Todays Thanet Gazette.

[Hornet]

Obviously loads in there about the football club.

Big piece also about the scenic railway and the "veiled threats" by the council. The councils last minute item to the councils planning commitee agenda has been described as "a nasty piece of work". "They've had years to purchase it and when it goes up in flames they suddenly want it". Also confirms that a certain dodgy c*^t (my words there-not the papers) Jimmy Godden is a major shareholder suprise suprise. What is it going to take-somebody to die in one of his, sorry, I mean these accidental fires (ahem). Also some dodgy quotes from our beloved Sandy but I can't be ar$ed to give him creedance.

Another piece on the fact that there is "no escape from flooding fear" from the Pleasurama development with a nice picture of Sandy in a hard hat holding an axe (hopefully the one he's likely to feel himself) with Terry Painter no less-I didn't know they were mates, a comment Frankie??

On the footy front, Ward zero chance of coming to Gate. Piper says the reason the accounts haven't been filed for our accounts (after comments made on here no less-see we do have influence) are because we're trading under a different name, The Hartsdown Development Company. The F.A. have said this is wrong and the accounts had to be prepared in the name of Margate Football Club. The Directors are split on the appointment of Gary Lever. Much reduced budget for next year. Youth and an all local team planned for the future. a DIRECTOR of football to be brought in. Trott praises Ken Tomlinson as the forgotten man behind Margate.

All in all I'm left pretty deflated and with the belief that the only way to get on in Thanet is if you sail the wrong side of the law unfortuneately. Dodgy, dodgy, dodgy!!

Apologies for the Cookie style length of post and apologies to Cookie for mentioning it was a Cookie length style post.

[michael]

Probably the best comment Trott has even made with his praise for Ken Tomlinson.

Credit to trott for that -and he is absolutely right i would think.

 

If it youth and local players-is it Mark Weatherly or Seager for the job ?

 

Does it also mean that alot of the current squad will leave this summer ?

[Hornet]

Yes, it's a good interview and basically he blames the board and all the restraints. I feel sorry for him, perhaps he should have spoken out before. Must admit my confidence in the board and the way the club is run is shot to pieces. Houses on the ground before how long?

[JeremyJacobs]

Thanks for the Gazette info.

[margateshot]

It looks to me that we will be fighting to avoid relegation next season, not fighting to be in the play offs. This is not encouraging news. Local talent is ok, but as Mark weatherly says it will take a couple of years to mature. It may be too late by then. The club has still not learnt that you must promote the football club locally. Another lost oportunity this year with the lack of sponsorship/match sponsors/ ball sponsors and general promotions. No doubt they will change the shirts next season but they will not be available until 3 months into the season when everybody has lost interest in them. The only advertising this season has been done by the supporters. The Golen Gate lottery has folded and it also appears that the 5-a-sides are not the saving factor that everyone belived they would be. The board appear to think that they can just sit back and local support will just turn up. And lastly the facilities for fans has got worse. Who wants to come to a ground with very little cover from the elements when the weather turns wet and cold. This is really not looking good. With all that is happening it appears that getting rid of RT may well have been a big mistake, at least he was keen on the youth.

[JeremyJacobs]

"It looks to me that we will be fighting to avoid relegation next season, not fighting to be in the play offs".

 

I suspect the Ryman League and the FA will take a close look at the activities of MFC after recent revelations.

[BlueGate Alan]

I am saying nothing Steve, apart from fed up with it all at the moment, and thats coming from an optimistic supporter!

[MFC Forever]

I agree BlueGate Alan, at the moment we as supporters are pretty much completely unaware of what is going on at the club, with rumours and counter-rumours being circulated.

It is all very well putting out news in the local press, but not all supporters buy the local papers (this includes myself, although today I shall later be getting one to read).

The club has a very good website in place, with excellent coverage of the playing side of things on it. I just wish that more off-the-field news would be put on it.

