Getting back to business

The summer is almost over. It’s seems a bit funny to say that this side of August but three months after we played Carshalton in our final Ryman League game of last season, tomorrow night we play our first ‘proper’ pre-season game against Dagenham and Redbridge, followed quickly by Watford on Wednesday night.

Not that the summer has meant time off for many involved with the Club. Speaking personally, pressure at work particularly, has meant that something had to give and for me that resulted in the blog staying quiet. With the football starting I will try and start posting again and I can now take the opportunity to write a couple of posts while I sit in the departure lounge at Dusseldorf airport following a weekend trip over here for a wedding.

In this and the following blog post I want to comment on some of the things that have happened at the Club since we last met. In the next post I will focus on our financial situation and how we are trying to support Gordon to have as competitive a team as possible, but in this post I wanted to review some of the things that have happened off the field this summer.

The big news of course, as was well reported was the refusal of our landlords to renew the lease. Not much more to say about that now but plenty in the future. For now all I will say is we have formulated some initial plans, we are talking to the right people about our next steps and we will share more about this in due course, perhaps in a Club meeting sometime soon.

If this was the bad news, plenty of other things have been a struggle too. We have seen the summer remedial work around the ground stop and start due to a whole range of reasons. I’m grateful to everyone who has given their time and helped out with the work that needs doing but I do think it is fair to say we have learnt plenty from this. I am not surprised by the apparent lack of volunteer help. We have been very lucky with the help we have had from people since we moved to Ruislip but we cannot depend on it and we will need to be much smarter in the way we organise this work in future close seasons.

Commercially this summer, I have been delighted by what I believe has been some of the best organisation and dedicated hard work we have seen in recent years. The trouble is it is very tough out there. As we come out of recession, advertising with your local non league club is not top of many organization’s priority list.  But it has not all been doom and gloom on the commercial front and hopefully within the next few days we will be able to announce an excellent sponsorship deal for the Club.

Two decisions made by the Club seem to have come in for some discussion with supporters; our new away kit and the launch of the Vice Presidents Club. Taking the new ‘Roma’ kit first. One thing I have learnt is that if you get three people in a room and ask them to choose a new kit from a catalogue and you will get three different views. This is the same on the Board as it is with supporters.

Our initial decision was to try to update the home kit with a bespoke design that was not in a catalogue but the economics of this were not favourable. Therefore we used our Prokit allowance to update our away kit.  When we announced a new away kit at the AGM there was a less than favourable reaction and again I have to think that the way the kit was announced this summer might be improved upon in future seasons. I am keen that we wear the blue kit wherever possible but we do need something different and I hope that this new kit will grow in popularity especially if we win plenty of games in it.

I have been a little surprised by some of the comments I have read to do with the VPs club. Clearly one of the main duties we have is to try and find different income streams – this is the same for any commercial entity. At the same time I am very keen not to go back to the same people (the supporters) for money year in and year out.

Launching a VPs Club, something we have done in years gone by, is an attempt to offer something to a relatively small number of people who maybe can afford a little more, or want something extra on matchdays. Maybe these are people not always on the forum? We do know that when we have entertained good sized groups as match sponsors the feedback has been excellent and we have people still who tell us how successful in many ways the Vice Presidents Club was at Lower Mead.

Do people really think we shouldn’t be offering this? I don’t really see that.  Given we now have the facilities and two years experience of running a ground it seems the right time to try this. Our target is to get 10-15 members this season – no more – and we see this as a stretch. We are already nearly 20% there, before even speaking to people directly. So I don’t know whether this will prove a good thing or not. What I do know is we will try things if they have been well thought through and have people committed to run them. I hope we do get a few more signed up for the Vice Presidents and I hope it is a resounding success – because that will mean satisfied people, potentially more new people being attracted to the Club and more money raised.

Plenty going on then, and this is without mentioning many meetings, with people like the Ryman League, Hillingdon Council as well as our ongoing correspondence with Everton FC and all the other things. Nick’s press releases will have kept people up to date with player signings and other things too. I will try and keep blogging, especially over the coming weeks but I hope you get a sense of some of the issues we have been dealing with as we try to keep the club progressing the right way off the field.

Jermaine saga comes to an end

…or does it?

Certainly from the Leeds United perspective and our relationship with them, the announcement today that Jermaine Beckford is now an Everton player would seem to bring to a conclusion our relationship with Leeds United.

Let me first say that dealing with Leeds over the past few years has been an experience. They have always responded to us professionally, quickly and fully complied with their side of our agreements. As I have said before I don’t believe that Leeds owe us a penny. We have done well out of them, what with the decent initial transfer fee, last year’s friendly (relive Steve foster’s excellent pictures here), the appearance clause and considerable publicity we have gained and continue to gain.

