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Post by nobadspitfire on May 14, 2018 15:11:39 GMT
No surprise there, then. Continuity is the word that comes to mind. I suppose in due course we'll learn who the Chairperson /figurehead/spokesperson will be and have some sort of statement of intent on behalf of the board looking forward.
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Post by michaelefc on May 14, 2018 15:12:37 GMT
So basically EFC have a season left to realistically get promotion, but with a lot of players who failed this season. Bad deal, don’t think SD has done the club a favour here, in fact his motive could be to ensure if things go pear shaped in 2/3 years at Sunderland he can buy EFC back from his mates. Can’t see further progress made on the stadium either, financially out of the new owners league and if sponsorships drop off in 1 year from now, the budget will nosedive, then National South beckons..that’s the reality check. I had hoped SD would sell to Juan Sartorial if he was not part of the Sunderland bid. He tried to buy Oxford Utd last year and wanted to take them to the premier league, he is reportedly trying to buy a club and build it up.
What a load of nonsense spiritofeastleigh. I cannot for the life of me, see how you can draw any of these conclusions from the statement. You don't and can't have a clue what SD motive is, you can't and don't have a clue what plans will there will be for the stadium, you don't know the budget will nosedive and your reality check is just a very pessimistic stab in the dark. What you would be better doing is encouraging everyone you know to get down and support the club next season and give the club a call and ask if you can help. Honestly pessimism like this is good for no-one except maybe Havant who I am sure would love to see such baseless negativity. Get a grip!
Be patient and wait for more concrete news of who the owners are and what their plans might be.
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Post by fw on May 14, 2018 15:37:46 GMT
I hope he does sell it to the people he knows he can trust until he one day returns with maybe an even bigger pot ! You never know , maybe he likes Eastleigh as much as we do? For now let’s just be grateful for the club we have now become. I shall await the stick that will be heading my optomistic way!
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Post by nobadspitfire on May 14, 2018 16:44:55 GMT
I'm sorry to say there seem to be a lot (impossible to quantify exactly) of so called Eastleigh FC fans/supporters who expect money to be ploughed into the club to do this, that or the other, eg continue building the stadium, invest in players to get us to the EFL. Wanting another sugar daddy to do the above is totally niaive and records at many clubs show doesn't inevitably bring success.
IMHO, the main reason there were only 93 supporters who bothered to join TSSC last season was because too many people just thought that whatever happened at the club, SD was always there to stick more money in & any problem would be solved. There is always the comment when being asked to stump up £15 to join TSSC, "what's in it for me?" Supporters, season ticket holders, whatever, any football club needs us to be together, and the best way of showing some commitment towards that end is to join TSSC early next season.
TSSC will continue to work with the club and I believe one of it's key roles is to raise money to help the club. It's recently been announced that TSSC have bought a mower/hoover for Dan Barnes & are contributing towards a second defibrillator at the club. Great that those things are happening but with more people on board there's potential to do so much more.
So,now we don't have a millionaire pumping money into EFC, how about more active monetary participation from a lot more people?
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Post by nigelefc on May 14, 2018 16:55:54 GMT
Clearly the departure of a passionate fella who is willing to put a lot of money in and develop the club is a notable loss.
However, if we can get an owner who is financially able and has previous experience of running a club then this could be a positive development. We are a completely different club now than when SD first came in, so are a much more attractive proposition. We have been halted much by SDs mistakes, as he has recognised himself. Perhaps a different perspective on life may be what we need, provided we can get one! I certainly think that his departure is likely to bring reduced media attention and prevent BT Sport pundits always referring to the 'under achieving big spending Eastleigh'. Genuinely believe this could be a blessing in disguise in terms of attracting the right type of player and the right characters.