Like BGA, I am usually an optimistic person, but with all this uncertainty around the club at the moment it is hard to be. When a new manager is appointed, firstly, I hope that the target (as I believe one will be set) is not for promotion straight away (ie in 2008/09 - although it would be nice!) but instead that a stable side is to be built up that which is capable of challenging for promotion to Conf South in the following season (2009/10) with a realistic chance of staying there the year after. Secondly, I hope that if any targets are set, this time they are not made public as this adds more pressure to the new manager and the team as a whole. There is no quick fix in gaining ptomotion, and although the club must aim for it, they should do so under more of a long term approach that I feel is a realistic one.

 

Rant over! Up the Gate!

 

[BlueGate Alan]

[buzzgate]

I think all that is fair.Whilst I am a believer in bringing youth through the "local football" angle worries me somewhat.I am aware we can get the odd gem from sunday football but I hope the new manager has contacts to supplement the youth that are coming through.We wouldnt want to see our manager just scouring the sunday leagues every week for a new player otherwise we will be in danger of being the whipping boys next season.

[Boney Crisp]

I think the budget cuts were inevitable with the attendances this season, but it looks as if there is going to be huge budget cuts of a larger sum then i anticipated.

 

I disagree with building a side of mainly young local players, not because i don't think they are good enough, but i think it is very difficult to build a squad of such inexperience at this level. If we were in the Kent League or Ryman 1 then yeah i will be for it, but i think they should just be brought through gradually and when the manager feels it's the right time.

 

I hope we can keep most of our players we have now, but that is not going to happen

[Number6]

Originally Posted By: margateshot

It looks to me that we will be fighting to avoid relegation next season, not fighting to be in the play offs. This is not encouraging news. Local talent is ok, but as Mark weatherly says it will take a couple of years to mature. It may be too late by then. The club has still not learnt that you must promote the football club locally. Another lost oportunity this year with the lack of sponsorship/match sponsors/ ball sponsors and general promotions. No doubt they will change the shirts next season but they will not be available until 3 months into the season when everybody has lost interest in them. The only advertising this season has been done by the supporters. The Golen Gate lottery has folded and it also appears that the 5-a-sides are not the saving factor that everyone belived they would be. The board appear to think that they can just sit back and local support will just turn up. And lastly the facilities for fans has got worse. Who wants to come to a ground with very little cover from the elements when the weather turns wet and cold. This is really not looking good. With all that is happening it appears that getting rid of RT may well have been a big mistake, at least he was keen on the youth.

Only worth spending time and money on promoting when you have something worth promoting.
And the truth is the ground, the team and the club is a bit of a shambles.
As you say the ground has hardly any cover. For years now we have all been told that everything will soon be sorted out with the ground,but it never is.
Despite the relatively good support the club has the team has never lived up to expectations.
If Trott had to go for the lack of success on the pitch, then somebody should go for the lack of progress off it.

[Guernsey Tom]

Number 6 on the nose, players and managers come and go all have varying degrees of expectation, but the core of the Directors remains, its time KP walked away I know some will say he has put x amount of money into the club but it seems we are on a downhill spiral and the negativity of this club could be cut with a knife. We need good news and I am not sure where it is going to come from

[Drummer]

As a Margate exile, and regular attendee at matches, I share everyone's frustrations but I feel I must speak up in defence of the IOTG regarding MFC Forever's preference to the MFC website.

 

Personally whilst I am happy to see reports on the website, I believe that the local paper is in a good position to include items from all sides. Not only that but everyone isn't computer literate so the MFC website wouldn't reach everybody. After all, the paper is only 55p and it is the local. In fairness, the IOTG covers the two local clubs pretty well in my opinion, certainly better coverage than the local clubs where I live receive (admittedly there are a number of Fooball League teams in the area).

 

I believe someone has already made the comment that the business of accounts was probably picked up from this forum by the IOTG so doesn't that prove my point.

 

Personally I have always thought, and said it on here, that the 5 a sides are going to have to stand on their own two feet and will not be subsidising the football club.