It did get exciting once or twice thinking a big money move was on the cards, particularly in the January transfer window after the goal that beat Manchester United but it was not to be. Ultimately Jermaine did his job, scored the goals that got the draw with Spurs, and finally and crucially for Leeds scored the goal that got them promotion in their final league game against Bristol Rovers.

Unfortunately that meant he was allowed to go on a free transfer and today we hear the official announcement that he has signed for Everton. So we came agonisingly close to receiving a sum of money that would have given us the financial security that would have kept the wolves from the door for a few years. And yes it does hurt a little to get that close and not get what we hoped for. But it was always out of our hands and as much as we hoped Leeds would accept an offer or Jermaine would sign another contract it was not to be.

Is it the end of the story for us? Hopefully not. I am writing to the Everton chairman and will suggest that it might be a nice gesture for Everton to recognise where the player that they have just signed for free has come from. Who knows maybe the player might remember his roots, we can always be pleasantly surprised.

But whatever happens, we should all be very proud of the role we have played in creating a striker who has the chance to set himself up for life and who will grace the highest level of the English game for the coming season. Good luck Jermaine!

Thanks to so many

Rather than write a new post thanking so many people I thought I might post my article due to be in today’s match programme. So if you are not at the game or didn’t get a programme read on.

Programme notes for Carshalton game (ever so slightly updated)

A warm welcome to all for our final game of this memorable season, and a special welcome to all our successful juniors, both boys and girls who are with us today.

In many respects I can’t really believe how quickly this season has passed. So much has been packed into it, as always at Wealdstone, both on and off the pitch.

The good news is that coming into the 42nd game the season is still alive with hopes of getting into the play-offs resting on today’s results here, at Boreham Wood, at Kingstonian and at Aveley.

So the best memories may be yet to come, but whatever happens it will take something very special to beat the fortnight back in late October / early November that followed us winning at Aylesbury, beating Harrow and then culminating in what was such a great day against Rotherham. It took us 23 years to get to the First Round of the FA Cup, hopefully we can do it again next year. Other highlights include getting to a Cup Final (if not the penalty shoot out), and a Leeds United themed set of memories that include the pre-season friendly, the pride of Jermaine’s performances against Manchester United and Tottenham though also the disappointment of realising he was not going to be sold after all. I bet they wish they had done now!

As always, and in his testimonial year we need to salute our manager Gordon Bartlett with his excellent team behind him. Gordon puts so much time into the Club and yet his passion burns as brightly now as ever. In this packed last week of the season a bumper crowd celebrated Gordon’s testimonial on a great Wednesday evening – it was all so well deserved. I am delighted that Leo Morris will be celebrating his testimonial next season.

It has been a hard season in many respects, especially with the challenges of the weather and Fingers particularly has done an amazing amount of work, often with little recognition or reward. The pitch remains a big issue for us and one we will look to get right – though it will take time and money and patience.

Off the field there are so many people to thank as always – so I won’t even try and thank everybody – other than divide it into three groups.

First to my Board of Directors for all the time, effort and energy they give without much thanks – but in some respects with everyone’s thanks. We have so much going on at the Club and I really believe that with the right breaks anything is possible and much of that is due to the work of a few on the Board.

Secondly to everyone who helps, whether on match days or not, in the Social Club, the Supporter’s Club, the Stewards, the ball boys, those who help with the Board Room hospitality, the press, the programme, the tannoy, the photography, the gate, the Reserves, the Youth, the Juniors, the catering, the kit, the works in the ground and so on (apologies if I missed you out). So many people, giving up their time to help our Club. That is why so many others will always be jealous of what we have in abundance – passion, a desire to succeed and a love of the Club. Dare I say, more of the same next year please?

Finally, a huge thank you to all our supporters, young and old.  Thanks to everyone who contributed to 100:400, to all our Club sponsors, match sponsors, kit grid donors, match ball donors and so on. Thanks to all those who travel home and away, or even just to home games. You have been immense and of course, we need you all, as much as ever, starting in August when we do it all over again.

But you know, as much as we need volunteer labour down at the ground through the summer months, and we do, I urge you all to take the opportunity to spend some time with your loved ones and get some brownie points because the new season will be with us before you know it.

Have a great summer

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?

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.

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.

Thanks for the memories

So after all the planning, all the anticipation, all the talk we are left with the memories – plenty of them and almost all good ones.

