Gibbo's Statement

[Laz]

As most of you will have seen, there is currently a significant amount of movement within the playing staff. Several players have left the Club over the past few days and Steve Castle is actively looking to bring in quality replacements, which will improve the squad. We are very pleased to have secured the services of Chris Zoricich and Roger "Harry" Willis and it is likely that others will be joining very soon. Chris is a New Zealand international with a wealth of experience and Harry has played for league clubs including Birmingham and Peterborough and scored goals wherever he has played. These players have played with Steve Castle in the past and will therefore do their utmost to support him.

 

I do not wish to say anything about the outgoing players, other than to offer my best wishes to Simon Martin, who I sincerely hope will do well at his new club.

 

Last Saturday at Hitchin left us all absolutely gutted. The performance was awful and left us in no doubt that something radical had to be done. I couldn't blame Steve for pushing Miguel up front in the second half because I would have done the same. I couldn't blame Steve for some of the players performances because he inherited them. I couldn't blame Steve for the limited resources at his disposal because we had no money to bring in new players and our loan quota had been used up. Of course it is Steve's responsibility to work with what he has at his disposal and whilst none of us are niave enough to think that we can avoid a share of the blame, Steve has got to be given the chance to make his mark and in this regard, I would ask for your patience.

 

The idea though is to pull together and win some games, so that our target of 13th position can be achieved and a place in the new Conference League. Two new players with more to come in, added to the return of Derek Brown and Chris Seeby will hopefully get us back on the right track. We have recieved some corrospondence following Saturday's performance and one letter in particular was brutal, realistic but most probably fair comment. This letter was photocopied several times and a copy given to each of the players, last night after training. I can therefore assure you that they are fully aware of our supporters feelings.

With regard to my own position, may I confirm that my interest in the Club is not waning, as was suggested by someone who sent an email to the local press.

 

As a Newcastle supporter, I have been brought up on high expectation followed by failure and disappointment and this over a twenty period. I do however hate losing and I take it badly and in this regard, I am no different to any of the supporters. From a personal point of view though, my Company is anticipating a turnover this year of £ 70 million and I must play my part, as the continued success means continued support for the Club. In simple terms, I only have 24 hours per day the same as anyone else and I do have other committments. Because of the poor results, gate receipts are down, as is income from sponsorship but we are still in a far better position than we were two years ago. Our Directors are very supportive and we are looking to extend the board, with three new Directors and announcements are likely to be made very soon.

 

To conclude, may I say, that I actually thought that we had a squad at the start of the season, which was capable of winning the league. If as a result of this major disappointment, my enthusiasm has suffered then that is understandable but it does not say that my interest in the Club has waned and that of course goes for the other Directors as well. We had a great season last year and a not so great season this year ( so far ! ) but we have come a long way in two years and long may it continue with you support.

 

Regards John Gibson

[Webbo MFI]

it's on the website Laz. Since 6pm - no need for it on here is there?

[Canary Saint]

 

All seem's fair enough. So it's fingers crossed and hope that the new blend of players can "get it together" in time. Failing that it would be nice to see eleven players on the field pulling together for the common cause. It would be very sad if the club couldn't go forward after pulling itself out the real mire that it was in not so long ago.

 

One day we will all look back at this and laugh !

[Webbo MFI]

lets hope so!

[YB941 5thD EFM ~soul~]

I'm sure it doesn't hurt being in both places, webbo.

 

 

[gertcha EFM]

Is this the same Chris Zoricich who played for us about 10 years ago ?

[JKiF]

fair enough

Mr Chairman

 

so the players are at fault ....

 

any chance of a refund LOL

[Zagreus]

It'd be interesting to read the letter that was sent to the club, and passed on to all the players. Any chance of this being posted on here?

 

Hopefully, things will start to change for the better at the club. Bit sorry to see Simon Martin go - remember when we had our first game after being "banned" from the league for a few weeks a couple of season ago? Simon Martin scored in that game and lifted his shirt up to reveal a T-Shirt with something like "We're Back!" on it. It looked like he cared! We need more players with that attitude.

 

BTW, Mr Webmaster - the St Albans website does not render properly when using Mozilla. All you get is the HTML source code.

 

Zag

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

Yes it is the same Chris Zorich, bloody good player and still a NZ international!