 

And just to be a real misery, I do not believe that relying on the youth set up will assist in the short term (I think Mark Weatherly has said something like that according to this or another thread). Burnley had a system in the fifties of bringing through youth players and selling them on to keep that club going as I recall.

 

Regarding sponsorship, I sponsored at MFC for three seasons but in the end decided against it because of the uncertainty of who was signing and how long they would be here. No doubt there may be people this season who will have the same feelings.

[MFC Forever]

Just to clarify myself re: Drummer's comments. I am not criticising the IOTG in any way, and they do fantastic coverage of the club, with their interviews with the management and directors of the club being invaluable to us supporters. And I agree as non-league clubs both Thanet sides get very good coverage, as I have seen Conference clubs get less coverage in their respective locals.

 

I am just frustrated that many major news items, for example the recent departures of Side, Goodfellow and Standen, fail to be put on the official club site; which means that we have to rely on the local paper as our major news source, when I feel that it should be the other way round. So I do not prefer the MFC site to the Gazette, I just wish that it could be updated regarding any off-the-field matters a bit more often, such as in respect to player movements into or out of the club.

[Drummer]

Cheers MFCF; I realise that you weren't actually criticising the IOTG and should have made that clear in my input.

 

I do believe that it is good to have the local as an independent source and a good journalist will always be helpful as I have found in the past.

[Porka]

Originally Posted By: Drummer

I do believe that it is good to have the local as an independent source and a good journalist will always be helpful as I have found in the past.

Agree with Drummer on this point. The Gazette sports editor does give the two football clubs good coverage, and usually covers the key news items well.

I disagree with the idea, as it happened for a while about a year ago, that it should be the other way around as MFC Forever says. I believe it's important that the local paper is allowed to gain access to the news from the manager as and when necessary, and the manager should not be held back from giving out the info. I recall a period of a few weeks when the Gazette had to say they weren't allowed to release details of something, as it had to go on the official website first! It would be nice if the website was updated more frequently, but would like to stress the importance of the paper gaining access to the news too..

[Coffin Ender]

The whole purpose of any official website is to give that club's view of things. It should not be regarded as an independent or impartial source. However, I do agree that our website could be updated more regularly.

 

As for young players...well, our policy of signing highly-paid journeymen hasn't really worked, has it? Might as well give the kids a chance.

 

 

[Ramos]

I don't often feel for Margate supporters but what's happening is disgusting.

 

The board fighting it out with each other and with ex-managers in the local papers.

 

Seems KP is so power hungry he will resort to anything. Introducing another two puppets so he can gain a hold on power- unbelievable!!

 

On the football front- there is no chance a new manager will be able to match the boards demands. Play offs with local players on a small budget. That is something you must nurture, does not happen in a season unfortunately.

 

Weatherley tried it at Ramsgate years ago in the Kent league- a million miles from Ryman Prem and subsequently failed- but laid good foundations.

 

The best local players have been swallowed up by Rams, and are on contract, there aren't that many good young players ready for the Ryman Premier football next season, and if there were they'd be in a Red shirt by now- Sam Jones an instant example.

 

IF we don't go up this season- the Ryman premier is going to be great for Kent next season with so many local derbys, I just hope that they will be promotion crunches rather than Margate facing the drop, this is a hard league and you either need bundles of cash or a good local/ youth set up- Margate have neither at the moment.

 

Even if by miracle you snatched the Wards- all their contacts are contracted to the Rams, so there is no quick fix there!

 

This is not gloating- I sincerely hope the board have a well thought out plan, because what has happened in recent seasons to your club is sickening.

 

[JeremyJacobs]

Originally Posted By: Guernsey Tom

Number 6 on the nose, players and managers come and go all have varying degrees of expectation, but the core of the Directors remains, its time KP walked away I know some will say he has put x amount of money into the club but it seems we are on a downhill spiral and the negativity of this club could be cut with a knife. We need good news and I am not sure where it is going to come from

For Margate FC to move forward we have to have a football ground with a 5000 capacity (with 100) seats.