What do you want?
I also think it is too early to pass judgement on the new owners and describe them as ‘awful’.
I do think some of us will say that they made an awful appointment to a key position who managed to dismantle (as some of us see it) the cultural identity of ‘our’ club in a disrespectful and haphazard manner that achieved a schism in our support (at least as reflected in the debates on here) and some frankly odd decision making behind the scenes which completely derailed what was looking like being one of our best seasons ever.
Whilst we do now appear much more of a bland, corporate club with money to burn, the close season has seemed to restore some semblance of normality, bringing in players who appear to fit the managers ideas of setting up a team and I do wonder whether that ‘awful appointment’ I refer to earlier is less involved than they were. I for one certainly hope so.
2 Likes
The owners are clearly not “awful” in terms of their financial outlay on players and infrastructure.
However, they are “awful” in respect of their treatment of staff, players and supporters. Their view seems to be that if you chuck enough money about success will eventually come on the field. If we do get promotion it will not mean anywhere near as much to me as the Couhig promotion. Everybody was pulling together to achieve the miracle.
The soul has been ripped out of our club by Rice along with the drudgery of Doddsball. Unfortunately I don’t think their cold and uncaring attitude will change so we will have to just get used to it.
4 Likes
I try not to be too optimistic, but there are signs that Dan Rice has learnt his lesson from the chaos of the last transfer window.
The emergence of Tom Stockwell and signing players we actually need make me feel better about the whole enterprise.
I think it is being somewhat disrespectful to the owners vision to say they are “chucking enough money about”.
Almost all of us would agree that investment in the both the pitch and training ground at Marlow was long overdue. Some would argue that more investment in the infrastructure of Adams Park is needed, but is that the responsibility of the Trust or the Club?
Also they have also invested money into Harlington as part of the academy plan along with the staff required to run the academy. I don’t think there are many fans who don’t welcome the establishment of the academy, even if they disagree with the view that it can be cat 1.
They have also invested money in the playing squad, although the January window what a very strange affair.
To suggest that’s “chucking money about” makes it appear you either disagree with it or think it inappropriate for WWFC to be able to make those investments.
I don’t, even if I agree that the club has changed dramatically from the club of ten years ago. But then I first started watching back at Loakes Park in 1969, so I still consider playing league football at AP as deserting our heritage, and certainly wouldn’t condone actually paying the players boot money
1 Like
Franco seems like a lovely guy, isn’t overly aggressive or aerially commanding but if you have big centre halves who can be then he will do a good job and start off moves with good passing and fill in gaps in the defence like a sweeper keeper.
Many weren’t convinced he was up to it but he let in very few goals when we were going well and the thoughtful passing and relationship with the defenders made for some great football out from the back.
In supposedly shoring up the defence we bought a load of players in a hurry, most of whom didn’t fit in at all, dropped all that passing stuff and bought a goalie who was solid for the first few weeks but launched it long pretty much exclusively, tbc wether that’s who he is or what he was asked to do, then we basically fell off a cliff so who knows how much of that was down to individuals.
Our fans seem to chase away our Goalies anyway, Scott Brown and Rocky Allsop were ridiculed before doing really well elsewhere, Max started really well before he lost the plot a bit and seemed to have been offended by criticism after a couple of clangers and probably thought he’d had better offers at the end of his contract. Norris didn’t look like he was enjoying it and now it seems he’s been quickly replaced.
Dodds is going to need to earn his money on the training ground, looks like we’ll have a largely new team and hopefully different style of play. Some promising signings and unheard of amounts of money down.
I dont think we can call the owners awful. We are in shock after watching the best run for a long time, turning into a poor stumble… but we would have been pleased with sixth place and a playoff spot last August.
God knows how the experienced people involved managed to screw up our shot at promotion in January even with losing the manager for whatever reason…but they did…so the upcoming season will be interesting to see what they have learned, where we are and what they (and MD) are about.
So far the signings look like quality recruits…young but with some experience.
Hopefully Anders, Magnus, Fin and Jamie will also be able to prove their worth and we begin the Gasroom tradition of expecting the manager to be stolen by QPR at Christmas.
1 Like
Don’t panic - we will have 69 points and 100 plus difference by Christmas !!
109 plus Goals !!
Try again - 100 
Personally, I think it’s far too early to call them great, average, or awful.
They are 13 months into ownership and to think there wasn’t going to be some times of absolute chaos during transition period from couhig to any other owner - least not on that wants to change things as much as these ones do/are doing - I think would have been more than wishful thinking.
They’ve made an absolute CF of many things and will make mistakes in other places. I would be much more concerned if they didn’t show signs of learning from mistakes.
Hiring Tom whatshisface in March after the last window at least highlights to me they can see mistakes and act accordingly
1 Like