AOB: Stuff
Apologies that I haven’t had much time for blogging this week. Some might say that this is a good thing of course, and I do think that being busy at work has helped keep me from getting distracted by thoughts of Sunday.
However, now I have a few moments there are a couple of things I need to get off my chest.
Gary Megson – an apology.
In a post on this blog before Christmas, I may have intimated that Gary Megson is a bit of a rubbish manager, and that his appointment as Bolton boss was tantamount to accepting your parachute payment early and planning trips to Blackpool and Swansea. He has of course now kept Bolton in the Premier League for another year, so fair play to the Ginger Mourinho, it appears I was wrong (and you were right Sooty if you’re still reading).
Trophy Final/MyFootballClub
I don’t really like Torquay very much so I was pleased to see Ebbsfleet, and their ex-United contingent, triumph in last Saturday’s FA Trophy final. However, I feel Fleet’s success may give the jokers who run MyFootballClub some undeserved credibility. Witness Martin Samuel from Monday's Times:
"In a recent poll, only 15 per cent said that they wanted outright control of player selection, which is the aspect of club policy that turned Ebbsfleet from a bold vision of a cooperative future into a bad reality-show joke. Right now, Daish picks the team, the fans run the club. If it stays that way, what’s not to like?"
Of course he is correct that this isn't an undesirable state of affairs, but, er, it’s been done before several times with varying degrees of success (Brentford and Exeter are examples of fan-ownership going well, while Bournemouth are a case of it going not so well).
And my main bone of contention still remains that the MyFC owners are not Ebbsfleet fans. If indeed they don’t get any say over team selection and player purchases (which does of course seem the sensible way to go) then all they’ve done is join a supporters trust for a team they have no connection to, while paying a third party for the ‘privilege’. Hardly the ground-breaking scheme which was heralded when they took over is it?
You would also assume that most of the MyFC members are fans of existing clubs, who I’m sure have their own supporters trusts that would welcome cash without asking for an admin fee. Oh well, a fool and his money are easily parted and all that, and you have to say congratulations to Will Brookes, who has made himself very rich by flogging some decidedly dodgy looking old rope.
I have no axe to grind with Ebbsfleet, and hope it works out for them, but if indeed they do drop the team-picking gimmick from the MyFC package, I struggle to see how they will pick up new subscriptions when the first years worth of money runs out. We shall see.
3 comments:
I have a bone with your bone of contention as I would consider myself an Ebbsfleet fan. Just because I've supported Liverpool all my life, I think there's enough of me to support more than one team! Can I go to watch Liverpool in action? Once a year. Have already been to four Ebbsfleet matches, including Wembley, so I think I satisfy my own definition of a fan. As you're not a member of MyFC, you won't know that the majority of members did not join to pick the team. I for one didn't, as picking the team isn't the be all and end all of running a football club. Making sound financial decisions for the club, including various money-making schemes, season-ticket offers, etc, something many directors are not interested in will provide the stability required for a club to succeed. It's true, if they ditched the pick the team concept, there will be MyFC members who will not renew but there should still be enough of us who joined for other reasons to keep it going. Sorry for droning on - got a bee in my bonnet obviously! :-) PS..good luck in the playoffs!
Well ok, here's my bone of contention with your bone of contention with my... actually I'll stop, this could get silly ;)
I understand that you don't all want to pick the team. As I said in the article, no sensible person would think they could. I just think the way the scheme was marketed was very misleading, because what you've ended up doing is paying that bloke for an opportunity you could have had for free at several other clubs.
As for the supporting two teams thing, it's not something I can comprehend in any way but whatever floats your boat I suppose. Who would you support if Liverpool drew Fleet in the cup incidentally?
You are right - the 'pick the team' tagline has been misleading, but not on purpose I don't think. As a marketing ploy, it has been highly successful in enticing people to join, but it was used without really considering the true implications and actual real-life difficulty of a huge online community, being able to pick a real life team.
But the concept hasn't been ditched, it's still work in progress, it may not turn out to be what the members thought it would be, but promising marketing claims always have a lot to answer for, don't they! :-)
As for paying that bloke for an opportunity I could have had for free at several other clubs - well, if it had been free, I'm not sure I would have maintained my interest for so long.
My money, along with everyone else's, is helping the club and there's my interest - I want the club to do well, to grow and improve and be successful. Let the people who know about such things pick the team!
Liverpool vs the Fleet in the cup? The Scousers to win, with the Fleet giving them a run for their money! :-) Gotta go for my first team!
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