Spare a thought for Maidstone

Our own long struggles to find a home and to progress as a Club are not dissimilar to those other Stones from Kent, Maidstone United.

Under the astute leadership of Chairman Paul Bowden Brown, Maidstone were reborn and climbed their way back through junior and county football into the Ryman Premier League, all the time desperately searching for a permanent home in their town.

So as we continue to seize on any scrap about Jermaine and wonder what, if anything will happen at Leeds, Maidstone are watching their own young star, Chris Smalling, achieve his dream move from Fulham to Manchester United for a fee reported to be around £7m.

Imagine having a 20% sell-on clause for that deal!

I don’t know the details but I understand that because the player was considered a schoolboy he was not on a contract with Maidstone, so they could not get Fulham to agree a sell-on clause.

So we have one ex Ryman player moving with no sell-on and we have our ex Ryman player potentially moving, with a sell-on for nothing.

Who says life is fair?

A big disappointment tonight

I think it is fair to say we were all taken by surprise by tonight’s match being called off, and not only taken by surprise but very disappointed.

At the heart of the problem is drainage.  I have asked Fingers and Adam the groundsman to come back with any short term suggestions that may help stop this happening again.  If there is something we can do that costs £hundreds then we will do it – but if it costs £thousands then that is another story.

It really is simple, like everything the long term solution costs money. If we had invested more money into the pitch during the summer and reduced Gordon’s budget further then I don’t think that would have been a popular decision though we may have played tonight.

As always we make choices around where we spend our money. We did spend about £5,000 on the pitch during the summer but this money is as much for repair and wear and tear as anything else. To invest in a decent drainage system would be a much bigger job and is not worth doing until we have more certainty around our long term tenure.

Many will remember that before we came to Ruislip the pitch at The Vale was probably the worst in Middlesex. The work we have done to it has improved it out of recognition but we also know there is far more to do.

Ultimately tonight’s postponement doesn’t help and means Alan Couch needs to reorganise another match.  At least we are away for the next three games.

So that’s that then

News today that Jermaine will be staying at Leeds for the rest of the season ends all the “will he won’t he” speculation that has been going on over the last couple of weeks.

I think when I last wrote on the subject that I suggested the ‘inside information’ that we had, such that it was, was that a move was unlikely this transfer window.

Reading between the lines I suspect there has been considerable interest but I am guessing that Leeds and Newcastle have been someway away from agreeing a price and therefore the chance of a deal being done was mainly press speculation and never really likely.

I have always said that whatever was to happen was always completely out of our hands so we were never going to spend any money before it arrived.  Actually I was getting quite concerned by the number of people talking about our sell-on clause.  In one respect we have had an opportunity for some more great publicity on various radio stations and a number of national press articles but on the other hand I could just imagine what players (current and future) would make about us receiving such sums of money – it could have caused almost as many problems as it solved!

Anyway it appears that it will not be happening. Perhaps he will sign a new contract in the summer after scoring the goals that take Leeds back into the Championship, perhaps he move for a free.

Whatever happens, we will continue to be very proud of what Jermaine Beckford, a player who learnt the game at Wealdstone, has achieved as a professional footballer.

Grosvenor Vale in the snow 9 Jan 2010

Stability not instant gratification is what’s needed

Another Saturday with no football. More work for Alan Couch to try and rearrange these fixtures with the number of available midweek slots rapidly disappearing and snow continuing to cover the Grosvenor Vale pitch (I’ll try and upload a couple of pictures I took yesterday).

I went down to the ground at lunchtime yesterday and met with Gordon and Leo to talk about a number of things, ranging from our finances, to the long term stadium situation, to current work we are doing in the community  to Gordon’s testimonial activities.

As always when sitting down with Gordon and Leo I can take heart from the fact we have complete confidence that these guys know how to manage a football club properly. Stability and professionalism are two key words for both Gordon and I – there really is no other way of doing things.

In contrast I have just finished reading a book which is well worth a read to those who want to see what life can be like when you do things very differently.