There is no doubting what SD has done for this club, we would likely be out of the national league system without him. In the months before he came in you'd have said we'd be finishing 14th in the National League in the 2017/18 season I would have laughed, 14th in the Wessex looked a struggle! But I believe there is reason to be optimistic, most of the foundations are in place for league football. Effectively it is about funding a squad that can get us there and really taking the glory. If the budget is in place and there is a viable plan for the future beyond next season then every reason to be ambitious. If the new owner allows certain players to be offloaded and truly let AH decide who he wants at the club then even better.
All to be revealed, but glass half full at the moment. It's not panic stations just yet. Great time to have a flutter on us for the title anyway!
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Post by michaelefc on May 14, 2018 17:32:26 GMT
Two great posts, both have hit the nail on the head. Forget the super rich money man we once had, now ask yourself what can you do to help the club? We are not all millionaires, but we all have friends, associates, business people we know and we need to get talking and start getting people involved who will support the club, be that by attending matches, getting involved in the supporters club, by helping clean the club up this summer, or maybe they can plough some money into the club if they are rich enough to do so. This is OUR club, not SD's, and not the new owners, but our club and its therefore our job to get on with our job, and to support the club in whichever way we can. The national league is a very unforgiving league, I reckon we will need to improve just to repeat last season, but we can do it, and now if we don't do it, no-one else is going to do it for us. So lets stop moaning and roll our sleeves up.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2018 17:52:38 GMT
Michaelefc said:
What a load of nonsense spiritofeastleigh. I cannot for the life of me, see how you can draw any of these conclusions from the statement. You don't and can't have a clue what SD motive is, you can't and don't have a clue what plans will there will be for the stadium, you don't know the budget will nosedive and your reality check is just a very pessimistic stab in the dark. What you would be better doing is encouraging everyone you know to get down and support the club next season and give the club a call and ask if you can help. Honestly pessimism like this is good for no-one except maybe Havant who I am sure would love to see such baseless negativity. Get a grip!
Be patient and wait for more concrete news of who the owners are and what their plans might be.
OK Michael, How do I draw my conclusions from the statement? Well for one thing I don't wear rose tinted glasses, most if not all of the board were in place when SD came in...where were we, where were we heading? Middle of the road Conference South (Now National obviously) and now SD has handed it back to them, what other conclusion can there be eh? Are they rich enough to finish building the stadium? Perhaps...but highly unlikely. If sponsors see another season like the last, they probably will pull out because their investment is not bearing the fruits it probably would have done if SD continued. Seems to me the board knew they were taking over within days of SD announcing he was off to Sunderland, hence why last week the club announced the retained list.....the board are clearly not ambitious enough to put their own money in and get rid of these players...the pattern is already forming Michael of where this club is going, it certainly isn't forward. The honeymoon is over and as I said, reality now beckons, unless there is a genuine clear out of the failures, and investment in bringing in better players, this club will not climb any further, the dream died at the half way stage and killed the local community who believed, who came, who supported the effort towards the promised land. Because of season ticket sales already done, next season might look good on paper, we know the budget is fine too, but unless it happens next season, I think my predictions are very much spot on.
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Post by tenacres on May 14, 2018 18:43:22 GMT
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Post by nobadspitfire on May 14, 2018 19:27:28 GMT
OK Michael, How do I draw my conclusions from the statement? Well for one thing I don't wear rose tinted glasses, most if not all of the board were in place when SD came in...where were we, where were we heading? Middle of the road Conference South (Now National obviously) and now SD has handed it back to them, what other conclusion can there be eh? Are they rich enough to finish building the stadium? Perhaps...but highly unlikely. If sponsors see another season like the last, they probably will pull out because their investment is not bearing the fruits it probably would have done if SD continued. Seems to me the board knew they were taking over within days of SD announcing he was off to Sunderland, hence why last week the club announced the retained list.....the board are clearly not ambitious enough to put their own money in and get rid of these players...the pattern is already forming Michael of where this club is going, it certainly isn't forward. The honeymoon is over and as I said, reality now beckons, unless there is a genuine clear out of the failures, and investment in bringing in better players, this club will not climb any further, the dream died at the half way stage and killed the local community who believed, who came, who supported the effort towards the promised land. Because of season ticket sales already done, next season might look good on paper, we know the budget is fine too, but unless it happens next season, I think my predictions are very much spot on. Talk about negativity. We're doomed, doomed. Wasn't it great when SD took over & supplied cheap beer in the clubhouse! All in the distant pass and now he's gone the club's bound to go to the dogs! SOE, the new board haven't yet taken over or made any statements about the future, yet you're convinced the club's on a downward spiral. As someone who has supported for quite some time (maybe more than me, 12 yrs?) you really should take a step back before posting such doom laden nonsense. I don't have rose tinted specs either, but I'm happy to see how things go through the summer & then get behind the whatever team we have come the PSFs and season proper.
