Five Wasted Years......

[Burnham Lad]

I listened with increasing incredulity at the meeting last night. Firstly let me say that I am sure that Mr Deaner's account is largely true, although he glossed some bits where he could be criticised. We must also recognise that as he said, we are still alive and some credit for that must be given for that, but for how much longer?

 

But it is an account of a supposedly hard-nosed business man displaying some of the most critically inept political skills I have ever come across.

 

For example:

 

1. He has had five years to make sure that the Council recognised its responsibilities by making sure the minutes of the meetings where he was given his promised were published. He said last night they existed, so are a valuable weapon in the war to make the council stand by what they promised even if the people who gave it are no longer around. Why have they not been published, where are they and why can't we use them?

 

2. He has had five years to win the active support of the fans - why did he wait until the 11th hour when it is almost too late to tell the fans what has been going on. If he thinks putting pressure on the council by personal contact, letters to the council and phone calls will help at this stage, how much more would we have achieved if this campaign had started five years ago. Too right, Mr Deaner, when you said you should have consulted the fans earlier. In fact how can we win the support of those fans who have walked away in desperation over the last five years?

 

3. If he can afford to have spent £40K on getting the concepts of the new ground from Ove Arup, would it not have been worthwhile spending some money on a professional PR firm to make sure the message he was selling last night got out to the press at national and local level, to the councillors and the public as well as the fans. It is a national level project he was talking about, so surely well worth the investment of selling the message properly. Asking the fans to write a few letters is not adequate when up against the PR machines of the other interest groups involved at the council level and beyond. So, can we get the publicity machine organised to do this effectively?

 

4. At this late stage, he is trying to "put a pistol" to the head of the council, when in fact they may just think he has shot himself in the foot, by threatening that the club will be put on a downward slide by him walking away. If the council call his bluff, then Supporters Trust here we come!

 

5. He did not properly answer the question one fan put to him which was that if Slough Council will not approve his scheme, it does have a viability WITHOUT SFTC, so what is to stop him approaching Yeading or Uxbridge and getting the London Borough of Hillingdon to say "looks a good idea, let's permit it for one of our clubs?"

 

6. He has had five years to try and see if the problem with Mayfair Communications could be resolved. He said that Ground share or his plan were the only options, but when asked if there was any scenario he could envisage where STFC stayed at The Park, he did say yes there was, but did not elaborate. Is there anything that can be done to facilitate this option, since it would be most people's preference to stay where we are given the other options?

 

7. He said he was resigning. But from what? He said that FRUS was changing its name to Slough Town Football Club Limited - the business with that name was dissolved last month perhaps as part of that process and that its activities would be (his words) "subcontracted" to STSA, and that he would come back if the council moved on the plans. Really he was saying he was limiting his financial involvement to the groundshare and the team would have to run on essentially STSA fund raising. So what can be done to ensure that the income from gates, advertising and sponsorship is maximised?

 

8. He has given very little time - just six weeks to try and put some kind of campaign together to get some security for the club. If this is to be successful, with the objective ultimately of getting a Slough Team, playing in the Borough at a level no lower than it is now, and adequately funded, then some pretty serious things have to happen very quickly. A great deal of pressure will be on STSA, both the committee and members and loyal fans everywhere to support any such action, which must involve getting a good PR campaign on the road, identifying the key decision makers who must be influenced and finding some serious money to back that up.

 

9. He has had five years to get the Council persuaded to recognise their responsibility and also to determine once and for all are they with us or against us? I am surprised that their hand has not been forced earlier than this - a public campaign of the Save Our Slough dimensions could well have forced that.

 

10. He has had five years to realise that the local (and national) press are interested in selling papers, full stop. That means they become a tool to be used - give them a good story and they are interested, tell them they are rubbish, refuse to talk to them and ban them from participating and they will respond in kind. We need to see how we can get them publishing the stories we want published and fast!

 

This post is already too long, but I like everyone else at the meeting, am desperate to prevent a club with the proud and rich history of achievement which Slough Town Football Club has undoubtedly got, disappear with a whimper. Let's make sure it survives with a fight!

[BOSSWEBB]

e mail this to the observer and express and see what

happens

[GarySTFC]

One other question which I've just thought of. Why pay £6k to Harrow Boro, when if we were to go there, we would take about 200 home fans with us and heavily increase their bar takings, which would be very appealing to Harrow, and easily recognised? Surely Harrow would want to be as accomodating as possible to try and get us there?