‘39 days of Gazza’ tells the story of the time football icon Paul Gascoigne took over as manager of Kettering Town. The book is written by Steve Pitts, a journalist on the local paper and chronicles the events that took place during a period between the end of October and early December 2005. It really is nothing short of sensational and the complete opposite to the way you would expect a Club to operate in the Conference North Division at the time. Tales of massive promises, big investment, going full-time, the glamour of Paul Gascoigne (as well as the dark side) and taking the Club into the Football League are undone almost immediately by a series of factors, not least the inability to realise that Clubs succeed on strong foundations, not instant gratification.

Kettering have enjoyed success since that time through the tenure of Mark Cooper and the side that he built. But with him departing earlier this season to manage Peterborough it will be interesting to see whether Kettering can maintain their progress.

It is many years since we last played at Rockingham Road and it is a place that many Wealdstone fans will have great memories of having won the Gola League title there in 1985.  Our paths have taken different routes since those days. Kettering are now well placed just outside the play-offs in the Blue Square Premier, having enjoyed great FA Cup success this season, drawing with Leeds United only losing in extra time in the replay.

On the flip side recent reports suggest that Imraan Ladak, the man who brought Gazza in, has just stepped down as Chairman, following on from a total ban from the Football Association and the likelihood is that even if they achieve a play-off place they will be unable to take it because of issues with their stadium.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Clubs need to be able to stand on their own feet and to match their ambition to their situation. That said we also know that winning is everything in football but to avoid the turmoil that so many clubs appear to face on a regular basis, the only route to success is on the basis of strong foundations, stability and good management throughout the Club. And if you get these factors in place, I think the success is all the more sweet when it happens.

Here we go again

The “will he or won’t he” debate is once again in full swing. How much is he worth? what is our percentage? how will we spend the money? and so on and so on.

Of course it is all very exciting and once again who couldn’t fail to smile when Jermaine scored the goal that beat Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Will he go in this window? We don’t know. In fact our latest inside information, so to speak, is that it is still unlikely he will move during January.

Of course the fact that Leeds appear willing to lose him for nothing in the summer still beggars belief but it may be that Jermaine’s own people have their own plans which include staying until he can negotiate a lucrative deal somewhere in the summer. But now I am falling into the trap of speculating.

We don’t know what will happen, to be frank we don’t expect anything to happen but no doubt there will be plenty of media and other speculation that something might happen, especially after today’s match. And if it does well that could be good news for us.

And if it does, I can already see the pressure immediately from every corner, in terms of well meaning advice on what we should spend the money on.  What I can promise is that, should we get a windfall, we will take the right, pragmatic decisions on how we use this money and we will continue with the policy we have employed for a long time now – to safeguard the long term future of the Club, rather than throw money at the opportunity for short term success.

But to conclude and let’s be clear, currently we have little expectation of receiving any such windfall in January though events up the M1 involving Mr Beckford will be more high profile than ever.

Allen Batsford

The gloss on yesterday was lessoned somewhat by the news of the untimely passing of Allen Batsford – surely one of the greatest managers in non league football history.

The 1981-82 season was the first season I followed the Stones for a whole season. I had started going regularly the last 3 months or so of the relegation season the year before.  The side that Batsford put together responded to relegation by sweeping the board in the Southern League and starting the journey that led to the Non League Double just three years later.  It was enough to get me hooked.

And it wasn’t just at Wealdstone.  Allen is also an AFC Wimbledon icon, as I believe he was the Dons manager when they won promotion into the Football League.  He was also manager at Walton & Hersham when they beat Brian Clough’s Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup.

Above all Allen was a lovely man. I remember meeting him when he was guest of honour at one of the matches we played against AFC Wimbledon at Northwood.

It is rare that one man can be so revered by more than one Club.  In the case of Allen Batsford, the word legend is not out of place.  He will be missed and our condolences go to his wife Maureen at this time.

Saturday cancellations add up

The weather once again did its worse to stop yesterday’s game against Billericay going ahead.  So yet another Saturday home league match is lost.

By my calculations we have lost four home Saturday fixtures so far this season, either through our excellent Cup success (acceptable) or the weather (unacceptable but not much we can do about it).  Each Saturday game lost costs us. We have to expect that the crowds for the rearranged midweek matches will be considerably smaller than the number that would turn up on a Saturday, match sponsors, mascots and any juniors activities may not be able to support the rearranged game and as a knock-on from this the social club loses valuable income over the bar.