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Post by tenacres on May 14, 2018 20:16:53 GMT
Of course we'll miss Stewart Donald*, he has been a great chairman over the last 6 years but I like the idea of several people owning a smaller % of the club (10-15%?) rather than one person owning a controlling a share and calling all the shots. Who will be next in the chairman hot seat?!
I'm not going to criticise Stewart as he has put in an amazing amount of time and money over the course of his chairmanship, but there have been a number of significant and costly mistakes in the last couple of years that have cost Eastleigh FC quite a lot of money. Now of course Stewart's covered these mistakes with his funding and there has been a heck of a lot more good than bad with SD as chairman. I guess what I am saying is hopefully the "wisdom of crowds**" will help with future decision making rather than 1 person making decisions sometimes on a bit of a whim that aren't necessarily very sensible/well thought out.
*All this is obviously speculation, nothing is done until its done!
**Quote from soccernomics which I have just been reading.
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Post by huricaneharry on May 15, 2018 4:52:09 GMT
This is far from good news. In fact you have to question the reasons behind this move. It was not that long ago we were being told that the club was being sought after by rich Russians and Chinese, what happened to them? Does this mean the ground will be ownered by the “new” shareholders or will it remain in the hands of SD? Is this all been thrown together to expedite the purchase of Sunderland at the cost of our club being put at risk? Many questions still unanswered.
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Post by baconroll on May 15, 2018 5:43:18 GMT
I note that a comment was made about how random it is that backroom staff are now in charge of the club. Is it though that SD is a shrewd buisness man he started talking shares sometime ago. Was it then he was already looking for another club but still being able to have some involvement in Eastleigh. He has handed the club over to people he trusts knowing that with his shares he could control who purchased them. Shame I only bought 500. You can look at the sale in many different ways, SD has given us all a great few years but we all saw the flaws with him in total control. Now we have and some will say 'to many cooks' at the end of the day though they are people that appear to luv the club or at least feel an attachment to it. I will always try to be positive life is to short to be negative So got season ticket and again looking forward to season sadly I will be still seeing a couple of donkeys on the pitch and a knackered one that will come on 1 in every 8 games. But they may turn into true stallions and we will be in with a shout. The ground being finished is not a problem at this time sorting out a team that want success is what I am most interested in.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2018 6:12:06 GMT
48 hours after the announcement that the club was to be sold SD said there were already lots of offers on the table...where did they all go? Did they back away when demands for three years further of low prices on season tickets and coach travel was part of the deal? In the end the current board, along with four office workers are taking over...that was the best deal on the table was it for the club? You now have ten people on the board which will mean six have to agree to vote something through by majority, unless some abstain in which case that number drops. Many will like that idea, I don't, I prefer one owner because he/she can just get on with it like SD did, yes he made some mistakes but overall he was good for the club and he kept his promises to grow the club, make it self supporting, build the stadium, low price season tickets, cheap coach travel, and got the team into the top league of non league. All wonderful things and he didn't need approval from board members. Yesterday someone, I think it was Martin bought up the old chesnut that some fans still believe in the 'Whats in it for me' attitude, I certainly have never ever thought in terms like that. Until last season I was always a paid up member of TSSC, I stopped after the disgraceful way Paul Satts was treated by two highly ranked members of that committee, and I do feel very sorry that Jeff Fenna got caught up in it all because he was lied