Football is nothing without fans
I wanted an early night on Tuesday but that went straight out the window soon after 10pm, why though you might ask? When you follow Barnet FC timing goes out of the window, more inadvertently in my opinion to bury a statement or an announcement, Edgar Davids aside the rest have not been too promising.
My phone hadn’t quite started to go off, I made a quick check as you do through Twitter and a new message from a fellow fan of a statement released by the club so off I went in search.
What I found was well, how do you describe it, amateur? A blame game? As a writer I found its wording was poor, offensive in places and then hidden within the context the news of a restructure of the coaching team, almost buried like it didn’t need talking about.
It was something the late great Dennis Signy OBE would be shaking his head at the very least, I don’t think this one would have made it out the door without a rewrite.
Let’s start with that statement then. An opinion is something I believe everyone is entitled to along with a healthy debate about those opinions. If things don’t go as planned then criticism is expected surely?
To openly attack the people you want to be viewing your product namely the football on the pitch I thought was a bad move.
I don’t understand why we were caught off guard? We completed the play-off game on 25th July, we waited until 12th August until mutually agreeing to part ways with Darren Currie and appointed Peter Beadle on 23rd August. Did it really take 18 days to work out Currie wasn’t to be the way forward? Was it not thought that giving Beadle such a short window would result in the fact the best players already were gone? There can’t have been many clubs where a full rebuild was needed as players were not going to accept lower terms but were given the smallest amount of time possible to make it work?
Blaming this season’s problems on Covid is poor, nearly all of the 23 clubs in the National League have suffered from covid outbreaks and others like ourselves more than once, but I’ve not seen any using it as an excuse that’s a diversion.
Managerial appointments that haven’t worked out are down to just one person, the chairman. They didn’t work out so why not just hold your hand up and admit that? We can all see that and would accept that; mistakes happen as part of human nature and last time I checked we’re all likely to be guilty of one or two in a lifetime.
The furloughing situation is bizarre, it’s being carried out by a lot of clubs within the league and is common knowledge whose players are not involved because of this. Some of us are aware which players we have placed on it, others we can guess at from not being seen for weeks. Some players seem quite happy for it to be known, so why do the club shroud it in some kind of mystery? I’d love to hear why Scott Loach, our one consistent performer all season who is now fit to play, is unlikely to pull on a Bees shirt again, is that really about different styles?
There’s a reason why people question the chairman’s passion for the club and I think it’s easy to see why. It’s not keyboard moaning nor twittering idiots, it goes back to that opinion we’re all allowed.
Both the men’s and ladies’ teams are sitting the relegation zone of their respective division, the club jumped the gun at the beginning of covid which smacked of panic instead of rational thinking and waiting a couple of days longer to see what transpired.
Other clubs looked to make sensible decisions, other clubs have less revenue streams than we enjoy at The Hive and forget the fact it’s been unoperational this year if it’s being run at a profit that should have seen us through this season comfortably surely? Other clubs have managed their way through this period with less income so why have we stripped back to the bare bones? A ‘gamble’ that’s paid off in the end but left us embarrassed and lacking in pride.
I don’t see a lot of people abusing the club’s name and if they do it’s out of frustration for what they see in front of them. We have a history prior to The Hive move, why can’t we be reminded of it from time to time? When times are tough people revert back to when things were good it’s their happy place, only today I referred back to 2004 and 2015 to someone, little in between those times to get excited about.
And as supporters we don’t expect glory every year, we’d support Manchester City for that! What we do want is pride in our club, pride from those who wear the shirt and to be appreciated putting time and effort into the club, these past twelve months has taught everyone at every level of the game that football is NOTHING without fans.
This is no disrespect to either of the club’s communication guys, Adam Rowe and Ciaran McLoughlin. These two put some hours in and it’s been one of the bright lights this season along with Aarron Pullen on the live streaming.
Anyway, onto the new appointments of Simon Bassey and Dave Anderson. A lot of people will be underwhelmed I’m sure that we’ve plucked another name that wasn’t in the reckoning or on supporter’s lips but there is a little more to it than this and something I believe is just the beginning with more to happen.
I’ve actually gotten to know Dave over the past few months, long before Tim Flowers was to be gone and is a well respected manager and figure within the non-league game, in fact the last game he managed saw him a Wembley winner in the FA Vase with Chertsey Town.
As I read it these two are here for the long haul but to see us through the final 13 games and this mess of a season out of the way ready for a manager or head coach to come in over the summer and join them.
As far as I am aware we should have a Director of Football in the shape of Jamie Fullerton although strangely no mention has been made in either announcement, a second statement having arrived this morning to introduce the new pair.
I could be miles off the mark but it makes sense to me especially as Bassey has been introduced as First Team Coach. Whether there is some restriction stopping the new manager coming in until then I’m unsure of but it would rule out quite a few names most of us believed were in the running in the last two weeks.
To finally have what looks like a little bit of stability and a structure to start to build upon is what we’ve been asking for all season and while better late than never, the building for next season described by the new man as starting yesterday.
I fear though a lot of damage has been caused by the wording of that late night statement and even if some pride is restored by the players before the end of May some bridges have now been firmly burnt to the point of not being retrieved I feel, if we get back into The Hive before the end of the season things might be a tad interesting.
Summer news and player recruitment is going to be key to keep what is left of the fanbase onside, only time will tell if people are willing to forgive and forget but for many that ship has now sailed…………