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

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.

Leeds update

Just a quick update on where we are with the Leeds game.

Fingers, and Gordon, both spoke to people at Leeds towards the end of last week.  They have assured us that they are aware of the terms of the contract and they will be sending a strong squad to our match on 21 July.  They said it may include a couple of younger players who will be involved in the first team squad next season but it will be a stronger squad than the one that plays Darlington on the same night. Let’s hope so.

Tickets will be priced at £12 (£6 for concessions) with the kick off at 7.45.

Last week Fingers met with the health and safety inspector from Hillingdon Council and we expect confirmation of the capacity this week.  Tickets are currently being printed and we expect to be able to take bookings through the website from some point this week (and also for the Watford game).

Peter Worby chaired a meeting with a number of people who will be helping with the many jobs that require doing on the night last week and no doubt there will be more to report from this as the game (only 5 weeks away) gets nearer.

We have started to receive enquiries from Leeds fans so far for tickets and also a company interested in sponsoring the game. The two key words over the next few weeks will be simply SELL TICKETS.

More news in due course.

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.

Pre-season fixtures announced.

If you haven’t seen them the pre-season list is here.

I have blogged about the Leeds game in my previous post so won’t spend any further time on it except no doubt the sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed that we do not have a game against Dagenham & Redbridge.  This was a fixture originally planned but one that had to move because of the Leeds date, all being well we will play that game next pre-season.

The game against Watford on 18 July will be Gordon Bartlett’s testimonial.  Gordon is a living Wealdstone legend (does this qualify as a vote of confidence?) and holding this game is long overdue.  I know that Watford are sending a team to Hampton & Richmond Borough on the same day but hopefully we will once again a good sized crowd to watch us host a Watford side for the third year running.

Our plan will be to hold a similar testimonial match for Leo Morris next year.

Watford and Leeds isn’t a bad start and otherwise we have a good balance of fixtures to get us ready for the new season – now all we have to do is to sell hundreds of tickets for both the ‘big’ matches.

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.