to, and because of those lies he backed the wrong horse to the hilt and when the truth came out he did the honourable thing and resigned as Chairman of TSSC, it crushed him and he deserved better than that. Paul Satts endured a torrid time as well and effectively killed his love of EFC in the process. That's why TSSC numbers dropped to 93 last season people showed their support for Paul Satts and their disapproval of one committee member. Until this season just gone, I always bought both the home and away football shirts, sometimes even the 3rd strip, season ticket, I have also bought T shirts, jackets and so forth every season. I spend money in the bar, before, half time and after games, I purchase 50/50 tickets, and finally a regular away traveller to boot. Some years ago at Macclesfield, myself and SD were the only two people in a pub round the corner from the ground just after it opened at Noon, called if I remember 'The Green Dragon' Stewart had his two boys with him, Stewart bought me a drink, then I'd buy back for him and his lads, we did this twice until at around 1-50pm the supporters coach arrived, straight away Stewart bought everybody a drink, it cost almost £50 for the round. When we were almost empty, I'm ashamed to say we looked surrounded by hangers on not wanting to buy Stewart a drink back (The what's in it for me group) I said to Stewart, "Another one mate?" and he said, "I'll get these" and once more the round came to almost £50. I was also with SD at another game, also at Macclesfied when the coach driver had his rest stop of 30 minutes some 15 miles from the ground, if you've not been to Macclesfield the only way to enter the stadium is by ticket which you purchase at the ticket office, this office closes at 3pm. SD realised the problem, the coach was going to be around 10-15 minutes late getting to the stadium, he phoned someone on the coach, found out how many people were on board, then went and bought all the tickets so they could get in on arrival. It must have cost him around £750 a wonderful gesture, yet do you know at half time as we were having a drink, one Eastleigh fan said to Stewart "I got a complaint" "Whats that" says Stewart, and he replied "I had to pay for my ticket to get in" It was embarrassing. So no, I'm not one of those 'what's in it for me'.
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Post by michaelefc on May 15, 2018 7:06:39 GMT
How about giving the folks taking over a couple of weeks to get settled in and then wait to hear what they have to say. I know all the people taking over, all of them decent human beings that love the club. So rather than bringing up a load of old chestnuts, that help absolutely nothing, just be patient, optimistic, encouraging to those taking charge and lets see where it takes us. Before SD left the club, I was forecasting us to come 11th this season; I'm now going for a 10th place finish. We'll be alright.
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Post by hantslondoner on May 15, 2018 7:35:38 GMT
A few thoughts:
off the pitch - SD has tried to upgrade the facilities, etc. so that the club is pretty much self-sufficient. If he's done that, then we shouldn't do any more, apart from looking at things like a roof for the shed end, encouraging younger (and other) supporters, stewarding, etc., none of which should cost a lot of money but will gain a lot of goodwill.
on the pitch - Depends what budget we've got. If the new board haven't got a lot of money, then earlier promises of a big budget go out the window (unless SD has donated a large parting gift ;-)). If so then our reputation has to change from being a big-spending club going for ready-made 'names' to trying to attract young, hungry players on realistic salaries and contracts (as I keep saying). We also need to look again at paying up some of those contracted players we still have - since some of them appear on the pitch quite rarely, it might be cheaper to pay them off. Also, of course, we need to develop our own players - get a structure whereby youth players can see a progression through the teams right through to the first team, rather than them leaving to go to Wessex or Southern at age 18.
new board - everything unknown yet - advantage is they know the club, this could be a disadvantage too if they go with 'accepted thinking' and make the same mistakes - to that end we probably need some outside board members too.
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