 

Also, why oh why did Martyn even think we'd want to go to Harrow? I can understand his decision to put it in place due to ground gradings so if we were promoted, we could have gone up, but he walked into that meeting having had a heated discussion with Chris Sliski thinking the supporters would happily welcome a move to Harrow. If he'd have asked closer to the time (30th April) he'd have saved himself a fair bit of money.

 

Unfortunately, there's a lot more to this than what he's presented.... I think the supporters trust is the best way forward until someone with STFC at heart and some money can come forward.

[PJ-STFC]

I've just had a look at the Observer website and no report has been posted (yet).

 

Can't find the Express website...

(although, interestingly, a search for 'Slough Express' using Google shows the STFC Official website as the third hit!!!)

 

Did either paper send a reporter along?

Were the papers specifically invited?

How long until we know for certain what's happening next season?

 

[GarySTFC]

Papers were asked if they were present last night, and nobody stepped forward. Certainly didn't see Gary CHappel (Observer) or Niall Campbell (Express) there, but that's not to say they didn't send someone else.

[BFR]

They probably didn't turn up, but will do their usual fantasy tale for next week's rag..... its been noticeable in recent weeks that most of the stories they've done about the club have stemmed from threads on this forum

[Guest]

As Gary stated there is more to this than meets the eye !

 

Funny how Deaner for a whole hour forgot to mention that his plans would be linked into the "Heart of Slough" project. It wasn't until a supporters asked if it would be a possibility to get involved with the project that it was mentioned ! Transport links already discussed !!

 

I just find it amazing that Slough Town Supporters are being towed along on the big plans of Mr Deaner. Perhaps if he went for something on a lesser scale maybe the council would be able to find a ground but 22 acres in a densely populated area in Slough is asking a lot. Slough Council are under increasing pressure to build houses not leisure facilities.

 

Alyson

[Guest]

Another question that was not asked at meeting, was it the perferred choice of the council to have a sikh school on this plot of land and in Slough because they would gain more financially from the asian community over a period of time than from having a football and sports complex.

[BFR]

That is not a question to raise with Mr Deaner, this should be addressed by the SBC though having come out from under their rocks to try to get people to vote yesterday, I'm sure we'll not see or hear from any of the councillors for quite some time. But to look at it from the perspective of PR for the council, which is the more likely to cause a stir in the press. A Sikh school being built on green belt, or a football complex looking for profit. Its not rocket science is it?

[Guest]

Er.............5 wasted years? Do i believe a certain Mr Sliski and his fellow sicko-phants advised a couple of years ago not to upset Mr Deaner cos he was our saviour and he would depart and abandon our club if the flak became to much? Also did not someone on here say to him that when the padlock goes on the ground at the end of this season he would be standing outside looking in, scratching his head saying where did it all go wrong?

Well it all started 5 years ago when that [****!!****] Deaner took over................say na more

[Guest]

Firstly, Mr Deaner was incorrect to refer to the proposed Sikh school as "a secular school" The correct term is "a faith school" This actually is an important distinction as the present government, in its first term of office, was all in faviour of "faith schools" ie denominational schools, because of their better (supposed) results.

 

However as a result of Sept 11, and world developments since then, its love-affair with faith schools has cooled somewhat.

 

I doubt that the proposal for such a school will be approved at this time.

 

So if the Supporters Asc can organise a concerted (although I agree somewhat late) campaign to SBC I believe it will bear fruit.

[Guest]

Not picking on Alyson particulary-this could apply to any of the letters on this subject.but i would like to say that i think though its laudable and a last throw of the dice-i cannot see where the supporters club could raise enough money to keep a team at this level-and to bring in new money from "a buyer" surely no one would contemplate that without a ground of their own.

no! regardless of mr.deaners mistakes and motives-the main culprits in the sad demise of slough town fc.are the "thorns"-so aptly named-and the council,who i hope will now revoke the lease because i have always understood that a football team had to always play there as part of the deal.

also sharing with windsor-is this for life-only if the council are not interested in slough town fc.now-where would we every get a ground of our own from?

[GarySTFC]

There are plenty of questions which will need to be raised to the council. I'm sure Rob Anderson would have been there last night (Council Leader), but then it was election night as well which is something I did not consider about him not being there. (Maybe a reason why meeting was postponed until May 1st??)

 

Would be interesting to hear his views on the opinions and facts presented by Martyn.

 

As for the STSA not having the capital? You're right they wouldn't. They'd be at the forefront of establishing a supporters trust which I believe could easily accomodate a £1k per week wage bill plus £1k per week running costs which is what we should be on, and as other clubs have proven, can be done at this level.