costs £3 million so far. There's your answer.

 

[byf]

So without the sales.......falmer wouldnt go ahead...well then Mr knight has been a very very lucky man..or we would now be bankrupt!

 

[byf]

And youve seen the figures have you who let you see them?

 

[Blackadder]

I just think this latest knockback for Falmer due to the sheer masonic malice of LDC knocked the stuffing out of the club and the fans. Hard to remain upbeat when the future keeps receding into the distance. The cheap option of playing the youth team in League One is a direct result of that knockback.

I blame LDC.

Agree with Uncle Tom 100%

And Dr Bandler makes some very good points about our decline over 12 months.

I remember coming away from Elland Road thinking "OK Leeds got a last minute equaliser but what the heck? I 've just seen 6 goals and we are well on the way to being an established Championship side!"

It all went downhill when the "successful" Falmer bid was challenged by LDC!

 

[Napper]

So without the sales.......falmer wouldnt go ahead...well then Mr knight has been a very very lucky man..or we would now be bankrupt!

this is bang on statement which never ever gets addressed.

So are we basically saying that without the bonus money which only mystic meg could predict , we would now be bust + if so , what are we going to do if we dont get any future bonus money,

Im quite prepared to swallow the falmer pill over the 4million etc but now the team is as it is , the bonus 250k west ham money needs to be made available

 

[byf]

Well it will be bye bye cox with no replacement and the same for lynch!

theres another million in the falmer fund.

 

[3gulls]

Whether that lack of investment was down to Dick Knight or other directors with their own agenda is debatable.

Its down to Dick Tight luv, he is Chairman but expects everyone else to foot the bill to keep him in office!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

this is bang on statement which never ever gets addressed.

So are we basically saying that without the bonus money which only mystic meg could predict , we would now be bust + if so , what are we going to do if we dont get any future bonus money,

Im quite prepared to swallow the falmer pill over the 4million etc but now the team is as it is , the bonus 250k west ham money needs to be made available

I'm pretty sure the crunch point came when the 'Live And Kicking' campaign was announced. That was DK asking the fans directly for 2.5 MILLION if memory serves, and it smacks of pure panic. The club must have been in very dire straits for it to reach that point. But then the Tottenham cup tie came up and the daftly profitable transfers started rolling in and we won that coca cola thing - and a possibly terminal crisis was averted.

You can say what you like about Dick Knight but he sure is one LUCKY LUCKY BASTARD. And long may he continue to be so

 

[Napper]

I'm pretty sure the crunch point came when the 'Live And Kicking' campaign was announced. That was DK asking the fans directly for 2.5 MILLION if memory serves, and it smacks of pure panic. The club must have been in very dire straits for it to reach that point. But then the Tottenham cup tie came up and the daftly profitable transfers started rolling in and we won that coca cola thing - and a possibly terminal crisis was averted.

You can say what you like about Dick Knight but he sure is one LUCKY LUCKY BASTARD. And long may he continue to be so

I'd rather invest in the team now and not have to perhaps rely on so much luck . Ignoring investing now could see things get a hell of a lot worse in a situation that even luck couldnt help us

 

[byf]

AND A Bloke who spends the gate reciepts on lotto tickets is idolised!?

 

[byf]

I'd rather invest in the team now and not have to perhaps rely on so much luck . Ignoring investing now could see things get a hell of a lot worse in a situation that even luck couldnt help us

I agree...its got to go hand in hand to a certain extent...completly ignoring the playing side is just mental.

Its been neglected for too long and now were reaping what we have sown.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

We have invested heavily in our youth set up, which is partly responsible for ensuring that the club has survived. It wasn't until our recent slump that we looked well placed to hang around midtable and flirt with the playoffs. Lets wait and see what happens in this window before charging Dk et al with treason.

 

[Lokki 7]

We have invested heavily in our youth set up

Have we? How much? Or have we just been bloody lucky in terms of giving jobs to untested youth coaches who turn out to be good, having a large catchment area and striking gold in terms of available young talent?

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Have we? How much? Or have we just been bloody lucky in terms of giving jobs to untested youth coaches who turn out to be good, having a large catchment area and striking gold in terms of available young talent?

Relatively compared to the whole of the 90s, when the youth set up was ignored completely. (I know I don't have to tell you that).

Heavily was perhaps the wrong word to use without relatively.

 

[Lokki 7]

I know what you mean BoF and the club should be commended for their efforts. But it actually hasn't cost very much in monetary terms and has certainly made a tidy profit. We really need to invest some of it in the playing squad or face the consequences (ie relegation, shit football, lower crowds, less income, extinction).