Of course when the snow falls and the ice freezes there is not much we can do about it.  When it rains we do what we can to make the pitch playable but even then we have to consider the impact that playing will have not wishing to ruin the pitch for the many weeks hence (remember we have reserves and U18s also using it).  We do not forget that the Ruislip pitch used to be just about the worse in Middlesex, so the care that Fingers and Adam (the groundsman) lavish on the pitch is important as we want to try and provide a decent playing surface throughout the season, not just in the autumn.

Ultimately of course it is the referee who actually calls the game off not us but we reach Christmas having played only 15 league games, with just 7 of those at home.  This means Alan Couch especially has been kept very busy with most of the Tuesdays between now and Easter now full.

Another hidden cost is the carrying over of suspensions. Rob Fitzgerald’s 4 game ban incurred for an incident on 17 November now finishes next Saturday (26 December) at Ashford rather than yesterday.  When Alan Massey picked up his 5^th booking recently to be suspended for the Ashford game at least we could take solace in Rob coming back but this is another problem we will have to deal with.  All the best laid plans…

So with the New Year on the horizon let’s hope that all the rain of the wettest November and the ice and snow of the freezing December will all be behind us.  But with British weather who knows what is in store.

Happy holidays!

No more excuses for coming home late

I was sorry to see the end of Strictly Come Dancing yesterday, following on from the conclusion to the X Factor last week.

Personally I abhor these programmes, but at least I know that when they are on I am not required to be back from football until they have finished – so no rush to get back on a Saturday night.

Now however, it’s all change.  I just hope the TV schedules in the New Year have some suitably crappy TV for Saturday nights.

Today’s Harry O

Well I did say that today’s Harrow Observer would be interesting.

I think there are two things to deal with here, what David Howell has written and what the Harrow Observer have reported.

As far as Howell’s comments are concerned I have to admit to being both very disappointed and somewhat perplexed.

Disappointed because I cannot accept what he has said and perplexed because I cannot work out why he has written this now.  I’ve been to enough Harrow Borough derbys over the past 25 years to know whether this sort of abuse is a regular feature (or happens at all).  Yet David’s own words on his non league 24 blog are as follows ”every time I’ve been involved in any of these Harrow v Wealdstone derbies unfortunately there are still some supporters who feel the need to shout out the exact same comments”.  This I cannot agree with.

Were any of these comments made after the FA Trophy match at Earlsmead – presumably after their late equaliser? There was certainly plenty of vitriol aimed at the referee but did anyone really shout what is alleged? I didn’t hear it and I was standing around the tunnel area.  Surely if it had been said then Harrow would have complained.  I would complain if I heard similar comments aimed at one of our players – and make no mistake we would take action if we heard any such comments made by one of our supporters.  I believe that our relationship with the Harrow officials is good but neither after that game or at the replay did any Harrow official bring this to our attention.  I also struggle none of our usually eagle eyed internet focused fans read Simon Grigor’s report which also contained these comments.  Surely someone would have picked it up?

So why write these things now, 2 weeks before the big christmas derby? Why make such inflammable comments in a national non league column? It just doesn’t make any sense.  I know I would be very angry if our manager did something similar (though I know he wouldn’t).

So what happens now.  Well I will be trying to speak to Peter Rogers tomorrow to discuss and I will be making it clear that we are angry about these comments and that if Harrow do not react in a fashion that helps to cool tempers then we may need to involve the Ryman League. 

We will also need to consider security for the Christmas game, whether police or external stewarding which is likely to mean extra (and unnecessary) cost. 

As for the Harrow Observer, well I think the anger directed at Tim Edwards and the paper is entirely misplaced.  Tim is a journalist and this is a great story.  Can you imagine if Arsene Wenger slagged off Spurs fans in similar fashion on a web site – this would be back page of every newspaper.  This is no different.

We have to assume that David Howell himself wrote (or at least approved) his blog post on NLN24, and for Tim/his editor this is a great story,  the Manager of their second club slagging off the fans of their premier club.  I don’t blame him in any sense for using it and he did give us the opportunity to respond through the Supporters Club.  So let’s not shoot the messenger.

Ultimately the best thing we can do is beat Harrow again when we play on 28 December but I suspect this has a little way to run yet.