The Leeds game proved everything we hoped it would be, a great opportunity to showcase Wealdstone, Grosvenor Vale and the Social Club in front of a four figure crowd, the police, the council, the press etc.  And we rose to the challenge.  So many people deserve to be thanked but in particular Fingers and Ray Kemp who both marshalled their willing band of volunteers expertly.

And let’s not forget the squad of players who helped make it a night to remember for the Wealdstone people in the ground, not only by winning, but also with the quality of some of the football, particularly in the second half.

Hopefully the last two games will mean that some Watford and southern based Leeds fans will come back.  I certainly spoke to a number of Leeds fans who were impressed by our welcome and I think (hope) they will return.

Now we can put the ‘big’ games behind us and start preparing for the season, which starts in under 4 weeks.  And for those suitably enthused, we are doing a Leeds United on Saturday sending one 1st team squad to AFC Hayes and another to Enfield Town.

A final word to Jermaine.  I think he enjoyed coming back, he seemed happy, couldn’t sign enough autographs or pose for enough pictures and he generally seemed to go around with a smile on his face.  Whatever happens to him in the future he will always retain a special place in Wealdstone hearts.

Leeds will bring a strong team

There has been quite a lot of talk recently about the relative strength of the Leeds team likely to come down to our friendly 4 weeks today, especially after the announcement of a Grimsby match for Leeds on the same night.

I spoke to Leeds today and they confirmed they will be bringing a first team squad – including I’m delighted to say Jermaine Beckford – down to our game.  They explained that they have 24 professionals, most of whom will not have played a full 90 minutes pre-season by the time they come to us, so they will send two ‘first team squads’, one to the Wealdstone game and one to Grimsby with the Grimsby game being more low profile.

Leeds are also adjusting their website to reflect that our game is not in any way second best to the Grimsby game.

Meanwhile ticket sales continue well and have passed 100 and Fingers has been selling tonight and tomorrow night at the Club and they are of course on sale through our website – and there is just 4 weeks until the match.

A Leeds fan’s perspective

I’ve had some correspondence from a Leeds fan. a student called David, some of which I thought was worth sharing (and he is happy to for me to do that).

David wrote how partly through this blog he has become interested in Wealdstone, as he describes it he finds himself “an intrigued and fascinated reader.”

He tells me that he would love to attend either the Vinnie Jones day or the Leeds friendly but as a student he needs to ration his trips out of Leeds.  That said he mentions that he is planning to attend an event in London early in 2010 and is hoping he can combine it with a Wealdstone home game so he can “experience the place for himself.”

Interestingly, given some of the various comments written about Jermaine potentially moving on, he admits what I’d suspect the majority of Leeds’ fans would say, that he would be extremely disappointed to lose Jermaine, but fully understand his decision and that it is only right he should test himself at a higher level and try and push his career forward. As David says, “in any other job the decision to move upwards would be a no-brainer, but in football, fans are unrealistic and forget the players are simply doing a job”

An interesting point this last one of David’s – I suspect that it is more than a job myself just as football is more than a business.  The big difference between football and ‘real life’ I have found is that football is full of emotion and passion and all the things that make people make decisions they wouldn’t otherwise make.

David finished up by saying that he had done a bit of research into the club and that he will be keeping track of our results when the new season starts, whilst wishing us every success.

Thanks David, enjoyed your correspondence, some interesting perspectives worth sharing and hopefully we can welcome you to some proper Wealdstone hospitality in the New Year.

Leeds, Leeds, Leeds

Quite a day yesterday, and working in Madrid as I was made it even more interesting with the phone buzzing with messages – thanks to everyone (including the Harrow Times) who helped keep me up to date.

So first things first, and before we get to Jermaine it was ironic that yesterday was the day we finally confirmed the Leeds friendly date as 21^st July – little over 7 weeks away.  Plenty to do on this and plenty of blog postings to follow, no doubt.

I guess it will be interesting to see if Jermaine is playing for Leeds that night.  Yesterday’s announcement clearly might have big repercussions for us.  But as I have said whenever I am asked about this, whilst people can speculate about transfer fees and sell on clauses all they like it is really nothing to do with us and all we can do is watch the developing situation with interest.

I have blogged a few times about how well Leeds have treated us whenever we have dealt with them and we are excited to welcome them to Grosvenor Vale for the friendly.  I believe that the relationship between the clubs will continue to grow regardless of what happens to Jermaine over the summer.  I hope so – these relationships are worth a lot.

But let’s not hide it, should Jermaine move for decent money it will make a big difference to everyone at our Club…and it will bring a host of other issues to sort but that is another story for another time.