Apologies for the technical hitch that prevented live coverage of the fans forum, Read more a summary of the evening.
Present from D&R: John Still, Dave Andrews and Steve Thompson Below is a Summary of the Topics and questions asked and abbreviated answers.
Craig Mackail-Smith and Shane Blackett Floor: Is the main priority promotion, if so why are we looking to sell two of our best players? JS: We’re not looking to sell 2 of our best players, when I arrived back at the club we had embarrassingly little money and I told the players that I wanted to sign that I can get them to a new level to advance their careers. I won’t stand in their way is someone comes in for them and they want to leave the club. The money they could make is amazing. Floor: Why is the information about the sale not on the website? JS: When there is transfer information I will let the appropriate person know and ask them to update the website but at the moment there isn’t anything to put on the website as at the moment neither player has gone anywhere. DA: If both players do decide to leave then JS will be able to bring 3 in to strengthen the squad. Paolo Vernazza and Ben Strevens Floor: How long are the contracts that Paolo and Ben have signed? JS: Paolo until the end of the season, Ben 2 and half years Floor: What is the reason we have signed Paolo now and not at the start of the season? Also he is a player who has slipped a long way in a short amount of time is there any risk in this. JS: Paolo is a very skilful player he played for Arsenal before moving to Watford in the Vialli era, he then ended up at Rotherham before they went into administration. Paolo trained with us at the start of the season and at the time there weren’t the finances in place to make a offer, he did have 4 contract offers from teams up North but didn’t want to leave London and as we now have the finances in place have taken Paolo on until the end of the season. 3. Possible promotion issues Floor: If we gain promotion are there any problems with the grounds licence? ST: The ground was passed when the club was in the play offs, the actual requirements have fallen slightly , all we would have to put in would be CCTV and a Security box but this can be done by a FA grant. If we did it by ourselves now we would have to fund it ourselves. Floor: When we gain promotion will Tony Roberts have to pay back his Insurance money? ST: We would have to get in contact with his insurers to negotiate a figure, Tony has now been out of the professional game for 7 or 8 years so the amount would be a lot smaller. JS: Tony also has another job at Queens Park Rangers so we would have to be careful of a ‘conflict of interests’. Floor: How far does Dave Andrews believe the club can progress up the pyramid as a members' club and does there come a point where we would have to consider a change in structure to make further progress? DA: It is a requirement of the football league that we have to be a Limited company. ST: We are currently chatting to the solicitors about how to change the structure of the club DA: The club would still be set as 1 member 1 vote Tresor Kandol Floor: Have the club made any money from the sale of TK from Barnet to Leeds JS: I would say I am very astute at ensuring that players contracts have got exactly what are needed in them to benefit player and club. ST: There was a clause in the contract but due to the confidentiality of the agreement it can't be revealed how much, it will be split over a number of months and the payments will start to come through in June Best Performance Floor: What would you say has been our best performance of the season so far: JS: Considering the circumstances I would have to say York, Weymouth was also an excellent performance but the way we dealt with arriving late and put in that performance was brilliant. Beating Northwich 5-0 who came to us with the best away record in the league also sticks out. FA Trophy
Floor: Considering the success of the side in the league will you be looking to field a weakened side in the FA Trophy?
JS: I don't believe in this squad rotation/resting players, I always look towards the next game and not advance of that. We entered 3 competitions this year that I would put a full strangth side out for, the league, the FA Cup and the Trophy. There is also the Essex Senior Cup where I do look to give some of our squad and academy players a game.
Academy Floor: Regardless of whether we go up or not, would we be continuing with the Academy next season? JS: Definitely, yes, and this is something we want to grow moving forward. Mark Brett and Dave Spittle have done an excellent job so far. At the moment none of the boys are quite ready for the 1st team, but we have used a couple on the bench when we have needed to. To start with the boys involved have come from the local area, part of the community, but moving forward we would like to expand this, and try to attract players from a wider area. The club feel it is important to develop this area though. Ground Floor: What is the likelihood of being able to have a electronic scoreboard? Russell Elmes: The Supporters club looked into the costings of a scoreboard similar to the one that they have at Crawley and the cost would be £16,000. Floor: The car park when entering recently has been like walking through a swimming pool, are there any plans to sort this out? DA: Obviously we would like to sort issues like this out but at the moment we are keeping the finances available for John and his team Floor: But we do have to go into the ground each week via the car park. DA: Lets let John really have a go this season and see how we get on. ST: If promoted part of the grant money could be used to rennovate the car park as needed. The Fans Forum was a excellent evening well attended, although John Still was a little upset that two people who wrote to him telling him how bad Craig Mackail-Smith and Shane Blackett were weren't there. John Still, Dave Andrews and Steve Thompson answered the questions as openly and honestly as they could and all have the clubs interests at heart. |