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I know what you mean BoF and the club should be commended for their efforts. But it actually hasn't cost very much in monetary terms and has certainly made a tidy profit. We really need to invest some of it in the playing squad or face the consequences (ie relegation, shit football, lower crowds, less income, extinction).

I agree, I was trying to sit on the other side to get a bit of balance back. We signed some very good players in Chippy, Oatway, Cullip and Watson for less than £100k. Lightening might not strike twice, but there are decent transfers to be had.

Walking away from Millwall was a quiet journey back. At least with Tranmere we managed to put up a fight and sustained pressure. It is getting to the stage when I will consider whether I want to spend £24 to watch them or spend that elsewhere. Bravo to those that go through this torture AND follow them on the road.

 

[3gulls]

We have invested heavily in our youth set up,

Have we really? We only have a small "school of excellence", not even an academy! I'm not sure it really costs that much to run, apart maybe for Tinselhead's wages after his "manager" blunder?

 

[sir albion]

I am thinking back and it is only just over a year ago that things looked very different for the club that we all love.

We were in the Championship and playing fairly good passing football (remember the draw at Leeds in particular), and even though we were drawing too many games we were competing well against most teams. We had the latest (or so we thought at the time) in a series of good managers, and had permission for Flamer. Withdean was mostly full for nearly every game. The future was looking bright (and had been getting brighter since the days of Mickey Adams). I think this is a fairly accurate assessment of things in December 2005, although there were still people unhappy then.

Well, it seems we have fallen a long way since then - we can barely get 6,000 for home games, the away following has fallen off, the team is young and very poor at the moment, and there are the usual rumours but no new signings. Falmer rumbles on thanks to the government and Lewes Council. And we have a young, untried manager who has the support (for now) of the (remaining) crowd but with a very difficult job to do.

I am wondering what people think are the main factors for the dramatic decline. For me they are as follows:

1. No investment in a centre forward in January 2006 transfer window;
2. McGhee lost confidence in what he was trying to do in the second half of last season, and made poor decisions resulting in shmabolic team performances (e.g at QPR). He appears to have gone mad in the end (e.g. playing Revell wide righ at the start of this season).
3. Otaway injured and Carpenter falls off the pace. No midfield control or invention.
4. Still no new players.
5. Hendeson starts to make mistakes behind slow and shaky defence.

It seems to me the underlying cause is lack of investment in the team, which is down to Dick Knight. If we had invested in Gifton Noel-Williams, for example, last January, we may well have avoided relegation (and saved Mark McGhee's sanity and job). We would be getting higher crowds because of that and so more revenue, rather than being on this downward spiral.

The answer now, as then, is money for players. The alternative is relegation and crowds of 3,500. Your decision, Dick.

Excellent post
The main thing is that fans have simply lost patience with the whole thing,i believe the chairman makes far to many mistakes on the playing side of things.

The severe lack of funds and shite facilities is killing the club,new blood is required i.e players and maybe a new chairman.

 

[Yorkie]

Re: Re: Dramatic Decline

Excellent post
The main thing is that fans have simply lost patience with the whole thing,i believe the chairman makes far to many mistakes on the playing side of things.

The severe lack of funds and shite facilities is killing the club,new blood is required i.e players and maybe a new chairman.

hello Berks

 

[Theatre of Trees]

I'd imagine when DK and the board first moved back to Withdean they were expecting one public inquiry and about 5 years of playing there. Most likely a business plan would have been drawn up following these lines. Along with that back then the lower divisions were awash with Ondigital/ITV money which I believe the board put into the budget as extras rather than as part of the budget itself. When that disappeared overnight in 2002-03 season we weren't as badly affected as some other clubs but it still reduced the amount of money coming in.

My turning point is the failure of the first public inquiry and the reopening of the second one. These were costs that were certainly not budgeted for and resulted in the Alive & Kicking campaign and the sales of Currie and Cullip and later Virgo which enabled the club to survive. It is since that point that we have not been able to replace players.

The balls up of the second public inquiry is just another kick in the bollocks for the club and another point of uncertainty that had been added to the future direction of it. To that end money that could have been released over the last few years is probably now tied up still in the battle for Falmer. And a battle it is - not a nice easy run in guns blazing, bang bang you're dead, let's all go home job - this is a knee deep in muddy water, sitting for years in trenches, barely moving forward type of battle. Dissension among the ranks just adding to the general air of gloom that is filtering down to both players and fans.

What the club needs is invogorating and that can only be done with an affirmative Falmer decision. Rather than pointing the finger blame at people within the club the real enemy sits smugly in Lewes.